M17X Wireless card

Hey all,

I recently oredered my M17X,
the Dell Wireless 1520 802.11n is the one i chose, as it was the only one available on the website, when i phoned in to order my system i forgot to ask if there were any others...

I now see there is also a Intel Wireless LAN 6300 available for 25euro more.
Now I was wondering if the dell wireless is gona give me alot of trouble, as all i ever do, is wireless (at home, at my dorm at college)

And if it is gona give me trouble, is it possible to swap out the mini card yourself and install a Intel Wireless? Or is it possible to ask dell to upgrade it when i have the laptop?

Thank you!
Zelt!x

edit: I don't know if this is relevant, but i live in Belgium, and a school mate of mine has a 802.11n card and has no trouble at all getting connection..

edit2: Just found out my friends card is a 5100 agn intel pro wireless in his laptop but he gets timed out everytime with that card so he bought an external wifi card

 

I am sure you can swap the cards out fairly easily. Just get the one that is for the m17x.

 

My M17x has the Broadcom 802.1n wireless card and it connects to my Belkin N+ router at 270Mbps w/o issue. I don't know if this is the model 1520 of which you posted about but if it is I don't think you'll be sorry with this card.

 

thankyou for the quick replies

@fishnbanjo : did you pay extra for the wireless card? if you did u prolly have the intel version, if u didn't pay extra for the wireless u have the 1520 Dell Wireless Half Mini Card

 

Purchased used from original owner the Alienware Classified Documentation lists it as Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter and the DELL original configuration lists it as Card, Wireless, Half Mini-Card AW1510, 4322, United States so that answers what it is the model prior to the 1520.

 

Ok thank you for the info and reply

 

You can order the intel 6300 from babyhemi if he has any left in the market place and swap out cards. I think you'll need to install a third anytenna for a few $$. Not too much.

 

Im not all that thrilled to swap out cards n stuff, Im afraid ill break somethin.. might swap out a card but install an antenna?

Ill just tryout the stock wifi card, and pray i have no problems... i have exams coming up in a few weeks, it would SUCK not having internet as we have to hand in our exams via the school wireless network...

 

If you don't need the bluetooth, then you can use the bluetooth antenna as the third antenna.
Otherwise you'll have to install another antenna somewhere (unless it came pre-installed in the system, which it usually isn't unless you have a card that requires it). Getting it in the "proper place" in the display area may not be possible, so you'd have to put it somewhere else.

I'd suggest to call Dell and ask if they can still change the configuration. If not, ask them to cancel the order and re-order it with the Intel 6300 card. From my experience, Intel WiFi cards are much better than the Broadcom chipset cards (which the Dell Wireless 1510 and 1520 are based on), especially on the 5Ghz band.

 

Well my order is already confirmed and is inproduction so i can't change it anymore.. and since im pressed for time (need the laptop to do my renderings i have to do for school) i can't really cancel the order just for the wifi card.

Gona give the Dell wireless a shot , if it fails, i guesse ill install a new card or maybe buy one of those external pci cards (would you get more performance with those than an internal one?)

@Gizmo: what did you mean with : getting it in the "proper place" in the display area?

thanks for the replies you guys!

 

If you try it and it doesn't work out for you there are many USB thumb drive style cards by NetGear, Belkin, Lynksis etc using N Class which would perform very well obviating the necessity of changing out the card. Cheers.....

 

btw, no need to install the third antenna, it will be there when you open you laptop, just not connected to anything, it's really easy.. you'll be done within 5 minutes..

 

An internal card should perform better.

Well, the antennae are usually situated around the display. Opening the display on the M17x is hard to do without damaging anything, to say the least. You'd likely have to put the additional antenna somewhere else in the chassis. It's not impossible by far, but you'd likely have to tinker with it a bit.

It's not in all of them, unfortunately. A friend of mine ordered his M17x with a 1520 card and only got the three antennae (blue for bluetooth, black & white for wireless with the gray one - the third wireless antenna - missing since it's not needed by the Dell Wireless 1520 card). I've heard of people that got all four wires in there even with the 1520 card, however, with one neatly tucked away. It's similar to the second HDD caddy/interposer when you only one HDD, I guess. Hit or miss.

 

I second what's said earlier about Intel cards performing better than the Broadcom card Dell supply. Even the older 4965AGN in my M9750 works better than the Dell one in my M11x

 

Yea my R1 only had 3 cables one for BT and 2 for wireless.. You dont have to have all 3 hooked up for it to work.. It will only affect the overall range.. The R2 had 4 cables.. Two hooked up to dell wireless 1 laying there and the other for BT. It was an easy swap out to the 6300N... Hooked all 3 up to it and so far so good. I got mine from here.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=463916

 

@simonmpoulton : What do you mean by working better? Faster , more range, more stable or a combo of all that?

Thank you guys again for the help, really appreciated.

I hope mine will have 4 antennas aswell so i can easely hook up the 6300 card. Already pm'd babyhemi for the card (thank you for the link btw), but I doubt he'll ship to Europe (Belgium) (I asked him anyway )

 

Third antenna adds range and signal quality and speed in some cases (300 mb/s N network can be done only with 3 antennae afaik). I can vouch for babyhemi btw. Bought an ssd from him, came in prestine condition, and he's very helpful in general. I guess he'll have no problem shipping to Europe and if he does see the guide in my sig about buying from Dell USA, u can apply same principle for your purchase.

 

Ah I see.

Tho range isn't that much of a problem as the router is only a few meters away. Just a quick question about the speed. Here in Belgium im using cable that only has speed up to 30Mbps (will be upgraded to 50 later on) , but that means i won't be able to use the full potential of the card , unless im in a LAN and not on the web is that correct? About signal quality, i suppose that has something to do with packet loss? so more of a connection stability issue?

Another quick question: If there is a 4th antenna , there is already a cable that just sits there amongst the other cables that are hooked up already?

@mfractal : thank you for the guide on order from outside USA!
Ill set up one of those forwarding services as soon as my M17x arrives

Thank you all again for the info!

 

What I mean by better is that it gets a stronger signal and holds a higher speed connection

 

you'll be able to use your full i-net speed even with tho two cables but lan speeds would be better if all three are connected (and you have a good Wireless N router).
If you're saying there's another cable laying around right now that's the one you're looking for it's usually grey, although i never say it inside an M17x, just other dell machines.

 

Honestly, the basic card is good, I don't think in most cases you will really miss it that much if you decide not to get one.

 

Yes when I opened my R2 there is a white rubbery holder next to the card that had an unused cable placed in it. My card that came with the system was only using two antennas so they have the extra cable placed next to the card in a cable holder... You just take it out of the holder and snap it onto the card.