Wireless NIC; USB or internal?

RWBRWB Icrontian
edited October 2009 in Science & Tech
It's been a LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG..... LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG time since I had to buy a wireless NIC. I'm needing one now, and might as well get a N spec'd one but unsure if I should go with an internal NIC or a USB one. With USB I'll be able to use the wireless N with my laptop and other systems more easily when I transfer large files(though I just found out the router ATT sent me is actually a b/g router which I was told would be an "N" type). So I might have to upgrade some of that as well. So here are my questions:

1) Does USB have a handicap when used for gaming, latency for example.

2) If internal is the way to go, are there any pretty ones you'd recomend? :) I have a windowed case after all.

3) I want wireless N, but I can't just swap the router ATT gave me so I'd have to add on a wireless N router and connect my wireless N systems to that which in turn connects to the ATT router, and hops along. So my question would be the potential lag increase in adding an additional piece of equipment this way.

Hopefully, I can get a nice USB NIC...though ideally I wanted to keep this system wired(with a Killer NIC) but running Ethernet in this house would require me to get underneath it and.... heh that ain't happening.

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    TL;DR answer:

    Always use internal. It doesn't really matter what card you use, but I'm fond of the D-Link DWA-552. The latency penalty of adding an additional device can be measured in microseconds.
  • miragemirage
    edited October 2009
    Keep away from Ralink and Realtek WiFi chipsets. They are very problematic with 64-bit Vista and Windows 7 and my Linksys WRT54GL router. I found that Broadcom chipsets work much better in x64 Windows and my router. I bought used Dell DW1370 miniPCI cards from ebay for about $10 and installed in three different desktop computers with miniPCI-to-PCI adapters (again from ebay for about $5) using Dell drivers. In all three computers, their performance and reliability are perfect for me.

    Links:

    http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Wireless-DW1370-Mini-PCI-Card-1150-5160-5150-600m_W0QQitemZ350258497693QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item518d08889d&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262

    http://cgi.ebay.com/WiFi-54-108b-g-Wireless-LAN-Mini-PCI-to-Adapter-9749_W0QQitemZ170315201988QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item27a793bdc4&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    (Note: The D-Link DWA-552 is an Atheros chipset).
  • miragemirage
    edited October 2009
    I hear Atheros is good too. But never found one in my price range :)
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    I've never had any problems with my Ralink wireless card in my laptop under Windows 7. Then again, mine is only b/g not an n spec card. Ralink cards also enjoy solid support in Linux for the most part. Then again, atheros is pretty much THE wireless chipset when it comes to Linux compatibility and D-Link makes pretty solid products so I'd agree with Thrax's suggestion as well.
  • miragemirage
    edited October 2009
    I have tried Ralink 64-bit drivers (several new and older versions) on 3 different computers/3 different cards with Vista and W7 64-bit and gave up. The drivers do not just drop the connection, freeze/crash the complete OS when the network load approaches 100% WiFi capacity. On 32-bit systems, the cards (MSI PC60G) were fine for browsing the internet but they were frequently dropping the connection when we played LAN games.

    If you Google it you can find links like the one below.

    http://techblogbydave.blogspot.com/2009/01/windows-vista-freezes-when-saving-to.html
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    [me]* ardichoke shrugs[/me]

    I have an MSI EX630 with a Ralink wireless card. I installed the 64-bit drivers directly from Ralink and I've never had any problems at all. No freezing, no crashing, no dropped connections and good speeds installing stuff from Steam. The Windows update Ralink drivers also worked just fine for my Ralink card with the exception of WEP not working.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    RWB, I have no experience with USB wireless N NICs, but have used three different brands of wireless USB G NICs. None of them were even close to the reliability of internal wireless cards.
  • mtroxmtrox Minnesota
    edited October 2009
    Leonardo wrote:
    None of them were even close to the reliability of internal wireless cards.

    ditto. That's been my experience. I've just had too many prolems with USB nics.
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