Finally decided to retire the Haswell system I’ve been using, and ordered up some AM4 goodies during the recent Prime Day sale. I grabbed an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (8-core, 16-thread), 32 GB of DDR4-3600, and the Gigabyte AORUS Elite AX (Rev 1.3) motherboard. The CPU was the main draw — it was only $130! The board was on sale for $90 (currently $149.99 on Amazon).
Thus far I am happy with this motherboard. It doesn’t give me the same vibe of Gigabyte superior value which I got back in the day from the likes of the classics — GA-EP45-UD3P comes to mind! — but, for under $100 it seems quite adequate.
The included WiFi leaves much to be desired though… Maybe it works fine on Windows?? On Linux, I was only seeing 2 bars and maybe 300 – 400 Mbps.
The solution? Grab yourself an AX210.
Intel wireless cards have excellent support on Linux and BSD alike. For just $20–$30 online, you can replace the built-in Realtek card. It takes about half a dozen screws to open the board and swap the M.2 module. I highly recommend tweezers for disconnecting and reattaching the tiny U.FL antenna connectors.
Where’s the Wi-Fi module located?
My pings are now way, better. Night and day. And the speed is a solid 100 Mbps better, or more. See for yourself!
