How much faster will an ExpressCard wireless adapter versus a standard PCI card be?

I am trying to decide between two laptops. They both are basically the same except for one has an ExpressCard slot and the other has a PCI ( I am not sure if that is the correct term) slot. Bother adapters are made for the Dlink Extreme N router. Does anyone know about these two specific adapters and their speed? If not, in general, how much faster should the ExpressCard be? I will be using the router to share an internet connection.

The laptop with the Express card slot is $150 more.

I am also considering using the adapter that comes with the laptop. It is a standard 802.11 g/b card. Does anyone know how the Exreme N might work with this adapter? How much faster would it be if I bought one of the Extreme N adapters?

Thanks!

KLA

 

The build in network adapter you mention has a max. speed of 54mbit. a/b stands for 11mbit, g stands for 54mbit and n stands for 128 mbit. If you use w-lan only for internet you'd have to have a pretty fast internet connection before you'll need anything faster then the g-version you mention.
I do know about some incompatibility problems with d-link routers and certain network adapters, but i do need some more specifications of what particular adapter it is if you want me to verify that that could be the case here.

I think the PCI and Expresscard slot are the same, but they do come in two different sizes. The smallest one is the newest version. I'm not sure if there are any other differences between them. There are so many different pci w-lan network adapters out there, so if you would need to use that for another w-lan adapter either slot will probably serve you fine. I'd say your safe to go with the cheapest laptop and try it out first.

 

Thanks for the information.

I though that the ExpressCard would give me a faster connection. That was the impression I got from reading about it. Like you suggested, I can first try the adapter that comes with the laptop. I want to be certain that the ExpressCard adapter and PCI adapter will give me equivalent speed. From the prodcut description of the ExpressCard adapter; "the ExpressCard interface provides up to 236% faster performance and better reliability than the legacy CardBus** interface.** Maximum throughput derived from CardBus and ExpressCard™" specifications. Below is a link to both cards.

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=532&sec=1

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=550&sec=1


The card that comes with the laptop is an Atheros. Do those cards work well with Dlink routers? I am using another adapter on a desktop computer. The adapter is a Dlink that is compatable with the Extreme N. Would using mixed mbit cards affect the speed of either connection?

I am using a Cox cable internet connection.

Kevin

 

I'm sorry, but i haven't heard of Atheros before so i have no idea how compatible they are with d-link.

I did find some more info on the pci/expresscard slots though, there are a few more important differences then just the size. I could sum it all up, but it's easier if you go to wikipedia yourself and look up 'pci'
(i'd post a link, but i've read the dutch version myself)
The cards in the links you post seem to do exactly the same btw, and should both be working great with your router.

Using different kind of adapters isn't a problem, they want affect each other (unless of course the adapter is so incompatible with the router it causes it to completely crash).

 

ExpressCard technology offers the following advantages over existing PC Card technology:

* 45% smaller (ExpressCard/34) or 22% smaller (ExpressCard/54) than PC Card
* Up to 2.5X faster than CardBus PC Cards
* Lower cost due to elimination of CardBus controller in host and ability to easily repackage existing USB 2.0 and PCI Express peripheral designs into the ExpressCard form factor
* Longer battery life due to move to lower voltages and superior power management

CardBus = PCI

 

PC Card's interface has a speed starting from 32MB/s (for CardBus) so there is no way it can affect Wi-Fi speed in any way.
BTW- think of a notebook with an integrated wireless. It's cheaper and more convenient.

 

1) Pretty much all notebooks nowadays have integrated WiFi.
2) Integrated tends to beat the crap out of dedicated because the antenna diversity and quality is a lot better
3) As for Cardbus vs Expresscard: there is a technical nod to the expresscard because it has a dedicated bus while PCI is a bus that might be shared amongst other devices. But througput on WiFI won't load either bus much.

 

Thanks for the information guys. Will an integrated 802.11 g/b wireless card provide as good wireless performance as the card specifically designed for the Pre-N router?

IS

 

Yes it will, but if I were you I'd do my research on the wireless card and see if it's 'daft-n' or 'pre-n' if you are going to buy the 'N' wireless card, because I am am sure one of them means that you might be able to upgrade to 802.11N and the other is not designed to be compatible with 802.11N.

Also, the differnce between cardbus and expresscard is negligible because practially all hardware using the buses will not be able to use up all the bandwidth provided by either buses.

 

If you wanna enjoy N speeds you need to look at Santa Rosa equipped notebooks otherwise buying draft N router is pointless as you would use it with G 54Mb/s anyways.