PCIe External WiFi Antennas

[Ryan Klug]

How much gain on a set of antennas do I need to connect my PC with wireless? I live in a 2 bedroom apartment with an "N300" router for now.

I have an ASRock Z87M OC Formula motherboard and this mini PCIe Intel wifi + bluetooth card:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DMCVKMU/ref=oh_details_o05_s01_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The 5 to 6 dBi antennas are pretty big looking for my micro ATX case. I was thinking of going with 2 to 3 dBi, such as:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DOGRZYG/ref=gno_cart_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2RXQBV4HCKG3P

with these short connectors, since the mini PCIe card is so close to the punchout holes for antennas on the rear I/O panel:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DJF04FE/ref=gno_cart_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2RXQBV4HCKG3P

Will this setup work out? Thanks for your input.

 

[mauller07]

use one of these http://www.amazon.com/Mini-PCI-E-Wireless-Card-Antennas/dp/B005Q751BA/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1377114436&sr=1-3&keywords=mini+pcie+wireless+adapter

 

[bill001g]

It pretty much depends how far away your router is. When you get very technical the larger antenna is 2x the strength and 9db antenna would be 4x. But in real life even when you use huge antenna many times it does no improve the signal a real lot.

Since the antenna are fairly inexpensive and can be easily changed it will not hurt to try the smaller ones first.

 

[Ryan Klug]

I bought the two antennas since the PCIe card won't fit in my case because I have two dual-slot graphics cards that take up all the PCIe space. If they aren't powerful enough, I'll just buy some other ones. Thanks!