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    What WLAN card for a T400?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by 0x0x, Sep 25, 2008.

  1. 0x0x

    0x0x Newbie

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    ThinkPad 11b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Express Adapter III
    Intel WiFi Link 5100 (AGN)
    Intel WiFi Link 5300 (AGN)

    Which one of these is the best? I prefer a good signal over speed and it should work nice with GNU/Linux.

    Thanks in advance!

    ps: Long battery life is also wanted.
     
    0x0x, Sep 25, 2008
    #1
  2. Parijat

    Parijat Notebook Consultant

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    Intel WiFi Link 5300 for best battery life.
     
    Parijat, Sep 25, 2008
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  3. Agotthelf

    Agotthelf Notebook Consultant

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    Intel 5300 has got three antennas, just get this model.
     
    Agotthelf, Sep 25, 2008
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  4. shoulin333

    shoulin333 Notebook Enthusiast

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    does the 5300 have much better battery life than the base Thinkpad model?
     
    shoulin333, Sep 25, 2008
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  5. jonlumpkin

    jonlumpkin NBR Transmogrifier

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    I think the 5100 is the way to go. The only advantage of the 5300 is that the extra antenna gives you a higher THEORETICAL speed of 450 mbps vs. 300 mbps for 802.11n. However, no router on the market can break 110 mbps so this is a moot point. Just save yourself the $20 and get the 5100.

    FYI the 5100 does not work in Ubuntu 8.04, I think that the graphics driver is also a little sketchy. You can get around this if you compile your own kernel. I also think that the 8.10 release will have drivers for all of these things built in (most of them were released after the 8.04 edition).

    I highly doubt that the 5300 has better battery life. They are both basically the same card, and the extra antenna would probably reduce rather than help battery life. This is the Intel datasheet for the 5000 series.
     
    jonlumpkin, Sep 25, 2008
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  6. grkn

    grkn Notebook Consultant

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    I would be cautious of the Thinkpad b/g card, I found that power consumption increased 1.55W!!! with it installed AND disabled :|
     
    grkn, Sep 25, 2008
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  7. mikec

    mikec Notebook Evangelist

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    The 5300 will have better performance on 802.11n networks; I don't plan on replacing the network card, so I just go with the top end now (it's cheap enough.)
     
    mikec, Sep 25, 2008
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  8. vuong05

    vuong05 Notebook Evangelist

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    Just go with the 5300. It's futureproof for the time being and is really cheap for an upgrade. The 5300 and 5100 are about the same in terms of power consumptions but the kicker is that the 5300 has 1 more antenna.
     
    vuong05, Sep 25, 2008
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  9. grkn

    grkn Notebook Consultant

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    I agree with "Intel WiFi Link 5300 for best battery life.", the Thinkpad bg card consumes about 2w when DISABLED! But where to get it?
     
    grkn, Oct 13, 2008
    #9