802.11n wireless card upgrade for Asus laptops?

Any chance that we'll see a Wireless upgrade option available for the Asus laptops? We should see official 802.11n final spec routers coming out within the few months, just wondering if there was a way to upgrade the internal card on the Asus laptops to support 802.11n.

 

when they come out, all you'd have to do is switch out the mini pci or mini pci express wireless card in there now with one that supports 802.11n, and you'll be set!

 

nice!
Is that card something we have to get from Asus or will other manufacturers provide them too?

 

They will be from third parties. ASUS does not make wireless networking components.

 

if you've got a Centrino(R) notebook, the wireless card is made by Intel, and I'm sure Intel will be making one with 802.11n when everything is finally ratified, as will several other companies.

 

I believe all notebooks that contain Centrino or latter will be an Intel Wireless Card, so SHOULD BE a swap-in swap-out

 

ok thanks for the info guys.

Thats very cool that we can now upgrade these components in our laptops the same way I upgrade them in the desktops.

 

ya wait for the atheros one though

 

Asus has their N minipci and mini express card wifi cards in their latest issue of asus world.... I haven't gotten a chance to use this version, but their G version had twice the amplification of the intel cards, and although that ate up more life when powered at 100%, it would give me more than twice the range..... and they're like $40, the same as the intel cards.... but better in my opinion. In terms of when we'll see centrino systems with new cards..... Santa Rosa should see the launch of intel's next gen wireless.

 

Odds are this uses the atheros chipset.
Im not 100% certain but the new gigabyte mini pci e is also atheros chipset. Your description is similar to the atheros card. It gets twice the range and uses more power.

 

The antenna configuration for wireless n may be different... Just to let everyone who is planning this swap know.

 

Well the G card used a broadcom chip... and Asus physically produced those cards..... Asus was also the ODM for the old 2200BG intel cards for centrino.... and those two I did a lot of testing between to find out why theirs was so much better. The intel card has more room to tweak if you know how, but it's set at about 40% of what Asus' is for better battery life - based on the average max distance people would normally use it....... I used to test the Asus up past 200 yards with no problem on a standard router..

Now, in terms of the antenna.... in pictures anyway, the standard doesn't seem to have changed any.

 

ok

where are asus branded mini pci e cards sold?

Its pci e right or is it pci?

 

They're sold right here..... Mainly they aren't sold in the US because of the whole centrino thing.. We used to use a lot of their G cards in AMD notebooks or our own personal stuff, but I don't know if the new ones will be available here. The US wireless PM doesn't talk about them at all... I'll see if I can round some up.

 

personally, im waiting to see the specs for the 802.11n to be finalized before jumping onboard. but since im not suffering from lack of range and not crucial for me to have the fastest speed, i can afford to wait. in case you just have the latest and greatest, i dont see any reason why you shouldnt try it out when it comes out

 

I agree. For people that already have a wireless network with 802.11g, there probably isn't too much hurry to upgrade. The average person surfs the internet on their wireless network, and most people are sitting next to the router when they do that. I know in my current situation, there is no way that I could justify spending the money on a new card and a new router.

 

it matters more when you stream video files over the network...thats when the extra speed would come in handy.

 

as nice as wireless is, if i need it for a lot of data transfer/video streaming, i still prefer wired
for internet, wireless is great with just 802.11g

 

In terms of internet speeds......... 802.11b is still at least 1/2 faster than the fastest home cable or dsl out there.....

If you don't have a wireless network yet, certainly getting something in N would be ideal, although more expensive right now. However, if you're not looking to stream large amounts of data from your laptop to say another desktop or server on your personal network, there isn't much performance gain you're ever going to see.

 

It depends on the type of video. If you're streaming 720p or above then it may make a difference depending on your current setup. A nice super G setup should be able to handle 1080p. This is all compressed of course.

 

If you're streaming video at speeds that overwhelm G, I'd be seriously thinking about running some CAT 6 to a few convenient places around the house.

 

I've seen some of the pre-draft 802.11n stuff run slightly faster than even 100 megabit ethernet. Unless you're doing gigabit (which is overkill even for HD video streaming) its not necessary to drop cat6.

 

yeah, I think the target throughput is around 300 Mbps max for 802.11n

 

if i remember correctly, 802.11n has a theoretical throughput of 600 Mbps and a more realistic actual throughput of around 200 Mbps
but who knows what the actual speed is going to be when the final spec comes around, there might still be room for tweaking to get closer to the theoretical speed