Advantages: Simple setup, manages itself Disadvantages: Very occasional low signal
...Following on from my review of the Belkin wireless router, this is the piece of kit at the other end of the link. The PCI Desktop Card is whats required to allow the PC to communicate with the router.
This product cost me £25 when I bought it. I was interested in the Belkin wireless router, so I played safe and used the same manufacturer for both items that would allow the router and my PC talk to each other.
--Whats in the box--
On opening the box, there were no real surprises. There was the PCI card, the antenna, a quick installation guide and a CD which contained the drivers and a full manual.
--Installation--
On reading the quick installation guide, it was apparent that the software had to be installed before the card was plugged in. The reason for this was because, when the hardware was detected, the software would...
Advantages: AGP Support - Will run most modern games - reasonable price Disadvantages: Now quite outdated - If you have AGP, you might be better getting a new computer
...a whole though, and it's often best if you are happy with the current drivers to stick with them rather than upgrading.
In conclusion, I give it a 4 out of 5 because it really did the job for me. Whether it would do the job today is another matter. If you want to upgrade an older AGP system without spending lots of money on replacing the whole thing, one of these would be good, along with another 1GB of memory (more memory always helps). It is particularly a better option than buying a cheap laptop or big name system that will often not be well suited to games, and probably contains a far worse graphics card (likely more modern and PCI-E, but lacking the same features)....
...I have bought this PCI card a week ago.
Reason: I have got a MSI K7T266Pro2 motherboard that only offer USB1.1 ports (1.5Mbytes/s maximum transfer rate).
Since I have got devices that uses USB2.0 and without breaking my piggy bank to upgrade my computer, the most economical way is to install a PCI card that offers USB2.0 connections (up to 480Mbits/s or 60Mbytes/s, 40X faster than USB1.1) for 1 internal port and 4 external ports.
Before you buy a USB2.0 PCI card, make sure that your motherboard got version 2.2 PCI slots which are USB2.0 compatible.
If your motherboard hasn't got version 2.2 PCI slots or higher, don't bother. You need a motherboard upgrade.
Also, your operating system needs to be windows 2000 service pack 4 or windows XP which provides appropriate drivers to support USB2.0. For the other operation systems...
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