Slow speeds on Gigabyte B450M Aorus Mobo

[doopydug]

Just built a PC for my nephew and the wifi in the motherboard us terribly poor.

The rig is situated in his bedroom on a desk next to a PS4 which is getting a great connection with fast speeds yet the computer only manages about a tenth of what the PS4 is getting

Whats the best way to test if its a hardware issue or something else?

 

[Avalon]

Establish facts, exclude variables. Your post makes no mention of how the speeds are being measured, which bands are being used on each device and if an external antennae is being used/if any attempt to site them in a more optimal position has been made. We also know nothing about the connection type/speed or what else may be using it. In general walls and RF shielded displays are not your friends in this scenario.

 

[doopydug]

Thanks for the response, Avalon - all very practical.

I know nothing about networks / wifi so, in my ignorance, I assumed the band / frequency was dictated by the router hence the pertinent fact that the PS4, sitting right next to the PC, was getting great speeds, operating on the exact same wifi router, was the most important information.

As it happens, I went over with a USB wifi adapter to test it and it managed to achieve 20 times the speed of the motherboard wifi (with twin antennae attached).

So, in effect, my nephews problem is solved but it would still be good to know what the issue was, certainly.

The speeds were being measured with the speedtest.net website / app.

There is no other space in his bedroom to move the PC / PS4 so they have to stay where they are

 

[Avalon]

So the first (new) problem here is you are measuring your local network speed using a (variable) wireless connection to a server not on your local network, you also don’t say if you are using the same remote server in the app/on the site, they can and do vary significantly. The other thing is you are potentially limited by the WAN speed (broadband) and more importantly if you test when something else is using the connection (windows update, someone streaming, Sky box grabbing some OD content), not the WiFi connection. For example if one speedtest server has a great ping, but lousy bandwidth (I have one about 10miles away that falls into this trap), you get slow results, if another server manages is selected, ping increases slightly, but speed is my full broadband speed near enough, it’s better to test on the same server on both devices and ideally test 2-3 different servers to rule out server specific issues.

That brings us to the other big unknown here, routers tend to support two different wireless standards, 2.4Ghz and 5GHz. 2.4Ghz has better range and penetration (through walls etc) but is slower, 5GHz has faster speeds and lower range/penetration. If one device is using 5GHz and the other 2.4Ghz, you will likely get different results, Windows includes basic wireless status info, it’s worth checking what is being used and trying the other if the PS for example is using 2.4Ghz for example and the PC 5Ghz.

Finally the hardware/drivers, are you sure the antennae are properly connected and work? Have you tried altering the angle as even slight adjustments can help. I’ve not looked specifically at the board you mention, but generally drivers come from 3 sources, inbuilt/windows update, the OEM (Gigabyte), or the chipset manufacturer. That’s also the chronological order they tend to get updated, oldest to newest. It can be worth comparing how far out of date what you have is vs. the chipset manufacturer and if the release notes mention any specific issues that are resolved in later releases.