WiFi 7 PCIe card that function as a strong access point and a hotspot - not a cliient alone

Banana Pi Router design
1

Banana Pi BPI-R4 Wifi 7 router board with MediaTek MT7988A (Filogic 880),4G RAM and 8G eMMC

I’m looking for a card that is:

  1. Ideally half height so that it will fit into the Minisforum MS-A2.
  2. Ample antennas, something ins the range of 6 would be okay, the more the better.
  3. I’m on an AMD system and apparently I should avoid an Intel WiFi card. People have suggested MediaTek and some have suggested Qualcomm.

I basically want this, https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006281940876.html?isdl=y&aff_fsk=_okdZLNy&src=RedbrainUK4&aff_platform=aff_feeds&aff_short_key=_okdZLNy&pdp_npi=4%40dis!GBP!97.59!97.59!!!!!%40!12000046486913399!afff!!!&dp=CjwKCAjw6P3GBhBVEiwAJPjmLh4p7VpULSy-gMH96xv9y4LRvNMHzTrH5BO1C5jSFRAzCqzxgxVxOhoCccAQAvD_BwE but I just need the WiFi 7 module. Looking at module I don’t think I can find it in a PCIe slot.

However that won’t fit into the MS-A2.

Any recommendations, folks?

I don’t want to try the Banana PI WiFi router, I prefer ame64 machine and I want video output as well.

Sorry if this is on the correct forum to ask, hopefully someone can tell me where to put, if that is the case.

Regards, Bana

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i dont understand your question. if you have a minisforum ms-a2 then you should probably contact minisforum for compatible wifi cards that support wifi7. the ms-a2 states on the tech spec that it supports wifi6e, so i am wondering why you want to go with wifi7. contact minisforum about the exact spec of the pcie 16x slot and then you can search for a compatible wifi7 pcie card. i assume something like mt7925 might work or something like NCM865

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The thing is, the card below has 6 antennas which is good enough for me:

Banana Pi BPI-R4 NIC BE14 WiFi 7 Module for BPI-R4 Wireless Tri-Band WiFi Router Board OpenWRT, MediaTek MT7995AV CPU 32 bits RISC-V MCU, with 6X 2G/5G/6GHz WiFi Antenna (WiFi7 NIC Module)

I tried using the onboard WiFi 6 card as a hotspot and the speeds I got on it was simply too slow. IRC, on my 1 Gbp/s fibre line I was getting around ~60-60 Mbp/s download.

And to answer your question, the reason I want to get WiFi 7 is because I’m thinking of upgrading my fibre line to +1 Gbp/s.

4

WiFi 6 can negotiate up to 2400 Mbps (and can easily deliver over 1 Gbps in real use). However, current WiFi 7 cards may not perform as well — possibly due to driver issues and other factors.

For saving your money and time, the BE14-related posts are a must-read before you buy.

That card is not suitable for normal use — low speed, weak signal, and both software/driver and hardware are problematic. It also lacks critical support from MTK.

I would say that, for now, WiFi 7 performance in the open-source world really sucks.

But if you still want to buy one, keep in mind that WiFi modules are not all the same — some are designed for client use, some for access points (AP). They have different power amplifier configurations. There are some modules listed on Asiarf (I haven’t tested them myself).

In the past, some modules with large heatsinks (like the QCA9880) performed very well. Even Mikrotik used to sell them. But guess why they don’t anymore — times have changed. High-speed, well-optimized drivers are now closed source, probably due to competition and licensing issues.

Maybe in half a year, WiFi 8 will be available anyway.