[SOLVED] Choosing Wifi PCI for 213Mbps

[blackcesar]

Hello everyone,

I currently live in London with a Virgin media M200 broadband subscription. They report the average speed will be 213Mbps and they will set it up in January.
I have my own desktop and wanting to buy a new wifi pci. I currently have this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FSG5W9Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Worked quite ok for one year, but know the 5g antenna is broken and so would like to change considering also the upgrade of the line I'll get in January.
Surfing I found this options and I would like to know what are your thoughts about it. I will get also a new router from Virgin but, honestly, have no idea how good they are.

Ubit:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07Y2MY...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

Fenvi:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07SPCL...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

TP-Link T6E AC1300

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B013HCNTZU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

Asus PCE-AC68

https://www.amazon.co.uk/PCE-AC68-W...6CKKFREPYQSAM11P&qid=1576760627&s=electronics

Let me know your thoughts and thank you.

 

[DeauteratedDog]

Let's compare:
Ubit: 2 stream, AX, 160 MHz channels, Bluetooth 5, external antennas on card
Fenvi: 2 stream, AX, 160 MHz channels, Bluetooth 5, remote but small external antennas
TP-Link: 2 stream, AC, 80 MHz channels, no Bluetooth?, external antennas on card
Asus: 3 stream, AC, 80 MHz channels, no Bluetooth, remote full-sized external antennas

AX isn't going to buy you much in a residential settings, it's big features are going to be great for high-density (think sporting arenas).
Using 160 MHz channels in a urban environment (London!) pretty much guarantees interference problems, but AC and AX mitigate those well.
Bluetooth may or may not be important to you.
More spatial streams are a big bonus up to the number of streams that your router supports and a small bonus above that.
Remote antennas are very helpful - behind a PC is usually a terrible place for antennas.

So, if Bluetooth is important to you, probably the Fenvi, otherwise the Asus.

 

[blackcesar]

Let's compare:
Ubit: 2 stream, AX, 160 MHz channels, Bluetooth 5, external antennas on card
Fenvi: 2 stream, AX, 160 MHz channels, Bluetooth 5, remote but small external antennas
TP-Link: 2 stream, AC, 80 MHz channels, no Bluetooth?, external antennas on card
Asus: 3 stream, AC, 80 MHz channels, no Bluetooth, remote full-sized external antennas

AX isn't going to buy you much in a residential settings, it's big features are going to be great for high-density (think sporting arenas).
Using 160 MHz channels in a urban environment (London!) pretty much guarantees interference problems, but AC and AX mitigate those well.
Bluetooth may or may not be important to you.
More spatial streams are a big bonus up to the number of streams that your router supports and a small bonus above that.
Remote antennas are very helpful - behind a PC is usually a terrible place for antennas.

So, if Bluetooth is important to you, probably the Fenvi, otherwise the Asus.

Thank you! I do agree that external antennas should be better, bluetooth might be useful to have it since I might connect controllers ecc ecc. So probably I should go for the Fenvi. I was curious about the frequencies and stream but if you tell that 2 streams and 160 MHz are not a big deal that it should be sorted.
I've read that the Fenvi sometimes has drop connections when the download speed gets to high, dunno why.

 

[DeauteratedDog]

Glad to help.

Wider channels are literally a 'bigger pipe' - double the channel width and double (really, more than double) the capacity, but they are more delicate in the face of interference or poor propagation, narrow channels are slower but more robust. Depending on your router, it will almost certainly support 20 and 40 MHz channels, probably 80 MHz channels, and maybe 160 MHz channels.

Multiple spatial streams multiplex multiple data streams into the same space, I just barely passed linear algebra 🙂, so don't really understand the math behind it very clearly, but it works. The router and client will try to use the highest number of streams that they both support. If one end of the connection (either router or client) has 'extra' streams available, the extra streams (antennas) can be used to improve the quality of the connection, but don't add to the bandwidth capacity. Your router will probably support 2, 3, or maybe 4 spatial streams. 1 = budget, 2=low-end mainstream, 3=high-end mainstream, 4=premium.

For a 200-ish Mbps connection, 2 spatial streams with 40 MHz channels should be marginally adequate; more (either more streams or wider channels) is obviously better. 2 spatial streams with 80 MHz channels will easily exceed 200 Mbps (real throughput) in all but the worst conditions.

 

[bill001g]

The AX stuff is very new the standard is to be finalized any day now last I heard was december. The cost of this equipment should drop once more vendors enter the market. It does not help you if your router does not also support it.

I am doing wait and see on this technology. It sounds good but I can't believe it can really fix the major problem wifi has which is too many users trying use the same limited bandwidth. As mentioned above likely will make the chance in interference even worse.

I would consider powerline network devices instead if you are a online gamer. The newest av2-1200 units get about the same 200-300mbps that wifi does in real world installs. The key is the latency is consistent.

 

[gggplaya]

If this is for a desktop that never moves, I personally prefer to buy an external router and set it up as a Media Bridge. That way you get all antenna's connecting to the main router plus a 4 port switch to use for other devices in the room, like consoles or TV boxes. I'd recommend the Asus AC66U B1 (must be B1 hardware). This is exactly what I did using a higher end 86U, works great.

If this is going to be far from the main router. I'd recommend removing 1 of the antenna's from the bridge and 1 from the main router and using directional antenna's point at each other instead.

 

[blackcesar]

Thank you all for your answers. I know that media bridge and powerline are optimal solutions but I might move away and I feel having an installed pci wifi would be the best choice for me also for future proof references.
I won't buy straight away but I might go for the Fenvi and see how it goes.
I will report the results once I've tested it in case somebody else is in a similar situation.

Forgot to mention that the router signal needs to travel across two walls, with a small room between them where a flatmate lives. Flat is tiny but with my current Ubit I wasn't getting full signal on the 5G but on the 2G is pretty much full.