Killer Wireless-N! Worth it?

I'm contemplating upgrading the wireless card to the newly released killer wireless-n.

However, I dont know if its worth it. If I do casual gaming, video streaming (hulu/youtube/etc.), audio streaming (pandora) will I see notice an improvement in wireless speeds, latency, and signal strength?

How does it stack up to the stock wireless card? Your thoughts are greatly appreciated

 

well i do online gaming with the stock card and its fine for me. hope that helps.

 

I think the router is more important than the wireless card. My R2 has an intel ultimate 6300, I do not notice any difference from the other laptops I have in terms of wireless internet connection.

 

Well my router is AWFUL but thats a linksys/comcast issue for another forum. If I wanted to see an improvement is there a *cheap* non-linksys router anyone could recommend?

 

If you want improvement you should look for an "N router". Almost all routers are N routers now, so basically any brand will do.

 

Depends on a couple of things:
-ISP...what kind of speed does it deliver?
-Modem...supplied by ISP in most cases, what kind of speed can it handle?
-Router...most of the time bought by the user...what speed can it handle?
-Wifi card...what speed can it handle.

If your ISP speed is crap why bother buying a fast router/wifi card.

Get the point?

 

wireless N will not improve your internet speeds it will however increase the network speed within your home for streaming and transferring files etc, I have a network drive hooked up to a desktop which is available to all pc's on my network, if I have files to copy there I unplug the drive and connect it to my laptop usb because it is too slow otherwise, if you want other users in your home streaming movies etc on your network it will bog down your network unless you have N

 

Not only that. It will actually reduce the online gaming lag and ping greatly as well as improve online streaming and similar tasks. The card will dynamically and intelligently prioritize bandwidth to online games, video streaming, file transfer, etc and block all other services (including hidden OS attempts to download updates). It can act as a tiny all in one firewall and you don't need to tweak anything with your routers/firewalls/registry etc to improve the signal.

I'm currently using the 1102 and it's a huge relief after the 6200/6300. Even with a weak router I'm getting far lower ping in AA3 and other online games, my video conferences in Skype run much smoother.

You can also benefit from this card in campuses and corporate LAN's with decent speeds, file transfer times will also decrease.

 

The following should be your priority:
ISP strength: How fast is your connection?
Router: Up to what speed can your router handle? How is the signal quality
When the above is fullfilled and properly optimized, you may then select a wireless card that best suits your current connection.

 

I realize this is a little more personal, but I'm interested, given these stats, is it worth getting or would one expect the base wifi card to give me the highest value available?

ISP - 16 Mbps = 2MBps
Modem - 19 Mbps DL / 8.46 Mbps UL / 16 ms PING
(Thats the result from speedtest.net plugged in to the modem)
Router:
Wired - 16.39 Mbps / 3.63 Mbps / 65 ms PING
Wireless - 8.9 Mbps / 5.21 Mbps / 134 ms PING

Again, I'll probably get rid of the router (I had a WRT120N) for other reasons and replace it with something better, but is this speed fast enough to merit the Killer card?

 

the stock broadcom card can easily handle this. You won't notice any advantages from the killer card.

 

I will let you know as soon as I receive my 1103! I will take before and after with the intel 6300.

 

Personally I'd stick with the stock and upgrade it later (and cheaper) if you decide to. I've been using the broadcom card myself (on my m17x-r2) and just recently (last night) ordered an Intel Ultimate N card for less then half the price that dell was charging. The main reason I'm upgrading is because I'm opening my laptop anyway and figured it was a good time to upgrade it, but honestly I play online games, do some streaming etc and haven't had any issues with the stock card.

Just my 2 cents

 

Yes if you must upgrade, do from ebay and save half the money. Same goes for ram, hdd, and even processor sometimes.

 

NBR member Aikimox has both 1102 and 1103 for sale. On his companies website. That is who I am buying my 1103 from.