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- Do you have to purchase the Asus PCE-AXE59BT?
In case you’re critical about PC gaming, an Ethernet cable continues to be one of the simplest ways to hook up with the web. Nevertheless, for many people, that merely isn’t sensible. Fortunately, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E have come an extended solution to closing the hole between wired and wi-fi efficiency, and the Asus PCE-AXE59BT is likely one of the greatest Wi-Fi adapters you may get on your desktop PC to assist with this. This PCI-Categorical adapter helps Wi-Fi 6 connections at 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6Ghz with as much as 2,402Mbps on the 5GHz and 6GHz bands.
It additionally helps Bluetooth 5.2, so you should utilize a wi-fi headset for audio or join a controller for gaming. Moreover, many wi-fi keyboards and mice help Bluetooth, so you can considerably cut back the variety of wires crowding your desk. There are cheaper Wi-Fi 6 adapters out there, however to get one of the best efficiency out of a contemporary gaming Wi-Fi router, an adapter like this one with 160MHz help helps you get all of the velocity of your community.
About this evaluate: This evaluate was written after two weeks of testing the Asus PCE-AXE59BT bought by XDA. Asus has no enter into the contents of this evaluate.
ASUS PCE-AXE59BT
Highly effective Wi-Fi adapter
It is easy to put in, too
$65 $70 Save $5
The Asus PCE-AXE59BT is a strong Wi-Fi 6E Wi-Fi adapter with an included magnetic antenna. Rocking a MediaTek MT7922 Wi-Fi module, this adapter helps connection speeds as much as 2,402Mbps at 5GHz and 6GHz. The magnetic antenna also can assist enhance your sign by getting it up larger or on the right facet of the PC case.
- Straightforward set up in a PCIe x1 slot
- Small type issue bracket included
- Secure drivers and efficiency in Home windows 11
- The magnetic antenna presents higher sign than customary antennas
- The heatsink would not do something
- The included directions had been minimal
Pricing and availability
The Asus PCE-AXE59BT was launched in spring 2023 at a steered worth of $70. This PCI Categorical x1 card comes with an exterior antenna with a magnetic base, a USB cable wanted for Bluetooth, and an additional bracket for small type issue PCs, resembling these generally utilized in an workplace. You’ll be able to seize this card immediately from the Asus internet retailer or decide it up from retailers like Amazon and B&H.
Whereas you should utilize this card with a Home windows 10 driver, 6GHz Wi-Fi is just out there with Home windows 11. You’ll need a vacant PCI Categorical slot in your motherboard to put in the cardboard and an open USB 2.0 header if you wish to use Bluetooth. Lastly, it’s possible you’ll want to enter your PC’s BIOS and disable an current Wi-Fi card to keep away from conflicts if it already has one inbuilt.
Design and {hardware}
There’s nothing unsuitable with being overbuilt
The primary time I ever noticed the within of a pc, my father was cautiously putting in a Modem Blaster dial-up modem in our Home windows 98 household PC. This expertise opened my eyes to the chances of upgrading a PC and respiratory new life into an growing older design. A networking improve, just like the Asus PCE-AXE59BT, might help you get sooner and extra constant speeds in your PC because of utilizing trendy Wi-Fi 6E requirements in addition to supporting 160MHz connections. Primarily based on the MediaTek Filogic 330 (MT7922), this card permits for two.4Gbps in each add and obtain speeds when paired with a quick router at 5GHz and 6GHz, whereas 2.4GHz tops out at 574Mbps.
Bluetooth 5.2 can be supported because of the interior USB cable used to attach the cardboard. In case you’re a gamer, you should utilize this Bluetooth connection along with your recreation controllers or wi-fi headset to get rid of some wires. In case you’re not gaming, you’ll be able to even use Bluetooth on your mouse and keyboard.
One widespread drawback with Wi-Fi upgrades in desktops is that you just usually find yourself along with your card in one of many decrease slots of your motherboard. In case you used an ordinary antenna linked to the again of your PC tower, there may very well be a ton of interference from different cables working previous the antennas. One other drawback is the large steel PC case that blocks your Wi-Fi sign if the again of the PC faces the router. This Wi-Fi adapter has a reasonably large exterior antenna that avoids the issue by shifting the antennas away out of your case. The magnetic base of the antennas may be caught proper to the facet of your PC case dealing with the router for the very best connection.
The cardboard itself is kind of small and comes with a small type issue adapter within the field. On the cardboard, there is a reasonably large heatsink over the Wi-Fi chipset, and to be frank, it doesn’t do rather more than make it look good. Realistically, this product is extra of an adapter board for the MediaTek card beneath, which does not want additional cooling. There’s nothing actually unsuitable with including this heatsink, but it surely feels additional nugatory that it’s not even touching the WI-Fi module beneath. In addition to that, your complete bundle feels good, with a black PCB that matches nicely with most gaming motherboards.
A networking improve, just like the Asus PCE-AXE59BT, might help you get sooner and extra constant speeds in your PC because of utilizing trendy Wi-Fi 6E requirements in addition to supporting 160MHz connections.
I put in the cardboard within the backside PCI Categorical (PCIe) x16 slot on my MSI Professional B650-P WiFi motherboard and instantly had points. After some troubleshooting, it turned out that the built-in Wi-Fi on my board conflicted with the brand new card, and I had uncared for to show it off. After a visit to the BIOS to modify off the built-in Wi-Fi, the system booted up and labored like a appeal. Home windows discovered the fitting driver for the cardboard and required no additional configuration.
One factor to notice is that it is a PCIe x1 card, and Asus has particularly famous that it’s only suitable with PCIe x1 slots within the specification. Nonetheless, the cardboard may very well be utilized in a bigger slot with its default PCIe configuration in my PC The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X CPU and MSI B650 motherboard in my PC had no hassle with the cardboard within the backside x16 slot.
Software program and setup
Set it up in Home windows in simply a few minutes
Very first thing’s first, in case your motherboard has built-in Wi-Fi, flip it off within the BIOS earlier than putting in the Asus PCE-AXE59BT. You gained’t want it anymore, and there’s probability that your PC may not work correctly with each units enabled. Home windows already had a working driver for me, however you’ll be able to obtain the driving force forward of time, simply in case.
One other factor to notice is that you’re going to want Home windows 11 to hook up with 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E. You’ll be able to set up this card with Home windows 10, however you’ll solely get 5GHz Wi-Fi as a result of lack of help for WPA-3, which 6GHz Wi-Fi makes use of more often than not and is constant throughout all Wi-Fi 6E playing cards, not simply this one. That stated, should you don’t have an excessive amount of Wi-Fi congestion in your house, 5GHz can nonetheless help the total 2.4Gbps, in principle.
The set up course of shall be very acquainted to anyone who’s ever put in a brand new GPU of their PC.
The set up course of shall be very acquainted to anyone who’s ever put in a brand new GPU of their PC. Begin by discovering an empty PCI-Categorical slot in your motherboard. I selected the underside slot to not block any air going into the GPU. You’ll must take away the again cowl, which ought to be secured by a screw on prime. That very same screw can be utilized to safe the Wi-Fi card. Some cheaper instances might require you to interrupt the steel cowl out, so that you would possibly must check with your case documentation on how one can get it out and keep away from scraping it throughout your motherboard or its floor mount units.
For the Bluetooth 5.2 connection, you’ll want to attach the USB 2.0 cable to your motherboard. Most trendy boards can have one in every of these vacant, as mine did. Whereas I didn’t particularly take a look at Bluetooth efficiency, it labored high quality with a DualSense controller for a Darkish Souls 3 replay I’ve been on with a pal. Sadly, the Wi-Fi portion labored high quality whereas gaming, so I can’t blame my PVP deaths on my connection. Who’s nonetheless invading in Darkish Souls 3 anyway?
On the finish of the day, Home windows Settings is the one app you’ll want to make use of with the Asus PCE-AXE59BT. If Home windows would not discover the driving force for you, set up the driving force from the Asus web site or test for a Home windows replace with a wired connection.
Wi-fi efficiency
Quick sufficient for gigabit, after which some
My web connection has symmetrical gigabit speeds, which prime out at round 940Mbps more often than not. At 5Ghz, the AXE59BT had no hassle reaching that velocity in my bed room, the place my PC usually makes use of 5GHz. That places two partitions between my PC and the router in the lounge.
Talking of routers, I used this card with an Acer Predator W6 Wi-Fi 6E router, Netgear Orbi RBE970S, and TP-Hyperlink Archer BE800, and it linked to every router with out situation at 160MHz. For my velocity checks, I used the Archer BE800 as a result of its large wi-fi capability, quick wired efficiency, and skill to disable Sensible Join to decide on which band I wish to use.
Switching to some file switch checks, I noticed speeds as much as 1.3Gbps at 5GHz utilizing Steam’s recreation switch function from one other PC linked with a 2.5Gbps Ethernet connection to the router. At 6GHz on this location, nevertheless, speeds fell to round 300Mbps down as a result of a weaker sign. Regardless of which method you slice it, 6GHz Wi-Fi merely doesn’t have the protection of 5GHz, even with Asus’s fancy stick-on antenna.
I moved my PC to the lounge with the router to see simply how a lot velocity was out there with this card at 6GHz, and I wasn’t disenchanted. Finally, I acquired as much as 1.9Gbps over 6GHz Wi-Fi with the ASUS PCE-AXE59BT utilizing a file switch between two PCs and transferring a Steam recreation utilizing Steam’s recreation switch function.
In truth, transferring video games from one PC to a different utilizing Steam has been one in every of my favourite functions for this additional velocity. If your property has a number of PCs used for gaming in it, like mine does, this function makes set up sooner than most web connections can handle whereas not utilizing up additional information in case you have a knowledge cap. It additionally helps novice customers truly make the most of native networking, which is usually a bit formidable to arrange with Home windows.
Do you have to purchase the Asus PCE-AXE59BT?
You should purchase the Asus PCE-AXE59BT if:
- You want Wi-Fi in your desktop PC
- You could have a low sign with a built-in Wi-Fi card
- You need help for multi-gig wi-fi speeds
- You need BlueTooth in your desktop
You shouldn’t purchase the Asus PCE-AXE59BT if:
- You have already got a Wi-Fi 6 or 6E card put in
- You don’t have an open PCIe slot
- You’re working Home windows 10 or older
When it comes all the way down to it, I’m fairly pleased with the efficiency of the Asus PCE-AXE59BT. With my gigabit web connection, I by no means felt like I used to be restricted by my Wi-Fi speeds, and reliability was good for the 2 weeks I used the cardboard. Beneath the Asus-branded heatsink, you get a MediaTek MT7922, a.ok.a. a Filogic 330. I used to be additionally pleased with the switch speeds I might get for recordsdata, with speeds simply exceeding 1.2Gbps in my bed room and better in the identical room because the router.
In case you’ve acquired an older Wi-Fi 5 card, the improve to the PCE-AXE59BT shall be price it. There are undoubtedly cheaper methods to get the identical MediaTek module on your desktop, however the inclusion of the magnetic antenna makes it price a bit extra. Connecting antennas on to the again of the PC means they’ll be blocked by each the pc case and the wires plugged into your PC. By getting the antennas up and out of the best way, you’ll be able to seemingly achieve some efficiency again with out even upgrading the cardboard inside.
In case you’re wanting so as to add Wi-Fi to your PC for the primary time or wish to improve an older card, it is a strong choice with help for Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, making it match for web connections of 1Gbps or larger. Whereas 6GHz nonetheless appears to battle with partitions, should you’re comparatively near your router, you may get Ethernet-like speeds with out working a single wire.
ASUS PCE-AXE59BT
$65 $70 Save $5
The Asus PCE-AXE59BT is a strong Wi-Fi 6E Wi-Fi adapter with an included magnetic antenna. Rocking a MediaTek MT7922 Wi-Fi module, this adapter helps connection speeds as much as 2402Mbps at 5GHz and 6GHz. The magnetic antenna also can assist enhance your sign by getting it up larger or on the right facet of the PC case.
