laptop wifi card: worth the upgrade?

[high_revs]

SSD and 8gb ram stick coming in. I'll probably just used my acronis V11 to clone the drive. I never really tried the cloning and the only weakness eons ago I asked here is that it cannot handle encrypted drives. SO's pc hdd isn't encrypted so hopefully all gook.

I was thinking of upgrading the mini pcie (half-height) like my laptop also. Intel 7260.HMWWB.R. When I ran speedtest on hers, it can get up to 60-80mbps down (802.11n iirc). upload is close enough to my ISP target speed of 35mpbs. My intel 7260 can only get 70-90.

Is there a wifi card that even goes higher than that? I have the orbi ac7200 (aka RBR-50). I have 2 satellites (bought from costco). My ethernet speed is much faster than my wifi (original NIC).

[bigbearbear]

It has been a long time since I last upgraded a mini-PCI wifi card on a laptop, the old HP laptop that I did required the firmware to be hacked before the new mini-PCI card can be used. Something about preventing installation of unauthorized wifi card in the laptop. You'll want to be sure you won't run into this problem.

Most laptops are not really worth the upgrade, they don't usually require a lot of speed as most people use them to simple stuff like emails, Youtube and web browsing etc.

[the86d]

It has been a long time since I last upgraded a mini-PCI wifi card on a laptop, the old HP laptop that I did required the firmware to be hacked before the new mini-PCI card can be used. Something about preventing installation of unauthorized wifi card in the laptop. You'll want to be sure you won't run into this problem.

Most laptops are not really worth the upgrade, they don't usually require a lot of speed as most people use them to simple stuff like emails, Youtube and web browsing etc.

Lenovo suffers the same fate.

Oh, and be advised, on can get a used Lenovo, like a T640 for <$300, or a T440 for like $100.
Throw some RAM in it, and a good SSD for about $100, and you've got a Skookum Choocher.

I've only got a T400, with it's OG SSD, but I upgraded the RAM to 8GB MAX and it chooches-well.

[wpage]

Run some updates on the old card. Buy a new unit.

[Dragunov]

SSD and 8gb ram stick coming in. I'll probably just used my acronis V11 to clone the drive. I never really tried the cloning and the only weakness eons ago I asked here is that it cannot handle encrypted drives. SO's pc hdd isn't encrypted so hopefully all gook.

I was thinking of upgrading the mini pcie (half-height) like my laptop also. Intel 7260.HMWWB.R. When I ran speedtest on hers, it can get up to 60-80mbps down (802.11n iirc). upload is close enough to my ISP target speed of 35mpbs. My intel 7260 can only get 70-90.

Is there a wifi card that even goes higher than that? I have the orbi ac7200 (aka RBR-50). I have 2 satellites (bought from costco). My ethernet speed is much faster than my wifi (original NIC).

Better check to see if your new Wi-Fi card isn't "White listed" (actually, Black listed) in your BIOS. Otherwise, you'll be stuck with two choices:

Getting your money back.
Hacking your BIOS.

Check with the manufacturer to see what Wi-Fi is compatible with your BIOS.

[Dragunov]

Lenovo suffers the same fate.

Oh, and be advised, on can get a used Lenovo, like a T640 for <$300, or a T440 for like $100.
Throw some RAM in it, and a good SSD for about $100, and you've got a Skookum Choocher.

I've only got a T400, with it's OG SSD, but I upgraded the RAM to 8GB MAX and it chooches-well.

Actually, a T440p is around $160-$225 (Ebay). A T460 is between $350-$650.

I'd stay away from the T440, as you can only upgrade to 12gb ram.

The T440p, is a better performer than the T460. Especially, if you get it with an i7.

[high_revs]

Most laptops are not really worth the upgrade, they don't usually require a lot of speed as most people use them to simple stuff like emails, Youtube and web browsing etc.

Better check to see if your new Wi-Fi card isn't "White listed" (actually, Black listed) in your BIOS. Otherwise, you'll be stuck with two choices:

Getting your money back.
Hacking your BIOS.

Check with the manufacturer to see what Wi-Fi is compatible with your BIOS.

Asus Transformer isn't whitelisted from my research. Was about to do a lot of reading hacking the bios. mainly HP/Lenovo seem to be commonly whitelisted. HP came up a lot on whitelist. The RAM worked though luckily I was able to buy same brand (samsung). I remember back then on my HP laptop (commercial type) the RAM was finicky too and needed to be specific to the brand (can't remember if Kingston or Crucial but it had to be for HP even if the specs were same).

Asus started with the response of "can't change your wifi" only to correct themselves after I sent the pic of the mini pciE half height card. They seem have a reputation for not being helpful, very unlike the support experience I had with my Asus router back then.

So RAM and SSD upgrade completed. Kinda sucks on the wifi but SO's not too particular as that gets her the video streaming needed.

I only had a 20mpbs difference with my intel 7260 802.11ac vs. her asus azurewave 80211.b/g/n nic.

My dell L521X xps15 was notorious for having sucky wifi strength that it was the main weakness of the machine. Then the BIOS (can't use bios version with sata3 and be stable; too many crashes). so I have a sata3 drive connecting at sata2 but it still performs.