Wireless-N card vs Wireless-N USB receiver?

Hi all,

This may be a really ridiculous question, so please excuse my ignorance if it is.

I was just wondering if there are any major differences between having an internal Killer-N wireless card in my laptop, or indeed just having the stock Intel model and buying a Wireless-N adapter/USB receiver; which is a much cheaper option. Theoretically, they both do the same job, no?

Could someone shed some light on this?

Many thanks!

 

Get a high end Intel adapter like the 6200 series and the 6300 and call it a day?

 

yes they do pretty much the same, however with a USB receiver you'll lose a USB port. while using it

 

I am assuming this is for a Laptop. And the USB receiver is much faster/better than the built-in wifi receiver. Otherwise, why would someone buy a USB wifi with lower speed, poorer performance

If you go USB, you get the easy upgrade/update option - just-plug-it-in-and-use. They are tiny nowadays and will not hang/dongle too much to obstruct anything at the side of the lappies.

Usually, 2 Antennas of internal wifi cards are routed to the back of the display. It is physically much bigger than the USB's antenna. Make guess which one got better reception.

BUT My suggestion is to go USB...
If you are using it in public, where signal is poor, you can always use the internal wifi receiver... In public, speed isnt important; reception is.
But when you are at home/office (in your place), where reception is good, network is fast, speed is crucial, use the higher speed wifi.

yet you can always buy a better Internal Wifi card, install it yourself and be swimming in both worlds (fast, good reception)


Of course one can always buy a really large USB wifi with ultra long external Antenna for much better reception - which is not what I discussed about above.

 

I beg to differ with the post above- internal devices are both faster and offer better reception than most USB ones (with the exception of high powered Alfa cards and similar).
I would skip USB completely and buy a proper Intel card like tijo recommended.

 

That is partly what I said: internals offer better reception.

And you missed one of the main reason why to upgrade to USB as I requote my prev post:

I pointed that the assumption that his current internal is slower than a proposed new USB Wifi. I did not imply internal wifi in general is slower than USB Wifi.

The only reason I recommend USB is if one is lazy to install it oneself. Unfortunately it wasnt clear in my above post but is hinted: In my prev post I said install it yourself, implies doing the dirty job which to some do not want to do so because they have poor eyesight or clumsy or fear of damaging the devices.

TLDR:
Do the installation, buy upgraded Internal Wifi.
Dont do the installation, buy USB.

Note: both Internal and USB Wifi are useable with your future Laptop. But a USB Wifi is useable with a Desktop unit too.

 

Oh, OK sorry I didn't get that.

 

Thanks for the opinions everyone!

Yes, it'll be for my new gaming laptop - which will 99% of the time be used at home. I may get a 300Mbps receiver just for the sake of it, just to make sure I'm always at maximum speed. Down the line I'll probably just get a superior internal network card, but we'll see how it goes.
Thanks again for the help everyone, much appreciated!

 

I seriously doubt you'll have anything less than a 300mbps internal stock card so I don't see the point if buying an USB one.

 

Even better
Guess i'll just wait and see what the stock performance is like before jumping to any conclusions. Thanks for the clarification