Intel WiFi Link 5300 Vs. ThinkPad WiFi (BGN)

Very much difference? I will be using this laptop on campus @ University Of Maine.

 

I have heard that the WiFi 5x00 series is more power-efficient than the Thinkpad BNG, and also has better range, but no one has really given solid comparative data yet.

 

i have a problem about choose wifi card:
is the wifi thinkpad bgn is good???

sorry all my english is very very bad, please help me !!!!

 

The following thread might be of help to you: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=335716

 

Personally I would go for the Intel ones. This is just based on my preference not hard facts. What I can say for fact though is that the Intel Wifi cards work well with Linux and a well supported most of the time. Also something that I read on this forum is that the Thinkpad Wifi card is no longer the Atheros one but one from Realtek, if that makes a difference to you.

 

thank you for reply. if i have a thinkpad wifi bgn card in my laptop . can i replace with a "intel wifi link 5100 card." ????
both of them use mini pciexpress adapter?????

 

Yes, I'm pretty sure you can.

 

Only if it is a Lenovo branded card. Lenovo "whitelists" their own cards, effectively locking out wifi cards that do not come from them.

That said, if you look on Ebay, I'm sure you'll find compatible cards for far less than if you went directly through Lenovo or affiliated parts resellers.

Link to custom Ebay search

You can find the 5300 card for around $25.

 

anyway, wifi thinkpad bgn is not good??? i intend to buy thinkpad t400 and in the store ,where i intend to buy, they have a thinkpad t400 with wifi thinkpad b/g/n card , and price is 999usd , should i buy this laptop????? please recommend me

Lenovo Thinkpad T400 Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.4GHz, 1066MHz, 3MBL2)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic
14.1 WXGA TFT, w/ CCFL Backlight, Camera
ATI Mobility Radeon 3470 with 256MB
2 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad)
160 GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm4
CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo 24X/24X/24X/8X Max, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA)
Wifi Thinkpad BGN
6 cell Li-Ion Battery
1 Year Depot Warranty
Brand new 100% ,Sealed, Warranty 12Months WorldWide
Price: 999 USD

 

I think you can find a better deal from the Lenovo site, with some of the coupons that they always have.

 

but in my country(viet nam) i can't build a thinkpad laptop on lenovo viet nam site, in lenovo viet nam site the price of thinkpad laptop is expensive,

 

That looks like a generally fine config. The ThinkPad BGN card is probably just fine. If it gives you trouble, swapping in a ThinkPad branded Intel 5300 after the fact is not difficult and relatively inexpensive.

 

Oh, in that case, that configuration and price is quite good (just maybe not as cheap as in the US). The Thinkpad WiFi BGN, like jonlumpkin said, is not horrible - it's just not the best card - and can be upgraded without voiding your warranty, I believe.

 

That is correct. The Wi-Fi card is a CRU (Customer Replaceable Unit) and will NOT void your warranty (although obviously any parts you buy off eBay won't be covered by Lenovo).

 

should i buy my own wireless card for a t400 i'm about to buy? i can save ~$10. they are easy to install right? is that the newest best card out there now?

 

oh thank you everybody very much,
i have a question:
in ebay , there r many wifi intel bgn card were sold, like LoneWolf15 said:"Only if it is a Lenovo branded card. Lenovo "whitelists" their own cards, effectively locking out wifi cards that do not come from them"
so how do I know what kind of wifi card is compatible with my thinkpad laptop?

 

I bought an R400 with the ThinkPad WiFi (i.e. Realtek 8191SE) in August - it was horrible for a while! No Linux driver support, and the Windows 7 driver was flaky. Now the Windows 7 driver works okayish - there are a couple networks that I can connect to on my iPod, and that show up as full strength on both devices, that just won't connect with the ThinkPad Wifi card. But a new driver comes out about once a month, so maybe that'll get fixed. And the Linux driver takes a bunch of tweaking to get it to work - you have to find it online on a forum and recompile it yourself - but it works now. And maybe the driver will make it into the ubuntu kernel soon...

I just got a Lenovo branded Intel 5300 from eBay today (the custom search in a post above worked well - I got mine from bohuahome), and it works perfectly in both Windows and Linux.

tl;dr: Get the Intel card!

 

Is there another custom search? I'd really love to upgrade my BGN card. It's terrible and I keep disconnecting... How much did the card cost? Thank you.

 

@geoffrey, did you try the driver in this thread:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/401126
thread is long but driver is posted by david woo

I found it works pretty well in 9.04 x64

well, i guess you have the intel card now, so it doesn't matter, but future ubuntu users may want to use this driver.

 

Anyone know where I can purchase an intel wifi card for the t400? The realtek 8192se (thinkpad bgn) is really crappy.

 

Search eBay. There are a lot of cards that indicate that they are Lenovo whitelisted, or that they are compatible with Thinkpads, or whatever.

 

Yeah, that driver was the one I used - it did pretty well, although the card was still a bit flaky connecting to some networks, and it sometimes took a good 30 seconds to connect. Thanks for posting the link!

I think I searched for "Lenovo Intel 5300" in eBay, and I found one for about $20... it doesn't seem as if there are any available anymore, unfortunately.