Amazon.com: Customer reviews: ASUS(PCE-N15) maximum performance Wireless-N Network Adapter ( 300Mbps Transmit / 300Mbps Receive) with PCI-E interface, Include Full Height and Low Profile bracket, WPS button Support

Top positive review

Better than ethernet

Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2011

If you are looking to make your desktop wireless, look no farther. The PCE-N15 works great. This is the updated/ faster model of the PCE line. I did a lot of research on this- on many other sites than amazon.
I installed it in just a few minutes, and in a couple more minutes, was connected to my network. I had to install the included software. The PCE-N15 can be installed with just a little common sense and mecanical know-how. It does take a little pressure to snap it into place on the plate- the only tool required is a screwriver. Since then, no looking back. When I wake up my computer from sleep mode, it connects to the network in about 15 seconds (if that long). No dropped signal issues, no problems at all! Always stays connected. I do not have to refer to the software to make any changes, or reset anything.
One VERY IMPORTANT thing to know before purchase: can my computer accomodate this device? Make sure your motherboard has an open slot for installation. Just open your case and look. I bought the bigger slot version (dual band) from ASUS and did not realize it was already being used by my video card until after it arrived. There are only two slot size versions- easy to tell the diffrence. The return process was easy-I did not open the box. I cannot comment on reception because my router is about three feet away through an interior wall.
Better than ethernet: I have a good cable connection. Previously I had my internet conversion box connected to my PC by the ethernet cable. After installation, it seemed to me that pages and video were loading up faster than before. I do not have numbers to back it up, just from what my experience was.
Its a great product made by a great company. And its worth the money.

2 people found this helpful

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Danny

Sort of great when it wants to be..

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2013

So. I began by installing this in my computer and installing all the necessary drivers. With Windows, it worked great. For awhile, that is. After said while passed, it began starting off with strong signal, then slowly decreasing into nothingness. I switched it to another PCI slot, and it worked marvelously. Then I installed Linux. What a different story. It says it reaches the network, but pinging any website brings, lo and behold... NOTHING! So, if you like Windows, it's great, but I warn you now: DO NOT BUY THIS IF YOU WANT TO RUN IT ON LINUX (UBUNTU AND DERIVATIVES). The process for getting the drivers and such is complicated. I still haven't figured it out.

1,580 total ratings, 1,057 with reviews

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From the United States

B. Jennings

Better than ethernet

Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2011

Verified Purchase

2 people found this helpful

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SCS

Seems to work fine

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2012

Verified Purchase

I used a USB plug-in type of wireless antenna for about a year, which worked fine until recently, then needed to be re-set frequently, and finally stopped working altogether. A friend recommended this adapter as a more permanent replacement. It's working just fine for the past month or so - and hopefully he's right on durability.

It was fairly easy to install, but I am not a computer geek, and I would have liked to have seen some basic instructions for this. It seemed like I should have just known how to change or add things on the inside of a computer, but this made me fairly nervous.

Also, there were three choices on how to connect, for which I made the wrong choice at first - again, I think there needs to be some basic guidelines on what to choose and why. I'm sure for the hardcore techies, this is no big deal at all, but even the simplest of these can be frustrating for someone seeing it for the first time.

On the very positive side, before I bought this, I was reading through the reviews, and when a negative comment was made, a response came from ASUS. I was able to use the email link in these responses to solve my issue, and everything is working very well now.

Helpful

Engineering Geek

Slow boot first time, but works great from then on

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2017

Verified Purchase

I bought a refurbished Dell OptiPlex 790 from Amazon a couple of months ago. I primarily use wired Ethernet, so I had no problems connecting with my home network. But I recently moved, and the office in my new place doesn't currently have a way to get a cable to it, so I had to use WiFi. The OptiPlex came with a USB WiFi adapter, but it would not connect to the home network. I installed a NetGear range extended, with no luck. I then moved the computer into the same room with the wireless router. No connection So, I bought this ASUS card and installed it. I misread the motherboard and installed it into a long PCI-E slot, and the computer wouldn't boot. I then figured out my error and put the card into a short PCI-E slot and turned it on. Same result - no boot. But this time, I decided to wait it out. Sure enough, about 5 minutes later, the PC booted - very slowly. It took a total of over 10 minutes to fully come up and let me log in. But since that first boot, it has operated at the usual fast speed, and connects to the home network easily. I believe I have a winner!

Helpful

Danny

Sort of great when it wants to be..

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2013

Verified Purchase

Helpful

AlmondPistachios

It works as it should

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2013

Verified Purchase

I replaced the D-link Wireless 150 N dwa-525 in my computer with this. When I upgraded my internet from 3/.something too small, to 30/5 I didn't expect that card to suck that bad. I had only bought 3 years earlier. The thing would be able to get at most around 8Mbps but would usually drop down to 4Mbps and stay there for a while. I upgraded my router because that too was bottle-necking my other devices. Even with the new router that D-Link card would usually just get 4Mbps. With this Asus I have been able to get 30Mbps down whenever my router would let it but most times my router recedes from 300Mbps down to 130Mbps and I get left at about 24Mbps down. Upload is fine, I get all that I can get. Installation is real easy. Windows detected it immediately. At first this card wasn't performing that well, but that was because when I put this in, I was to lazy to take out the D-Link. I just disabled it and as a result my speed was stunted a bit. When I took the D-Link out it started working as well as I had hoped for. I haven't had any dropped connections and my connection strength has improved to pretty much perfect constantly. In future builds, I'll probably use this again or whatever replaces it.

Helpful

Tod-Michael

Easy install. Quirky stability. Dropped Connections.

Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2011

Verified Purchase

My first thoughts on pulling this from the box was how small it was. But it quickly slipped into my Dell XPS Studio which is running Windows 7 x64 Professional. I screwed in the two antennae onto the back, closed the cover and booted. First off I noticed it didn't have native drivers and drivers weren't found on the Windows website. No problem. I installed from the included CD-ROM and it was recognized. Quick and easy configuration. Software found my wireless router (A Motorola ActionTek from Verizon FIOS). I entered the key and I had internet. Everything seemed good. Then I started quickly noticing problems. If the machine slept, the entire card went offline. I checked settings and it was set to not sleep wireless. Then I also noticed it would flake out even when running. I could be sitting there, with an "excellent" connection browsing and other network access and then suddenly, nothing. No internet. No network. Right clicking and trouble shooting on the Windows 7 icon availed nothing. Disabling and and Re-enabling the card in devices did nothing. However, if I rebooted the entire machine, it'd come up fine....for a time...then repeat. After two days of doing all I could, I returned it. I had even gone to ASUS' site and downloaded more up to date drivers -- still the problem recurred. Now, I may just have gotten a bad card but it didn't bode well for me. I won't ever get a card of this model from ASUS again.

22 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kyle J. Gagliardo

Constant Disconnects / High Latency

Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2012

Verified Purchase

I bought two of these adapters because I moved into an apartment with "free internet" - which happened to be a wireless network through out the house. Having two desktops, that wasn't very fun.

Installing the unit was a breeze - power down your PC, pop it into your mini PCI-e, install the drivers - and off to the races you go. Although, if you're running Crossfire/SLi you may not be able to use this card. I only have one GPU per PC, and I had to drop the cards down to the next available slot to access the proper port.

After installing and getting up and going, the fun began. At first, I was disappointed because the card was only reporting 2-3 bars - after connecting though it maxed out and stayed at 4-5 the entire time. Then the disconnects started happening. The card would simply lose the network after a couple of minutes, and only when it decided it was the proper time would it come back. The entire time, any surrounding networks would still be visible - but the router for the apartment just didn't exist anymore. I verified that the router was still going through my cell phone. Eventually, it would return and remain working for about 5 minutes before disappearing again.

A little research showed that the chip inside the card is actually a Realtek RTL8192CE - so I uninstalled the drivers I downloaded from Asus and installed the drivers from Realtek. Same issue persisted. I played around with various settings trying to find anything that the card would like that would keep it from dropping out so bad - but in the long run it just doesn't want to work at all for more than 5 minutes (on a lucky attempt).

Then, I decided to be bold and try to play a video game (RIFT, to be exact). Upon entering the world, my latency would jump sporadically from 47ms to a whopping ~4,000ms - making any actions useless. I ran a number of Pingtests, and even kicked on a recurring command prompt ping for about 15 minutes. Both tests reported a consistent ~40ms, with the exception of the CMD test spitting out a random ~100ms here and there.

I took breaks in my time with this card to test out another, was supposed to be temporary, USB dongle that I picked up (the Netgear WNA3100). Signal strength isn't as great, but latency and stability are superb comparative.

In the long run, I've attempted everything that other users have reported works fine. The card itself would have been fantastic for standard browsing (should the connection have remained) - but as I'm a gamer and a web designer - I rely on my packets getting where they need to be without any delay (especially 4,000ms worth of it). I still don't know what exactly is wrong with it, but I'm already done playing with it and am shipping it back for a refund tomorrow.

Helpful

Dusty

Good overall

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2012

Verified Purchase

I installed this item into a desktop computer that occasionally requires wireless access. The computer and card saw heavy use while setting up my new rig, and has so far performed admirably.

Pros:
-Very low profile, good for airflow. I was able to sandwich this in a PCIe slot above my massive 3-slot GFX card with no problems, other than my fat fingers during the install.
-Connects well and quickly. No required bloatware (which I find important), so you can use windows built in wireless features and not install unnecessary junk. Drivers included on CD or can be downloaded from website.
-Comes with interchangeable short bracket for micro-ATX/low-pro cases.
-Opinions generally state card-style wireless solutions perform better with a lower error rate than USB counterparts, and it keeps USB slots open for other devices.
-Dual antenna
-ASUS

Cons:
-After a crash on my computer unrelated to this device, the device somehow lost connectivity. Had to physically remove card from slot and re-insert, after which it ran perfectly again. I have no real reason to blame this card for these issues however, and haven't experienced a problem since.

17 people found this helpful

Helpful

Andon M. Coleman

Based on a Realtek chipset...

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2012

Verified Purchase

For those who do not know, Realtek is notorious for offloading portions of their hardware functionality to the CPU. Effectively, most Realtek NICs (Network Interface Cards) are software-based, providing only the minimum hardware necessary to establish a physical layer connection. The CPU winds up performing tasks (i.e. data link layer and network layer), that many higher quality NICs handle using dedicated hardware.

I opted to include this NIC in my high-end gaming machine because I have CPU cycles to spare; at stock clock rates the reliability and performance is perfect. One interesting caveat I discovered was that if I underclock my system to use silent passive cooling, the software-based nature of this device results in extremely flaky connection reliability and performance. My built-in hardware-accelerated Intel EEPRO Gigabit WIRED Ethernet controller works fine regardless how I clock the system, but of course it requires tethering the machine to an ethernet cable...

I can definitely confirm connection quality correlates strongly with the system's CPU, since the CPU ultimately performs the majority of this NIC's responsibilities. Consequently, this NIC may be a poor choice for low-powered systems, or specialty configurations (i.e. my abovementioned attempt to utilize passive cooling). For this reason, I can only give 4 out of 5 stars -- the price is right, but if you do not know what you are getting yourself into ahead of time, you may experience poor connection quality.

98 people found this helpful

Helpful

D. Chan

Died after 2 years

Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2015

Verified Purchase

I bought this card 2 years ago, and it just stopped working last week. A few months ago, it started acting up. The internet connection was really slow. In the last few weeks, it started dropping connections, then it finally stopped connection to networks altogether. The PCE-N15 worked fine before it died. The speeds were good enough, but sometimes it would randomly be slow. I know it was the card because other devices connected on my network weren't lagging. I would say that consistency would be the main problem.

For the most part, I never had a lot of problems loading videos; for example netflix, cbs.com, and hulu loaded their content in a fast enough time. The only problem would be with loading youtube videos since they would constantly buffer. As for downloading, I usually didn't have a problem. Games from Amazon or steam downloaded fast enough. Downloading a windows update could have been faster. For the included software, it wasn't very useful. I uninstalled the Asus utility and drivers after the first two months. It caused problems with my connection. I eventually just downloaded the Realtek drivers, as someone said in one of the amazon reviews, and it worked fine afterwards. Overall, I would say that it was okay. I didn't pay that much for it, so the performance for the price made up for the problems.

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ASUS(PCE-N15) maximum performance Wireless-N Network Adapter ( 300Mbps Transmit / 300Mbps Receive) with PCI-E interface, Include Full Height and Low Profile bracket, WPS button Support

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ASUS(PCE-N15) maximum performance Wireless-N Network Adapter ( 300Mbps Transmit / 300Mbps Receive) with PCI-E interface, Include Full Height and Low Profile bracket, WPS button Support

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