Which card better?

Intel 3945 ABG, or 4965 AG ?

 

4965 because it supports 802.11n networks.

 

Jon Lumpkin had a whole thread about the 5100 vs 5300. It's in his sig line. If you're buying a new laptop or looking to upgrade I'd check that thread too. I have an X61 tablet with a 4956 and an X200 with a 5100 and haven't seen much of a difference.

 

the 4965 has one version where the n mode is disabled, i got one in my R61, but the fact that it uses a 3 antenna setup is better for weaker signal reception.

However the 3945 use two antenna setup, so if you want the 4965, you would need to get a new antenna put in.

 

The ThinkPads I've looked in that were possible to order with 3-antenna cards, come with 3 antennas installed even if configured with a 2-antenna card. The extra antenna wire is just tucked into a small pocket below the WiFi card, ready to use if you want with a different card.

YMMV of course.

 

it depends on the laptop, whether the third wire is setup. All my Thinkpads that had the 3945 doesn't have the third antenna.

 

let's not miss the fact that kns is asking about the 4965 AG.   this card doesn't have N.   only the 4965 AGN has N -- hence the N at the end of the name.   like lead_org said, there are two models of the 4965 card.

N will work with two antennas.   only high-speed N needs the third antenna.   fyi.

in any case, i don't think it matters to kns since he isn't asking about an N card in his post above.

 

so the these cards can use two antennas only..... now i know....

 

correct.   in fact, the intel 5100 AGN only uses two antennas and doesn't even have a socket for the white antenna.   the 5300 will run in standard N mode using just the gray and black.

i think everyone thought N needed three because some of the first pre-N/draft-N wifi stuff pushed three-antenna arrays.   this was done for antenna diversity access but wasn't needed for the N frequency itself.   in the end, all it did was confuse people (myself included ).

 

i was certainly very confused. I knew that the 5100 had the two antennas and that the 5300 uses three antennas, because you told me like half a year ago in some posts. But i didn't know that you can run the three antenna cards in two antenna modes. I will give them a try and see what happens.