how to upgrade wifi card and antennas?

Hi all.
I have to upgrade my wifi card which is an: "WLL6220B-D4 - Wlan Atheros 802.11B/ G/ n Mini-PCIe"
I want to upgrade to an "INTEL WIFI LINK 5300 802.11ABGN WLAN 533ANHMW"

The intel card comes with 3 antenna connections and my old has just 2 antenna connections, one white and one black. I was thinking about adding an extra antenna but does it have to be some sort of special one to match my existing ones? And is there a good place to place it so it does not interfere or get interfered with other components?

My old card has the N spec and according to Wikipedia that is a dual frequenzy spec with the 2.4 and 5 GHz spectrum. So do I have dual frequency antennas installed to cover A band as well?

Or just the question to be solved: How do I upgrade?


I know how to solder and I'm not afraid to mod my laptop.

Thanks for the help!!

Ps. I'm not fixed on the 5300. I just want a card that will give me good reception whereas my existing card is not giving me any and also I don't want any problems with drivers. So if you have good alternatives I'm open for suggestions.

 

You don't need the third wire...I have a wifi 5300 in my HP DV5 and that has only two wire and it works just fine giving me 300mbps in dual band connections. Even without the third wire which is like a backup to improve signal just two wire in my dv5 works just fine. Now if that was AC that might be different.

 

Having no antenna attached can eventually and prematurely (possibly) burn out the Tx module. Better to attach a third, dual band antenna lead instead. These should be inexpensive... Think of it as 'insurance'.

The existing antenna on your notebook may already be dual band capable, but I would not take that chance if WiFi range and throughput is important to you; replace with proper dual band parts for the best match to the new card.

 

Tiller are you sure? I've never heard about anything like this.. Your the first person to ever say that doing this might burn out the wifi card...

 

Just the first link I found, but here goes:

See:
http://www.rondexter.com/professional/production/radio_communication.htm

 

LOL this is for a radio.. I know a wifi card uses similar principles but hell it's not a radio lol... The power involved is much less and these cards work perfectly with 2 antenna's...

 

WiFi is radio too. Pay your money and take your chances.

Not my systems.

 

Lol you are being overzealous again just like when it comes to SSD Oping

 

Benefit to cost ratio. $0.25 spent on an additional antenna lead. Vs. who knows what damage it can do to the system and the person using it (health-wise).

No contest. Spend the quarter.

 

There will be no damage to the radio and no kittens are going to die. Third antenna was rarely used by manufacturers anyway and Intel was obviously aware of that.

Another point made earlier by @StormJumper is more important - third antenna does not provide better reception or anything along that lines - it enables third spatial stream to work, so theoretical connection speed of 450mbps is possible on 802.11n connection. Adding it might make sense for those who have routers that support three spatial streams and need them for some reason (NAS access or very fast Internet connection). Otherwise there is no point.

 

Don't worry about taking chances. There is an actual, real world difference between higher powered radio amps and a laptop wifi card amp. There is no harm to the card in leaving a 3rd antenna connector unplugged and there is zero risk of physical harm.

Now if we're talking about a ham or CB radio, yes, make sure it has an antenna connected or you can have a bad time.

 

Thanks for your time and energy giving me information on the topic!

I have bought a pair of antennas from here. And I found a 6300 card real cheap (from here) so it will be the one I will use.

Thanks