Does it matter which wireless card you pick for XPS 15

I went with the default intel centrino 1000? I understand the 1030 simply adds bluetooth but what about the 6230?

Does it make a difference? Can you upgrade/install a newer card in the future?



Thanks for your help.

 

the card will be fine, the upgraded cards do offer more features and some offer better speeds amd range. really have to check out the various options and reviews for any card you want to use.

You can always upgrade your wireless card later as well very easily.

 

There are known issues with the 1030 (trying to use Bluetooth and WLAN at the same time). It sometimes is just easier to buy the card up front, but I owned a 6200/6300 and both are fantastic cards, I can't say the same for the newest generation Intel WLAN cards.

 

But don't you need two ariels for the 6230 to work fully, if you don't get it to start with you won't have those two ariels. No idea if they can be upgraded as well.

 

I can only answer for you that, Yes you can upgrade (I'm considering it too) but I do not know what is a good upgrade from it I know the list we have to choose from is the following:
Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1030 (1x2 bgn+ Bluetooth)
Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 (2x2 agn+ Bluetooth)
Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N + WiMAX 6150 802.11 b/g/n (WiMax + 1x2 bgn)

Can anyone tell me which is the best choice? my previous system had wimax but I did a system replacement but I may ask for the wimax one since I did get wimax

 

The Intel 1000 can Wlan
The Intel 1030 adds up Bluetooth in it.
The Biggest Intel Cards ads a second Antenna to it, so it can work in 5GHZ environment (Wlan draft n can work on 2,4GHZ and 5GHZ) but only with 2 Antennas your able to "see" 5GHZ signals. Thats the main difference Between these two cards and the big card.
You can upgrade though, but you either have to route a second antenna through your whole Laptop and LCD, or you only can use features the bigger one have without the second Antenna(which i dont know)

MFG Jubeltrubel

 

I think the 1000 is terrible, and unusable on Wireless-N, especially for any online gaming. There are also some known issues with the 6230, but I don't think it is as poor as the 1000.

Although you can upgrade your Wireless card (fairly) easily, it will also void your warranty.

Hope I helped.

 

If you are going to get one with Bluetooth, you will need to disable the Bluetooth in device manager on Windows 7, otherwise you won't get full speed from your router.

Crap cards.

 

Which cards for dual band are recommended then if intel are crap?

 

All those cards posted uses two antennas.
A minor exception to the 1xxx series which uses a single stream to transmit and both stream for receive.

Though the # of antennas or streams is meaningless if using b/g networks.

The 1000 is sufficient for most users if they utilize stuff on the external network (the web). Not so much on the internal network (network scope inside your home). And live in an area that doesn't have a crowded 2.4 ghz environment.


Replacing the wlan cards does not void your warranty.
It only goes void if damage occurs during the replacement
------------------------------------------------------------------

In my experience, I found that Intel wifi modules have much better interoperability with many different AP vendors than Broadcom and Qualcomm wifi modules.


You can try looking in our NBR Networking forum, there's a bunch of dual band card suggestions.

 

Just found out that my wireless card in my XPS 17 can't do 5 Ghz. I only have a 2.4 Ghz single band wireless n router. Now I am not going to waste my money buying a dual band router. This is why 2.4 Ghz sucks for wifi and should have never been the standard. It is overcrowded because of only three non overlapping channels and 95% of the wifi devices only do 2.4 Ghz. It does not matter much since I use Ethernet on any of my devices that support it. My laptop, PS3 etc. I only use cruddy wifi for devices that don't have Ethernet like my iPod Touch.

 

Who said all the Intel cards are crap? I didn't see that in this thread.

I have the Intel 6230 and it seems to work well for WiFi. I haven't tried the Bluetooth yet, as I have no such devices.

 

I have the 6230, no problems yet ( had since July...)

 

Just wanted to do a follow up on my post. and if bluetooth is something you want do not get the 1000 card or the 6150.

As for 1030 vs 6230 I have no idea

 

You dont have to mess about disabling it in Device manager.

All you need to do is launch Windows Mobility Centre (the cog touch button), pick Radio control options button and just have that with the WPAN option ticked. This will then use Fn+F2 to switch your Bluetooth on and off.
To turn the wireless on and off easily just go into Windows Mobility Centre and pick the button "turn wireless off" to switch it off or vice versa.

I have found the wireless better with the Bluetooth off, confirmed with the signal strength increasing when detecting my router via Inssider.