Atheros wifi N or Intel wifi N?

[garnet]

I know this has been discussed in many other topics, but want to make it a bit more to the point.
Why would I get a intel wifi n card (say 5200) for my t60 and risk bricking it by flashing with modded bios?
What is the down side of using atheros white listed wifi n card?
Has anyone made any comparisons in terms of speed and range of both of those?

[ajkula66]

First of all, Zender's BIOS is as safe to use as any of Lenovo's own in my experience. All of the machines from that era in my household run on it.

Obviously, YMMV.

Secondly, I'm fairly certain that the Atheros card does 300Mbps while Intel is capable of 450.

That being said, I'm happy with my Atheros cards.

Once again, YMMV.

[garnet]

I will have only a 300 mb/s N router.
Also I have 2 antennae.
So no chance for 450 mb/s N.
Still interested to see what real speeds people are getting on atheros and intel.

[TuuS]

I like the 4965AGN card, they work well, reasonably priced and I've never had a problem with one, but if you only have two antenna, then the wifilink 5100 might be a good option.

If you want either of these cards, or another antenna to add to your system I'd be glad to help.

The ahteros card is a good option too, some prefer it. I have atheros based cards in a couple laptops and find the Intels work better on my dlink router, but some people get better performance with atheros, so I think it depends on many factors.

[Backslashnl1]

Secondly, I'm fairly certain that the Atheros card does 300Mbps while Intel is capable of 450.

The Intel 5200 is limited to 300 mbit, the 6300 does support 450 mbit.

[ajkula66]

The Intel 5200 is limited to 300 mbit, the 6300 does support 450 mbit.

Thanks for setting me straight...

One more reason to stick with my well-loved Atheros then...

[irisservice]

Tagging along...
I have a T61p with factory installed 3945ABG and want to upgrade to N
Is the 4965AGN the best choice? does my unit have 3 antennas?
Please advise
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Thinkpad-T61-X6 ... 2a0e72e739

[ajkula66]

Tagging along...
I have a T61p with factory installed 3945ABG and want to upgrade to N
Is the 4965AGN the best choice? does my unit have 3 antennas?
Please advise

If you like Intel cards and are happy with 3945, a 4965 will be a good choice, especially at given price.

I doubt that anyone can tell you whether your machine has three antennae without looking inside of it...

Happy shopping.

[TuuS]

Actually every T61p I've worked on (about 100) have all had 3 antenna. When equipped with the 3945agn card the third antenna is tucked under the card in a plastic envelope. Some of the older T61 models I've seen have only two antenna, but for the T61p they all have had 3. If you need a 3rd antenna I have them, so no big deal.

Regarding that card, I've purchased from that seller before and the card he sent me was not lenovo branded, but since it would have cost more then $10 to ship it back to china I just decided to keep it, and a friend purchased from him and was sent "engineering samples", I have a few here in fact. For the price it's still a good deal, I can't come close to matching it, but if you want one without waiting a few weeks let me know. I have the engineering samples he's selling and some genuine Lenovo cards, maybe we can work something out.

Also beware of sellers offering the 4965ag. These have "n" disabled but will still support MiMo and use 3 antenna. I have about a dozen of them posted in the marketplace for about $4 each. Another major usa seller had advertised the AGN version and I bought some and was sent these, needless to say I wasn't happy. He claimed ignorance and gave me a refund, but I'm really sick of ebay sellers who ship parts that don't match their description, and I don't see ebay doing anything about it, and don't even get me started on the fake batteries... ten years ago ebay used to be a nice place to buy things, now it has become filled with junk and scammers.

ps. One advantage to the 4965 on your T61p is they are recognized by system update so any driver updates are effortless.

[irisservice]

this one says its a t61 pull
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LENOVO-IBM-T61- ... 416adb6dbb

x61 pull
http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-Thinkpad-12 ... 3a76da6984

thoughts

[ajkula66]

The same card, looks like the real deal...vote with your wallet...

[TuuS]

Great prices, but it's definitely a gamble buying from sellers with pages full of neg feedback like this...

they crammed the part in a small envelope and the mail man bent the piece

You'll probably get the card in an envelope with no protective packaging.

[garnet]

Guys,
I got the atheros card. I am happy with it. On my wi-fi n 150 I am getting ~4,5 Mbytes/s transfer both ways to my NAS. Used to have 1.9 MB/s on the g intel wi-fi card.
In that note - can anyone elaborate on the number of antennae. Now I have 2 attached to connectors 1 and 3 i.e. the one in the middle is empty.
What is the reason for using 3 antennae? On what type of router will it be beneficial?
I gather I can install a 3rd antenna under the palm rest - it there a part number or which one is fit for this purpose?
Thanks.

[RealBlackStuff]

3rd antenna is for MIMO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIMO

[garnet]

3rd antenna is for MIMO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIMO

Thanks. So in theory it should be beneficial to install 3rd antenna? Does this atheros card support MIMO?

[ajkula66]

Thanks. So in theory it should be beneficial to install 3rd antenna? Does this atheros card support MIMO?

Before we go there, does your router support MIMO?

[garnet]

Before we go there, does your router support MIMO?

Yes it does.

[Radioguy]

Speaking generally, Atheros cards that aren't Lenovo-branded may not work with the wi-fi switch, despite being having the same chipset, or even the same basic model number.

One example, is the Thinkpad a/b/g/n Mini PCI-E card: FRU: 42t0825 aka AR5BXB72-L featuring the AR5008X chipset. It's common to the T61 and some other later models.

The "L" is the key issue, as the standard version of the card, without the added "L" (and common to MacBooks), is physically the same, but has a basic firmware that's not customized for Lenovo. That difference is not only so basic ones are blacklisted by the stock BIOS, but apparently for the hardware switch recognition as well. I tried both a MacBook pull of the standard one, and the Lenovo version, in my T61, and these seem to be the only differences between the two. If you have a Middleton BIOS installed and can live without the switch control, you can save a few bucks.

[AGoodSolution]

I know this has been discussed in many other topics, but want to make it a bit more to the point.
Why would I get a intel wifi n card (say 5200) for my t60 and risk bricking it by flashing with modded bios?
What is the down side of using atheros white listed wifi n card?
Has anyone made any comparisons in terms of speed and range of both of those?

The advantages of Atheros cards is evident for those who enjoy tinkering such as easily changing your MAC address via the stack and the Atheros config menus. They're also more widely supported on LINUX systems since Atheros embraced the open source community years ago by opening their driver source code to the public and Qualcomm has maintained this tradition after acquiring despite Qualcomm's tradition of protecting all aspects of their devices ( popularized CDMA cellular in the USA ). Atheros cards can be "jailbroken" with modified drivers on the right version of LINUX to exceed even the FCC legal limits of wattage. It is analogous to overclocking a CPU / GPU and makes a difference if connecting over long distances or conducting WiFi security reconnaissance and testing.

Intel "officially" stopped supporting changing their WiFi MAC addresses with Version ~10 of their drivers and insist it can't be done. Of course it is done via the Windows Registry or numerous methods in *NIX systems. But pushing an Intel NIC past the original wattage limits is more trouble than its worth.

If modifications, flexibility and cross platform compatibility is important, then I'd skip any Intel based WiFi card.

[Radioguy]

Indeed.

Also speaking generally for Windows users, is that some driver revisions released by other sources, and subsequent to Lenovo-approved builds, are, more often than not, perfectly compatible with your TP and may be beneficial.

That's a broad statement, of course, and not always true. Still, when it has specifically come to Atheros drivers, I have found it to be the case. In that effort to keep as updated as possible, I have often used the more frequent releases of Windows Atheros driver builds released by other manufacturers like ASUS, and are often posted here:

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/ ... a-x86-x64/

For instance, I am currently using Atheros driver build v9.2.1.470 with an .inf mod (last page of that thread) that allows more fine-tuning on the advanced tab of its properties in device manager. Needless to say, I do this at my own risk, but I have yet to have had any negative outcome, and it's nice to be able to tweak it to my needs if I wish. Even without the mod, I have found that, unlike video drivers, Atheros seems to include actual performance updates to older cards. Since I've used post-Lenovo released drivers, I have seen some increases of reported APs in searches without any fine-tuning.

To each his own, but all of this only deepens my desire to choose Atheros over Intel when it comes to purely wi-fi adapters.