Question about buying a wireless M.2 card for PC

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foz111
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 15, 2023 9:01    Post subject: Question about buying a wireless M.2 card for PC Reply with quote
Not DD-WRT related but wanted to ask your thoughts on buying a new wireless card for my PC.
I have Asus Prime Z490-P Gen 10 CPU & MB, looking at M.2 slot (Key E) AX WIFI card for it (future proof it a little) From google search people seem to recommend the Intel AX200 or the Killer AX1650 (Ax200 card with opened up Firmware with some fancy gaming UI I believe) for this board, but should I be looking at a Atheros chipset? If so which would you recommend?
Board M.2 Key E CNVI & PCIe interface - Does not support CNVIo2
Thanks for any input or thoughts you provide.
Thought I would ask first as I always seem to find a better option after I have purchased a product. Laughing

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ho1Aetoo
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Location: Germany

PostPosted: Wed Feb 15, 2023 9:29    Post subject: Reply with quote
It depends...
Some mainboards have a whitelist for WLAN cards, only approved cards can be used in the cNVI slots.
Other boards have no restrictions and the slot can also be used for normal M.2 Key E cards.

From Atheros there is practically only the QCA6174 in M.2 format with Windows drivers.
Linux drivers are available for most cards and the cards usually have the Mini-PCIe format.
So you need an adapter card for Mini-PCIe, antenna cables and antennas.

An Atheros 4x4 card with adapter, cable, antennas will cost you about 150-200€.
And it runs only under Linux.

Buy an Intel card first, they are good and cheap and are available in a kit with antennas etc.
foz111
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Joined: 01 Oct 2017
Posts: 704
Location: Earth

PostPosted: Wed Feb 15, 2023 13:54    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks ho1Aetoo, much appreciated. Very Happy
_________________
Netgear R7800 PPPoE Main Router
Network IPV4 - Isolated Vlan's with IoT Devices. Unifi AC-Pro x 3 AP's, Router Wi-Fi Disabled. OVPN Server With Paid Commercial Wireguard Client's. Gateway Mode, DNSMasq, Static Leases & DHCP, Pi-Hole DNS & Running Unbound.

No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life!
blkt
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Joined: 20 Jan 2019
Posts: 5660

PostPosted: Wed Feb 15, 2023 17:05    Post subject: Reply with quote
AX200 is running great here on 3700X and for i7-6700 legacy OS box AC 8265.
hebeda
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Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Posts: 456
Location: Leipzig, Germany

PostPosted: Wed Feb 15, 2023 22:34    Post subject: Reply with quote
there are some new modules out if you want a non intel module

here a brief list, probably not complete , all these modules have windows 10/11 driver and linux and can be found on ebay.


Qualcomm Atheros QCA6391 Chipset M.2 Module, AX1800, this chipset offer DBDC (Dual band dual concurrent support , 2x radios in one, both at the same time) Linux driver: ATH11K , bluetooth 5.x

Realtek RTL8852BE Chipset M.2 Module AX1800 , Bluetooth 5.x, Linux driver: rtlwifi_new

AMD RZ616 (AX2400 like Intel AX200) and RZ608 (AX1800) M.2 Modules , Bluetooth 5.x
both work with Windows and Linux
both Modules have Mediatek Chipsets, they are supported by MT76 driver on linux

older M.2 modules:

Qualcom QCA6174 Chipset module , Bluetooth 4.x , 876 mbps max , Ath10k on Linux

Qualcom Atheros QCNFA222 AR9462 Chipset, Bluetooth 4.0, this is only 300 mbps max speed, supported by full open source linux driver ATH9k and also runs with Freebsd

apart from that: your motherboard support generic M.2 pci-e modules and also the proprietary intel CNVIO interface modules .... maybe AX411 is interesting ... its a intel CNVIO Module and also a DBDC module

please note that you will need also 2x matching pigtails with MHF4 Antenna connectors and external Dualband Antennas.
Internal Antennas are not recommended, because of the metalshielding of the PC Case , it acts like a farrady cage and you will have a very poor signal.


Last edited by hebeda on Wed Feb 15, 2023 22:42; edited 2 times in total
foz111
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 01 Oct 2017
Posts: 704
Location: Earth

PostPosted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 16:07    Post subject: Reply with quote
Cheers all Cool
_________________
Netgear R7800 PPPoE Main Router
Network IPV4 - Isolated Vlan's with IoT Devices. Unifi AC-Pro x 3 AP's, Router Wi-Fi Disabled. OVPN Server With Paid Commercial Wireguard Client's. Gateway Mode, DNSMasq, Static Leases & DHCP, Pi-Hole DNS & Running Unbound.

No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life!
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