M.2 wifi assistance needed

[Diltoid24]

I'm new to this M.2 world. I heard the wifi chips are pretty damn fast, and it would free up a usb slot as I'm currently using a usb wifi dongle. Can anyone point me towards a good M.2 (Key E) wifi card? My motherboard is an ASRock z370 Extreme4, and I believe it takes Key E M.2 cards.

 

[vmfantom]

You can search WikiDevi for specs like below, but there might not be much out there yet. What you can find more readily are adapter kits and PCIe risers. The right sort of riser in a desktop case can save you plenty of slots.

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/ASUS_PCE-AC55BT_B1

 

[Diltoid24]

You can search WikiDevi for specs like below, but there might not be much out there yet. What you can find more readily are adapter kits and PCIe risers. The right sort of riser in a desktop case can save you plenty of slots.

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/ASUS_PCE-AC55BT_B1

This isn't even remotely close to what I asked.. I don't need a riser kit or adapter, my motherboard already has 2 M.2 slots built in. What I need is an actual wifi M.2 Key E card.

 

[vmfantom]

There's no such thing. Make one yourself, or wait until 802.11ax cards reach the market and see if they have M.2 pinouts.

 

[Diltoid24]

There's no such thing. Make one yourself, or wait until 802.11ax cards reach the market and see if they have M.2 pinouts.

So very unhelpful. Your lack of inspiration forced me to read through my motherboard's manual a second time, and I found what I was lacking. It supports M.2 (Key E) wifi/BT Modules of the type 2230. That's what I should have searched for, 2230 modules. And since you think they don't exist, here's a link for your browsing enjoyment.

https://www.google.com/search?q=2230+wifi+module&client=firefox-b-1&source=lnms&tbm=shop&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi16P7UhcDZAhUC3GMKHSbYDFcQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=966

 

[vmfantom]

There's no such thing. Make one yourself, or wait until 802.11ax cards reach the market and see if they have M.2 pinouts.

So very unhelpful. Your lack of inspiration forced me to read through my motherboard's manual a second time, and I found what I was lacking. It supports M.2 (Key E) wifi/BT Modules of the type 2230. That's what I should have searched for, 2230 modules. And since you think they don't exist, here's a link for your browsing enjoyment.

https://www.google.com/search?q=2230+wifi+module&client=firefox-b-1&source=lnms&tbm=shop&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi16P7UhcDZAhUC3GMKHSbYDFcQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=966

No one can stop you from buying whatever you want, but here are the facts:
-It looks like you haven't checked the PHY rate of the 2230 wifi cards to see if they're any faster than a conventional PCIe card like the 4x4:4 PCE-AC88
-Most 2230 cards do 867 Mbps or less on 802.11ac, while the PCE-AC88 can do 2.167 Gbps
-The PCIe bus isn't a bottleneck on 802.11ac anyway, since PCIe 2.0 x1 can handle 500 MBps/4 Gbps
-You have a desktop mobo, yet you want to get a 2230 wifi card (designed for laptops) that will require U.FL/IPX or MHF4 to SMA/RP-SMA pigtails to attach conventional rubber duck antennas to (sort of like this adapter).

If you'd prefer to get PHY rates that are 2.5 times lower just so you can have an M.2 card, that's fine. My mistake was in figuring that you were interested in getting the highest throughput wifi connection available from any sort of mobo wifi card, and that you wanted a legit desktop mobo card rather than a laptop card requiring adapters to actually propagate the wifi signal through the air. M.2 is great when you have an SSD that can saturate the bus, but that won't ever happen with a 2230 card that can eke out only 2x2:2 ac at 108 MBps/867 Mbps, if that. It's like putting the Staten Island Ferry on a car carrier with a Lambo engine. What's the point?

If you really want speed, get a different mobo, like the ROG ZENITH EXTREME with an integrated 802.11ad module, for PHY rates of 4.6 Gbps (although you'd need to replace all your client devices because 802.11ad is supported by next to nothing). Otherwise, consider the fact that there haven't been any new mobo (PCIe) wifi cards to reach the market since Nov. 2015. Manufacturers are between standards now and will most likely skip to releasing 802.11ax hardware rather than releasing 8x8:8 802.11ac cards this late in the game.