3x3 AC Adapters (Mini-PCIe)

Today I got a spiffy new router, which supports 3x3 802.11ac, up to 1200 Gbps (in theory, of course). And it also supports up to 450 Mbps over 802.11n (again, in theory). Which is the real reason I got it - my laptops have the 5300 AGN and 6300 AGN cards, respectively. And it's working great for that.

But now that I've seen the world of difference between 2.4 GHz 1x1 802.11n and 5 GHz 3x3 802.11n, I want to buy a better wireless card for my Dell (my HP has a wireless card whitelist ). And yes, there are cards like the Intel 7260, but at 2x2 802.11ac, they would be less than twice as good even in theory. If I'm going to upgrade my wireless card, I want it to take advantage of all three of the antennas Dell shipped my laptop with, and really blow my socks off!

After some research, I have found two options:

The AzureWave AW-CB160H (Newegg link). The reviews are middling due to a lack of drivers, and while it says it supports 7/8/10, it also notes that while it includes "some screws", the "drive not includes", which based on the review I take to mean it doesn't have a driver CD; not could I find a download link on AzureWave's website. It appears to use the Broadcom BCM4360 chipset.

The Compex WLE900VX (Amazon link). I found its official page on its manufacturer's site, but it appears to only support certain network-equipment-centric operating systems. It uses the Qualcomm Atheros 9880 chipset.

So I'm curious if anyone has had any better luck finding 3x3 AC adapters, or has tried one of these. I am more or less limited to Mini-PCIe, although either half or full height should be fine (my current card is full-height); this laptop only has USB 2.0, so a USB adapter may well not fully whelm me (and would likely add more CPU overhead due to being USB; not ideal on an ancient laptop).

(I'm also well aware that my ISP doesn't offer fast enough speeds to make a difference, but it sure is cool seeing how quickly things transfer across the LAN now)

Edit: Also found the Unex DAXA-F1 (and its 5 GHz-only sibling the G01). It appears to be based on the same chipset as the Compex, the Qualcomm Atheros 9880. For drivers, while the Unex lacks Unix support, it does list Linux, but again I don't see a download. And I do run some Windows-specific games on this Dell. But at least their website has a nice design.

And found a few SparkLAN models, such as the WPEA-352ACN. They appear to be based on the same QCA chip, but their website is having issues even loading, let alone providing as much information as the Unex site.

One more, the MicroTik R11e-5HacT. It also uses the QCA, but is also targeted at routers and network equipment. Not sure that one could fit in my laptop anyway, with its heatsink.

Still seems like there ought to be one though, right? Surely with all the routers out there there'd be enough people interested in buying adapters to support at least one of these companies making a version available for mainstream operating systems?

Edit 2: [H] thread on this topic. Someone indicates they got the AzureWave one working on Windows with the help of some antenna adapters (I didn't even know that was a thing), but they didn't post details on the driver setup. There is speculation the QCA ones may work on Linux, but again, not very many specifics (and I'm not ready to abandon my Windows partition on this laptop). Also found a link to the antenna adapters via Reddit.

And finally found some more useful info! The drivers are available here, and wouldn't you know that it's an NBR thread that had the key links? So I suspect the AzureWave is the best option for Windows. Only problem then is the antennas. I do have a little bit of extra space in the chassis to work with, but I am not sure it is enough for three antenna adapters. Would also have to switch up to Windows 7 to get compatible drivers (this laptop came with Vista, which lacks support), and all of a sudden it's switching from fun project to actually-kinda-expensive territory.

Edit: Approximated the size based on the eBay pictures and that the size of the MH4 plug in it is 1.5mm. That means the zoomed-in version of the picture is about 10 times life size, and it spans about 25 centimeters. Thus the real size is about 2.5cm, or one inch, from the MH4 plug (on the WiFi card) to where the U.FL antenna would connect. With a full-height card, that would be questionable on my laptop, but the AzureWave is the half-height card, and would thus save just about an inch over my current one. Thus it looks plausible that this might physically work in my laptop.

 

Dell has the Dell Wireless 1830 which is a Broadcom chip so you might wanna look into that if you want decent driver support, it’s m.2 but you can use a mpcie to m.2 adapter. This card is normally found in some XPS and Precision laptops. You can probably get the card on eBay or some resellers on Amazon or even AliExpress.

However QCA cards are usually better on a hardware standpoint, but not sure how good the drivers are.

 

Is Azurewave a company that re-brands popular chipsets like Atheros and Broadcom? I have Atheros AR9285 in my old Asus notebook but the driver page and card is mentioned as "Azurewave". Sorry if this is off-topic. I just would like to know.

 

Yes, that is correct. No need to be sorry .

 

Subbed, very interested in the results of this thread

Thanks for sharing!

 

Didn't see the notifications for this thread and just re-found it...

Interesting, I missed that one. I wonder if it's the same chipset (BCM4360) as the AzureWave? I see drivers for 8.1 x64 and 10 x64 on Dell's site for it; there are no Windows 7 drivers listed (unlike the AzureWave-via-Asus, which has drivers for Windows 7 64-bit and 32-bit).

I used Broadcom cards for a few years on my Dell before going 5300 AGN. While indeed they've never had the reputation as the fastest, it looks like they may well be in this case (at least considering that no Windows/Linux drivers for the QCA ones have surfaced).

Haven't done anything on this front since the post though. Added floppy drive and VR support to my desktop instead. Still interested in the idea from a hardware perspective, although given the cost ineffectiveness - I'd also have to upgrade my OS, and if I do that, upgrade my RAM - it would have to be in my science experiment budget (most recently used for the aforementioned floppy-in-a-modern system project, and before that for a Windows 98-on-an-SSD project).

 

@Apollo13 in reality 2x2 802.11ac card will be much better than 3x3 802.11n with your new router, because beam-forming and stuff. Future is 160Mhz wider channel cards like Intel 9260 and transition to 802.11ax anyway, no point investing much in exotic 3x3 cards.

 

9260 is m.2 is garbage anyways

 

Great post, I have been in need of this ever since I moved to the 7260 from the killer wifi my m17xr4 came with. You will see apart from the 7260 we mini-pcie users are a bit limited due to the new tangled MHF4 antenna connectors on these wifi cards limiting upgrades as I can’t solder this stuff onto my existing antennaes.


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I upgraded a MacBook from a 3x3 N card to 3x3 AC card months past (required pigtails). That unit went from 25 MB/s to 65 MB/s with our R7000 3x3 router.

I bought a AW-CB160H BCM94360HMB to upgrade a 2013 laptop. The card received looks genuine without any apparent defects. Yet, I didn’t realize the the AW-CB160H had these new tiny MHF4 connectors. The vendor included U.FL pigtails with the card (not highest quality).

Despite Windows 10 indicating a 3x3, 1.3Gbps connection has been negotiated, I suspect the pigtails are why this card only achieves 26-27 MB/s when installed in this PC. (latest 7.35.352.0 driver). It even performs the same connecting to my Ubiquity Pro AC with a 867 2x2 connection. This unit was faster with its previous 2x2 Intel 7260. I’m not convinced enough that swapping to higher quality pigtails will achieve the 60+ MB/s I’d hoped for so I’m leaving it alone for now.

As to the other user's suggestion of using M.2 NGFF cards with MiniPCI adapters.
I have one. I’ve have yet to find a laptop accommodating the added height. I’m sure it’d be fine in a desktop with ample clearance.

I live in a condo community, so I speak for myself when I say I’d prefer 3x3 over shelling out money for 160mhz Wave2 hardware. My neighbors make half of the 160mhz noise. DFS on the Ubiquity Pro AC is the only that has allowed me to fully use my network where I live.

@Apollo13 If you discover a not yet mentioned 3x3 MiniPCI card with U.FL connectors, I'd be interested if reasonably priced.