Ordering E6500, finally...

I talked to a nice gentleman from Dell on Friday and am going to "seal the deal". I decided against an Outlet model to avoid any potential problems and my Mom, who is the one really buying it agrees. Anyway, I never asked about the WiFi card.

The Dell rep recommended the standard Dell 1510 a/g/n card. He said the Intel wasn't really going to give me better performance just cost more for the Intel name. I did notice the Intel 5300 has more data throughput. In real world, does it make much of a difference? I don't think the laptop will be used to watch streaming video or gaming over the WiFi connection, but what would be a reason to pay the extra for the Intel 5300 over the Dell 1510?

Is it better to buy the router from Dell, or some place like New Egg or Best Buy?

To everyone who answered my barrage of questions, thanks for all the advice so far!

 

i would get the 5300. don't buy a router from dell, they will rip you off

 

I figured, but thought I'd ask since I know zero about them. About the WiFi card...what is the 5300 better for? I do want to get an N card for range, but will the Intel card be better for mostly basic internet?

 

The advantages of Intel WIFI cards are, imho, the possibility to import/export profiles & the better driver support, eg. the latest driver update is from Jan 09.