Thinkpads Forum

Hi all...

I have a 600x that has a pcmcia card in one of the slots. I plug that into my home network. I'm looking to add wireless. After reading through the different posts, I'm still scratching my head. I guess the question is, what will work better? Mini PCI or PCMCIA. Then there's USB, but I would rather not use the only port for that. Does one have better range than the other because of the antenna? Or is it 6 of one- half dozen of the other? Thanks for any advice.

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

While I (and others) have installed a MiniPCI wireless card inside a 600X, it can have some reception problems unless you find a way to locate antenna(s) that are not covered by any metal in the laptop. This includes the lid and bottom as they are a titanium composite. The easiest is to use a PCMCIA card. As you probably will not be connected to both ethernet and wireless at the same time, you will only have the chore of extracting and installing those cards.

As far as which antenna system is better, the external antenna I mounted in a 600X seems to perform about as well as the PCMCIA card that I used to use. It does take some time (and nerve) to open up the laptop and do some minor modifications but in the end I think it was an interesting experience.