Lowest Power WiFi Card

[Pete B]

Planning to upgrade wifi, just need N, are the Intel 6300s as low power as the 7260?
Which is best?
I don't need blue tooth if I just disable it in the driver for the 7260 will that do it, or
will it go to sleep anyway?

Are there any issues with Lenovo OEM units, say a Lenovo U430 OEM 7260HMW?

[Pete B]

I forgot about this thread and went ahead an bought an Intel 5300 card.
I have Middleton BIOS in an X61s should this work fine in it, anything to look
out for? The card sure is small, very small.

[Pete B]

This looks like a good discussion on wifi cards:
http://zipso.net/upgrade-your-intel-496 ... less-card/

[RealBlackStuff]

I have good experiences with Intel 6200N and 6300N for the likes of X61 and X200/X201 series.
The 6300N also works perfectly with only 2 antenna wires.
If a full-size N can be used, then the Atheros AR9380/AR5BXB112 is very hard to beat.

[Pete B]

Thanks that was my plan, don't remember how I ended up buying a 5300, it was
cheap anyway and I have not installed it yet.

I'm hoping this will be the last time to open it up, I want to lower power as much
as possible, planning to take out the BT board if that makes sense.

[hhhd1]

if you want low power card, find the newest one you can buy, i think the 5300 is relatively old now.

but, IMO wireless cards do not use that much power, you can save allot more power if you can find a replacement LCD with LED backlight instead of CCFL, that is if your laptop supports it.

or a power efficient SSD.

[Pete B]

The current 4965AG card is set up with 3 antennas connected as follows:
Gray (TR1) - White (R0) - Black (TR2)

New 6200 60Y3231 card only has two, planning to use gray and black
but I'm not sure if this is correct.

[RealBlackStuff]

Yup.
Gray = Main/TR1, black = Aux/TR2, white = MIMO/TR0 (not used on 2-wire cards).

[Pete B]

I get full bars everywhere in the house and it seems to connect and reload tabs faster coming out of sleep.
Also took out the modem.
Palm rest is cooler
Very nice.

Battery estimate is 6hr 41m on balanced and display at 10.
Edit: Already dropped to 4 hr 40 min in just 27 minutes!

Task manager reports 144 Mbps, we have crappy Uverse service.

Thanks everyone!

[Pete B]

I have 2 more computers with wifi cards needing upgrade so I bought a 7260
that was advertised as mPCIe and it is much smaller than normal without
screw holes. Not sure what format this is.

[RealBlackStuff]

Wrong card, this should answer your question: http://www.ebay.com/itm/321868499447

[Pete B]

Thanks, yes that explains it.

Trying to get the old card out of my X61T and I broke the tip off of a
screwdriver trying to do it. I think I need a set of better ones.

[flyingfishfinger]

Those beastly screws. I've had good success (if you don't want to reuse them and don't care) using a Dremel with a cutting disk to cut a new slot for a larger screwdriver into the screw head. It beats cutting the heads off completely, I think...

[Pete B]

Held the X61T upside down, and drilled out the screws, very easy, tapped
it off to shake out any filings. The screw remains came out with my fingers.
Put in the N5200 card rebooted and forgot that I had not yet flashed the BIOS,
so it would not boot. The program wants AC power and also a battery to flash
the BIOS.

I have to get a battery now.

[xsixt]

Is there a reduction in power consumption/heat for half-sized vs full-sized cards in the equivalent model (e.g. 5300), or is just a "form factor" difference?