PC Building

[TR2]

I ask this because I used usb dongles for a long time. I am talking desktops here, they connected and were convenient but the speeds usually sucked. I tried a Fenvi PCIE card with bluetooth and wifi. The card was Fenvi FV-AX3000. I could not believe the speeds I was getting. I recently upgraded to fiber optics and my speeds with this card is 371mbs and with a dongle I am lucky to get 20mbs. I have noticed that a lot of motherboards are now coming with these cards built in. I just found this interesting and a great advancement. I will say my first internet connection was with a land line phone in a modem cradle( See the movie "War Games" as a reference). I know that a lot of yall prefer ethernet, but this is a legitimate alternative.

 

[Chester1994]

It is not recommended at all. I don´t know about the high end wifi cards, but an ethernet cable will always be more stable. Is not just about speed, it´s about latency, packet loss, etc. Cable wins everytime.

[otacon]

It looks like the card you purchased is using the Intel AX200. It's a great adapter, I have one. You might be able to get faster speeds if you get a WiFi 6 router too. I haven't noticed much of a change in latency in games, but uploads and downloads are much faster than the old TP-Link card I was using.

[radosuaf]

I use cable, but unfortunately not connected directly to the router but by PLC. Still giving me very good speeds (180 mb/s up & 18 mb/s down).

[morrio968]

nice

[johnnyenglish]

My ISP gives me 200mbps for 45€, here prices are not friendly. And.. 

My house has network cabling built in plus a small wall rack with patchfield ports. Since the router stays racked and ISP routers suck, I bypassed the router and use ASUS Lyra mesh system with an excelent coverage. 200mbps up and down. 

Originally I was going to run a cable but.. 

.. I Could play all first person shooters super good with wifi. In fact, I'm all good for up to 600-800mbps

[Wally_AMD]

I connect straight to my router with an ethernet. My PC also has a wi-fi card, but I prefer the hardwire connection.

[Amber_AMD]

Hardwire is definitely ideal for optimized gaming. BUT, I have used wifi on mine because the router is far from my office, and I've never had any FPS issues. So I really think it would just depend on how good your internet is too 🙂 

[Key-J]

I use hardwire.

I am so dedicated to hardwire that I ran a 12m long ethernet cable from the router in the living-room to my PC in my office. The cable runs through the wall, down into my crawlspace and back up the wall to my PC.

I had to add two of these at each wall access point,

and drill through the subfloor under the wall to get the cables through.

[plaidygami]

I have fibre internet (750/750 Mbit) and just run a CAT6e from my PC to the router, which has a CAT6E running from the router to the wall (Ethernet outlet). I also have a WiFi card (Intel AX200) but I use it for compatibility with wireless peripherals.

[OriginalGreyWolf]

I always used hardwire unless I am at work then they would frown at me plugging into their router to game 🙂 It is just more stable IMO than wifi as there are so many variables that can go with wifi over hardwired.

[ThreeDee]

IF you are a gamer whether PC or Console .. hardwire is the best option IF you are able to

I have the convenience of having a partially unfinished basement in my house so it's easy to run CAT5e for into wall runs and then crimp on my own ends or buy long runs of CAT6e premade cables to run where I can fit the ends through whatever openings 

[Zombiekiller5072]

Personally If you're serious about gaming I will always recommend a hard-line connection over WiFi. It is convenient but you greatly sacrifice speed in return for it. If you're like me and you have your PC across the house, I recommend just getting a super long ethernet cable and running it through your attic if you have one. If you have multiple devices in that room like I do, get a cheap Ethernet switch. They're like $20 for a 5 port switch. I regularly cap out at my internet speed of 1 gigabit because of the hard-line connection.

[Ilyesagg]

I use ethernet cable, because I had bad experience with wifi antennas. 

[ajlueke]

Personally, I ran Cat6 ethernet cable to wall jacks in my home and the PC is connected via one of those.  Ethernet in each room is beneficial even for WiFi devices.  

If you set up a mesh system to give optimal 5GHz band signal, you can use the ethernet for the backhaul, so you aren't wasting WiFi bandwidth on the router to mesh communication.

If you have a home and no means to add ethernet, MoCa adapters are something that can be used with existing coax cable in the walls.

[johnnyenglish]

Spot on. Many people forget that you can use backhaul on mesh and use the extra ethernet/USB ports on the nodes for faster access. 

Although, some high end mesh systems do have an extra dedicated band for backhaul. But no one looks for it when buying, in my opinion.

I'm very happy with the ASUS Lyras, super steady never dropping a bit with 30+ devices (several home smart devices) connected. Google mesh and the Ubiquity are some that are too worth checking out. 

[ajlueke]

Agreed.  There are tri-band mesh systems where the third band is used entirely for backhaul communication.  Those are what I would recommend if you can't do wired backhaul.  But as you stated, most consumers don't look into that when buying.

I have the ASUS Zenwifi XD5, which was purely to increase the 5GHz band in some areas of our home.  I think the connection is perfectly suitable for gaming.

However, I also run a KODI server for all my films.  And streaming a 4K HDR rip of a disc still doesn't work well over wifi.  So the PCs are wired for that reason, and then games naturally used the wired connection as well.

I think wifi is perfectly fine for gaming, but users need to watch the signal, especailly for the 5 GHz band as those higher energy signals don't have the range the 2.4 GHz signals do.

[MorePeanutButter]

With Cat 6 and the right hardware on each end you can reach 10gbe!

[Scarter]

Hardwire for life!

[mengelag]

Hardwire... Nothing else is even considered in my home. 

[Prince117]

I use wifi so far i havent really had any lagging or anything 

[pcwizzy37]

I use ethernet on my desktop, and wi-fi on my laptop. I have a fiber gig down gig up ISP as well.

[MorePeanutButter]

I use ethernet whenever possible.

[N_weasels]

Wifi via a TP link PCIE card due to renting and not allowed to install a cable run (or place the router where I want). 
The internet here also isn't the greatest anyway so I'm not missing out because of latency  and lost packets (copper wire DSL capped at 14mbps. Up until I badgered them into installing a bonded line, the latency also acted as a sine wave from 34ms on the low end up to 5 minutes.)

[BigAl01]

I have both Ethernet connections and wireless-n connections on my network.  Only a few of my computers use the wireless connection - 90% are on the wired Ethernet.  It's been working fine for me for several years.

[BigGameD33R]

Always go wired.  Only if its too expensive for the time being or impossble to get cat5 should you settle for wifi.

[eebiii]

I use comcast (Cable). I am hard wired for my main computer but on Wi-Fi for the others. Doesn't hurt to throw a Wi-Fi extender somewhere in the house. I've never really had any issues.

[roundleafbirch]

I try to connect whatever I can to ethernet but I live in a older home that is difficult to pull cable, but the good news is its low density so I don't have wifi interference from neighbors.

I've tried wifi dongles and they were fine before high speed internet, but now I use a second router in bridge mode and get full speed that way. I had cable internet for years but recently switched to fiber for $45/500mbs down with no caps.