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A comment on Intel BE200 WiFi 7 cards locked to 14th gen CPU and Z790 chipset.

Re:Intel BE200 WiFi 7 cards locked to 14th gen CPU and Z790 ... by likeabatterycar on Tuesday November 07, 2023 @12:10AM (#38173512)
Classic Hacker News. Some guy posts likely incorrect random speculation, and the comments are full of even more speculation.

The truth is Intel makes two versions of most of their WiFi cards: the normal version, and a "low cost" version where some of the internal components are missing and those functions instead offloaded to the Intel chipset on the motherboard.

Sort of like the "WinModems" of WiFi cards.

If you want one that works, buy the correct version.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Intel BE200 WiFi 7 cards locked to 14th gen CPU and Z790 ... by seabrookmx on Tuesday November 07, 2023 @12:35AM (#38173637)
What's also funny is they've been doing this for many years. I assumed it was common knowledge by now.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Intel BE200 WiFi 7 cards locked to 14th gen CPU and Z790 ... by p_l on Tuesday November 07, 2023 @01:26AM (#38173837)
It's also explicitly discussed in the post and checked for.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Intel BE200 WiFi 7 cards locked to 14th gen CPU and Z790 ... by p_l on Tuesday November 07, 2023 @01:25AM (#38173836)
Classic Hacker News.

Posting includes exactly that information, explicitly ruling out that the card is "low cost" CNViO RF module according to specification provided by intel - yet a post will ignore that :)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Intel BE200 WiFi 7 cards locked to 14th gen CPU and Z790 ... by jauntywundrkind on Tuesday November 07, 2023 @10:37AM (#38178010)
To be fair, many people can no longer read Twitter threads. But yeah.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Intel BE200 WiFi 7 cards locked to 14th gen CPU and Z790 ... by opello on Tuesday November 07, 2023 @01:35AM (#38173887)
It sure looks to me like "Some guy" got the "random speculation" right in this case.

The link shows the BE200 as the "M.2: PCIe*, USB" type in the highlighted Intel Ark screenshot. In contrast to the "WinModem" version you're conflating this with, which should say "M.2: CNVio2" (or similar) like the AX210 and AX211 pair.

BE200: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/230078/...

AX210: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/204836/...

AX211: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/204837/...

The BE200 should be like the AX210. The "WinModem" variant should be BE201 like the AX211.

Edit: I guess I should say that I don't know if "may be locked via Firmware" is a reasonable conclusion, just that the correlation is present, and the assumption of interface compatibility (given an M.2 slot with PCIe and USB).

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Intel BE200 WiFi 7 cards locked to 14th gen CPU and Z790 ... by jeffbee on Tuesday November 07, 2023 @10:39AM (#38178052)
Why are we "assuming" interface compatibility? I have an Asus mobo that refuses to boot with a Western Digital SSD in the first M.2 slot, when and only when using a 13th-generation Core CPU, unless the Intel ME has been updated past a minimum revision. I think it is quite likely that PC platform firmware has huge tables of device quirks that are necessary to bring up the machine.
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Re:Intel BE200 WiFi 7 cards locked to 14th gen CPU and Z790 ... by rpns on Tuesday November 07, 2023 @03:12PM (#38182130)
I think there is something going on, as the BE200 is E keyed rather than A+E keyed like the AX210. It physically won't fit in the slot in my AMD laptop where I previously installed an AX210.
[ Parent | on HN ]