Is it safe to buy the Intel WiFi Link 5300 on eBay?

I found several intel 5300 cards on eBay for $12 including shipping. Question is whether these are geniune or not? In other words, are they being sold as engineer samples?

for instance, these sellers on eBay..

Intel 5300 5300AGN Wireless WiFi PCI E Card 802 11n Agn | eBay

New Intel WiFi Link 5300 agn PCIe Wireless N Card 533AN MMW Free Shipping | eBay

 

The 5300 is rather old by now, so it's quite unlikely that engineering samples are still in circulation. It's since been supplanted by the 6300 and the 7000 series is partially released. That explains the low price.

 

I decided to go with the N-6300 but are there a lot of engineer samples for this model?

 

There were when it was first introduced, but it's been around for a fair amount of years now, there shouldn't be any in circulation anymore.

 

I'm seeing a lot of intel 6300 wifi cards on eBay with different stickers. I don't even know which one to buy base on the pictures posted by the seller. I have the Dell Latitude D620 laptop using an adapter. The first link doesn't have arrows (colored) that represent which wire should connect to the antennas. The second link has 3 arrows with colors on it which represent which wires should you connect to antennas. Its a risky buy but I could use your help or anyone who knows more about this. I mainly want to use this card for Dell and ASUS laptops only.

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/s9YAAOxywh1TFot6/$_57.JPG

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NTUwWDU1MA==/z/Ro8AAOxywh1TBdJd/$_3.JPG

 

Does your router support simultaneous dual band 450 Mbps.

Normally the black antenna wire is the primary and attaches to #1 on the wireless card.

The gray wire is the auxiliary antenna wire and attaches to #2 on the wireless card.

An added 3rd antenna can be white or another color and would attach to #3 on the wireless card.

Without the 3rd antenna a 6300 will perform like a 6205 300 Mbps card

The position of each antenna inside the notebook should be as far away from each other as physically possible for best reception.

While a 3rd antenna may yield better connections at longer distances from a properly setup router the download speeds may not be any better.

Amazon.com: intel 6300 ultimate n

 

If I remember correctly, the only practical difference between the OEM and engineering samples was that the engineering samples all had the same MAC address.

 

Some early ES ones were giving wonky performance IIRC.

 

This card I just won off eBay appears to be pulled out of another laptop. Does this appear to be HP/Lenovo OEM or a Engineer Sample?

(intel 5300)

 

I've never seen a Full Height Ultimate N 633AN_MMW

Everything Intel shows is a Half Height Ultimate N 633AN_HMW

 

My mistake, its the Intel 5300. Here's a photo of the 6300 that I also plan on buying as well.

HP/Lenovo OEM or a Engineer Sample?'

 

There are a decent amount of ES/remarked wifi cards on ebay, if the price is too good to be true and they are passing it off and new and not a pull....yeah.

They often work, but the MAC thing can cause issues. Look out for fake stickers too It was worse with the wimax capable cards a few years back, their macs were blacklisted by just about every isp.
It is not always the ebay vendor who is scamming you either, a lot of the bigger "china-store" sellers were the ones who got scammed first, they are just passing it on unaware. In case you are wondering, intel does not care enough to assist end users buying these on the grey market, you are on your own with counterfeits. (hell, until recently they liked to claim FCC did not allow end user wifi minicard upgrades)

Legitimate 7260AC cards are under $25 shipped, the drivers seem to be a lot better, maybe even finally fixed and you get some future proofing with AC. Unless you have 3 antenna cables pre-wired, I would buy that instead.
If you really want a 6300 and have 3 wires, get a legitimate one for ~$30. $12 sounds too cheap, even a guy who swapped in a new card and just wants to unload his old one would probably ask for $20. I might be out of date though, I only look for AC cards now.


I buy a lot of electronic/nerd/etc stuff from cheap sellers, but you really have to get a feel for the market, some goods are worse than others. Wifi cards are pretty risky, though not as bad as say firearms accessories...so much fake/airsoft crap there that is worthless. A lot of the overseas guys seem to be setting up ebay/etc storefronts stateside now too, relatives or whatever.