pastrychef's Asus ROG Strix Z370-G Gaming (WI-FI AC) build w/ i9-9900K + AMD 6600 XT

[Beachgirl2802]

As I noted in the first post, I had been using a Dell DW1830 M.2 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card. It had been working well but I wanted to use a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card from a real Mac. So, I ordered a BCM94360CS2 that is found in 2013-2017 MacBook Airs and an appropriate M.2 adaptor for it.

The BCM94360CS2 and M.2 adaptor is too tall to close the bracket casing that's included with the motherboard, but that's fine. Securing both to the bracket works fine. Because it's taller, one of the pigtail antennas will not be able to reach. I swapped it with one of the pigtails from the PCI-e adaptor I used for my previous build.

In my particular case, the height of the BCM94360CS2 and adaptor forced me to shave off a little bit of the rear case fan in the corner.

Reasons:

• The BCM94360CS2 only requires 2 antennas vs the 3 required for the DW1830. This works out better with this motherboard because the bracket and backplate on this motherboard were designed for 2 antennas.
• Guaranteed 100% compatibility.
• No need for additional kexts or patches.

Advantages/Disadvantages:

• The DW1830 was too wide to fit in to the bracket that came with the motherboard, so I just had it plugged in to the M.2 connector with nothing securing it.
• There has been some reports that the DW1830 would be slow after sleep in macOS. I didn't test this.
• The DW1830 is capable of 1300Mbps. The BCM94360CS2 is only capable of 867Mbps.
• The BCM94360CS2 is true plug-n-play with macOS. The DW1830 required two kexts for Bluetooth to work.

Here are the items I purchased:
View attachment 299927 View attachment 335800

MacBook Air 13 A1465 A1466 2013 2014 WiFi Bluetooth Air Port Card BCM94360CS2 AP | eBay
Amazon.com: New WiFi Bluetooth Card BCM94360CS2 For MacBook Air 13'' A1465 A1466 Mid 2013: Computers & Accessories

View attachment 299928
BCM94360CS2 Card To NGFF(M.2) Key A/E Adapter For Mac OS and Hackintosh | eBay
Amazon.com: Hobbypower BCM94360CS2/BCM943224PCIEBT2 Card To NGFF(M.2) Key A/E Adapter For Mac OS: Computers & Accessories


Here it is with everything assembled:
View attachment 299931
Here's a picture of it installed. (Thanks @Lestliness for the picture!):
View attachment 309254
Here's another angle.
View attachment 332425


Edit (January 19, 2018):
As I noted above, one of the stock pigtail antennas will be too short to reach the BCM94360CS2. You can replace the pigtail with something like this:
View attachment 307021
4X IPEX /MHF4 to RP-SMA Antenna Pigtail for NGFF/M.2 WIFI/WLAN/3G/4G Modules-US | eBay

Thank you for posting pictures of links to the wifi adapters you used in your build. I have the same motherboard and just purchased the same adapters and wifi card.
Do you have any tips for a newb on the installation of the wifi card + adapter + pigtail extension? Is a soldering gun involved at all with this part of the build?

 

[pastrychef]

Thank you for posting pictures of links to the wifi adapters you used in your build. I have the same motherboard and just purchased the same adapters and wifi card.
Do you have any tips for a newb on the installation of the wifi card + adapter + pigtail extension? Is a soldering gun involved at all with this part of the build?

No soldering is required.

The only hint I can give you is to make sure that you you use the plastic screw when mounting the M.2 adaptor to the original Wi-Fi cage. That will prevent the Apple Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card from shorting out.

The pigtail antennas snap on to the Apple Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card. It takes a little patience because they are so tiny...

 

[Beachgirl2802]

No soldering is required.

The only hint I can give you is to make sure that you you use the plastic screw when mounting the M.2 adaptor to the original Wi-Fi cage. That will prevent the Apple Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card from shorting out.

The pigtail antennas snap on to the Apple Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card. It takes a little patience because they are so tiny...

Are the plastic screws already on the adapter I am swapping out on my Z370 mother board? Do online vendors on ebay and amazon usually include the screws? I noticed some include pictures of the screws but the description explicitly says only the card is included.

 

[pastrychef]

Are the plastic screws already on the adapter I am swapping out on my Z370 mother board? Do online vendors on ebay and amazon usually include the screws? I noticed some include pictures of the screws but the description explicitly says only the card is included.

The plastic screw should be included with the M.2 adaptor.

If you are forced to use a metal screw, you can use some tape to insulate it.

 

[Beachgirl2802]

The plastic screw should be included with the M.2 adaptor.

If you are forced to use a metal screw, you can use some tape to insulate it.

If I were to struggle with swapping out the wifi cards, I could still fall back on the ethernet port to work?

 

[pastrychef]

If I were to struggle with swapping out the wifi cards, I could still fall back on the ethernet port to work?

Ethernet works whether you have Wi-Fi or not. Getting ethernet to work is extremely easy.

 

[Beachgirl2802]

Ethernet works whether you have Wi-Fi or not. Getting ethernet to work is extremely easy.

Thats reassuring. Thanks for being so responsive with everyone on here. I definitely would lack the courage to start a project like this if it werent for your detailed posts.

 

[pastrychef]

Thats reassuring. Thanks for being so responsive with everyone on here. I definitely would lack the courage to start a project like this if it werent for your detailed posts.

It's really not as complicated as it may seem. It always seems impossible until you give it a shot.

 

[Azimuth1]

It won't reinstall everything. Just run the installer and you will be updated.

I think the last time I did a clean install was around 2006 when I got my first Mac Pro.

That's great!

BUT ...

Command '['/usr/sbin/installer', '-pkg', './content/downloads/07/20/091-95774/awldiototubemmsbocipx0ic9lj2kcu0pt/091-95774.English.dist', '-target', '/private/tmp/dmg.Tg6KAT']' returned non-zero exit status 1
Product installation failed.

this script (option 1) is not working!

 

[pastrychef]

That's great!

BUT ...

Command '['/usr/sbin/installer', '-pkg', './content/downloads/07/20/091-95774/awldiototubemmsbocipx0ic9lj2kcu0pt/091-95774.English.dist', '-target', '/private/tmp/dmg.Tg6KAT']' returned non-zero exit status 1
Product installation failed.

this script (option 1) is not working!

I don't know why it's not working, you'll have to check with the author of the script...