Thinkpads Forum

I've been reading the threads, and it seems the recommendations narrow down to the Intel Ultimate-n 6300 and Atheros AR9380.
So any comments between these 2 cards?
Or is there a newer card that is better?

I have the Middleton BIOS, so that clears the whitelist issue.
And I have 3 antenna leads on the existing card.

thanks

It really comes down to whether one - along with their router - prefers Intel or Atheros.

I belong to the Atheros camp, but there are many folks around here which have been just as pleased with Intel, unlike myself.

Never had any issues with intel cards, except ocasionally in my old T43. My two intel 6205 cards (W530 and CF19) have performed practically flawlessly. The 6300 is the 3 antenna version and should be even better.

The only atheros card I have used was in my T60 and I don't recall having issues with it either.

I have a Compex WLE-300(IIRC) in my T61.

It's a bit of a driver diva, but most Atheros cards are. I also miss having the WiFi light working on my screen, so it's a bit of a downer. But that card stomps on the old Intel 4965 card the machine came with.

I have really debated picking up a Lenovo tagged Intel 6300 because it is a really great ABGN card, and it likely pulls less power than my current card and the WiFi indicator will light up again. It's minor stuff like that but the Compex card has better range, and can drive through more interference because of that power draw.

My Dell tablet has an Atheros WiFi and Bluetooth combo card, and it's just glitchy and lousy.

I believe the T61 can also use the 7260 AC+BT4.1 card. It is also a driver diva and can have conflicts with the BT unit in our machines. Though that might be because Lenovo rarely updates the drivers for them and Broadcom does offer much newer drivers.

I've tried all three brands of cards (Intel, Atheros, Broadcom), but I tend to stick with Intel (usually on T2x era or if I'm running Windows 9x on a T42/etc. I will use Broadcom BCM4318 based cards, with a no-1802 BIOS...)

Right now my T43 and T61s are on their stock cards (2200BG and 4965BGN respectively)... with a Middleton BIOS you can even use an 802.11ac card (but I find 802.11n sufficient for my needs)

Big fan of the atheros 9380 here, (also sold as Apple AirPort AR5BXB112 )
i've put probably a dozen in different Thinkpads and all work great.
No wifi light is too bad, but at least it is fast and good.

excal32 wrote: No wifi light is too bad, but at least it is fast and good.

FWIW, wi-fi light work in Linux. Go figure.

excal32 wrote:Big fan of the atheros 9380 here, (also sold as Apple AirPort AR5BXB112 )
i've put probably a dozen in different Thinkpads and all work great.
No wifi light is too bad, but at least it is fast and good.

I got the Compex card here:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Compex-WLE300N5- ... 1379692959

Which runs the AR9390-AL1A chipset, it's definitely got some perks over the 9380, but the airport cards are definitely cheaper and will use less power. The age old power vs power use, if you don't let it use all of it's available power it's pretty efficient, but it can definitely chew though some watts if it wants too.

Also under 10, the Atheros drivers seem to be better, so there is that.

I wonder if doing the pin mod will get the WiFi light working. It's annoying since the card works great with the Lenovo softwares. Though it sounds like it's a software thing that's locking out the indicator light, if it does work under Linux. Lenovo shenanigans, maybe?