Wireless N card for m1730

Hi all!
I am thinking of upgrading my home wireless network setup to Wireless N.
A quick question about dell wireless mini cards.
I saw there are two models of interest :
Intel 4965AGN and Intel 5300AGN.
Do you know what's the difference ? (both go for about 20 bucks on ebay)
Also, i noticed there are two versions of the 5300, one is the normal sized card, the other one is half sized

Are both 4950 and 5300 fit the xps m1730 ?
What's the difference between the half and full size 5300 ? Can i order any one of those ?

Thanks in advance !

 

Get the 5300, it's way better.

Both 5300 and 4965AGN can have the same 300Mbps speed connected to most of current wireless N access point/router. But with next generation wireless access point/router, 5300 can have 450Mbps connection, while 4965AGN is stuck at 300Mbps.

To achieve connection above 150Mbps, 4965AGN needs wireless access point/router which can operate at 5GHz band (hence dual band wireless access point/router), while 5300 could have done it with most of current wireless N access point/router (either single or dual band).

Half & full size 5300s are only different physically, the functionality is the same. Half size card is needed for some of newer laptop such as Dell Studio series, while M1730 uses full size card.

 

Wow Aidil, you know your wireless cards. Do you happen to know the difference between the 1510 and the new 1520 wireless n minicards?

 

I had used Dell 1510 card in my Studio 17 before swapped it with 5300. It has Broadcom chipset. It's a 2x2 spatial streams card, so it could transmit and receive at 300Mbps max (mine used to have steady connection at 270Mbps to my Linksys WRT310N). OTH, I've never used Dell 1520 card and I don't know how many spatial streams it can handle. AFAIK it has Atheros chipset.

 

thanks a lot aidil!
didn't expect such and informative answer, rep is on it's way to you
would you recommend a router too ?
i kind of decided to go with netgear-wndr3700, it's expensive but the reviews are really good. is it worth the money in your opinion ?

 

Sorry, I'm not to keen in recommending the router 'cause I've seen any brand and/or type could be a hit or miss for some people.

I've read reviews of WNDR3700. It seems like a good one based on smallnetbuilder's wireless chart which currently put it at the top for open air average downlink throughput using 40MHz bandwidth at 2.4GHz.

For me, I've always been a Linksys users since (don't really remember... Maybe 2002) I bought WRT11B, and then WRT54G, replaced with WRT54GS, replaced with WRT310N, and the for current setup I combine WRT310N with WRT320N. One of reason I chose WRT320N was also smallnetbuilder's chart which put it on top for open air average downlink throughput using 40MHz bandwidth, but this one is for the 5GHz band.

The 5GHz band is important for me since the place where I currently live is very crowded with WiFi signals at 2.4GHz band. This instance my laptop could detect 17 SSIDs (not including ones which set not to broadcast SSID). Out of these, 10 are wireless G, which means for sure they are using the 2.4GHz and the rest are wireless N which could be using 2.4GHz, 5GHz or both. The 2.4GHz band is very crowded since it only has 11 to 14 channels. Not to mention consecutive channels overlap since they are 5MHz apart but each is using around 20MHz. And it is worsen by those wireless N wireless routers which are using 40MHz bandwith in order to achieve connection above 150Mbps at 2.4GHz. So... For me, 5GHz it is.

 

Also the 5300 has 3x3 spatial streams could transmit and receive up to 450Mbps. www.intel.com/network/connectivity/products/wireless/adapters/5000/index.htm