[SOLVED] How good/bad is the wifi that comes on modern motherboards(wifi 6)?

[Pekaaa1]

Hey guys,im building myself a new pc and the motherboard that im gonna be using has a built in wifi(wifi 6).Im wondering how good that wifi is and if anyone of you has any good or bad experience with it? Since the wifi speed seems to be considerably faster than my ethernet speed i want to know if its worth using?

 

[hotaru.hino]

Keep in mind the speeds only actually matter if you have a Wi-Fi router capable of the same speeds, the device has a reasonably good reception to it, and there's not a whole lot of other devices on the same network/band. Also for the most part Wi-Fi is half duplex. Meaning that if your Wi-Fi network is capable of say 1Gbps, it's only capable of that one way. Ethernet is full duplex, so it can do 1Gbps in both directions at the same time.

In any case, the built-in Wi-Fi is no different than one you'd get in a laptop and most of them use the same cards you'd get in a laptop anyway. But if you want some recommendations on what to look out for, I've had excellent success with Intel based NICs. Atheros ones are okay.

 

[Pekaaa1]

Keep in mind the speeds only actually matter if you have a Wi-Fi router capable of the same speeds, the device has a reasonably good reception to it, and there's not a whole lot of other devices on the same network/band. Also for the most part Wi-Fi is half duplex. Meaning that if your Wi-Fi network is capable of say 1Gbps, it's only capable of that one way. Ethernet is full duplex, so 1Gbps is for both directions.

In any case, the built-in Wi-Fi is no different than one you'd get in a laptop and most of them use the same cards you'd get in a laptop anyway. But if you want some recommendations on what to look out for, I've had excellent success with Intel based NICs. Atheros ones are okay.

Hey,thanks for answering
I forgot to mention that my ethernet speed is fairly poor,around 50mbps,will i be getting better numbers with the build in wifi on the board? It also comes with an antenna,or should i stick with the ethernet? Kinda newer to this so appologies.

 

[Math Geek]

so long as it has an antenna that you can put up high away from the case it should be fine. the included wifi chip is the same as comes in laptops. they work fine so long as you got a good signal.

but it will not all of a sudden make your internet faster. if all you can get is 50 mb/s, then that's all the wifi will be able to get as well.

in the end though if you are close enough to use ethernet it is the preferred way to go. wifi introduces latency and such that can hurt things like online games and similar.

 

[USAFRet]

Hey,thanks for answering
I forgot to mention that my ethernet speed is fairly poor,around 50mbps,will i be getting better numbers with the build in wifi on the board? It also comes with an antenna,or should i stick with the ethernet? Kinda newer to this so appologies.

Wired ethernet trumps any WiFi.

But there is generally nothing wrong with what comes on the motherboard, as compared to USB or PCIe WiFi devices.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Hey,thanks for answering
I forgot to mention that my ethernet speed is fairly poor,around 50mbps,will i be getting better numbers with the build in wifi on the board? It also comes with an antenna,or should i stick with the ethernet? Kinda newer to this so appologies.

If you're downloading something from the internet and you're getting 50 Mbps, this is likely how fast your modem is. Going to Wi-Fi isn't going to make this faster.

 

[Inthrutheoutdoor]

Built-in, as in a chip soldered to the mobo, or as in a discrete WiFi card that fits into an m.2 slot ?

In my experience with both desktops and lappies, the former is usually ok to sucky, the latter is generally pretty good to way better....

The nice thing about the m.2 cards is that you can upgrade them when the next faster version of WiFi comes out, which is generally not possible with the soldered chips (except for someone with better than average electronics knowledge & skills)

And yes, pcie cards & USB dongles will normally work good too, but generally require more complex drivers, so they may or may not work with any given system...

I always go with ethernet if it is available and easily accessible, but sometimes it is not, so it doesn't hurt to have a "Plan B" so you can stay online as needed....

 

[Pekaaa1]

Built-in, as in a chip soldered to the mobo, or as in a discrete WiFi card that fits into an m.2 slot ?

In my experience with both desktops and lappies, the former is usually ok to sucky, the latter is generally pretty good to way better....

The nice thing about the m.2 cards is that you can upgrade them when the next faster version of WiFi comes out, which is generally not possible with the soldered chips (except for someone with better than average electronics knowledge & skills)

And yes, pcie cards & USB dongles will normally work good too, but generally require more complex drivers, so they may or may not work with any given system...

I always go with ethernet if it is available and easily accessible, but sometimes it is not, so it doesn't hurt to have a "Plan B" so you can stay online as needed....

Its built in yeah,well seems ill be proly using the ethernet,and the wiif will come handy if something happens to the connection as a plan b as you said.Thanks all for help 👍