I was thinking of adding bluetooth to my PC (Should've done that when I built it.) Are dongles or bluetooth cards better?

[TrueTechie]

I was thinking of adding bluetooth to my PC. Are dongles or bluetooth cards better? Which of each is the best on a $25 budget?

 

[Herc08]

If that is your budget, I would go with a bluetooth dongle. This one is under $15 and 1200 other people seem to like it.

http://a.co/dnrVvRL

 

[ledhead11]

Herc08 gave a great answer.

I'll only add that I also was in a similar predicament with both of my last 2 builds. I used dongles. The main problem is they can have a more limited range plus I get tired of seeing things sticking out of my PC's(laptops or desktops) and plugging dongles in the back only decreases the range further. I was using dongles for both WIFI and Bluetooth. The other disadvantage is it takes a little more longer on booting up till they're available.

I finally got tired of all that and tried a couple of cards over the summer. This one worked like a charm. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019JH89YI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There's plenty others in similar prices. If you do a card make sure of a couple of things. First make sure it truly supports the OS you're using or intending on upgrading to. Second make sure you have all the available ports(PCIe and USB). I love the one I got. I'm connected to everything and by the time my task tray fills up on booting. Much longer range and less connectivity issues plus extra features(BT 4.2!) for future devices. I also use mine for streaming from a sort-of NAS HD-media drive plugged into my router.

If your system is all close to each other than a dongle is perfect and will work fine, if not a card might be a better long term solution.

 

[TrueTechie]

Herc08 gave a great answer.

I'll only add that I also was in a similar predicament with both of my last 2 builds. I used dongles. The main problem is they can have a more limited range plus I get tired of seeing things sticking out of my PC's(laptops or desktops) and plugging dongles in the back only decreases the range further. I was using dongles for both WIFI and Bluetooth. The other disadvantage is it takes a little more longer on booting up till they're available.

I finally got tired of all that and tried a couple of cards over the summer. This one worked like a charm. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019JH89YI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There's plenty others in similar prices. If you do a card make sure of a couple of things. First make sure it truly supports the OS you're using or intending on upgrading to. Second make sure you have all the available ports(PCIe and USB). I love the one I got. I'm connected to everything and by the time my task tray fills up on booting. Much longer range and less connectivity issues plus extra features(BT 4.2!) for future devices. I also use mine for streaming from a sort-of NAS HD-media drive plugged into my router.

If your system is all close to each other than a dongle is perfect and will work fine, if not a card might be a better long term solution.

Oh wow, this Bluetooth card seems great. I'm sure there won't be issues since it's compatible and it's from the same company that I bought my motherboard from. Also, I've never installed bluetooth before. Is it basically the same process as installing a WiFi card?

 

[ledhead11]

It's mostly the same. These type of cards do have a couple of caveats. Here's the steps I followed along with my recommendation.

1. Make sure you have an appropriate available PCI slot. Try not place it right next to your GPU. It shouldn't be a major issue but usually a good idea to let GPU's breathe as much as possible. Mine's underneath 2 GTX970's SLI.

2. You absolutely need to plug the internal BT header into a USB header for power. The WIFI draws power from the PCI slot while the BT gets it through the header. Extremely common for these type of cards.

3. Turn on computer and Plug 'n' Play will detect and install most of the drivers. WIFI might work at this point but BT probably won't. This is normal. Then use the install disc to finish installation. You might need a restart and then everything should be working. Just program your WIFI, pair your BT stuff and good to go.

I'm loving mine. As I stated before, it's nice having all WIFI/BT working shortly after startup. Latency issues are practically unnoticeable once paired devices wake up. Multiple BT devices behave much better with each other, when I used dongles they often caused each other interference(I'm using two mice, 1 as backup, and a keyboard, and a pair of BT speakers).

Windows does have a known BT issue. I've experienced it with different laptops w/ builtin BT as well as desktop dongles and this card. The windows BT service will occasionally stop/restart itself. I don't really know what that's about. I've seen it on 7/8/8.1/10 64bit. It usually only happens during long sessions 4-6 hours and although annoying usually brief. I've even seen it with Android tablets. . . .