Upgrading HDD and Wireless adapter - Asus N55SF

Hi,

I have Asus N55SF, and I am planning to upgrade the wireless network adapter and my HDD, but I am not sure which are the best replaces.

The current wireless adapter is : Atheros AR9285 802.11b/g
and I am planning to get : Intel 6300

The current HDD is : ST9750423AS
and I am planning to get: intel 520 SSD

Do you guys recommend these upgrades ? any suggestions are welcomed.

Thanks

 

The SSD is generic of an upgrade and so long as the form factor works you should be fine, just be wary of 7.0mm vs 9.5mm drives and what your system requires.

As far as the wireless go to the asus forum and ask other owners of the system. You need to be sure of the antena as the 6300 requires three (yours is two) and be sure there is no whitelisting of wireless cards for your system...................

 

Asus doesn't whitelist wireless adapters and you will have only two antennas in your N55. Whether the wireless adapter is easy to get to or not, is a whole other story, it's a 5 min replacement for some Asus notebooks, but for others it is a real pain to get to the wireless adapter.

 

Cool, I couldn't state as to if they did or not, too many out there do though.......................

 

Indeed, aside form the strange compatibility issues you rarely encounter (one model not liking a particular adapter for some reason no one knows), any wireless adapter that isn't vendor specific (as in different pin layout) will work in an Asus notebook. My G73 came with one of the most crappy NIC Atheros was making at the time, the upgrade to an Intel adapter was as easy as uninstalling the Atheros driver, doing the swap (easy access via the back panel in my case) and installing the Intel driver. Now, i think that for the N55, it requires a bit more disassembly, but i could be wrong.

EDIT: Just checked a disassembly vidoeand it seems like the wireless adapter is easily accessible so yeah, 10 minute procedure. Wiring a third antenna would be much more difficult though.

 

Just make sure avoid ibm/lenovo/hp intel cards. A 6300 do not "require" 3 antenna, but it need 3 to reach the peak/max performance. (otherwise it work like a 2x2 card I believe)

 

True, but then the OP might want to go with a 6200 or a 6250.

 

thanks for all the suggestions, really appreciate it.

I will check how difficult it is to install a 3rd antenna. If it is too difficult, then I will just go with a 6200 or a 6250.

Thanks again.

 

Note that if the prices are similar, the 6300 will perform just like a 6200 with two antennas so go with whichever is easier to get. Wiring a third antenna involves dismantling the lcd assembly and often full motherboard access in order to wire the antenna behind the lcd panel.