Non-Draft Wireless-N mini PCI card for R52?

[SkOrPn]

Hello everyone, thanks for such a great resource for Thinkpads. Hope all had a great Thanksgiving...

On Thanksgiving our family modem/router finally died on us so I did some quick research to find a replacement and picked up the Actiontek C1000A at BB Friday night. I didn't expect any useful wireless benefits really, however several of my Sons are reporting in upwards of triple the bandwidth with their wireless N Laptops/Desktops/Tablets and Smartphones. This has made me jealous lol, and I would like to upgrade my wireless card in my old R52 (currently has the Intel 2200BG card). My R52 is in pristine condition, 2GB of G.Skill memory and running Win8Pro like a champ on a Samsung 830 SSD (actually surprisingly well, even better than my dual-core Asus Netbook with 4GB of memory WOW).

So, with this Laptop running so good I would like to keep it in service a few more years and still take advantage of Wireless-N. The problem I have found is that the only cards I have discovered are either based on the BCM4322 Draft N chipset or the Atheros AR5008 Draft N chipset. Are there any GOOD Mini PCI cards manufactured using non-Draft N chipsets? All I see are PCI Express versions that have newer chipsets. Or is the only way to get a newer wireless card to use the PCMCIA slot? I do not want to use the side slot if at all possible.

Any help would be appreciated. I spent most of yesterday searching and again today and it amazes me no one has made this card I want... lol

Regards
SkOrPn

[RealBlackStuff]

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... &view=next
as well as: Broadcom BCM43222 which works in 2.4 and 5.0GHz.

[SkOrPn]

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... &view=next
as well as: Broadcom BCM43222 which works in 2.4 and 5.0GHz.

Thanks RBS for the reply, its much appreciated. However, as the title states I am looking for non draft options if possible. The BCM43222 (actually its the 4322 chip) is a Draft N 2.0 chip, not a final revision. Most if not all draft n chipsets had problems of some sort or another I believe.

I have come to notice that there are Windows 8 drivers built for the Broadcom chipset, but not yet for the Atheros. However, both have very recent driver packages, August 2012 for Atheros and Oct 2012 for Broadcom. I wonder if this means these chipsets are more mature now? I guess I have to figure out which is the better spec'd chip BCM43222 or the AR9220? That is the question... lol

[Radioguy]

Most if not all draft n chipsets had problems of some sort or another I believe.

IIRC, there was/were some Atheros chipset(s) that were Draft-N upon release, but were final revision compliant with an update. I'm no expert on the changes, but I believe Atheros designed that era of chipsets to accommodate all the prospective specifications from which the final one was chosen and ratified.

I have to figure out which is the better spec'd chip BCM43222 or the AR9220? That is the question... lol

LOL indeed. I can't speak to the specific chipsets, but Atheros has traditionally held "it" status, while Broadcom has equally been bottom of the barrel in quality. I'd sooner not have an internal card at all if Broadcom were the only choice.

[SkOrPn]

Yeah I am leaning towards Atheros myself and hope the windows 7 driver package works with win 8. I have not found any documentation that would suggest the Atheros chip is final revision but knowing Qualcom like I do (used to work for them) I wouldn't doubt it.

Thanks for the advice its much appreciated.

SkOrPn


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