The new Intel PRO/Wireless 5100/5300 AGN Series

I was just wondering......

Does anyone have a laptop with the new N wireless cards.

How good are they compared to the old 4965AGN card?

 

.bumpage..

 

I've got a post asking about 5100 performance. It looks like the
5300 is the king of the hill, in that it's the most expensive and
runs the most antennas. Unfortunately, most of the laptops out
there are using the cheaper 5100, which only uses 3 antennas.

I think someone mentioned that the older 4965 is better than the
5100. I don't know - it's early in the game and there are no real
comparative test results.

Rob

 

hey guys..
i am planning to get a Lenovo T400 notebook, and they are offering both 5100 and 5300 laptops. now which one do u guys recommend?
and whats the difference.
Thanks.
Harish

 

i m planning to buy T400 from Thinkpad..
should i go for 5100 or 5300 intel wireless chip?
and whats the difference in performance?
Thanks
Harish Sukhwani

 

5300 unless the price is unreasonable
longer range and better transfer speeds

 

This is an update to my original post. I now have my dv5t with 5100AGN
card. I've taken it just about everywhere, to see what kind of connections
and speed I can get. So far, it's been really good! I was at my local Starbucks
last weekend and it picked up both broadband networks(AT&T, T-Mobile)
and two secured networks, plus an unsecure Staples network from two
doors down. The Staples network runs an N-class router and the speed
was excellent. I was amazed at the signal strength, after penetrating two thick walls.

At home, my dv5t picks up a secure network running an older Linksys G-class
router. Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but I found the house with
the network and it's at least 175' away from my house. So, I'd have to say
the 5100 is doing OK, so far.

Rob

 

Hi, thanks ChicagoRob for your update. Are you saying that your 5100 card works better than your 4965 card? And if so, how much better?

 

Doesn't the 5100 only use two antennas?

 

The 5100 uses 2 for downloading, and 1 for uploading i think. The 5300 uses 3 for downloading and 1 for uploading.

There are people who have simply swapped their 5100 in their notebook for a 5300 and installed a third antenna.

Eitherway, my notebook with a 5100 seems to get much better speeds than the macbook pro with N that my mom uses...im not sure the kind of wireless card the macbook pro uses.

Eitherway, i was coming for a A/B/G Thinkpad R52 centrino...so whatever it had in it. That notebooks card was okay, always connected, this 5100 is like a corvette compared to my old card...and i dont use an N connection at home, its just much better on the G standard.

 

Shops in stock have several Wifi Link 5300 card - 512AN_MMWG, 512AN_MMWW, 512AN_MMWW2, but all specification is copy-paste. The datasheet contains only 2 boards - MMW and HMW (full and half). In what at them a difference?

 

Depending on your notebook, you need either a half- or full-height card. My U330 requires a full-height card.

 

My post is not about full or half! This is so easy. That about revisions of full size cards?

 

http://download.intel.com/network/c.../Intel_PROSetWireless_Software_User_Guide.pdf

 

Didn't know about the half height or full height. What do you guys think the Gateway FX series uses? I'm considering replacing my 5100 with a 5300. That will also mean I will have a 5100 up for sale :-D

 

It's not really worth upgrading to the 5300. I haven't seen any notable changes in range or speed.

 

5100 sucks soo bad, i can only connect to DIR-655 @ 65.0 Mbps on G50Vt laptop... where my 4965 from vx2s connects at 130 Mbps...

and yes, I've tried two diff. DIR-655 routers, same results... HATE IT!!!

I've messed around with "advanced" properties of the adapter, but nothing changes..

any1 have same issues with 5100??

 

4965 is a great card. i doubt 5300 can be as good as 4965., i know for the first hand 5100 is a constant headache.

 

Have updated the DIR-655 to firmware v1.21 ?

 

***update***

i fixed it...

follow these steps...

To start you should do the following:

1. Set your router to 802.11N only
2. Disable Encryption (we will set up WPA2 after it is working properly)
3. Set channel width to 40MHz (or automatic if this is not an option)
4. Open up device manager on your computer
5. Right click on the Intel 5100 and select properties
6. Under the advanced tab set "802.11N channel width for 2.4GHz" to Auto
7. You should now be connecting at full 802.11N speeds


thanks goes to jonlumpkin

 

So? What connection speed do you get?

My 5100 can only connect to my wireless router (WRT310N) at 270Mbps for the first few seconds before it falls down to 130Mbps and stays there most of the time. OTH, 5300 in my other notebook can have more stable speed of 270Mbps.

 

I'm connected to DIR-655; i got 300Mbps for the first few second and then it dropped to 175Mbps then few secs later dropped to 150Mbps and stays at that speed...

I dont have any other router to test this on, so in the mean time, I'm happier than I was @ 64Mbps connection...

 

Agree.

For me 130Mbps is also better than 54Mbps connection of wireless G when the notebook was still using stock Dell Broadcom B/G card.

 

here's an interesting scenario, upon changing settings on DIR-655 to auto/40mhz, I tried to connect to it with asus eee s101, guess what... I'm getting 300Mbps constant connection.. woot... (xp home edition)

looks like s101 has AzureWave wifi card (atheros driver), hmm... before those changes I was getting 150Mbps, glad that I read that post, things are getting pretty interesting...

also, before i was getting network hick ups, when running dlink media server DSM-520 (wireless g), few network wifi axis cams (wireless g), and live feed from my HTPC (cable connected)... now everything seems pretty smooth...

 

i have the 5100 and a d-link dir625. typically i get 270 mbps and 70%-sh signal strength. it does fluctuate but is mostly over 216 mbps.

 

I am getting either 130mb/s or 150, can't remember with the 5100, with the 4965 I get 300mb/s, but transfer speeds on both is the same, i.e 5-7MB/s when transfering files from my Time capsule/NAS ...

 

I'm curious: between the Intel wifi link 5300AGN and the Atheros ABGN, which one is better?

 

The 5300 has better specs (450 vs. 300Mb/s), but it does not have a corresponding AP chipset, so it will be "foreign" for all APs on the market. Atheros makes both AP and client chipset, so Atheros AP to Atheros client may yield better results than non-Intel (e.g. Atheros) AP to Intel client. Also note that there are no 450Mb/s APs on the market yet, so 450Mb/s is only possible in ad-hoc mode when all clients on the network are 5300s. (This might change very soon, however - D-Link is preparing a 450Mb/s successor to the DIR-855.)

BTW the 5300 makes a great desktop card when paired with an HWTools MP2W.