M.2 E key type 2230 wireless card recommendation

I have a small factor PC (with M.2 E key type 2230 slot) that I am using to virtualize pfsense and I would like to add openwrt AP virtualization. I searched M.2 E key type 2230 wireless cards and there are many. I wonder if there are recommend AP wireless card to be used with openwrt. Thanks in advance.

That's...an interesting requirement.

I used a Killer 1535 for something like this before. I don't recommend. The driver and performance are awful.

I don't know that M.2 cards are meant to perform.

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Thank you @neheb. I love my current pfsense set up and I would like to take it one step further by adding wireless capability.

I have a Dell wireless 1803 or something (ath9k based). That will work just fine.

I run OpenWrt on an Intel NUC, but swapped out the Intel Wi-Fi module for an Atheros model from a decommissioned laptop that can do 5GHz AC. I get about 400-450 Mbps throughput with it.

# lspci -nnv
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [168c:003e] (rev 20)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:3044]
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 132
	Memory at 91000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2M]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: ath10k_pci

Also -- neat idea to run pfSense and OpenWrt virtualized side by side.
I ran in to issues with PCI passthrough on the NUC, which led to the development of this.

Thank you @oofnik. I end up ordering an Atheros card. Due to COVID19, orders are taking full month to ship. I am waiting for the card to arrive then will do testing. Nice blog post.

Thanks!
Stay safe and keep us updated on your project.

I don't want to create a new topic, so I decided to post here:
I need a universal module with AP mode support (I need it for both nanopi R5C and intel 13gen PC).
I am considering two options.

  1. mt7922
  2. QCNFA765
    The second option is a bit better in performance (in my opinion), as it supports DBDC (other m2 wifi with dbdc support have high price), but there are negative reviews about QCNFA765 on the forum
    (I am new to openwrt).

From the disadvantages as far as I understand:

  • mt7922
  1. limited transmit power (up to 3 dBm, if I'm not mistaken)
  2. some problems with the AP mode in openwrt when working with encryption
  • QCNFA765 qualcomm (less information on it)
  1. some problems with AP mode in linux/openwrt on ath11k driver ( I haven't figured out what exactly the problem is, but as far as I understand it is serious)

I think qualcomm suits me better (because of dbdc support), but I don't really understand what its problem is in openwrt, too complicated for a newbie.

please explain what is the best option for universal use

I am not considering buying mt7915 and mt7916, they are too expensive and not available for purchase in my country.