Upgrade the Wireless card?

Hi,

Hope you don't mind a novice's question.
I'm shopping around for a new laptop, found one that looks promising. Though I'm not sure if I should pay to upgrade the Wifi card. The options are:
Integrated 802.11 b/g/n wireless (+£0)
Intel 6230 Advanced-N Wifi Bluetooth combi module (+£20)
Intel 6300 Ultimate-N Wifi module (+£27)

I don't use bluetooth so that makes no difference. But is it worth spending the extra money for higher quality? Will I notice considerably higher speed/stability? I never thought the wifi card would be a bottle neck, though I've never had a good one to find out. Laptop will be used for online games.

Thanks for any input.

 

£20 is a lot for a Wi-Fi card you don't need. While 6200 is a good card (6230 is a 6200+ Bluetooth) and a worthy upgrade there's no point in paying premium for something you don't need.
It would be interesting to know what is the stock card but if the cheapest option is £20 I would recommend you stick to the stock one and if it doesn't work like you expect it to- just upgrade yourself to Intel 6200.

An upgrade is easy and 6200 would be cheaper than £20.

Intel 6300 is only needed if you have a 450mbps capable router.

 

I know better than question downloads but I've never really seen the 6200 for (much) cheaper than $32: Actually i lied sorta:

Newegg.com - Intel 622AN.HMWWB Mini PCI Express 6200 Centrino Advanced-N Wireless Adapter Up to 300Mbps Wireless Data Rates 64/128-Bit WEP, WPA, WPA2

NewEgg has it there for $20 but adds $6 for shipping so it comes out to be $5 cheaper. In that case I'd say it's money well spent anyways because those "Integrated" cards are usually Broadcom ones and those arne't so great if you ask me. Some are Atheros based (in Thinkpads) but still i'd say worth the $30 extra for a Intel 6200. It has 5Ghz bands and 2.4Ghz is getting crowded everywhere now especially with ISP based hotspots all over. I can see 3 ISP based SSIDs from here and they use strong repeaters - all in the 2.4Ghz band as well.

 

Thanks for the advice, but just to show off my ignorance...

So if it has 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz bands, is that something I would have to manually set or would it automatically chose the best one depending on connection?
Also, I doubt I'll be using it in many hotspots, would the 6200 be any better then a integrated wireless card on a small home wireless? Or would the improvement be fairly minimal?

 

As for your first question - 2.4ghz vs 5Ghz is something you'd choose manually. I guess you could set up the router with the same names and passwords and therefore the computer would just choose whichever is strongest but odds are it would choose 2.4Ghz which may not be better.

Hotspots wasn't the point, if you are like me and have tons ( about 20 in my case) other wireless networks on the 2.4Ghz then your connection will be terrible. It may just be super slow or just have problems connecting which is where 5Ghz comes in as not many people have devices that use it (as from before, the cheapest network option when buying a laptop - most people think it's just good enough so no need to spend extra money).

So even on your small home network there can be 10-20 other devices your area that causes interference. Odds are you have 2-3 of them yourself.

Cordless phones (Home phones, not mobile ones)
Wireless keyboards, mouse, etc
Baby monitors
Wireless cameras
Bluetooth headsets
Some Microwave Ovens

Don't think of just your house as well, think of neighbors if they are close by too. Here - if you have a device now with wireless, check your network listing and see how many other networks are there around you now then add 2-3 of each of those per household and you get an idea why 2.4Ghz is so crowded.

To simplify - there are only 3 channels on 2.4Ghz for WIFI. It'll show 11 but channel 1, 2 and 3 overlap each other as well as 4, 5,6, and 8. So if you use channel 2 you'll get interference from 1, 2,3 and 4 in this case. So it's best to use either 1, 6 or 11. Try to stay away from the crowded channels for best performance. So unless you live in the country, not even suburbs but where your neighbor is 100M away from you, you will run into issues with 2.4Ghz. Even if you don't today, odds are you will eventually.

Also as for the 6200's performance in a normal 2.4Ghz network, well even then people report they get a better connection in their bigger suburban homes.

 

Considering the exchange rate is $1.6 to £1.0 that would be £20. And I can see them on ebay for $16, which is only £10. Free shipping, buy now, no bidding.

 

Thanks for your thoughts, especially Shotta for your great explanation.

I live an apartment with numerous wifi networks so sounds like a wise investment. I'll have to give some thought as to whether to install it myself.

Thanks again!