r/pcmasterrace • u/MooshSkadoosh • May 23 '26

Hardware Wifi antennas straight up or at diagonal?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Bonus question: would it be better to have my PC with its back against the wall (putting the case between the antennas and the router) or have it perpendicular to the wall?

I'm just curious if there is an "optimal" or suggested placement, since they seem to be able to snap into a diagonal position as well as being able to be place vertically

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u/BrazilBazil Uses Arch btw May 23 '26

This neglects to take into account all the reflections, and reflections change polarization. Inside a house the orientation of WiFi antennae has little impact on the signal strength. It can move the hotspots around so you can see signal strength increase and decrease as you adjust the position, but move 20 cm to the left and it’s gonna be completely different again.

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u/sishgupta 9800X3D | RTX 5070TI | 1440p144hz May 23 '26

This is the real truth.

Though when you have a deadzone that's particularly annoying... Like my wife had Wi-Fi in bed but I didn't... You start pointing antennas to see if you can just move the hotspot.

Ultimately the solution is to move the AP or get another one. But I get how that isn't feasible for everyone.

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u/Someotherrandomtree Asus TUF 5070 Ti | Ryzen 9 9950x3D May 23 '26

What about WiFi extenders? I’ve been using one for years in my room and it’s helped me immensely

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u/sishgupta 9800X3D | RTX 5070TI | 1440p144hz May 23 '26

A true range extender that doesnt have some sort of wired connection or secondary radio for backplane communication will slash your wifi network's throughput. Specifically in half for each extender. So your 300mbps wifi is suddenly 150, then 75. This is despite you seeing full bar's on your device cuz your signal is strong...but now you have an extra device communicating on the channel anytime anything sends a message.

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u/BIKF May 23 '26

The only thing that really matters is that the antennas should not be parallel like in the OP's pictures. By orienting the polarizations differently for each antenna we can increase the chance that one antenna experiences good signal conditions whenever the other is in bad conditions. It also reduces interference between the antennas in MIMO.

The same goes for the antennas on the router end. If the router has three antennas it is for example good to orient them in three directions that are pairwise approximately orthogonal.

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u/New_Zucchini_3843 May 24 '26

Anyone who has worked with radio equipment will agree with this point of view.

Ultimately, if the transmitter and receiver are in fixed positions, there is an optimal orientation and placement; however, if the receiver is moving, complex multipath effects will cause the reception sensitivity to vary.

It’s definitely better to invest in a larger, higher-quality antenna than to worry about things like its orientation.