Killer N1525 Wireless-AC

I can't find much information about this AC wireless card that's in the newly announced MSI GS60 Pro w/Nvidia GTX970M.

Anyone have info they'd like to share?

Haven't found the card for sale anyplace yet.

EDIT:
Found Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 N1525 Wireless-AC drivers
http://www.qca.qualcomm.com/resources/driverdownloads/

 

Any ideas if it has the NGFF M.2 form factor or mini-pcie? Also, U.FL type or MHF connector? This isn't listed yet on Wikidevi.

 

I should have one in my hands shortly.

It's M.2 so it will go in my MSI GS60 where an Intel M.2 AC-7260NGW now resides.

 

Did you get this card yet? Where did you get it? I'm also having the wifi dropout issue on my gs60 and desperate to find another option.

 

I have one in the MSI GT72 I'm reviewing. I'll be sure to put it to the test. I am not real fond of my 7260 AC card either in my Clevo. It's good for file transfers and such, but for gaming it sucks.

 

Not yet.

It's being pulled from a new model that has it as stock since they're not available separately.

My AC-7260NGW works well except after waking from sleep where all connections are lost and no networks available is reported

If you got your GS60 from a reseller that customizes like Gentech and Power Notebooks then give them a call and ask for an N!525 when they have one available but may be better to wait and see what people say that have tested one with network file transfers,Internet connectivity, and any sleep issues.

The concern I have is about immature drivers.like we suffered through in the early 7260 releases.

The Killer driver for the N1525 is the 1st supporting AC while Intel has had a year and a half of AC-7260 driver developing

BTW,I haven't seen any Intel M.2 AC-7265NGW cards for sale either.

 

The Killer N1525 Wireless-AC arrived in the mail late this afternoon.

I took out the Intel M.2 AC-7260NGW from the MSI GS60 notebook and put in the N1525.

Install a fresh copy of Windows 10 Technical Preview followed by the Killer 1.1.47.1374 suite.

This notebook also has the Killer E2200 Lan.

No benchmarks yet.Tomorrow is Saturday and should be plenty of time to do some testing.

The attachments show:
The Killer Network Manager
N1525 Front
N1525 Back
N1525 next to Intel M.2 AC-7260NGW(N1525 much smaller)
N1525 installed in MSI GS60

EDIT:If you take a close look at the upper left corner of the N1525 you'll see a place reserved for a 3rd antenna on the PCB.

 

Did you experience the wifi dropout issue with the Intel card when using the the Nvidia gpu? Updated Intel drivers and an expensive new AC router didn't resolve it for me.

Does the Killer card have bluetooth?

Unfortunately, I purchased my gs60 at a TigerDirect and didn't discover the resellers here until I started searching for a fix for the wifi issue and none of them will sell me one of these Killer cards

 

So far the 1525 is pretty amazing. I am getting 60MB/sec solid transfer with a 4GB ISO file, compared with varying 30-40MB/sec with Intel 7230. Gaming is very solid as well with no noticeable lag or dropouts like I get with my Intel. From what I've seen on the GT72, I'm sold on going with this Killer card. Granted the one in the GT72 is M.2 and not mini PCIe, but not sure if that would really matter. Just that they seem to be OEM only at the moment. Hopefully we'll find some reseller that will provide them. My next laptop will be equipped with one if I can get ahold of one.

 

Same here.

Transferring a Windows 8.1 ISO file to and from my desktop pc I'm getting an average 55 MB/s.measured with TeraCopy.

I'll be testing with a few other apps next.

I'm also not getting any disconnects when coming out of sleep after several hours with the lid closed.

The Intel AC-7260NGW would have link speed fluctuations between 520 Mbps and 866.7 Mbps from this same location while this newly installed N1525 is no budging from 866.7 Mbps.

One issue I encountered installing the 1.1.14.1374 Suite on Windows 10 Technical Preview.was the Bluetooth showed up as AR3012 instead of QCA61x4.

If I install the stand alone BT driver 1st before the wireless driver all is well.

I paired my Nexus 5 smartphone and a Logitech BT mouse in Windows 8.1 and the Windows 10 Tech Preview without any problems.

 

Hi WhatsThePoint.

I would like to send this via a PM, but I'm new at this forum and I can't :S. So, here it goes:

As I wrote in the other post, I'm here because I'm having the wifi drop issue with my GS60 2PE (with the 7260AC) ONLY when I'm using the dedicated GPU. I would like to know if you had the same issue and if you solved it at 100% (now you don't have disconection using the GPU at full load).

I'm asking this because if I open my GS60 by myself to replace the wireless card I would lost my warranty (I have to remove the sticker). And I want to be 99% sure that this will solve the issue, if not, I would have to send the laptop to an RMA and see if they change the card.

Thanks.

 

Losing warranty due to breaking the sticker varies according to the region you're in and consumer protection statutes.

With the Killer N1525 I've had no disconnects at all after opening the lid and waking the notebook from sleep mode since installing the card last Friday.

I don't know if your issue is the same.

The only difficulty I had installing the N1525 was attaching the antenna wires to the tiny wireless card with my big hands and old eyes.

When I put on an illuminated magnifying headset it became a lot easier.

 

So, no one know currently how to just buy one of these cards separately?

 

If you bought your notebook from one of the resellers that customize stock MSI,Sager,Alienware etc(Gentech PC,Xotic PC,Power Notebooks,Pro- Star et al) that frequent these NBR forums daily with free help and advice contact them about availability.

I think the Intel AC-7265 should also be making a long overdue appearance soon.

Both the Killer N1525 and Intel AC-7265 are M.2 form factor only.

The AC-7265 is listed in the specs of the Alienware Alpha ASM100-7980 Console that's due to be released on Nov 21,2014.

 

The Killer N1525 Wireless-AC continues to work without issue with Official 1.1.47.1374 driver/software on my Windows 8.1 x64 installation but on the Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9860 I have issue with my Logitech M557 Bluetooth Mouse and Nexus 5 being paired after a reboot or cold boot.

Qualcomm Atheros (Killer) has a history of not supplying drivers for new Windows OS until they are GA final.

The BT driver installs correctly on W10TP x64 when run in Windows 8 compatibility mode as Admin but my devices have issues staying paired on reboots.

 

So these newest cards are M.2 only and not coming to mini-pcie?

 

Maybe mini pci-e wireless cards have reached the end of the line with the current offerings.

The newest cards AC-7265 and Killer N1525 are M.2 only while many of the the newest notebooks are shipping with the M.2 AC-7260NGW

 

New Official Qualcoom Atheros Killer Performance Suite version 1.1.48.1376

New Bluetooth drivers also.

Windows 7: version 4.0.0.419

Windows 8.1: version 3.0.0.419

Driver Downloads | Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.

 

I really don't see the point of M.2. It is the same size as a half-mini pcie and it has the same sata, pcie, and usb connections. Anyway, I suspect that there should be M.2 to mini pcie adapters out sometime soon, since it would fit and would just need to re-arrange the pins.

Edit:
I found this: http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/M2MP1.html

On Taobao.com here in China I found some other M.2 to msata/mpcie adapters for $4...

 

Someone needs to rip the pure driver out. The suite is causing a lot of connection drops.

 

I've been running with the suite installed since before I made the post with the update info and have not had any disconnect issues.

What you can try is opening the Task Manager >Performance and stop the Network Manager from running.It's not needed.

Also look for any Killer Network items in Start up and disable them.

I had an issue with the new Bluetooth driver not having the QAC61x4 show up in Device Manager > Bluetooth so I went back to the 3.0.0.400 BT driver.

 

I agree. M.2 is not really necessary. It's only a tiny bit smaller than mPCIe.

Anyway, those adapters only solve the mPCIe slot problem, but doesn't solve the antenna connector problem.

Antennas for mPCIe cards have bigger connectors that M.2 antenna connectors.

 

The connector is a little bit narrower, but the surface area of the PCB remains unchanged. They get narrower, but longer.

That is simple. Clip off the old connectors and crimp/solder new ones on. That, or just rewire the antennas.

 

Wikipedia is there to answer all your questions:

Serial ATA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Anyone know where to buy this card yet?

 

@ HTWingNut

I know a german reseller who had (a few days ago) still two! Killer 1525 cards left and I know reseller who sells the Intel AC 7265 for 29€.

So if you are intrested I can write you a PM with the name of the resellers and you can contact them via mail.


@ all


I hearded about big driver issues with the Killer 1525. What is your experience? (I ordered my new Notebook with this card) xD

 

Can you send me the name of the german reseller with the 1525?

 

I cannot send you a private mail....

 

Well I got the needed parts from Mouser Electronics so I tried the Killer N1525 in my old desktop using the Intel desktop AC-7260 adapter.

I removed the mini pcie AC-7260 that came with the adapter and replaced it with the Killer N1525.This required putting the N1525 inside an M.2 to PCIe adapter and changing the antenna wire connectors from U.FL type to MHF4

The desktop is in an empty room at the far end of the house about 40' from the router.

Next project will be to put the N1525 in a 3 year old MSI GT780DX.I need to do some soldering first to replace the U.FL connectors with MHF4 type on a spare pair of pc

N1525 in Desktop Adapter
N1525 in M.2 to PCI-e adapter
AC-7260(stock) in Desktop Adapter
WiFi Status Monitor + Device Manager

 

Have you tried GentechPC? I actually had one ordered & a 200W power adaptor for the P35Xv3 before cancelling the order since I returned the laptop.

I have the card with the GS70 970m and it's sweet. I have no issues connecting to older routers like the P35X did. My one pet peeve is that it doesn't connect automatically to my home & GF's router unless I manually connect but it's could be a W8.1 thing. In Windows I have it to connect automatically but it doesn't work. No biggie for me since everything else on the laptop works, get great signal and great Rx/Tx rate with the card.

 

Does your MSI GT780DX have a M.2 wifi slot? I'd hate to see your awesome M.2 Wifi card remain in your M.2 -> Mini PCIe adapter

 

The MSI GT780DX is over 3 years old and has a mini pcie slot for wireless cards.The only way to use a Killer N1525 is with the M.2 to PCIe adapter.

Also the U.FL type connectors on the antenna wires that connect to the card in the MSI GT780DX are too large.I need antennas with MHF4 connectors that fit on M.2 wireless cards.

 

Why does it matter? Mpcie and M.2 are electrically identical.

 

Hi, I also just got the 1525 wireless card, but I can't manage it to activate the bluetooth, as it is not shown in the device manager. I tried to install the driver you mentioned, but it didn't help. Does anybody has a clue? Help would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

The bluetooth and regular wireless might use different connections, of which the one that bluetooth uses is not connected on your laptop. For example, it might be connected using USB, but that slot on your laptop might not have USB wired up.

 

Thanks for the reply. But I had before that the Intel 7265 with Bluetooth, this was working fine ?! any ideas?

 

Don't use the newest Bluetooth driver.I had issues with 3.0.0.419 also but no issues with the previous 3.0.0.400

I contacted Killer support about the Device Manager issue almost 6 weeks ago but no fix yet

Performance Suite 1.1.48.1376 works well.

 

Killer Performance Suite Version 1.1.49.1068

Qualcomm/Atheros Killer Performance Suite Version 1.1.49.1068

 

Hey I have the Killer N1525 in my GS60 Ghost Pro - 064. I have the 3.0.0.400 bluetooth driver and the 1.1.49.1068 Suite installed on Win 8.1. I'm trying to run multiple DS4 controllers on my pc for some multiplayer goodness. When I have two or more connected, the connection is awful, and doesn't receive input multiple times a second, making games unplayable. I've tried the newest bluetooth driver, the one I'm currrently using, and the 3.0.0.357 one, to no avail. It's not the DS4 tool, as it works perfectly with one wired and one wireless, and I have the same issue with one controller connected wirelessly and my phone connected to my laptop via bluetooth. I'm completely stumped. The intel 7260 on my old laptop could handle 4 controllers flawlessly. Does anybody else have this problem?

 

Can anyone tell me how this card compares to the Intel 7265?

 

Qualcomm Atheros Bluetooth Driver for Killer N1525

W8.1 32/64 v3.0.0.432:
http://download.msi.com/nb_drivers/bt/K1525_BT_3.0.0.432_Win8.1_3.0.0.432.zip

W7 32/64 v4.0.0.432:
http://download.msi.com/nb_drivers/bt/K1525_BT_4.0.0.432_Win7_4.0.0.432.zip

Using this driver device manager displays the Qualcomm Atheros QCA61x4 Bluetooth 4.0 correctly.

EDIT:
Installed driver in my MSI GS60 that has a Killer N1525

My Logitech BT Mouse M557 paired well and is working.

My Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 smartphones also paired well.

 

Wow i didn't realease how small the Killer 1525 AC is:



Also the card will come preinstalled in the MSI Z97I ACK

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8868/msi-goes-usb-3-1-at-ces-2015-the-msi-component-suite-tour/2

 

I have recently purchased an MSI GS60 - 064 which features a Killer N1525 and am having problems with wireless connectivity, especially while gaming.

During regular use I have not noticed any issues. However, when I am playing WoW, for example, and am raiding I often have stutters in connectivity for 1-2 seconds at a time. While this sounds mild it is obviously a huge deal and I cannot continue to use it if this is always the case. The unusal thing is I have only noticed this problem in high volume situations like when raiding, and not when idling.

I've tried doing all the research I can, and all I can find are some old issues with the GS60- 007 version that was fixed a while back with driver updates.

Obviously, the standard response is to say that I should not expect seamless performance playing on wireless, but I have an old Lenovo laptop which does not have this problem on the same wireless connection.

The reaction in this thread is mostly positive, but has anyone experienced issues like these? Any recommendations to a solution? Does it make sense that I only experience these issues in high volume situations?

 

Power Notebooks is selling the Killer N1525 Wireless-AC on ebay

Killer N1525 Wireless AC 866Mbps Speeds M 2 Form Factor | eBay

 

The Qualcomm Atheros driver download site has been gone for more than a week.

https://www.qca.qualcomm.com/products/killer-technology/solutions/wireless

 

Windows 8.1 Bluetooth driver version 3.0.0.373 for Killer N1525

Qualcomm Atheros 61x4 Wireless lan & Bluetooth Drivers Version 11.0.0.373

EDIT:
This driver version is a few months older than version 3.0.0.432 posted a few days ago so I don't know why station-drivers posted it today?

 

I hate this wireless card for bluetooth - I've only got it to appear once in around 30 boot ups, after I updated my BIOS. It paired ith all my devices as I wanted, but all traces of bluetooth vanished in the next boot. I've tried all the drivers mentioned here in this and thread and even tried switching black/gray cables back and forth but to no avail, it's like there's no bluetooth at all.

It's a shame because the WLAN performance of this thing was so much better than what I'm used to from Intel. Will probably get the 7265 if I can't resolve these bluetooth issues. Any ideas?

 

What is Device Manager showing in Bluetooth?

I had issues with driver 3.0.0.419

My MSI GS60 with the Killer N1525 and Bluetooth driver 3.0.0.432 on Windows 8.1 Pro x64 is working well pairing a Logitech M557 Bluetooth mouse.My Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 smartphones also pair well.

When I was trying out an Intel AC-7265NGW I would lose the mouse on reboots and cold starts and need to pair again each time.

 

There's absolutely nothing regarding bluetooth in the device manager. I've tried the above .432 driver and still nothing.

The bluetooth only showed up once after a random reboot and was working fine until the next reboot. It's completely vanished ever since.

 

Are you sure Bluetooth is enabled on your notebook.

I there a Bluetooth icon in the tray by the clock.