Which of these two wireless cards? Time to say buh-bye to the Atheros.

[Trijicon]

Ok so I got my new ram installed (have 16GB now) and am a happy camper with it! Blazzzzing fast now opening word docs and applications.... I installed a 4GB Crucial stick and it works great with the stock Samsung with no conflicts at all.

So I said when I first got this machine I was going to keep her stock (yeah right) but these small upgrades are pretty cheap to do and add some great preformance.

I have not had to much trouble with the installed Atheros card but I am sure I can get a speed increase with a new Intel card. I also heard that the Atheros can cause latency and lagging so what the hell, for 30-40 bucks why not right?

So can anyone tell me what's the difference between these two cards? They look to be almost the same to me as far as the description goes with just a tad difference in the nomenclature.

I do not use bluetooth so I dont need the 6230 and I hear these 6300 cards are much faster...

So here is the 1st one: Intel Network Wifi Link 6300 633AN.HMWWB Half Height Minicard Vpro Enabled Excellent Performance 450Mpbs

http://www.amazon.com/Network-633AN-HMWWB-Minicard-Excellent-PerformanceNew/dp/B00517AOMG/ref=cm_cr_...


And the 2nd: Intel Ultimate N 633ANHMW IEEE 802.11n (draft) Wi-Fi Adapter - Mini PCI Express - 450Mbps

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Ultimate-633ANHMW-802-11n-Adapter/dp/B0038A9HSK/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top



Any help is once again appreciated, Thanks!

[BrodyBoy]

Trijicon wrote:
I have not had to much trouble with the installed Atheros card but I am sure I can get a speed increase with a new Intel card. I also heard that the Atheros can cause latency and lagging so what the hell, for 30-40 bucks why not right?

You can only get a speed increase if your router runs a faster network. If your router operates at 150Mbps, no card upgrade can improve your speeds beyond that maximum. And I think that most owners of "stock" machines have found that, with the right drivers, the Atheros card actually works pretty well. WHen I've experimented with it in clean installs, using newer drivers, I get a strong, consistent 150Mbps.

If, on the other hand, you have a two-stream router (this is not the same as dual-band....) that operates at up to 300Mbps, a card upgrade should give you faster data transfers within your network. (It doesn't impact internet speeds, which are already much slower than the numbers we're talking about.)

So can anyone tell me what's the difference between these two cards? They look to be almost the same to me as far as the description goes with just a tad difference in the nomenclature.

I do not use bluetooth so I dont need the 6230 and I hear these 6300 cards are much faster...

So here is the 1st one: Intel Network Wifi Link 6300 633AN.HMWWB Half Height Minicard Vpro Enabled Excellent Performance 450Mpbs

And the 2nd: Intel Ultimate N 633ANHMW IEEE 802.11n (draft) Wi-Fi Adapter - Mini PCI Express - 450Mbps

Any help is once again appreciated, Thanks!

They are the same card, with the "vPro-enabled" version having some enterprise security compatibility features the other one doesn't. Intel's vPro Technology initiative adds some hardware-based security and IT-management features to certain combinations of CPU, chipset, and network card. (Shorthand: you don't need that.)

Now, keep in mind my previous comments when assuming the 6300 is "much faster." A card can only be as fast as the network you are using. If, like the vast majority of people, you have a single-stream (150Mbps) or two-stream (300Mbps) router, those are the absolute maximum speeds ANY card can attain on those networks. The 6300 will work on three-stream networks, which can theoretically reach speeds of up to 450Mbps, but practically no one uses those kinds of networks. (The few available routers are expensive and they haven't performed all that well in real-world use.) But on a 150Mbps network, it will run at 150Mbps. On a 300Mbps network, it will (usually) run between about 230-300Mbps.

Okay....all the speed talk aside.....I do find that Intel cards give me a more stable wireless connection. If you run a faster network, don't expect the 6300 to give you a constant 300Mbps, because faster networks are more vulnerable to degrading factors. But you won't have to deal with random drop-outs or flaky connections...and that's a good thing. 🙂

[Trijicon]

Thanks BrodyBoy that answers alot 🙂

I have a Linksys E4200 that states it's rated at 300 - 450Mbps so it should play nice with a new card: http://www.jr.com/linksys/pe/LKS_E4200/

Could the Atheros card be bottlenecking my internet speeds at all? The speed tests I have done show my rate of upload and download speeds are hanging right around 25 - 30Mpbs Download and 12 - 18 Upload...

If a new card won't increase these speeds at all then I'm thinking "why fix what's not broken" because I do not do much file sharing on my internal network and I mainly use my router for basic wireless internet connection.

Thanks for your input and you indept explaination, it is much appreciated!

[BrodyBoy]

Trijicon wrote:
Thanks BrodyBoy that answers alot 🙂

I have a Linksys E4200 that states it's rated at 300 - 450Mbps so it should play nice with a new card: http://www.jr.com/linksys/pe/LKS_E4200/

Could the Atheros card be bottlenecking my internet speeds at all? The speed tests I have done show my rate of upload and download speeds are hanging right around 25 - 30Mpbs Download and 12 - 18 Upload...

If a new card won't increase these speeds at all then I'm thinking "why fix what's not broken" because I do not do much file sharing on my internal network and I mainly use my router for basic wireless internet connection.

Thanks for your input and you indept explaination, it is much appreciated!

Well, as I said, I have found the Intel cards to be pretty solid. And if you have a faster router, the Intel card can take advantage of that, while the Atheros can't.

If your router is capable of running a 3x3 network (that's three-stream, up to 450Mbps max), you would need to install a third antennae to get any speeds above 300Mbps. As already mentioned, this won't impact internet speeds, so it's not worth the trouble if you don't transfer/stream a lot of intranetwork data. (Also, those networks can be more finicky, so staying with 300Mbps probably hits the "more speed/less headaches" sweet spot. ;))

I don't think the WLAN is bottlenecking your internet speeds...those actually look pretty good. (That's faster than my internet service!) Do you have use cable internet?

[WhirledNews]

I replaced my Atheros card with the Intel 633AN.HMWWB 802.11a/b/g/n Mini PCI-Express Wireless Adapter about a month ago and it works really well.

Bought it here for about $5 cheaper with free shipping:
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=INT-633AN

Those cards don't have bluetooth support like the 6230 does, so keep that in mind if you are wanting it.

[Trijicon]

WhirledNews wrote:
I replaced my Atheros card with the Intel 633AN.HMWWB 802.11a/b/g/n Mini PCI-Express Wireless Adapter about a month ago and it works really well.

Bought it here for about $5 cheaper with free shipping:
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=INT-633AN

Those cards don't have bluetooth support like the 6230 does, so keep that in mind if you are wanting it.

Yeah, I don't use the bluetooth stuff actually... I just use those mini USB connections for a wireless mouse and that's about it. All that bluetooth technology stuff is more than I need really.

Cool, thanks for the link on that card... That is one of the ones I was looking at and it will probably be the one I go with if I decide to replace this Atheros card. Thanks for saving me a couple of bucks and free shipping to boot! 🙂

[Trijicon]

I have cable internet... If I can't expect to see faster speeds on the net I may just stay with this card as it does not sound like that intel card would up those speeds at all and since intranet is not something I use then what's the point of upgrading it really.

Heck, I am glad I got a system that is pretty much 'bugless' ... I have had none of the issues that I have been reading about on here. Every once in a while my track-pad will get a tad glitchy but I figured out that all I have to do is go into the touch pad properties and decrease then increase the speed of movement and when it reconfigures that it clears up any glitchiness... Either doing that or plugging in and uplugging a mouse also clears that up.