Dell 1390 vs. Intel PRO 3945

Hi folks. I'm a newbie to this area so please excuse any questions having seemingly obvious answers.

What is the difference between these 2 wireless cards (Dell 1390 & Intel PRO 3945)?

If "802.11 a" is not a requirement, is there still an advantage to choosing the Intel 3945 over the Dell 1390?

How does each one perform in terms of establishing and maintaining contact with the router?

Finally, which would you recommend I put in my next laptop order?

Many thanks for any feedback.

 

Google the two.

 

Reezin, that is about the most worthless waste of space I've seen in a thread.

yogiB: Many will likely say that the Intel is better... and it may be...but I've got the Dell 1390 in my Vostro and it maintains connection with my Netgear router very well (no disconnects yet). I've had my Vostro for about 1.5 months now.

 

Thanks, mux1 for the helpful feedback.

And, I totally agree with your sentiments about the waste of space in the previous post

I was contemplating on which card to configure my Vostro 1500 with. Some friends have said that if 802.11 "a" is not a necessity then both Intel and Dell perform equally. Some others have said the Intel is better without giving specific reasons. I suspect it may be because of the name.

In any case, the fact that you are not having any problems with your Dell is good news. I hesitate to spend $30 extra for just the name, if that is in fact the case.

 

well the intel is better if you are going to be at any point using linux since the dell card is a rebranded broadcom card which has no real support in linux and i would go with the intel card becuase intel is (atleast as far as i know) known for quality something dell isnt (again AFAIK)

 

something I failed to mention is I am not able to get my card to connect to my (aging) Netgear MR814 router with encryption (it connects, but can't communicate). I am running it with encryption off. If you have an older router, you may want to search to see if the Intel adapter has any reported problems connecting.

Its about time I upgrade my 802.11b router! I think I'll go to Best Buy today.

 

Thanks alot, glad I've entertained you( mux1,and yogiB??).In other words I was saying he could do the homework/research himself.

 

Personally, I do not like Intel wireless cards. They seem to me to have poor range, and drop out a lot even with strong signal. I replaced the Intel cards in both my Dell and IBM notebooks with Atheros cards.

 

Ya! Great idea! We should just shut down these silly little discussion forums. Googling is definitely the way to go.

Oh, and "alot" is two words: "a lot".

 

lmao, owned, and to the OP, go with the Intel

 

No one said anything about shutting down these discussions, it could save alot of people time by just doing a search, understand?

 

I have two Latitude D400 notebooks. One carries the Centrino label and has an Intel wireless card. The other has a Dell card and no Centrino label.

With the Intel card I can adjust transmit power and utilize its power saving feature set to Max. The Dell card has no transmit settings and if I set it to max power saving it shuts off. Brilliant!

In any event, with the Intel there is no change in my Kill-O-Watt meter when I switch the card on and off. With the Dell card it jumps by a watt when turned on. Although my equipment is older than the ones you're asking about, I'll always go for the Centrino.

 

DEFINITELY the Intel. The 1390 i have lag spikes every 45 seconds when playing online games.