I can’t do ethernet.
I need wifi(5ghz) and bluetooth, I have a m.2 wifi slot on the motherboard and no pcie expansion slots. All the options I saw on amazon were for laptops.
The Intel ax210 chip looks pretty good but it is a bit expensive, I want to know if I can get something cheaper than 5k.
Are USB dongles good or should I stick to m.2 cards?
USB 3 dongles are good enough. I’m using a Netgear A6210 since 2018. Initially had driver problems but they were sorted out later on. You may or may not get wifi and bt in a single dongle, but you can use a second one for bt.
It all, however, depends on your requirements. Some factors to consider like latency, speed, is it only for internet access or also for file transfer over lan, etc.
I am currently using:
Ac600 blutooth nano : dual band 5ghz wifi + bluetooth dongle on my 1st office pc
&
Ac1300 usb 3.0 wifi
Ub500 bluetooth 5.0 blutooth
On 2nd pc
Both are decent. But when i use wireless keyboard and mouse, the Ac600 blutooth nano seems to have very tiny hiccups.
With wired keyboard mouse it doesn’t create interference.
2nd pc is much more stable in wifi blutooth performance as im using two Seperate dongles.
You have two great options from TP-Link
(A bit pricy but no antenna hanging)
and
(A bit cheper but you will have a amtemma poking out)
I have the first one. It works great. No speed issues. full 300 MBPS connection.
Just fyi, laptops nowadays use that same m.2 wifi slot which is on mobos but you need to check the compatibility of m.2 wifi slot on mobo as not all m.2 wifi cards will work with all m.2 wifi slots.