W520 WiFi LAN adapters - which one?

[sebazzo]

Hi there,

planning my purchase of a W520 and pretty much have everything laid out. Just the question of WiFi adapter remains.

Lenovo offers:

ThinkPad b/g/n
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 (2x2 AGN)
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN)
Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250

Is there a substantial difference between these, or is there any convential wisdom out there on which one offers the best price/performance ratio?

Cheers,

Seb

[Harryc]

Get the 6300 for better 'N' range, or get the Wimax if you have that in your area and want to use it.
http://www.wimax.com/general/what-is-wimax

[Q-Ball]

Also, the maximum speeds of those cards are different.

The ThinkPad b/g/n card is a 1 x 1 card: it can go up to 150 Mbps.
The Advanced-N cards (both the 6205 and the 6250) are 2 x 2 cards: they can go up to 300 Mbps.
The Ultimate-N card is a 3 x 3 card: it can go up to 450 Mbps.

The signal strength gets better as you add more antennas. So the Ultimate-N and Advanced-N cards will have a better connection at the same distance than the standard ThinkPad card will (the Ultimate will have the best connection, followed by the Advanced).


As HarryC stated, WiMAX is a nice thing to have but it's useless if there's no coverage in your area or if you just don't want or need that connectivity.
IIRC, the Ultimate-N and Advanced-N + WiMax are the same price, so pick the one that will give you better performance in your day-to-day usage.

Besides: you can always get the Ericsson card and have that wireless internet functionality and GPS, too- if you opt for that option (it's not cheap though.)


Remember, use EPP links for best results: especially in Canada (if that's where you're from).
Also, have the least amount of RAM and add more later.
Are you going for the quad-core model or the dual-core model?

[sebazzo]

Thank you guys, the 6300 it will be!

Definitely going for the quad-core model (720) and the most basic RAM and HDD options. probably 2000M and certainly FHD.

btw, Lenovo seems to have added the mSATA option now! whopping 370 $ though, gulp.

[davidhbrown]

That is a generous markup on the <US$200 mSATA. I wonder whether they're doing anything fancy in their software with it, or if it's just a drive like in my W520. But if more information arrives, we should make that its own topic.

[Q-Ball]

This might be a bit of a thread hijack, but anyways:


As far as markup on that mSATA drive goes- check this out:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

So that's actually a 100% markup on that hardware.
Pretty unbelievable, eh?
Not when you consider the markup on the RAM (also 100%).

Interestingly enough, though, the markup on the Intel 320 (that's what I think they're installing for the standard SSD option) is only $40 above buying it from, say Newegg:

It's not much over the standard but when you consider the price of this, which is twice the speed of the Intel 320:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

And when you consider this, which is an SSD that's faster than the 320:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

You start to see that the price-from-Lenovo to actual-value comparison isn't as spot on as it should ideally be.


Anyways: Back on topic:

No, they don't do anything special with that SSD- it just shows up in Windows as C: and the main drive in the computer shows up as D:

[pkincy]

A bit of a real world experience.

I am helping my Dad set up Mother's new Vaio. (Gotta love an 89 year old getting a new laptop.)

It has the Intel 6205 with 2 antennas. Dad got a new dual band DLink N router.

We have been setting things up for a couple of days in the living room and all was well.

As a final test I took her Sony in their sitting room and it wouldn't connect. I than took my W520 with an Intel 6300 3x3 into the same spot and it connected and ran a Speakeasy Speed test at 4 Mb/s down and 2 Mb/s up. (we both are at 20 Mb/s down in the main part of the house.)

So the 3rd antenna definitely makes a difference.

And in line with other advice if I lived in a Wimax/Clear available area, I would probably opt for that choice.

Perry

[Volker]

As a final test I took her Sony in their sitting room and it wouldn't connect. I than took my W520 with an Intel 6300 3x3 into the same spot and it connected and ran a Speakeasy Speed test at 4 Mb/s down and 2 Mb/s up. (we both are at 20 Mb/s down in the main part of the house.)

The extra antenna is there to make things faster when you have good signal, it generally doesn't increase the range that much. You are mostly seeing the effect of the excellent thinkpad antenna design, I think.

+1 for the Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN). The only reasonable alternative is the WiMAX card if you are going to use it.