QXP-W6-AX200: QNAP with Wi-Fi 6 for NAS and PC

QXP-W6-AX200 QNAP with Wi-Fi 6

QXP-W6-AX200, QNAP launches a Wi-Fi network card that is not only suitable for its own NAS systems with PCI slot and thus frees them from the LAN cable, but also for Windows network cards like the company’s 10 Gigabit network cards and Linux PC is suitable.

With Wi-Fi 6, the WLAN network card supports the current WLAN standard IEEE 802.11ax with MIMO 2Tx2R and MU-MIMO TX/RX, but is also backwards compatible with 802.11 a/b/g/n and ac. The network card supports dual band, so it offers both 2.4 and 5 GHz radio transmissions.

The WLAN network card PCIe-2.0-x1 is used as an interface and Intel’s Wi-Fi 6 AX200 is used as a network chip, so that up to 2,400 Mbit/s are supported. The external antenna can be adjusted at an angle and offers a magnetic base. The in-house NAS systems support both systems with x86 processors (Intel and AMD) and ARM SoC, they only need to use at least QTS 4.4.3. However, some models, such as the TS-251D (Test), TS-253D (Test) and TS-251B, may also require a BIOS update.

QNAP QXP-W6-AX200 Review 

QNAP QXP-W6-AX200

If the QXP-W6-AX200 is used in a Windows PC, it also provides Bluetooth 5.0 in addition to WLAN. For this, the network card in the PC must be additionally connected to a USB port of the motherboard. A corresponding cable for this is included in the QXP-W6-AX200. However, this option is not installed in the NAS, so in this case the card only provides Wi-Fi. QNAP provides a total of three different slot brackets, one with normal height and two with half height (low profile), which allow installation in the NAS and PC. Matching network and Bluetooth drivers for Windows 10 are provided by QNAP on a driver CD. Drivers for Windows and Linux can also be downloaded from the product page.

So far, the QNAP QXP-W6-AX200 is only listed on Amazon for 69.99 euros*, but currently not available. Corresponding WLAN cards only for the PC are sometimes available for half the price. That the apparently identical Gigabyte GC-WBAX200, which QNAP uses, also works without problems in the NAS, is not guaranteed due to a possibly adapted firmware.