M6600 Pre-purchase Questions

The 6300 can do 3 streams and the 6250 can do 2 streams. In the real world this means that the 6300 will max out at 450 mbps while the 6250 will max out at 300 mbps. When speeds slow down due to distance, you have 3 streams working for you instead of 2. In most public situations, there would be no userland difference between the 6250 and 6300.Laptops have been shipping with 3 wire antennas since 802.11N was in draft. I'd be pretty surprised if the M6600 didn't have 3. Dell's track record of getting facts straight over the past couple years has been very poor.

One thing to keep in mind when it comes to wireless is the overhead of the wireless protocols. It's pretty neck-and-neck between 300 mbps wireless and 100 mpbs twisted-pair Ethernet, both with its ~76-80 mbps throughput. If you make it 450 mbps, it gets a tiny bit better. Throughput goes up fast up to 54 mpbs. From 54 to 128 mbps it makes a substantial difference. Above that, the gains are very small. The moment you get multiple users on the wireless, the speeds go way down as compared to copper. Where it matters most, is doing backups across the wireless. But since you need to be within ~5' of the router to get those advertised speeds, you might as well plug in an Ethernet cable and get a real 1000 mbps, which would be about 10x the 300 or 450 mbps wireless throughput.

The gorilla in the room with the 6250 is WiMAX. If you live or work in a WiMAX area, you would be far and away better off with the 6250. It's like portable WI-FI, no router required. The monthly service costs less than cable broadband. Any major metro in the US has it, and Dell sees the volume to make it an option.

 

Thanks mucho!