P-7811fx Wireless Card - 4 questions

The P-7811fx comes with the intel wifi link 5100. This card is arguably worse than the older 4965's that come in Centrino 1 laptops. So why did they switch to a worse card - the laptop is centrino 2. Besides this, the new card is actually cheaper than the 4965. Cheaper AND worse... see here

And so I want to upgrade it. Four questions arose, and I haven't been able to answer any of them:

1) How easy is it to upgrade a wireless card? Does the bios or do other factors limit compatibility?

2) What kind of card am I looking for? PCIe mini card? or half mini card?

3) Where can I find the 5300 version to buy? (Found a 5300 half mini card "for dells", would this work?) (Found a 5300 pcie full mini card, would this one work?)

4) Should I wait for the WiMAX cards, or even the WiFi/WiMAX hybrids that are reported to be just around the corner?

I'm not looking for people to complain to me that the 5100 is fine. Maybe its fine for you, but I use wireless way too often to be DOWNGRADED when buying a new laptop. I'm asking how to upgrade it, not whether or not I should keep it. Thanks for any help.

 

I personally would wait for WiMAX if its coming soon. I mean how much better is it than 5300? If a lot I would just wait but it's up to you.

 

O would like to know that too, don't know why they downgraded the wifi card and cut off the BT =/

 

Was it a costcutting measure? I was wondering how they found a way to keep the cost so low for the specs.

 

More likely than not. They still managed to cram ALOT in the 1500 dollar price tag, but some things by default had to be sacrificed to maintain the cost per unit for gateway.

 

From the same article.

 

And...? Yes we can read lol.

 

If the 7811 comes wired for 3 antennaes, then you may be in luck. If not, an upgrade to the 5300 might prove to be a tough task. If you remove the lid covering the mini-pci slots, hopefully you'll see 3 antennae leads.

 

OK, and should I buy the 5300 (if I can find it) in half mini pcie or regular mini pcie

 

So can you hook up any kind of external antenna to the laptop to boost signal?

 

You said that it was CHEAPER AND WORSE when compared to the 4965 ... I would say cheaper and same performance

 

Really? To you the only variable in its performance is how well its transmits? Think you need to reread the article...

 

Instead of being vague and mildly insulting like always.

Quote something tangible from that article that is not speculation or paper specs that may not transfer to real world performance. You can say range but it was not even tested therefore speculation.

Also fix the link on your original post it does not work as of now.

 

Link is fixed now thanks. Where else have I been mildly vague and insulting? Show me please.

Sorry for being mildly insulting, but you did quote one line of the product review as if that summed up the performance. Allow me to quote something from the article like you asked, even though you could just read through it and look for the parts that I'm likely referring to.

"In our tests, transmit performance between the 5100 and the older 4965 were identical, but receive performance was significantly worse."

Speculation (results not conclusive but likely):

"The third antenna in the 4965 is simply used to boost range, so it is possible that systems using the 5100 will have worse WiFi range than existing Centrino notebooks."

"Transmit performance can also be greater on systems equipped with the WiFi Link 4965..."


I also realize that this chart doesn't provide any definite conclusions but it can easily help you estimate the performance difference in the cards:
Intel WiFi Link 5300 Intel WiFi Link 5100 Intel WiFi Link 4965
Transmit Antennas 3 1 2
Receive Antennas 3 2 3
Number of Concurrent Spatial Streams 3 2 2
Price (1000 units) $29 $19 $29

Anyway, the last part of my post says "I'm asking how to upgrade it, not whether or not I should keep it." Thanks.

 

I just wanted to point that you made it sound very misleading and like the 5100 was cheap crap...

Saying:

Is different from:

The real question should be the difference between 5100 and 5300. And if you can hook the extra antenna in the p-7811fx.

 

Well you can't use speculation as both an argument against the article and then use speculation as an argument for your case, which is what that is, they "suspect it." I can just as easily suspect that the transmit performance was affected by the storage setup in the receiving client. You're just pointing out a question of validity, and we could easily do that to anything. If you believe the article, believe it, don't just point out the parts that support your argument and dismiss the parts that don't.

thank you for getting back to the point... I'm trying to figure out how to upgrade to the 5300, not if I should.

 

lol ok, you are right that PREVIEW proves that 4965 is CHEAPER (true) and WORSE than the 5100.

 

Anyway, this debate turned out pointless anyway because now I see myself waiting for WiMAX.

 

Ok try to set a date or a range for when you are going to buy the laptop if not you are going to wait forever. Let just say that 4 years ago I said I was going to buy a new laptop and never bought one waiting for the next thing that comes out every few months .

I should wait till Calpella , sad thing I might do it

 

Well I'm gunna buy the laptop now but instead of trying to upgrade to the 5300 I think I might wait for wimax and then tried to upgrade to that

 

oh ok, I was going to buy it today and went to the bestbuy and the employee was more interested in talking to his buddy than looking for the laptop. He told me that it did not exist at first and when I told him it was on their website he told me that it was not in stock then and they might not carry it. When I got home I found out that, that was the only store in florida (near me at least) that had it in stock.

I tried to play with the previous model 6850 but it had no power supply.

I might not buy it now out of spite

 

I have have purchased the 7811 yesterday and one of the hesitations that I had with this laptop was the 5100 wireless card. I am also interested in trying to upgrade to the 5300 if possible and will also be looking into this. I have not opened up the 7811 yet to see if a third attenna exists but will look soon. Anyone have anymore information on this? I have bench marked my work laptop (Compaq 8710W) send and receive with wired and wireless (which has Intel 4965) and will post when I get my 7811 unpacked. I am interested in future proofing with the 5300 and better range but will back this up with the benchmarks soon. Hopefully today.

 

I'd really appreciate seeing your data and hopefully we can figure this out. I'm pretty intent on getting the 5300 now I did a lot of research last night, and I won't be waiting for WiMAX as I had said earlier.

 

I did not see a response to your original question. I just opened my 7811 and there are only 2 wires leading to the wireless card and no extra wire hanging out that I could see.

Sorry for the bad news.

Ira

 

looks like I either need a pmcia card or a professional upgrade, which would only really make sense when wimax is released, thanks for the info ira

 

Often you don't need to have all the lead connected for the wireless cards to work acceptably. Maybe reception would be somewhat better but it's still acceptable. I have no idea if that is the case in this instance but I've seen it work before.