Wifi adapter options on W500 (Intel 5300 or 5150)

[TPBigot]

The 2 Wifi adapter options currently offered for W500 are Intel 5300 or 5150. The differences appear to be:

5300 - up to 450Mpbs bandwidth (a/b/g/Draft-N

5150 - up to 300Mpbs bandwidth (a/b/g/Draft-N, AND WiMax (6M/512KB).

I live in a city that does have Clear Wimax available, but have not tried it.

My question is whether or not I might be sorry someday if I got the 5150 now. I'm tempted to get the 5150 in case I ever want to use WiMax...but does anybody see me being limited by 300Mbps Wifi? Maybe I'm not keeping up....but 300Mbps seems like a long time out into the future....but if that's the case, why are they selling 450Mbps cards today?

Thank for any/all thoughts/suggestions/comments!

[QFoam]

In real life, you won't get anywhere near the stated WiFi bandwidth with any of the cards. The connection speed the system states, and the actual transfer rate are two completely different things. That's due to overheads and various inefficiencies. Expect something less than 100 Mbps in many cases.

The 5350 combines the best of both cards, and can be purchased as a separate part from Lenovo if you want to install it yourself. Call them to see if they'll include it in the machine (about $100 cheaper than when purchased separately). ThinkPads require a Lenovo/HP-specific version of the card. The 5350 cards you buy on eBay now are mostly illicitly-relabeled engineering sample cards, which don't work with WiMAX networks.

In terms of WiFi, the 5150 uses only two of your W500's three WiFi antennas, and is a subpar WiFi performer according to many reports. That translates into lower real-world transfer rates, shorter WiFi range, and more dropped connections. The 5300/5350 instead use all three antennas and are top-notch. WiMAX only requires two of the three WiFi antennas.

The choice between the 5300 and 5150 is mainly a choice between strong WiFi and the ability to use WiMAX. Also consider your home network when making that choice -- that's where the higher speeds of WiFi mainly come into play, for transfering files between your own computers, streaming video, etc. If you travel, nationwide WiMAX coverage is still fairly scarce.

For more info, see:

WiFi/WiMAX FAQ

Intel 5350 and WiMAX FAQ

[TPBigot]

QFoam, thanks for you reply!

I do understand the diff between OEM specs and real world. What I am still unsure of is how long it might be until a 300Mbps spec actually was constraining.

I didn't know was that the 5150 was a "sub par" performer...and only used 2 antennaes of the 3 avail. That certainly does give the 5300/5350 the edge.

As I said, my city does have WiMax. I guess I need to decide now how likely I am to sign up for it, and make my decision. Although, I'm not sure if Lenovo would let me swap out the 5150 for a 5300...I've never asked them to do that prior to building a box before.

Thanks again for your thoughts.