The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    U56E wireless upgrade and SSD

    Discussion in 'Asus' started by nichojr, Aug 14, 2014.

  1. nichojr

    nichojr Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    6
    Looking into doing a couple of upgrades to my U56E. Still seems plenty powerful enough for my business needs but would like faster wifi and disk performance.

    Is there a good replacement card for the Intel 1030 that came with it. Definitely want to go up to a 5Ghz card such as a 6230. Also would like to upgrade to an SSD drive.

    Anyone have a recommendation for these two upgrades, especially the wifi card. SSD straight forward enough, but want to make sure about a compatible 802.11ac card.

    Thanks
     
    nichojr, Aug 14, 2014
    #1
  2. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

    Reputations:
    9,431
    Messages:
    58,189
    Likes Received:
    17,900
    Trophy Points:
    931
    There is the Intel 7260 ac with dual band and ac support.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Aug 14, 2014
    #2
  3. Kevin@GenTechPC

    Kevin@GenTechPC Company Representative

    Reputations:
    1,014
    Messages:
    8,500
    Likes Received:
    2,098
    Trophy Points:
    331
    SSD is definitely a recommended upgrade, and 6230 wireless card cost about $15 on eBay.
    7260 is about $32 and note that there are 2 versions of 7260, one is with 802.11ac and the other one is without it, however both are 802.11b/g/n capable.
     
    Kevin@GenTechPC, Aug 15, 2014
    #3
  4. nichojr

    nichojr Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    6
    Just giving an update... I installed an Intel 7260ac and a Samsung 840EVO 512gb SSD. I don't think there are two better upgrades I could have done. I wouldn't trade my 3 year old laptop for anything right now. All total was $235 to my door. Took less than 15 minutes to swap the cards and about an hour for the Samsung software to clone the drive. My laptop now boots boots login in less than 5 seconds and loads after login in less than 20 seconds.. and that's with a bunch of stuff loading on boot.

    If anyone else out there is looking to do these upgrades, I highly recommend it. Wireless card came from M Factor and Samsung drive from rakuten.com for less than $200 which is a deal on these Samsung drives.

    Thanks for the advice.....
     
    nichojr, Aug 22, 2014
    #4
    Kevin@GenTechPC likes this.
  5. Kevin@GenTechPC

    Kevin@GenTechPC Company Representative

    Reputations:
    1,014
    Messages:
    8,500
    Likes Received:
    2,098
    Trophy Points:
    331
    Enjoy it while you can!! :thumbsup:`
     
    Kevin@GenTechPC, Aug 24, 2014
    #5
  6. abescalamis

    abescalamis Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I'm glad that it work out for you, I tried to do the upgrade to an intel 7260-AC wireless card but it didn't work!, can you please tell me the Bios version you have?
     
    abescalamis, Jan 2, 2015
    #6