WLAN 11n miniPCIe cards

I see so many posts here on comparing cards with other cards, so thought it best to do a wee bit of info on each of the cards available today.
Feel free to correct me, if there are any booboo's or differences of opinion.
The cards in red are clickable to OxfordTEC where they can be purchased and more info can be gotten.
Probably the most piece of mind getting them form here, with tracked shipping and a warranty.
Intel based cards can be purchased of Ebay or such like sources, but often without warranties and associated risks involved
Broadcom based cards are mainly in the form of Dell WLAN cards 1500, 1505, 1510 and 1515 also available on Ebay and such places.
MiniPCIe cards come in Noteboks with Core2Duo's and above (i945+), if you have a Pentium M based Notebook then you need to get your self a MiniPCI card
All the cards below are MiniPCIe and draft 11n, I think the most easily available devices out there.

GIGABYTE Aircruiser N300 GN-WS30N

Ralink RT2860 based
3 antenna connectors
11n - 2.4Ghz only
Client Utility works in all OS's
Linux and MacOS support from Ralink website.
Very good driver/Client utility support.

SparkLAN WPEA-110N

Atheros AR9280 based.
2 Antenna connectors
11n - 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz
Client Utility only works in XP (properly)
No official Linux or MacOS support
Very good driver updates, but drivers are very BETA like and not very reliable
NMI problem from AR5008 fixed, runs more stable but not as fast as AR5008

GIGABYTE GN-WI06N

Atheros AR5008 based
3 Antenna connectors
11n - 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz
Client Utility only works in XP (properly)
No official Linux or MacOS support
Very good driver updates, but drivers are very BETA like and not very reliable
Once working, it VERY fast with throughput, fastest tested so far.
Has NMI issues with quite a few i945 based Notebooks

SparkLAN WPEA-124N

Atheros AR5008 based
3 Antenna connectors
11n - 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz
Client Utility only works in XP (properly)
No official Linux or MacOS support
Very good driver updates, but drivers are very BETA like and not very reliable.
Has NMI issues with quite a few i945 based Notebooks

Intel WiMAX 5350

3 Antenna connectors (only 3T/3R device in this round up)
WiMAX - 2.5Ghz
11n - 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz
Client Utility works in all OS's but not very tweakable
No official Linux or MacOS support
Only card capable of 450Mbps when routers ever support it to do so.
Good driver support from Intel.
Drivers/device refuse to start with all i915 and some i965 chipset based Notebooks

Intel WiFi 5300

3 Antenna connectors (only 3T/3R device in this round up)
11n - 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz
Client Utility works in all OS's but not very tweakable
No official Linux or MacOS support
Only card capable of 450Mbps when routers ever support it to do so.
Good driver support from Intel.
Drivers/device refuse to start with all i945 and some i965 chipset based Notebooks

Intel WiFi 4965

3 Antenna connectors
11n - 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz (Full 300mbps only in 5Ghz)
Client Utility works in all OS's but not very tweakable
Fully supported on Linux
Good driver support from Intel.

Intel WiFi 5100

2 Antenna connectors (1T/2R = 300Mbps receive/150Mbps send)
11n - 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz (But only at 150Mbps transmit)
Client Utility works in all OS's but not very tweakable
No official Linux or MacOS support
Only card capable of 450Mbps when routers ever support it to do so.
Good driver support from Intel.
Drivers/device refuse to start with all i945 and some i965 chipset based Notebooks

Broadcom 94321 (ie Dell WLAN 1500 and 1505)

2 Antenna connectors
11n - 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz
Client Utility is very basic in Vista, good in XP
Driver support fairly poor, can take many months for an update.

Broadcom 94322 (ie Dell WLAN 1510/1515)

2 Antenna connectors
11n - 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz
Client Utility is very basic in Vista, good in XP
Driver support fairly poor, can take many months for an update.
1/2 height card, very small so will not be securable in most older notebooks as the clips/screws won't reach.

Here are my thoughts on the above:

Intel WiFi cards, I can only recommend these for the very latest Notebooks where there is no other choice and if you have a choice GET a i53x0 !!
The i4965 will be OK for older chipset Notebooks based on the i945/965 and you don't mind using 130Mbps @ 2.4Ghz or 300Mbps @ 5Ghz
Intel make devices that are pretty boring where there is hardly anything to tweak.

Broadcom cards like their Intel counterparts are also very boring (why Dell choose them), they are reliable but the 94321 chipset getting old now.
Dell's WLAN 1510/1515 not sure on the difference, are 1/2 height cards and will struggle to fit in most notebooks as the clips will not be able to hold it down.
The 1505/1510 are based 94322 chipset, newer but not sure what the differences are over the 94321 chipset.

Atheros AR5008 based cards, before I found the NMI fix, this card was not usable on my Dell i9400 without instant NMI/Parity errors.
I did how ever get the fastest through put with the Gigabyte version of all the cards I tested, although very fiddly to get it to go that fast reliably.
Drivers are tweakable with the modded INF, it allows tweaking of various setting from device properties.
Cleint utility and lack of it in Vista, is a big let down for these cards.
If you want raw speed and don't have a i945 based Notebook and don't want a Client Utility in Vista then these are for you.

Atheros 9280 based card, has the NMI issue fixed, not as fast as the 5008 cards but more stable.
Also has the issue of no Client Utility in Vista but good choice if you have an older intel chipset i945/i965 based laptop where the AR5008 will cause issues.
This paired with an Atheros based router (there are many) will give very good reliable performance.
Drivers are released very often but fixes are very slow to come.

Ralink RT2860, this is the card I use now and until I find a better one will be my card of choice.
Not the fastest card on the block but most reliable by far.
The excellent Client Utility is great to use for tweaking.
Driver support is also excellent, not as often as Atheros but every few months with good history of what's been updated.

There you have it, making a WIFI choice is very important for me, as it's used everyday and when I go on the road I want reliability to connect and be able to actually use it.
There are other based cards like Realtek, but these seem to only be included with Notebooks no aftermarket products.
Hope this is of use to you guys.

Now the follow up article will the "how to install my new WIFI card" with piccies and also how to install an extra antenna should it be needed

[UPDATE 14-2-2009]
Added i4965 card, was on my list but slipped through the net

 

Broadcom 94322 does have full size PCIe too, I found in HP 802.11n one.