Guide to installing Intel 5300 wifi card in Sager NP2096

I've decided to upgrade the standard Intel 5100 wifi card to the Intel 5300 wifi card to see if I could improve the wireless performance around my University campus. As you know, the Intel 5100 has 2 internal antennas while the Intel 5300 has 3. To correct this, I purchased a Tyco internal wifi antenna from Ebay for $10. The Intel 5300 was purchased from Amazon (through Intel) for $34.

I wanted to post a quick guide in case anyone else is interested in upgrading to the Intel 5300. It's a fairly simple and straightforward procedure that took up less than half an hour of my time.

I did this in the evening so the lighting isn't too great and I had to turn off flash on my digital camera because it was just too bright so I apologize for the quality of the pictures.


Step 1

Flip your notebook over and remove the battery. Next, remove the large cover in the center right of your system by unscrewing the 3 screws holding it in place.



The box in red contains your standard Intel 5100 wifi card. In this picture, however, I have already switched it to the Intel 5300 by unscrewing the 2 screws holding it in place and replacing it. You must also remove the 3 tiny screws directly underneath the battery as these screws are holding the speaker cover in place. Now it's time to install the third antenna.

Step 2

Turn your notebook back to it's normal position and remove the speaker cover at the top of the keyboard. I did this by taking a flat screwdriver and popping it off. Then remove the keyboard itself by removing the 3 screws holding it in place and disconnecting it from the motherboard.



Next, remove the little caps that are noted in green boxes in the picture. Please note that there are 4 more of these caps at the very top of the LCD, for a total of 6 caps. You will find screws directly underneath the caps that hold the LCD frame to the LCD screen itself.

Keep the box in red in mind for now. This is where you will be inserting the third wireless antenna so that it comes out the back and clips right onto your Intel 5300.

Step 3

After removing the caps and the screws off the LCD frame, you should be left with something like this:



Now, remove the remaining 2 screws holding the LCD screen to the back LCD cover and make sure to prevent the back cover from falling as you do this because there are many wires connected to it. Place the third antenna behind the LCD screen, on the metallic sheet surface of the back LCD cover, and insert the antenna wire underneath the little opening noted in the green box in the picture. Continue to wire the antenna along the little cracks, all the way down and through the red box.

Step 4

So far, we've wired the antenna wire through the green and red boxes, but we have not actually fixed the antenna itself in place behind the LCD cover. There are numerous ways to do this, some better than others, and I am by no means an expert in this area. I just put my antenna in the middle, as it was the next logical spot since both the left and the right sides are already occupied by the default antennas. Note that both the left and right antennas are NOT located on the metal foil sheet. I tried cutting out a small metal foil square to make room for the third antenna but it seemed too hard so instead, I laid down black insulating tape right on top of the metal foil sheet, and placed the antenna right on top of the tape. I don't know how practical that really is, but I think it's better than leaving it directly on the foil itself.



Tape the antenna wire down with good insulating tape.

UPDATE

I decided to remove the black insulating tape underneath the antenna and proceeded to cut a square slightly larger than the head of the antenna out of the metallic foil. This was rather time consuming. If you choose to do this, make sure you peel the foil back slowly as it is glued with a very thick adhesive. I was lucky not to damage or rip anything and once I was done cutting, the foil went right back on as if it were brand new. So far so good!

Step 5

Assemble your notebook back together and clip the third antenna in the middle spot of your new Intel 5300 wifi card

Conclusion

This may seem complicated but it's really not. I have no personal experience with this kind of stuff and this is really the first time I've done anything like this.

I haven't actually measured the performance increase because I really have no way to do so. My router shows that I'm getting 300mbps, just like I was with the Intel 5100. To my knowledge, the theoretical 450 mbps isn't possible with the current hardware.

If anyone has any good wifi performance software or something, let me know so that I could post the results. I'm also trying to find out if my antenna configuration is correct so I'd like to see a program that tells me how many antennas my wifi card is using.

An update on performance now that I've had some time to test it out. I really don't notice any noticeable performance boost. Perhaps I should have positioned the third antenna in another location, but there's no way I'm cutting that foil again.

Hope this helps someone

 

Nice guide. It will certainly help some one who has this laptop. Let us know if you were able to measure the difference in the changes.

 

Still looking for a program to test how many antennas are in use.

Anyone know of any?

 

May i ask you.

What is exactly the tree "spot" in the antenna refer to?

Which one is AUX and else...?

Thanks

 

I'm not quite sure what you mean about the tree spot. The AUX designation is on the left, while the main connector is all the way to the right of the Intel 5300 wifi card. The third antenna goes in the middle, between the AUX and the main connectors.

By the way, I updated the original post with a few things now that I've had time to test my new setup.

 

Very nice guide; congrats!

 

Thank you sir

I figured it would be a nice little project. I've been so bored with my laptop lately; I wanted to do something interesting

 

I can't wait to see what happens the next time you get bored with it!

 

Believe me, I can't wait to see that happen either.

I've contemplated changing many things in this notebook, including the GPU lol...too bad it's not an easily attainable objective.

 

I've been contemplating all manner of hardcore mangling of my lil VAIO Z1A if/when I ever manage to get around to replacing it. First up, an easy-access panel for the hard drive - rev up your dremels!

 

Hmm, I didn't think it was upgradeable...what is it upgradeable to?

 

I actually don't remember the exact GPU it could be upgraded to but I do know that the 9600M GT in the NP2096 is upgradeable as it is not soldered onto the motherboard. My guess is that it won't take a significantly powerful GPU in there though so the 9800M series GPUs are probably out of the equation. And upgrading to a 9700M series GPU isn't really worth it, as you will not see a dramatic performance boost especially given that you'll probably spend around $500 finding a mobile GPU anyway.

I hear you, I think the next thing I'm gonna get is the new 500GB 7200RPM hard drive.

 

I asked Sager and the guy says,

"The GPU is not fixed on the motherboard. It is a removable module. However, there is no other models of GPU for this model."

 

Well, there are no other modules supported by the manufacturer. Otherwise, we would have options on which GPU we wanted when configuring the notebook.

I personally don't know how feasible it is to upgrade the GPU in the 2096 - all I know is that it is technically possible since the GPU can be removed. What would fit in there though, I don't know. From what I understand, the only other card that could potentially fit is the 9650M GT but there are other factors to take into consideration before trying this upgrade. And besides, it's pretty pointless trying to find an expensive 9650M GT and then going through the hassle of upgrading the 9600M GT, all for only a 15% performance increase.

 

What about a 9600m gt gddr3? Would that fit and what would the performance gain be worth?

 

That's a good question, one I don't really know the answer to. The performance increase would roughly be anywhere from 5-10% though.

An update on my Intel 5300 wifi card installation - I moved the newly installed third antenna from the top of the back cover to the bottom because I think that 3 antennas at the very top are interfering with each other. I had to cut out another square and all that, but it was much easier this time around. So far, my range does seem a little better.