Wireless USB adapters: cat's pajamas or gone pear-shaped?

Hardware and technical stuff
1

So, I’m looking to make my desktop machine wireless (I’ve moved recently, and the modem is a few rooms away). Not only are there wireless PCI NICs, but I now see wireless adapters that look like those little USB flash drive doohickeys. I’m an obscenely lazy dude, and I kinda dig the idea of plugging a little USB doohickey to my rig rather than open it up and put a wireless PCI NIC in. But, if those USB trinkets give crappy performance compared to a PCI NIC, I’d rather go old-school.

Either way, whether USB or PCI NIC, any brand recommendations? I’m used to Linksys and D-Link hardware, and I’ve had both good and bad experiences with those, so I’m not particularly attached to either brand name.

EDIT: OOPS MY BRIT SLANG IS BAD.

2

…you do know that “the dog’s bollocks” means very, very GOOD…right?

3

They’re just as good as the PCI-ones, but not as elegant and leaves you with one less free USB-port. Slightly more expensive, but if those aren’t concerns - go for it.
(the PCI cards with an actual antenna to put on the table instaed of at the back at the pc might be slightly better. Might)

4

Just what I needed, thanks muchly!