Manufacturer: Rivet Networks

Release Date: 5/2012

MSRP: $39.99

Killer Series wifi cards have been elite gaming cards for a long time. With the new Killer N series, smaller-sized WiFi cards are now powerful beasts. The Killer N1202 also packs in Bluetooth 4.0 and 2.4Ghz/5Ghz speeds. Killer Series cards are known for low jitter and smart data streaming. N1202 has a feature that will prioritize speeds for applications that need it the most, such as game clients, Chrome, torrent clients, and various other speed-hungry applications. You can manually set speed priority for other programs, such as Windows Update, anti-virus updates, or various other programs that don’t require much speed. This is an amazing tool that you notice within the first few hours of use. I can download a game on Steam and surf Chrome without slowing down my download. I tested the card on a 100 Mbps/s connection, and I rarely ever dipped below 10MB download speeds.

Various other tools in the software allow you to see other wifi connections that are nearby compared to yours. This can help you pick a more vacant channel. There’s also a pie chart available to let you know what apps are using the most data, and this can be reflected in the app control manager. The software even lets you put in your internet connection speed according to your ISP to help regulate and get the most speed out of your connection. Outside of the software, the drivers were extremely easy to download and install with zero problems or hiccups. Windows recognized the card as soon as it was installed and booted up. However, there is a separate driver for Bluetooth that I was unaware of and didn’t get until I needed to connect a device.

This is the best wifi card I have ever had. With the low $40 price point, it’s hard to pass up for people who don’t want to be wired. With the data control and smart streaming software, gamers, movie streamers, and heavy downloaders will love this card. If you have a rig that uses a half-mini card, I highly suggest ditching whatever is in your system and picking this guy up.