What is the best MINI PCI Wireless card?

I have been searching on the internet and I cannot find the best miniPCI wireless card. I want to upgrade the MINI PCI wireless card in my Dell 8500 from a Truemobile 1300 to something newer.
Is there any Intel 3945 equivalent cards for MINI PCI.
I am looking for the best range possible preferably 802.11g and n

K-TRON

 

Have a look here for a comprehensive list of MiniPCI cards.

I can vouch for the SparkLAN WMIR-200N, I've got this in a Desktop (in a PCI-MiniPCI adaptor) should do well in any older MiniPCI based Notebook.

 

Atheros AR5008?

 

I'm quite partial to Ralink based devices.
Atheros are fast but can be problematic, AR5008 are an older chipset, AR928x is a newer chipset.

 

Any other opinions?

The wireless card I have is based on the Agere Matrix 120 MPCI3A-20/R.
How does that stack up against the Atheros and Ralink cards.
I have never heard of Ralink before but I have heard of Atheros.

K-TRON

 

Yikes, even 2 cups and string are going to be faster than what you have now
your card does 11Mbps, it doesn't get any slower.

Ralink have been around for sometime, and make good reliable cards, Agere on the other hand are not seen much any more in the WLAN world.
I recommend this for trouble free WLAN.

Atheros are a big name, but I have had some issues with cards.
The AR928x based cards are more stable than the A5008

Anywho, now it's up to you

 

oh yeah, wow. I thought those agere cards were good. They were better then some other ones I had. Hmm, it seems like I need to do a bit more research,

so its between
Atheros AR928x
Ralink RT2860 (this seems to be wireless B/G/N right?)
http://www.sparklan.com/data/prod_data/173/prod_data.pdf

Why does the ralink have three antenna sockets?

I think my inspiron 8500 has one or two, I need to check

Any word on the ralink drivers?

K-TRON

 

Ralink has drivers on their website, they keep them updated fairly regularly .

You will most likely only have 2 antenna's in your laptop.
You can either run with 2 and still have 11n (just less range) ie not use 3rd.
or you can get another antenna, I've done a how to install it further down these pages.
or you can get your self a 2 antenna card (not much point as it's will be the same as a 3 antenna with one not connected)

I'm about to do a review on the SparkLAN WMIR-200N
I've got it in a Giant IBM server in a PCI to MiniPCI adaptor.
It will be just like the other 2 Ralink cards I've reviewed (also further down these pages) all 2860 based.
Both previous cards have been very good.
The review will be similar if you put it in your lappy just I'm using an external antenna

 

Thanks a bunch, I will try the card out. I know how to add antennas, and I have the connectors to do so, its just a matter of the hour or so it takes to do it

Any chance you know which cards use the Atheros AR928X chipset?
Just for comparison reasons, the ralink is pretty expensive at around $60 after shipping

K-TRON

 

SparkLAN WMIA-199N is the Atheros 9001 (928x) chipset based card.

Costing about the same

There are 3 Ralink 11n based cards to choose from here

 

Thanks wlan man
I am going to look for reviews on each.

I asked Atheros what cards they had based on the AR928X and they just referred me back to their product page. Pretty useless to be honest. You are much more helpful. + rep

K-TRON

 

Have a look here I've done some reviews in the Atheros and Ralink sections, bit easier to find in there than here.

 

K_TRON, sorry to bring up an old thread, but what WLAN did you decide on?

I am in the same boat and am thinking of going N (with my E1705).

Thanks ...