Review: Abit AirPace WiFi

[monkey7]

Abit AirPace WiFi reciever

As my new PC was still on an external USB wifi reciever I ordered an internet PCI-e x1 card. The 'chosen one' was the Abit Airpace. I chose this card because of its price (€9, can't really hurt if it goes wrong, eh?) and vista64 compatibility. Google tells this claimed compatibility isn't always the best, but I just hoped for it.

Anyway, the card arrived today:

Packaging

The packaging was exactly what I expected it to be for this price. A standard folding cardboard box with a pretty picture and the main features at the top and a some details at the bottom:

Front / top of the box displaying the main features of the card and a picture to show it off

And the back / bottom of the card promoting the many ways in which the card can be used in a network, not mentioning a normal user would only use one of these options.

Opening the box and removing the included CD reveals some more cardbox to keep the components separated.

Contents

The box only contains what's really needed: the card itself, manual, antennae, driver disk, and a low profile PCI bracket. This PCI bracket is actually quite a nice touch considering a card like this could easily be used in a small download / server machine requiring low profile cards.

The card itself is smaller than I have ever seen. It has really given 'low profile' a new meaning to me...

Card seen from the PCI bracket

Card seen from the 'front of the case'.

Note that the card ends directly behind the PCI-e slot, enabling you to put it in even the most obstructed slots, as as I tried to picture below. Taking the photo wasn't too easy as no matter what I tried a giant something was in the way:

Clearance to the UD5 northbridge cooling is a few mm's.

Installation, the software

This was absolutely -to put it simple- a pain in the arse. The Abit site states the AirPace has Vista 64 bit drivers. Assuming the drivers on the net were the same as those on the disk (they are from 2007..) I installed the utility from the CD. So far so good.

Now I had to install the drivers using the standard Windows 'found new hardware' wizard. I pointed at C:\windows, and yay! it found drivers. After clicking 'next', I got an unpleasant suprise: driver not signed, would you like to installed anyway? Yes. Wizard continues installing and then comes with the notice "driver not installed". Clicking on a lot of 'help me's turned up that vista64 does not install any unsigned drivers at all, even when the user gives permission to install them.

The only solution turned out to disable the driver check. I did this using the following commands, I do not know which of them finally did the job:

- bcdedit /set nointegritychecks ON

- bcdedit -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS

Next, I downloaded the newest drivers from the Asian mirror, reinstalled the utility for about the fourth time and followed the found new hardware wizard for the ... God knows how many times I did that. Anyway, after disabling the driver signing check and downloading the online drivers the card is now operational under Windows Vista 64bit Ultimate SP1.

Ease of use and reception

As mentioned briefly before, the AirPace comes with its own utility. I'm never a fan of supplied utilities, but I did give this one a try.

Basically all this program does is allow you to switch between the different modes: normal client and access point. When functioning as normal client you can just use Windows Zero configuration to connect to networks like you would with every other WiFi card. This makes me rate the card somewhere around 'very good' when it comes to ease of use.

The reception of the card is more than sufficient. My previous reciever (Sweex USB... blech) had a reception of about 2, sometimes 3 out of 5 bars in Vista. If it had a bad day... Well you'd better get an old fashioned paper book. This card reaches a rating of 4 to 5/5 (54mbps, good-excellent). As the screen of the tool also displayed, the reception through a concrete floor is still 80%.

And yes, my SSID is access_denied.

Conclusion

The Abit AirPace Wi-Fi is a great card and value for money once you get it online. I have no doubt that installing on any other windows platform than Vista64 is easy as pie, and I would recommend this product to anyone wanting to do so. Reception is great, utility isn't too dominating and the card is small enough to get lost in your case.

Pro's:

+ Price. I had one for €9. Its next widely available competitor is about 5 times that price.

+ PCI-e x1. You have too much of them anyway

+ Good reception

+ Low profile

+ Price

+ Utility lets you use zero configuration

+ Seperate antennae. In case the reception in your own room sucks

+ Did I mention price yet?

Cons:

- Driver is a b*tch to install on Vista64

 

[Rastalovich]

Nice review m8, I'm shocked to see these still available if I'm honest.

I'm surprised also that it's using newer fully shielded tech, like the MSI PC60G-F(s) I purchased not too long ago, which is roughly the same size cept for the use of the full pci width for little more than putting a testing sticker on.

Whole review full of things I didn't realize, including pcie x1.. I thought they were pci. And the fact u even found vista 64bit stuff at all ?!?!

Good find and purchase to be fair. Looking for them previously I did kinda wonder if they made them just to bundle with the mobo (whichever one that was). Could perhaps explain a selling-them-off approach or something.

RoHS badged tho.. crazy stuff

 

[monkey7]

What exactly does RoHS mean? I always see it on electronics I buy but I do not know what exactly it means tbh.

My brother managed to install the card without editing the registry today, he has about the same configuration as I have:

- Install card

- Boot

- Did not get a 'found new hardware', so that's not required

- Install utility

- Go to device manager -> ethernet controllers. Should be one unrecognized controller

- Right click -> update driver. Search on your own computer in C:\Windows\System32\

His wizard did not ask about unsigned drivers somehow. He used the same file as I did (literally, ran it off my USB stick), but it worked for him and it did not for me.

And about the 'supplied with motherboard' idea; yes I had that feeling too. Especially the small size and low price suggests that.

 

[Rastalovich]

http://www.rohs.gov.uk/

Some devices can install weirdly on different pcs for no apparent reason.

Often it`s cos of the age of install of the OS and some changes have been made down the road. Similar cards and so on.

Sometimes u can dismiss a requester and it`ll never ask u again. USB things are bad for this in windows. Changing the port starts the process again.

 

[monkey7]

Ah, a badge for using the 'right' materials. Or rather not using the wrong materials

Hmm yeah I know windows sometimes reacts weird, but this is just really weird... The system is almost éxactly the same (4850 from another brand, OCz 6GB gold 1333 or 1600) and it just does not ask for the unsigned driver. Installed from exactly the same vista installation disk, only thing different in the installation was the activation code.

Ah well, let's just hope my rig was an exception and the drivers will install well in the future I can really recommend this card as it was dirt cheap and working like a charm (at least until now).

 

[noobieocer]

yea my mate has one of these and its cheap and has great reception. trough a wall it only had 2 bars on windows connection strength with a £30 belkin wifi card and this had full bars great product, i don't use wifi

 

[Rastalovich]

Ah, a badge for using the 'right' materials. Or rather not using the wrong materials

Hmm yeah I know windows sometimes reacts weird, but this is just really weird... The system is almost éxactly the same (4850 from another brand, OCz 6GB gold 1333 or 1600) and it just does not ask for the unsigned driver. Installed from exactly the same vista installation disk, only thing different in the installation was the activation code.

Ah well, let's just hope my rig was an exception and the drivers will install well in the future I can really recommend this card as it was dirt cheap and working like a charm (at least until now).

Just an idea m8, if ofc ur not doing it already.

Many reviewers will have a clean OS install when doing stuff - now ofc this is tricky if u dont do or have a spare test bench, but it can we worked-around by having a spare harddrive

This is the 2nd good review I've captured by urself so far, I do hope u keep it up cos the pics/reviews, including the other I spied up to now, are great.

 

[monkey7]

Hmmm the problem is I do not have either of them Not a spare harddisk nor a spare system. I already had to work 6 months for this one

But I do not think it's really needed to have a clean OS for a review as long as you are not comparing performance etc. A simple thing as installing the drivers should work on any OS, no matter how long it's been installed (a week or so, in my case).

And I did 3 reviews btw: scythe kaze master ace, this one, and the HAF932 bigtower. The user reviews section is currently nearly my personal review space, so you should be able to find it :+

 

[monkey7]

First of all, sorry for the doublepost but it needs to be done or no one will read this.

Now that I have used the AirPace for a few weeks I have seen a few hiccups of its software. Just to display how my reviewed articles work in real life usage I will be writing a part II: extended usage for every review I've written here, unless it's really unneeded.

Abit AirPace review part II: extended usage

In the few weeks time since I wrote this review I have been using the Abit Airpace pretty much non stop. So far I have had two software caused hiccups:

- After a week of use the drivers suddenly bugged out. Windows Vista still recognized the card but it just didn't work. I deinstalled the drivers using device manager and reinstalled the drivers after a reboot. Then it worked again.

- Just recently (actually a few hours ago), windows Vista did not recognize the card at all. There was no 'unknown network device' shown as when the drivers are not installed, the card just didn't exist in the device manager. I shut her down, removed the card, booted, shut down, inserted the card and booted again. After that I had proper connection again.

Apart from these hiccups I haven't had any real trouble. The supplied utility hasn't even started since I installed the card and I'm using windows no configuration without a problem. Sometimes the connection just bugs out, but a reconnect solves the problem. Of course I sometimes have a slow connection, but that's our ISP being crappy and not my WiFi reciever.

 

[ali_james]

Hey,

Nice review there, can't quite believe how little the bugger cost you. I've got one myself and had no end of trouble related to drivers (vista 64 of course), it got to the point where I was likely to chuck it and try something else.

BUT when I install the driver for it using the driver cd for my motherboard (IP35-Pro) that I have not had a single problem from the card. I'll look into what version they are at some point.

Not had any trouble from mine so far and it is good to see the available technology of the pci-e actually being utilised.

 

[sprento]

I reckon if the Half Life series had RoHS applicable then it would never have been as much fun !

 

[Mul.]

Nice review

I have two of these, one on my XP based Gaming Rig at Uni Halls and one on my Vista x64 based HTPC at Home. I also managed to buy these nice and cheap (~£10) and was very impressed with them. Seldom did they drop out and they both worked flawlessly out of the box with the drivers from the included CD. The Abit application with the option to use it as an Access Point was also a nice touch. It's nice to be able to utilise those spare PCI-e slots

 

[Sleekit]

oooo I like

might get one for my HTPC

 

[Sleekit]

oooo I like

might get one for my HTPC

 

[mayhem]

Thought id let you know. Ive had this card a while now. I have it in my 2x daughters PCs. there both on windows 64 bit and ive never had a problem with it. To be perfectly honest now this little beauty has better range than my Linksys Duel band USB adapter (wich cost me £55).

It was installed in windows vista 64 bit with out problems and had no pop ups. Its never lost connection and they never faulted over the last 8 / 9 months. I have all so slip streamed the drivers into a install cd and this works fine as tested when the girls got a virus on there OS's.

So over all no problem and Real good range on them. I think its the little antenna that is a beast over all though as my son has a PCI wireless card (netgear) and i tested out the little antenna on it and it all so boosted it signal by approx 20% .... He only had 3 bars out of 5 and after testing out the antenna it went to the full 5 bars wich to me was out standing.

 

[monkey7]

Good to hear quite a lot of installations went flawless. I have had a few issues with my adapter, but most were solved by a simple reboot.

Have corrected the photos a bit with photoshop, they were taken with very bad lighting. It's a bit better now. You might need to hard refresh to see the new ones because I've just overwritten the old files.

 

[Azza]

I have one.

Have had issues getting it detected properly in most OS I have tried. In the end I just bought a new Edimax usb plugged it straight in and I didn't even have to install any drivers.

So I have lobbed my AirPace in my wardrobe now.

 

[mayhem]

Must be a bit of a hit and miss affair then with them lol ...

 

[monkey7]

I've heard people talking about problems with pre/post SP1 installations. If you remove SP1 it installs flawlessly and lots of trouble with it.

I installed with SP1 though, as it was integrated in my install disk, got it installed. With a lot of effort, but it's in now

 

[Mul.]

Interestingly, my Abit Airpace installed without a hitch with SP1 already on the Vista CD. Did your Abit Airpace ship with a CD for vista?