{"id":538,"date":"2017-08-14T09:46:20","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T01:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.accu-pc.nl\/laptop\/?p=538"},"modified":"2017-08-14T09:46:20","modified_gmt":"2017-08-14T01:46:20","slug":"the-desktop-wireless-adapter-difference-usb-vs-pci","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.accu-pc.nl\/laptop\/2017\/08\/14\/the-desktop-wireless-adapter-difference-usb-vs-pci\/","title":{"rendered":"The Desktop Wireless Adapter Difference: USB vs. PCI"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s one main reason why you\u2019d want to grant your desktop PC<\/a> access to the wireless world, and it\u2019s a biggie: You\u2019re sick of stringing ugly Ethernet cables around your house. But you also might not\u00a0have<\/em>\u00a0any Ethernet cable on-hand to make a wired connection \u2014 or worse, no room left on your router to plug in another cord.<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve\u00a0previously covered a couple of fancier ways to bridge the gap between your wired desktop system and your wireless Internet signal. But these have all been hybrid methods that often still require a cord of\u00a0some<\/em>\u00a0sort \u2014 as in the case when you connect your system to a wireless bridge.<\/p>\n

A desktop-based wireless adapter grants you access to the same kind of wireless magic that\u2019s otherwise built into a conventional laptop<\/a> or Smartphone<\/a>. And just like some of the laptop adapters I covered last week, desktop wireless adapters also come in two different formats: USB <\/a>or PCI.<\/p>\n

So which one do you pick?<\/p>\n

Choosing is actually quite simple: A USB wireless adapter <\/a>trades a bit of overall power for lots of convenience. It\u2019s just as easy to operate as a flash drive. Plug your adapter<\/a> into a USB port on a system that needs wireless connectivity, wait for Windows to install the appropriate drivers (or install them yourself), and \u2014 poof \u2014 up pops a wireless signal. Connect away.<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t let the small size of typical USB<\/a> wireless adapters fool you. Their connective capabilities run all the way up to dual band Wireless N networking . But here\u2019s the caveat: A USB <\/a>adapter might not be able to deliver\u00a0as<\/em>\u00a0strong of a connection over as long of a range as a PCI-based wireless adapter <\/a>can.<\/p>\n

Why? Most PCI-based wireless adapters <\/a>come with multiple large antennas that stick straight out of the rear of your system and help maximize your throughput in a Wireless N environment thanks to a transmission technique called spatial multiplexing. Since you have to install a PCI adapter right onto your system\u2019s motherboard, you\u2019ll discover that it\u2019s less convenient than a USB <\/a>adapter if you ever need to move it to another system. But a PCI-based adapter, like the Xtreme N PCI Express Desktop Adapter<\/a> (DWA-556) is an excellent choice if you want top-notch wireless power for a single desktop PC<\/a>.<\/p>\n