on upgrading wireless adapter to intel 7260

hello,

i'm a two-year owner of a clevo p150hm.
i'd like to make the most out of my laptop before diving into the market again. ssd has done this superbly.

the next piece i'd like to experiment with is my wifi card.
my purchase came with the stock card, the atheros ar9002wb-1ng -- supporting b/g/n.
my knowledge of this stuff remains a bit embarrassing, but i've come here to seek help anyhow.

a few deals:

-say i purchased intel's 7260, would i see a fairly substantial improvement in hd streaming, etc? i'm a bit miffed as to how this all works.

if i'm understanding this correctly, one issue amongst several (taking into account distance, walls, neighbors, etc.) is that my wifi card is not maximizing my router's potential. granted, i'm not utilizing an ac router -- it is netgear's wireless-n 300 router -- but should i not expect increased bandwidth and stability by replacing my wifi card?
even then, that's confusing to me because my current wifi card is supposed to support n. am i really going to benefit substantially by investing in a wireless card (intel's 7260) that makes use of same wifi technology -- N?

conducting a speed test, my download speed amounted to roughly 19 Mbps and windows tells me that my signal strength invariably waves between 2 to 3 bars. i'm not well-versed enough to know whether this is rather pathetic or not, but i do know that i can't stream hd events online as much as i'd like.

really appreciate all the knowledge within the community.
people have always been very accommodating.

 

19 Mb/s is not bad, really. You will not benefit substantially from upgrading the card while still using a wireless N router though, as you alluded to. Also: bandwidth is determined more by your ISP and not your Wi-Fi adapter/receiver.

The 7260 is a great card, but unless you pair it with an AC dual band router, you're not going to see a leap in performance. If you want better signal strength, consider a 1103 Killer card - though it has no Bluetooth.

 

19 mb/s still feels slow though.

so you're saying that the 1103 killer card boosts N wifi performance markedly while the 7260 doesn't?

 

Dude 19 Mbps is great, I get around 10 Mbps on average and still manage. Your signal strength may be a bigger issue here. I am about 30 feet away from my router, and even with my bedroom door closed, I still get full signal strength (5 bars). What you mentioned reminds me of the 8 year old laptop I have. Even sitting right next to the router I get 3 bars and the signal would still drop from time to time. And it sure felt a lot slower than 10 Mbps.

As you said youself, if you don't have an AC router, there's not much point in getting the 7260. I myself opted for the 6235 for precisely that reason, and I couldn't be happier with my choice.

 

I didn't say the Killer card would boost performance per se, but you would at least be looking at better range. The Killer card is also optimized for gaming; if you do any of that, then it's a great card.

 

Yes it can maintain speeds out further or provide faster speeds at the same distance as you move away.

 

Keep in mind your speeds are always limited to the slowest part. So a AC card on a N router will only get N speeds.