Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Old PCI Network Card vs. Newer USB Dongle. Which is faster?

So as I understand from my reading it seems that PCI Network Cards are always the way to go usually over USB. However in my case I just picked up a kind of older model one than my USB dongle is and I just am wondering am I sacrificing speed by giving up the dongle for the card.

Here are the specs:

My USB dongle is a N 150 Belkin Basic Wireless USB adapter, 802.11n

and

My Network PCI card is a RT2400 Wireless LAN Card, manufactured by Ralink Technology Corp. I believe I read it was 802.11b

The wireless router we use is a linksys (basic blue one) and we are on cable internet.(wired. not dsl)

My confusion lies here. When I use my USB Dongle for wireless it says under my wireless connection popup that I am receiving 54 MBPS and the connection says excellent.

When I am using the PCI Network Card on the other hand it shows that I am receiving 11 MBPS, and it also shows excellent.

Both seem to work fine however I haven't really put them to the test with downloading any heavy files or anything.

I am kind of leaning towards the PCI card. Any input? Is this the faster route even though it says 11 mbps and the dongle says 54 mbps? or should I be sticking with the dongle for a faster connection?

Reply 1 : Old PCI Network Card vs. Newer USB Dongle. Which is faster?

however, PCI connection is faster than USB, but that's not your question though. I suggest you buy a better card or stick with the usb dongle. So which actually seems faster to you?

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