Custom PC - UK (2020-01)

W

i-Fi 6, otherwise known as

802.11ax, is the new Wi-Fi

standard in town, but while Wi-Fi 6

routers are slowly starting to appear, client

devices that can connect to them are few

and far between. Enter the first PC Wi-Fi 6

adaptor that we’ve encountered, the

TP-Link Archer TX3000E.

It’s a 4x PCI-E card, so sadly, it can’t serve

double duty as an adaptor for a laptop, unlike a

USB adaptor. Otherwise, though, it’s an easy

enough device to install thanks to the card

itself being very small. You also get a low-

profile expansion bracket in the box, so you

can mount the card in low-profile cases.

Its two gold-plated aerial sockets sprout

from the back of the card, and they attach to

the 1m cable that runs to the aerials

themselves. These aerials are mounted onto

a weighty and magnetised baseplate, but you

can remove them from the plate and adjust

their angles in order to fine tune performance.

The base is reassuringly solid too. Having a

heavy, magnetised base with a grippy foam

underside ensures that it has the best possible

chance of not toppling over, or being pulled off

your desk or PC by the weight of the cables.

Once the card and antennae have been

attached, you’ll need to install the driver. This

can be downloaded from TP-Link’s website

or you can use the included CD. Intriguingly,

the drivers for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are kept

separate (the card also provides Bluetooth 5

support), so you can choose to only install

one or the other.

The driver

doesn’t install a

taskbar-based app,but

instead provides a hostof

configuration optionsforthe

adaptor properties’ right-click menu.

Some of the options include the ability to

choose the type of connection mode to use

(a/b/g/ac/ax), the channel width and MIMO

power saving. Almost none of these settings

will ever need touching in most instances.

To test the adaptor, we installed it in a PC

alongside an Asus PCE-AC68 Wi-Fi 5

adaptor. This is an eerily similar-looking dual-

band, 2x2 802.11ac adapter that can reach a

theoretical peak speed of 1.3Gb/sec on its

5GHz channel and 600Mb/sec on its 2.4GHz

channel. In comparison, TP-Link claims the

TX3000E can hit a theoretical maximum of

2402Mb/sec ( 5GHz) or 574Mb/sec ( 2.4GHz).

We then connected, alternately, both

wireless adaptors to our pick of the best Wi-Fi

6 routers from this month’s Labs test – the

TP-Link Archer AX6000 (see p57) – and

tested its Wi-Fi speed and range.

We weren’t able to test the peak speed of

either adaptor, as doing so would require an

Ethernet connection faster than Gigabit.

However, we still saw consistently high

results from both adaptors, with close-range

speeds hitting 450Mb/sec. Moreover, we

saw a consistent, if modest lead for the

TP-Link AX adaptor, with it delivering 189Mb/

sec compared to the Asus adaptor’s 123Mb/

sec on the 2.4GHz channel and 254Mb/sec

compared to 219Mb/sec on the 5GHz

channel, in our longest-range test.

Of course, the improvements with Wi-Fi

6 aren’t primarily about raw speed, and the

performance differences aren’t huge. It’s

not really worth upgrading from the Asus

Wi-Fi 5 adaptor to the TP-Link Wi-Fi 6 one,

but it’s worth buying the latter if you’re

starting out from scratch.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a powerful, high-speed

Wi-Fi connection for your PC, the TP-Link

TX3000E is a great option. It doesn’t offer a

huge leap in speed over the fastest Wi-Fi 5

adapters, but there’s a small boost, and it’s

surprisingly affordable too.

TPLINKARCHER

TX3000E/£60inc VAT

SUPPLIER overclockers.co.uk

VERDICT

A surprisingly affordable way to equip

your PC with the fastest Wi-Fi connection

currently possible.

FEATURES

14 / 20

PERFORMANCE

45 / 50

VALUE

24 / 30

OVERALLSCORE

83

LABS TEST / WIFI 6 ROUTERS

WIFI 6 PCIE ADAPTOR

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