Best wireless N half-mini PCIE card?

Hi everybody. This is my first post here and I must say, I'm very greatful for the wealth of information and opinions on this forum. Despite the netbook craze, solid Notebook accessory reviews are hard to come by.

My case in point, I've been trying to find the all around best (thoroughput, range and features) wireless N PCIE half-mini card to upgrade the one in my Asus G51j-a1 laptop that I ordered 5 days ago and before ces .

I've seen alot of threads about the Intel 5300, but there don't seem to be other contenders discussed. I have managed to find higher priced alternatives to the Intel cards ( www.oxfordtec.com) with relatively sparse reviews.

Also on a related note, is a half-mini PCIE card the only type that will fit the G51j-a1?

 

Isn't it obvious? Those who use Intel 5300 are basically satisfied with its performance. And on top of that, it's cheap to upgrade to Intel 5300. I even added a 3rd antenna in my Inspiron Mini 9 for this upgrade. Except for those who would like to use other OS which doesn't have support for Intel 5300, so why even bother to find more expensive ones?

 

If everyone is so satisfied with the 5300 then why is there so much buzz over the "Atheros Chipset" in certain cards/routers? Surely Intel can't be top of the wireless pile with a card thats been out for over a year already.

 

That's another story...

If you were talking about the card inside the wireless router, then yes, other chipsets such as atheros, broadcom and ralink are manufacturers' preferred ones. In fact, I've never even heard Intel wireless chipsets are being used inside wireless router.

But since your first post is about the wireless card for the laptop, then I could say Intel 5300 rules. Only certain cases such as fake card or BIOS block/white list on some laptop brands that makes problems out of Intel 5300. Other case such as unable to use Intel 5300 in Hackintosh is not even a real problem, since it's not being used as it is supposed to. And in fact it should've worked if the OS was Windows or certain version of Linux.

 

another 5300 user here !!! no complaints, gives me everything I need

 

Actually, I'm still talking about notebook wireless cards when I referred to Atheros. This card that I found on oxfordtec states that it http://www.oxfordtec.com/us/p253/SparkLAN-WPEA-111N--802.11n-a/b/g/N-2.4/5GHz-Dual-band-2T/2R-Half-Size-Mini-PCI-Express-Module,-Atheros-AR9280-chipset/product_info.html contains the Atheros AR9280 chipset.

Some of the reviews on newegg have stated that using an atheros card and atheros router will result in greatly increased speeds. Anybody had any experience with these types of cards?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing Intel or the 5300 at all.. I actually am planning on ordering one. I'm just looking for a variety of opinion if one exists.

 

Coming from a BCM94311MCG Broadcom B/G, it feels like the Atheros in my vaio picks up and connects to WiFi much quicker than the Broadcom card. I currently have an AR9285 B/G/N half mini pci-e. And I have a MBP with the dual band N wireless and I can say that, while it's nice to have if you really need it... you've got to really have a need for 300+mb/s or else you really don't even miss it.

EDIT: but I do have to say that the range is much better with the Atheros though. I've never had an intel card, so I can't say anything about those.

 

The main advantage of the atheros card is being able to use pure open source drivers without a binary blob/potentially open firmware in the future.

Theres ath9k already in newer linux kernels, but the 100% open firmware is only for some ath5k versions last I looked. This kind of stuff is more important towards having open routers rather than clients, and the non-blackbox routers/oem boards are starting to upgrade from mini-pci to pci-express minicard.

Its over twice as much though which can add up if you're doing many computers like me: the difference per card paid for a converter board in 3 desktops.

Are there even any true 3x3 routers out there? Besides the great signal from triple antenna, I only get a full use out of mine with a card to card link over the 5ghz N band since my internet is on a G access point for a bunch of 2.4 devices.

Not a lot of choices for half cards, but ~$20 for a 5300 is good for now. I'd like to play with the upcoming 6250 though.

As for your laptop, it should be obvious whether or not the slot is blocked for a larger card, as well as the presence of mount points for the screws. My 1410 body 11" gateway only has a half slot, the other full slot is not soldered unfortunately.

 

Where did you pick that up? I've been able to find a half-miniPCIe AR9280, but not an AR9285.

EDIT to ask: Are there any half-miniPCIe Atheros 3x3 cards out there (even if just b/g)?

EDIT 2: Looks like AR9285 (at least the half-height cards) are only 1x1 or 1x2 ... AR9280 is 2x2, so I'll just stick with that.