Killer Wireless-N 1103

Hello guys

i got the option of installing this on my customized laptop. do they really make that much difference as they say they do? and another stupid question i have and pls dont flame me ;p but i didnt found the answer anywhere. do they only benefit wireless connections or they benefit proper cable connection as well?

its 1102 not 1103 (sorry for the mistake, but i guess they almost the same)

thank you
george

 

In the latest Maximum PC they did a head to head of this vs. the Intel 6300, and the 1103 won. If you can get a copy of the magazine or go to a bookstore and read it, it goes through different categories comparing the 2. Id post some but don't have the magazine in front of me right now.

 

it will only affect the wireless conectivity.

dunno about the performance difference or if the price is worth it

 

but who plays game through wireless? i mean isnt it kinda pointless? if you play by wireless your ping is very unstable + u get random disconnects etc:/

 

Actually you don't. There's a huge difference between playing while connected via HSDPA or similar wireless cellular based technology which is indeed unstable and playing via Wi-Fi.
Just ping your router from you laptop connected via Wi-Fi- it's going to get back to you with 1ms- that's how much latency wireless adds to it.

There are people with Wi-Fi gaming issues- I'll grant you that. And there will be people like this as long as consumers are going to purchase routers based on price without any knowledge of the hardware used and quality of the firmware- but that can't be blamed on Wi-Fi itself can it?

 

well i didnt understand much but just let me get this straight! if i am connected to the internet through this cable http://bookstore.keene.edu/images/Internet Cable.jpg and if i dont have Wi-Fi enabled will that card benefit me or it has to be totally wireless?

 

It won't benefit you at all if you're gonna be connected via Ethernet (by the cable you've mentioned)

 

okay thank you v much clevo laptops dont offer the option to change the ethernet card so u can get something like killer card but for ethernet or there isnt such think?;p

 

The secret behind the Killer cards is the software; it prioritizes certain connections. A direct benefit of that is a better ping while gaming.

I wouldn't bother spending more than $20, honestly. And even then, you could spend that money more productively on something else in your life.

 

I second that on the software that prioritizes connections (your wireless strength remains the same). Dell is making money off selling these cards.. For people like me who constantly move around from dorm to dorm, wireless gaming is essentially my choice over getting stuck to the wall.

 

A cheaper solution is to just turn off your pr0n downloads while you are gaming. Nothing transmitting in the background? No need for traffic prioritization. Alternately, you can get one of those "gaming" broadband routers. They do what the Killer NIC does, but for your whole network and not just your computer (as in if your greasy roommate was the one doing the pr0n downloads).

 

Actually the hardware on the Killer cards are based from Atheros chips. They are the best when it comes to wirless and routers. Intel is behind by miles on wireless.

 

If you really want an Atheros-based wireless card, you can get an AR5008 aftermarket for around $16 and install it yourself (not too difficult on most laptops).

 

My Intel wireless 6300 gives me a stable connection to my wireless access point.
But i never game over wireless unless i got 5GHz. (All by myself)

I also made my wireless router stricter by only allowing N cards.
Sure i gotta ditch my 3DS, Wii, PS3 ect but it also increased overall network stability.

 

Theirs a 20 something page thread about this in the alienware forum, might wanna read through it, quite a few happy customers.

 

Is that true? I don't know much about wireless cards, but I've always thought that intel's were better

 

I'm happy with mine. At my home connection I don't see too much of a difference, but in a public setting (like at my university, either at the library, student center, or dorm) where there are many users connecting to the same access point, I noticed a huge improvement (using WoW).

 

Anandtech has a writeup about the Killer 1102 wireless card they posted this morning. Overall it manages slightly better latency and throughput (unfortunately they don't mention range) than other solutions (there are a few rare cases where it's actually slower). Like they summarized though, for an extra $10 or so, why not? AnandTech - Bigfoot?s Killer-N 1102 Wireless Networking vs. the World

 

Having just read the anandtech article @notyou posted the link for, I can say that the range is definitely compromised (comparatively...) to get the best latency and throughput.

The best card to get seems to be the 1103 (not the 1102 they reviewed) with a 3x3:3 wireless router like the gen 5 Airport Extreme (or gen 4 Airport Time Capsule 3TB). Should be a killer combination.

Also note that the Airport Extreme/Time Capsule units (Broadcom based) are still faster with MBP's because they are both using the same Broadcom based hardware for both transmitting and recieving the wireless signals. If you can match the hardware you use too - you should see the same kind of throughput boost as seen here.

See:
AnandTech - Airport Extreme (5th Gen) and Time Capsule (4th Gen) Review - Faster WiFi

 

The desktop internet card from Killer got big props and rave from the tech sites but was found to be all fluff and fakery by actual tech professionals.

Remember often times companies are forced to give favorable opinion on something or exaggerate truths and hide certain other truths.

 

For an extra $30, why not? It's just one less night out for dinner.

 

It was also something of a $200 premium, right?

But this review seems to actually be showing real world usage that is obviously (at least 2x better and more) better than even the best of the best Intel 6300n. The Intel has the range, but the Killer has the throughput in the ways that matter most...

 

Yeah the desktop one was super inflated in price, thus why I am weary of this product.

I think this time it may not have some huge premium but I also bet its not premium and just a standard wifi card with a name put on it.

So many factors here, like antenna position and connection, router used, distance, interference.

Considering they provided the units for testing I do not trust it a bit. I would want to see somebody like me who will install it and test it from scratch on the same system against another good card so you know that the system is 100% the same and you are isolating only the wifi card as a variable.

I have seen enough variance between identical laptop models wifi range, speed, and signal just due to minor factors like how good the antenna are connected that having 2 seperate systems to bench is too large a random variable for me to consider this benchmark provided as concrete. Then again looking back at the past history of this company trying to rip you off (cough monster cable) I would not put it past them for a second that they would "rig" a system to do better than another and happily send it off to some big sites for review and then sweeten them up with some money or goods to make sure they have reason to do favorable reviews.

Also where can you actually but this right now? I cant find a store but I know several stores to get Intel products cheap. When we see real street price then we can say its "only $30 more".

Example Intel 6300 for $32.00 - http://www.provantage.com/intel-633an-hmwwb~7ITE90NH.htm

Even if it is "only $30 more" its already double the price of a 6300.

 

In fact Wireless is so sensitive that even Antenna Angle matters.
IMO I don't trust Review Sites largely they too obviously have an agenda .

 

I agree that I would trust a regular user (like one of us!) to test this in the same system same conditions to really know what is what, but the tests they presented seem pretty fair to me, at least enough that it warrants the $30 premium for the 'extreme' 1103 version.

See:
Amazon.com: bigfoot killern 1102

 

1. I think Anandtech has been around long enough to have earned the respect and trust of their readers and have always had their best interests at their core. They have never steered me wrong.

2. I have a Alienware M14x that shipped with an Intel 6205 card and I really wasn't all that impressed with the speed and consistency of the connection to my Netgear WNR3700v1 router, in comparison to the Intel 5300 that was in my last laptop. When the drivers for the Killer Wireless 1103 showed up, I started looking at how that card was different. I purchased a 1102 through that Amazon link since the 6205 has two antenna cables. The card was in my machine two days later and I was really impressed with the performance. Connection and speed were consistent, streaming video was nice and smooth and latency scores were a lot better than the 6205. The bottom line is that if I had the option to configure my system with the Killer Wireless 1103 in the first place. I would have.