

You cannot say the same about a USB adapter.Īnother advantage of a PCI-E wireless adapter is that they usually always have at least one external antenna. This means that the connectivity is a lot faster as there is nothing between the PCI-E card and your mainboard. One of the main reasons for this is that the PCI-E card connects directly to the motherboard of your computer. Usually, PCI-E WiFi cards are more powerful than USB WiFi adapters. Advantages and Disadvantages of PCI-E WiFi Cards So at this point, you may be thinking “why should I bother even considering a PCI-E WiFi adapter if the USB solution is so much easier to install and setup?” I had the same thoughts but there are advantages and disadvantages to both of these types of WiFi adapters. I tried a few different USB wireless adapters and they were all very easy to plug in and get going. It is just simply a matter of plugging the USB WiFi adapter into a spare USB slot in your computer. You do not have to install anything and never need to take the cover off of your computer. One of the best things about a USB wireless adapter is that anyone can use one to quickly and easily establish a connection to the Internet. Any price and availability information displayed on at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product. Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Prices pulled from the Amazon Product Advertising API on: Also, most desktop computers have a number of USB slots available and as long as you have one free, you can use a USB wireless adapter. Not all USB adapters come with an external antenna, but a lot do these days. This is a USB device that provides connectivity with your WiFi router.

If you really don’t fancy doing this, you can always ask a computer shop to do it for you or a friend or family member who knows a bit about computers. It is actually a pretty easy thing to do. This was OK for me as I have many years of experience working on computers but you might feel nervous about doing this. Of course, if you want to go down this route, then it will involve opening up your computer and installing the PCI-E WiFi card. In that case, you can get a wireless adapter that has at least one antenna that will communicate directly with your WiFi router. However, suppose you have a desktop computer that has a spare PCI-E slot available.

The first part of my research was to find out what kinds of PCI-E WiFi adapters were available as I wasn’t 100% sure.
