ASUS Brings Wi-Fi 6 to Desktops with PCE-AX3000 Card
by Anton Shilov on November 19, 2019 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Networking
- Asus
- Wi-Fi
- Wi-Fi 6
ASUS has introduced one of the industry’s first Wi-Fi 6 cards for desktops. The ASUS PCE-AX3000 dual band PCIe 3.0 x1 adapter promises to provide up to 2.4 Gbps data transfer rates over 160 MHz channels when used with an appropriate router.
The ASUS PCE-AX3000 card is essentially an adapter carrying an M.2-2230 Wi-Fi 6 card for laptops. The actual radio that powers the card is unknown, however it supports all key features of the Wi-Fi 6 specification, including 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, 80 MHz and 160 MHz channels, MU-MIMO, OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access) for allowing different devices to be served by one channel, and WPA3. Besides Wi-Fi 6, the card also supports Bluetooth 5.0 technology allowing desktops to connect to various mobile and peripheral devices.
The PCE-AX3000 Dual Band PCI-E Wi-Fi 6 has two large antennas to ensure strong signal and fast connectivity in various situations. The adapter should be compatible with all existing desktops that use Windows 10 (64-bit) or Linux.
UPDATE 11/20: The card appears to be based on Intel's AX200 Wi-Fi 6 solution CNVi solution and therefore requires an appropriate Intel platform.
Numerous modern laptops feature Wi-Fi 6, providing higher performance in crowded networks, but not everything is that rosy with desktops as Wi-Fi 6 adapters for desktops are practically nonexistent. Luckily, with products like the ASUS PCE-AX3000, 2.4 Gbps connectivity will now be available for desktop computers too.
Related Reading:
- Wi-Fi 6 Is Officially Here: Certification Program Begins
- Qualcomm Updates Wi-Fi 6 Lineup: Networking Pro Series for APs and FastConnect for Clients
- Intel Launches Wi-Fi 6 AX200 Wireless Network Adapter
- TP-Link Announces Archer AX6000 and AX11000 Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) Routers
Source: ASUS (via Hermitage Akihabara)
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James5mith - Tuesday, November 19, 2019 - link
Most of the mid-high end motherboards offer wifi onboard. More than that, many offer 2230 PCIe slots on the motherboard which makes for easy inexpensive upgrades. (AsRock comes to mind, as I recently upgraded the wifi on one of those from an Intel 9560 to an Intel AX200.)I mean, from your own AMD X570 motherboard roundup https://www.anandtech.com/show/14161/the-amd-x570-...
Out of 35 motherboards, 19 had Wifi6 onboard.
Inteli - Tuesday, November 19, 2019 - link
That's well and good for those mid-high end motherboards, but what about any other motherboard, or for that matter the 16 X570 motherboards that don't have WiFi on board?I view these cards as a retrofit option, and I'm glad they exist. You might not need WiFi when you build a computer, but then you move or change the purpose of the computer and need WiFi suddenly. Do you buy a new motherboard or a WiFi AIB?
Death666Angel - Tuesday, November 19, 2019 - link
Exactly. I've just repurposed an MSI B450M Mortar. It has no M.2 wifi options and I didn't need one for its first job (cable all the way), but where it is now, I need wifi. So I bought a Chinese Intel AX200 PCIe card and some antennae for 18€ and am living a happy live. At the same time I bought an X570 with an M.2 wifi slot, so I also just purchased a clean Intel AX200 and some antennae for 20€ (card cheaper but antennae not included and more expensive). Now I'm set either way.As for the card, I'm not sure what's "industry first" about it. A lot of AX200 PCIe cards from no-names around and even a Gigabyte branded one. And ASUS even has another one with a nice heatsink.
What I find most interesting is that these integrated solutions are price competitive with USB solutions for Wifi 5. And there are no off the shelf Wifi 6 USB solutions as far as I know.
close - Tuesday, November 19, 2019 - link
"Source: ASUS"These are press releases. They're not Anton Shilov's words and personal evaluation but rather Asus'. Of course Asus would sing their own praise. Every single article Anton Shilov posts should be clearly marked as PR in the title so the reader knows before clicking that it's no different from any other ad you'd see on the internet. But AT doesn't really care if they shovel sh*t on the front page as long as the clicks come. So what if they peddle misleading or outright wrong information?
devione - Tuesday, November 19, 2019 - link
If you're too dumb to tell a press release from actual content... Well maybe you shouldn't be browsing Anandtech.close - Thursday, November 21, 2019 - link
Yes... I must be the dumb one for ignoring that dozens of M.2 WiFi 6 cards + PCIe x1 adapter combos have been on the market for at least half a year (I have one since June).At least I didn't pay to read this...
Ryan Smith - Tuesday, November 19, 2019 - link
"So what if they peddle misleading or outright wrong information?"1) To be sure, these are not press releases. They are written up by Anton. (I'm not even aware of Asus issuing a press release for this adapter)
2) Hmm. I personally went over this article before it was posted. What's misleading or incorrect?
close - Thursday, November 21, 2019 - link
"What's misleading or incorrect?" > "ASUS has introduced one of the industry’s first Wi-Fi 6 cards for desktops."This is not "a card for desktop" it's an adapter with a run of the mill M.2 card. Where's the novelty? Why the bombastic introduction making it look like more than it is? These have been on the market for quite some time, including in card"adapter kits.
Most of Anton's articles is peppered either with mistakes or plain marketing talk. The PCIe 4.0 motherboard that was just PCIe 3.0, or the x16 that was just x8, or the 3x32=128GB RAM kit (https://www.anandtech.com/show/14964/gskill-launch...
Unlike a review posted by Andrei Frumusanu where I can take 99.9% of the info and conclusions at face value, when it comes to Anton's articles t's hard to trust anything. Might just be coming straight from the manufacturer and not be validated/vetted in any way, might be a bucket of typos, might be him misinterpreting the info and presenting it as such.
sorten - Tuesday, November 19, 2019 - link
Harsh and unnecessary, Mr. Close. Correct me if I'm wrong, but nobody is compelling you to read the free content here.close - Thursday, November 21, 2019 - link
You're correct that nobody is compelling me. But your attitude that "it's free so quality doesn't matter" is pretty sad.