Question USB Wifi Adapter slower than PCIE wifi?

[KelpeeGee]

I built my gaming rig about 2 months ago, i dont have my router close to my room so an ethernet cable wasnt an option for my PC. So i bought a USB wifi adapter (https://goo.gl/DtLzVU ) and was happy about it until i want to get a more stable one. So i bought a wireless PCIE card (https://goo.gl/vN6rdq ). I installed it, windows automaticaly installed the drivers and to my surprise i was getting 3 bars instead of 4 which i usally get form my usb adapter. I have literally tried everything to make this work, keep in mind my router is just a couple feet away from my pc. I ran a speed test with my PCIE i got 40 mbps, however on my usb i got 170 mbps. What could be the problem?

 

[USAFRet]

"i dont have my router close to my room "
"keep in mind my router is just a couple feet away from my pc "

Which is it?

Regarding the different WiFi adapters - antenna location or orientation could make all the difference.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

i dont have my router close to my room so an ethernet cable wasn't an option for my PC ?

keep in mind my router is just a couple feet away from my pc ?

 

[KelpeeGee]

"i dont have my router close to my room "
"keep in mind my router is just a couple feet away from my pc "

Which is it?

Regarding the different WiFi adapters - antenna location or orientation could make all the difference.

Lmao sorry i mean that my router is not close enough for an ethernet cable but close enough for a strong signal. I have heard about powerline adapters but those are very pricey at the moment for me.

 

[bill001g]

I am somewhat surprised there is that much difference especially since that USB device is not considered high quality.

The main difference is the USB is 802.11ac which can encode more data in the signal than the internal card that is using 802.11n. It is surprising the numbers are that different though.

It could be as simple as you plugged the USB card into the front of the machine and you get less signal blocked by the case.

In any case if you can get 170mbps I would be very happy with my results. You are not going to get much better. The number you get is higher than you see on many testing sites. You would have to get a router and PC nic card that uses more the more advanced data encodings to get higher speeds and it is hard to say what you can get. The best ones I have seen only get about 300mbps and those are fancy models that have 4 antenna which is extremely rare on a pc nic card.

 

[doolittle]

Agree if you are getting 170MBPS out of an AC600 adapter, you have a very good wifi connection. If possible return the PCIe card since I noticed it's only 300Mb max connection and very unlikely it will outpace the generic ac600 adapter.​

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Personally I am using a generic ac1200 with a 5dbi antenna like this along with a desk usb extension cable like this (helps with the signal strength) and I get 400MBPS from my UniFi access point (also ac1200).​

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