Contribute
Register

Working Wifi and BT via m.2 for Gigabyte Z390 I Aorus Pro Wifi

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Apr 19, 2020
Messages
55
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z390i Aorus Pro WIFI
CPU
i5-9600K
Graphics
RX 580
Mac
  1. MacBook Air
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
I've seen others claim the have a working solution for wifi and Bluetooth for this itx motherboard but not with any details other than confusion about several adapters to buy. Since it's working for me I thought I'd share my experience setting this up.

As owners of the this motherboard know, it's equipped with two m.2 slots - one in the front and one in the back (naughty...:)

The "Pro Wifi" part isn't that Pro for MacOs users since it's locked and can not be used by any MacOs compliant cards. This is really annoying since it's a great motherboard. I don't really "need" wifi and Bluetooth was working fine without any additional cards, but I was up for the challenge. I ordered a bunch of different cards and adapters from many parts of the world (anyone looking for a DW1560, let me know) to see what's needed. The working solution can be bought for below 50 USD.

I ended up with the following: BCM94360CS2. This is native Apple and wifi was up n running before I had even logged into Catalina. No kexts needed.

Screenshot 2020-06-14 at 21.52.55.png

Screenshot 2020-06-14 at 21.54.06.png



The card is plugged into this adapter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JF3FBZ8/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Screenshot 2020-06-14 at 21.56.27.png


#1 You can either use the native Bluetooth and only wifi from the added card. In this case you do not need to connect the cable to the card from the mobo (cable was included in my purchase). I tried this solution and it works.

#2 Or you can connect the cable according to the below pic. Connect to "F_USB1" (see manual) on the mobo with the 9 pin connector. This will provide BT. Also, in this case I can turn off BT from Catalina, which I can not using onboard BT.

Screenshot 2020-06-14 at 21.48.09.png


On the pic above I am using the front M.2 slot. As soon as cables for the antennas arrive from China I will put it in the back slot.

BIOS
Your new card will not be detected in BIOS. No worries though, Catalina will find it right away and you will see the blue led light right once PC is powered on.
If you go route #1, enable Wifi as it's needed for BT.
If you go route #2, only utilising the additional card, you can disable Wifi in BIOS.

Due to Covid I'm on the countryside. Quite impressed with the speeds though since I connect wifi via iPhone and especially considering I don't have any antennas. Sorry for the non-English screenshot but basically I get 37 Mbit down, 4 Mbit up with a 38 millisecond delay. Will update once I have the cables for the antennas and proper connection.

Screenshot 2020-06-14 at 21.38.54.png
 
@Kenop,

One thing worth mentioning is that if you choose to use the BT on the bundled Intel CNVi card, whilst it is MacOS compatible and will allow connection to basic BT devices it is not native MacOS BT compatible. So Apple BT specific features that rely on the Broadcom BT Chipset such as Continuity, Airdrop .. etc will not work. A better solution would be to completely disable the Intel CNVi device in the BIOS (or remove it from the CNVI slot) and use the native Broadcom BT on the BCM94360CS2.

Cheers
Jay
 
@Kenop does wake from bluetooth work? I've tried with a different adapter and unfortunately I can't wake with my bluetooth keyboard. If i use a pci card it works fine.
 
Don't have a device to try that with. Only use my Bose headphones for BT. Will have a look if I have an old BT mouse or keyboard somewhere I can try

Okay thanks. Just reminding that this issue is with using bluetooth from the BCM94360CS2 in a m.2 adapter. If you cannot find a bt mouse or keyboard I may just buy that adapter to try.
 
So. With this kind of adapters
  • (12+6 connect specific from Wifi Mac) to Key B+M
  • (12+6) to m.2 Key M

will be enough to use BCM94360CD2 in any m.2 Socket 3 slot?
 
Last edited:
So. With this kind of adapters
  • (12+6 connect specific from Wifi Mac) to Key B+M
  • (12+6) to m.2 Key M

will be enough to use BCM94360CD2 in any m.2 Socket 3 slot?
The first one looks like the one I'm using. With the BCM94360CS2 it's working great. It replaced my Samsung EVO 970 so it's not replacing the Intel WiFi card but rather one of the drives.
 
@Kenop Is there any difference between using this in the front m2 slot vs the rear one? I want to do this, but I want to protect my ssd in the front slot with the heat sink
 
No difference in my experience. Tried both. Would recommend putting the storage in the fromt with the heatsink as the drive gets hotter. I have the wifi in the back now. If you don’t connect antenna cables the reception is better in the front, atleast in my computer case.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top