F12 - Upgrade wifi card to AC?

I searched and found the writeup for "Installing Intel Wireless Card 6200" in the "VAIO F Series Owners Lounge" thread, but was wondering if I can upgrade to a faster "n" or even "ac" card without any compatibility issues with the motherboard? I have the ASUS RT-AC56u router, and would like to take advantage of it's faster ac speed. Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

bump. Anybody?

 

FWIW: After sifting through the overwhelming flood of replies, I ended up rolling the dice and bought an Intel 7260.HMWG AC card off Amazon for ~$34. Removal of the old card and installation of the new one took about 15 mins. Had to download the driver off Intel's website, but other than that it works great without any hiccups.

 

That's great news. I think many people have vaio F like myself but never really thought of upgrading the wifi card. The method requires reaching to the area between the display and its cover, thus putting people off. Does ac give wider range than n, so I can still get signal from further distance?

 

It actually does not involve removing the screen. You just have to remove the bottom panel. First you remove the battery, BR/DVD/CD drive, hard drive, RAM cover, then all of the screws that go through the bottom panel. Then it just pops off. From there you just pop out the old card and remove the two antenna wires from it and reattach them to the new card and pop it back in the wifi socket. Reassembly is the same as above only in reverse.

 

Oh i see...so it's just the usual 2 antenna rather than 3

 

If possible, please put up pictures and a guide for others who would like to follow in your footsteps. A link to the adapter you bought would also be appreciated.

Sorry about the lack of replies, but it is lonely out at the front. Consider yourself a pioneer.

 

To access the wifi card is very easy, take off the back panel as he said and you have it. Without messing with the antennas makes it very easy. Also, he already said he got Intel 7260.HMWG AC. The rest is DIY.

 

Here are a couple pics of the old and new cards next to each other, and a couple of the old card still in the socket before it was removed.
And there is a website with some good writeups on how to break down our laptops, but it's link is blocked on this forum. Just google "vaio f series disassembly guide - teardown". Should be the first link you see.