Best Wifi Card for Dell Xps 15 L502x (Gaming)

Hello all.

What is the best compatible Wifi Card available for the Dell Xps 15 for download speeds and gaming?
Is it the Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 (2x2 b/g/n+ Bluetooth Combo as shown on their website?

 

I actually hate the 6230. I've had a number of connection problems, and while newer drivers have made it a little better, it's still flaky compared to other PCs in my house. Maybe it's just fine (although there is a thread about it here). I've actually been looking for a good replacement card with bluetooth, but have not found one yet.

 

I too are having some real problems with this Bluetooth combo cards.

Would a Intel N6205 work?

 

Same here.My older M11Xwith a 5300 mini,gets no joke, twice the throughput, and less laggy,and NO dropouts.I hear the newer intel I believe it's 6300 series are getting good reviews,not sure though about availability or compatability for that matter.Also the Killer 1103 in my M14X is or I should say feels 10 times faster, that's what counts to me is realworld.Not so much benchmarking.No bluetooth though.

 

I've had good luck with the 6230 in the XPS-17 I've had since May. I use wireless exclusively, and the laptop is on 5-6 hours a day. The connection is steady, and throughput is decent with a D-link DIR-655 router.

I was surprised a couple weeks ago when I set up WMC. It'll pull full HD recordings from a share on my DVR box, and they play without a hitch.

My only complaint is that it takes the card quite a while to reestablish the wireless connection with the laptop wakes from sleep. Probably only 20 seconds, but it seems like more.

I'm at BIOS A13, but I haven't updated the Wifi driver since I installed Windows, still on whatever I downloaded from Dell in May.

I don't use Bluetooth, so I disabled the Bluetooth adapter in the Network Adapters list, and "Bluetooth Device (Personal area network)" and "Bluetooth Device (RFCOMM Protocol TDI)" in Device Manager.

 

I also have the 6230 and have had no issues on wireless.

 

No problems with my 6230. I use both the wifi and bluetooth simultaneously.

 

Mileage as they say varies,I didn't have wifi issues before then they started a few months ago,I have the 3700 netgear dual band,it's an amazing router, was the maximum pc best of the best.That's not the problem regardless as I have an m11x with a 5300 no prblems and M14X with killer 1103,I had the 6250,the killer is incredible.But anyway I see on here alot of users have issues so severe dell gave them usb wireless sticks untill they resolve issues,then alot of others with good performance from 6230.

 

I have the 6230, and play mostly RIFT. I would get these lag spikes maybe once a week. Finally after dying from one, I ran some ethernet to where I game and performance has never been better. You can get some pretty lengthy cable for cheap, and in neutral colors so you can run it along the baseboard of your walls without it standing out too much.

I was connected to my girlfriend's apple express router for iTunes through the stereo, and my cheap 2wire AT&T gave us for the DSL working in bridged mode.

for gaming you can't beat ethernet, but its usually not that critical if its a hassle to run.

 

Is the Killer card compatible with the Dell XPS 15?

 

I have the N-6300, it's 100% compatible with XPS 15 and works perfectly. Never had any kind of problems with it.

 

There you go! I heard real good things about intels 6300 as a matter of fact theres a firmware for it that makes it even sweeter!

 

Is the 6300 an option when configuring the system at Dell, or did you buy it separately and install yourself?
Does it provide Bluetooth?

 

No idea if Dell offers N-6300 as an option, I got mine from ebay and replaced the N-1030 that came with my XPS.
No bluetooth on N-6300 (I have no use for bluetooth anyway).

 

Ive had no issues with the 6200 which will work just the same as the 6300 due to you only have 2 ant.

 

True, I have only two antennas (no reason to buy the third one) but I have yet to see people complaining about the N-6300 like they do about the N-6230.

 

Would this be compatible and give me better speed than the N-6200?
Intel WiFi Link Ultimate-N 6300 Half PCI Card 633ANHMW | eBay

 

Yes, that's what I have here. Read more on how it compares to N-6200 here:

intel-centrino-advanced-n-6200-vs-ultimate-n-6300

 

You will not see a differance due to only 2 antennas installed on your XPS. Either one will work.

 

Might as well to get the 6200 since they are much cheaper if you are using only 2 antennas.

If you want an non Intel solution, take a look at the Killer 1102/1103 series.

 

I always seem to have issues with my connection using the Intel Wifi Link 1000BGN... it's very annoying, I think it uploads slowly. Anyone had any similar problems?

 

The Link 1000 is a POS IMHO. Thats the first thing to go on my new systems.

 

Yes it is very poor from my experience.

I'd have put it just slightly more eloquently...in fact no... I wouldn't.

It is a piece of Sh*t...
Chews @rse...
Sucks b@lls...

You get the idea.

Now ordered: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200471202115?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

 

Edit my last post after reading some more on the subject... I think it will be worth trying a diff card so long as its not to hard to change them.

I also do online gaming on my L502x and have had problems. I have a great ISP that I pay a premium to have much faster than normal broadband speeds using a linksys wireless N router. I used to have a 1645 SXPS with a more basic wifi card that never gave me problems but did not hit the peak speeds of my ISP.

I am one of the unlucky ones having issues with the 6230 BT combo card.

I only have experience with switching out laptop ram and things like that.

Are the wireless cards hard to swap out?

 

there's things that most probably know, but not all about making your wifi better, making sure its not on a default channel on the router and one of the lesser used frequencies of your neighbors.

What may seem like a hardware issue could be something else like you or your neighbor turning on the microwave, using a cordless phone, anything in the 900Mhz spectrum.

Its why if you usually game at a desk, I suggest ethernet. Lower pings, no drops.

There's the 3 wire that operate at 5ghz, and I'm not exactly an expert on it but as I understand it has less wall penetration, but isn't nearly as crowded if you find a lot of AP's in your area. Taking my L502x apart, it looks like there is a channel you could run a third wire (or technically second, because I think the standard is two wires wrapped in one and put though one side of the LCD for using MIMO.) Wires can be found on amazon for cheap, I'm unsure if there is a standard length for them.

I'm sure someone will correct me on some things I brought up, but maybe it will help you understand what kind of upgrade is necessary to get better than the 6230. If you look at the 'killer' forums, people are complaining there too. I think its just signal congestion unless you live in the boonies.

edit: Wireless card is as easy to swap out as ram, its under the same cover on the L502 XPS 15. Its a mini PCI-E card, just be careful connecting and disconnecting the antennae, its easy to bend the connectors so take it slow and don't force anything.

 

That's an excellent point. In urban areas, there is so much wireless traffic now that it's not surprising that many people have connection issues. Especially if you're in a highrise or dense neighbourhood, there will be plenty of competing wireless traffic and interference.

 

if you want to know more about the tech, this is an excellent article I read last month that takes you through how wifi began. Its roots are from Hawaii networking their computers across islands. There's tons to be gleaned about how it works today as well towards the end though

Cutting the cord: how the world's engineers built Wi-Fi

actually I was just going over it again, seems like the wireless/microwaves/cordless phones all use 2.4Ghz spectrum, not 900Mhz

 

According to Dell, A12 is the latest BIOS. Where did you get A13?

 

Caladdon, did you recieve that new card? How well does it perform in comparison to the 1000? Thanks

Also, elmoglick, I see on the Dell website that the latest bios is A06, which version of the XPS do have to have A13? Cheers.

 

I'm joining this club and looking for something that will suck balls less than the Intel Wifi Link 1000. What's the consensus? The N-6200? If you get the N-6300 you need to install a third antennae, which is difficult? I just want good, powerful wifi signal. Thanks, good people of the forum.

 

Open 'er up and look - I have a 1000 but I have a 3rd antenna cable already installed. Just trying to decide if I want a N-6300 badly enough... You may be lukcy like me

 

OK. Are these the best options for the price-- the 6200 or 6300?