Whats the best use for an M.2 slot?

Sasquach

Sasquach

Hidden in plain sight
So i have a radeon RX 6600 which I cant install because my wifi card is in the way.

My mobo is configured with a PCI-E x16 slot, a PCI-E x1 slot right beside it, and another PCI-E x1 slot beside that.

i cant move the Wifi card because its already located in the furthest PCI-E slot away from the x16 slot. My R9 290 currently takes up 2 slots, covering one PCIE x1 slot but with enough space to clear the wifi card in the second PCIE x1 slot. The RX6600 is a bit taller and will cover both PCI-E x1 slots.

my only options are:
Get a USB wifi adapater, run a very long ethernet cable to the nearest ethernet plug, or use the M.2 slot for a wifi card.

Or is the m.2 slot better used for an SSD? I currently only have platter based drives in my PC so even a SATA cable SSD would provide a read/write improvement.
 
acroig said:
A WiFi USB dongle is too expensive?
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In this context is too expensive.A full fledge mainboard with PROPER 802.11AC dual band is 105$ and that amazon converter/wifi dongle that is only 802_11_BGN is almost 50$ ? I am also worried about the coverage with that dongle.
Imo is worth to put another 55$ and get that mainboard.He will have a much better mainboard than he has, also much better wifi than the dongle overall and also he will free up PCIEX slots.
 
badsykes said:
In this context is too expensive.A full fledge mainboard with PROPER 802.11AC dual band is 105$ and that converter/wifi dongle that is only 802_11_BGN is almost 50$ ? I am also worried about the coverage with that dongle.
Do you think is not worth to put another 55$ and get that mainboard ?
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Sure I do but not everyone has unlimited funds to upgrade gear like you do sykes. :p
 
acroig said:
Sure I do but not everyone has unlimited funds to upgrade gear like you do sykes. :p
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I will donate some dollars to him for that.That dongle is priced with a tax for desperate situations.He is not in such a big dire, impossible situation.
If i had unlimited funds i would not have spend so much time hunting for a new gpu... :)The 6800 xt is two salarries of mine so i will have to have a loan temperorarily and offset the extra cost with vega56 selling.
The irony is something high end may pay itself in the long run.I keep my cards for 4 years.My vega56 is already almost 5 years old.I am not KAC to flip 2000$ gpu's every 6 months.:)
Keep in my mind that i am on 1440p resolution. Add 30% performance hit from going to 1440p to the 450$ i payed for vega56. A 600$ gpu is needed. ./.. :)
 
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badsykes said:
I will donate a couple of dollars to him for that.That dongle is priced for desperate situations.He is not in such a big dire, impossible situation.
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You do that and I'll PayPal you $10 USD for the new vid card fund.
 
acroig said:
Sure I do but not everyone has unlimited funds to upgrade gear like you do sykes. :p
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yeah im not made of money...i would have gotten a 6700 or 6800 at least if thats the case.

Plus im not buying a new mobo...why would i swap out my mobo for another B450 mobo? If im upgrading it, its because i want to go to a CPU after the ryzen 5000 series (which i can actually drop into this one with a bios update).

The more i think about it the more I might actually lean towards the long ethernet cable. Its become a recent thing i want to set up due to us having plans to develop our undeveloped basement maybe this year (the PC is down there, and i wanted to try to get away from wifi and go towards a hard wired internet connection). I just have to figure out the ethernet wiring since our modem/router is on the main floor in the house, and there's a switchbox in the basement next to the fuses that runs to the ethernet ports around the house.

This just means the R9 290 stays in the PC until i can figure out the length of cable i need to get.
 
Sasquach said:
yeah im not made of money...i would have gotten a 6700 or 6800 at least if thats the case.

Plus im not buying a new mobo...why would i swap out my mobo for another B450 mobo? If im upgrading it, its because i want to go to a CPU after the ryzen 5000 series (which i can actually drop into this one with a bios update).

The more i think about it the more I might actually lean towards the long ethernet cable. Its become a recent thing i want to set up due to us having plans to develop our undeveloped basement maybe this year (the PC is down there, and i wanted to try to get away from wifi and go towards a hard wired internet connection). I just have to figure out the ethernet wiring since our modem/router is on the main floor in the house, and there's a switchbox in the basement next to the fuses that runs to the ethernet ports around the house.

This just means the R9 290 stays in the PC until i can figure out the length of cable i need to get.
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The idea with a new was strictly to accomodate the specific problems with wifi card that you complained about.I thought that the ethernet wired connection was out of discussion.
If you can use ethernet then that's the perfect situation. :)
 
Ethernet cable's are pretty cheap and will offer better performance than the Wi-Fi card anyway. So I would go that route.

Also putting a Wi-Fi card into the M2 slot probably wouldn't work out anyway. As there are likely no antenna leads to work with like you have in laptops :)

p.s. If your thinking you might wiring up your house. You could also just buy a spool of CAT cable, a RJ45 crimping tool, couple wall plate kits & jack heads so you can DIY it. It's really easy, just watch a couple YT videos on it. Everything available at your local Hardware Store, Amazon or potentially a good dollar store :)

p.p.s. Just a heads up... don't cheap out toooooo heavily on your crimper and look at reviews. Because if it sux, your going to HATE the process for making the cable's and jacks lol
 
I've used the cheaper (Sub $50) USB wifi sticks in several friends and family computers over the years. Mostly on those machines that you have to crawl under desks and get attacked by dust bunnies to get the box out.

USB hub with a cable long enough to get to the top of the desk (so it's not under a table being blocked) and a wifi stick solved the problem long enough to buy a few years till the whole system needed to be replaced.

Now that said, they only had sub 100mb internet, so if you need fiber speeds you may need to shell out the bigger bucks.

USB sticks are a great F'it just need it to work for now and we can deal with the issue later fix.
 
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