SilverStone Wireless Upgrade Roundup Review
Bohs Hansen / 9 years ago
Final Thoughts
Pricing
At the time of writing, SilverStone’s WAB1B Magnetic WiFi antenna base can be had for $9.99, £6.81, and €18.13 respectively on US, UK, and DE Amazon.
The WAD17 7 dBi high-gain antenna can be had for $9.99, £6.81, and €18.06 respectively on Amazon US, UK, and DE.
The SilverStone 9 dBi WA219 high-gain antenna can be yours through Amazon US for $9.99, Amazon UK for £8.02, or from Amazon DE for €19.47
Overview
Getting the best possible wireless speeds can be a tricky situation, especially when your system is located far away from the router or access point. To help this, SilverStone released a row of accessories that can help us here. We saw the magnetic antenna base that allows us to move the antennas to a more optimal placement than where they’re originally located and thereby already get a better reception with our current antennas.
Aftermarket antennas are a great way to boost the signal strength and while we didn’t see that huge of a performance impact in our reviews, we would if I had more space and could set up a longer distance test then my apartment allows me to. It would also have shown far better result if I had two antennas of each kind instead of just one, forcing me to pair the one with a default antenna in each case.
The upgrade costs for these antennas is relatively cheap, at least if you’re not in Germany where it seems to cost a bit more. Considering the hundreds and maybe thousands of dollars you’ve otherwise spent on your setup, a few bucks more for some proper antennas could be money well spent.
The 9dBi 2.4GHz antenna is more specialized in the way that most people will want to use the 5GHz band too, but the dual-band one would be a great power boost instead of your existing and lower powered antennas.
Pros:
- More gain means better reception and longer range
- Cheap upgrade
- Universally usable SMA plug
- Dipole High-Gain
Cons:
- You’ll need to purchase two or three for a full upgrade
“SilverStone’s WAB1B, WAD17, and WA219 are all worthy upgrades for your router and network cards. Together they help to place the antennas better and increase both coverage and throughput.”
Thanks to SilverStone for providing this review sample