Compaq notebook wireless WTF thread, help?

[electrosoccertux]

So I'm spec'ing out a Compaq laptop, AMD processor. Definitely want wireless no duh...but I have two choices...the
54g(TM) 802.11b/g WLAN w/ 125HSM/SpeedBooster(TM)
for $25

or the
54g(TM) Integ. Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN & Bluetooth
for $44 PLUS it requires the "ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M w/productivity ports", an addition $25.

Battery life is definitely important to me; getting the 12-cell battery...
So I'm wondering...would you pay the extra $69 for integrated wireless? Or would you get the one with SpeedBooster (only $25). I guess the main factor would be the difference in battery life I would see between the integrated and whatever that other thing is (I don't understand how it would not be integrated, unless they just ship you the PCMCIA card and you plug it in yourself).

Any help would be great, thanks.

edit: Linux support is a plus, but I hear much progress has been made on the broadcomm chipsets, so I don't forsee that being too much of a deciding factor between the Speedbooster vs. Integrated (although I'm assuming the Speedbooster one is supported).

edit2: sorry, I should have done more research before posting. They're both the same integrated technology, the only difference is the second one includes bluetooth.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Yeah I was wondering WTH you were saying. Personally I'd get the bluetooth & Productivity ports, get the stuff that is a PITA or that you can't add later.

12-cell is a must of course.

 

[electrosoccertux]

LOL.

Anyhow, I think thats what I'm gonna do. The bluetooth is a big plus too because my cell phone is bluetooth, and supports "remote dialing" [I guess thats the term]. If the laptop has bluetooth I can use it to dial up Juno through my cell phone and connect at 9.6kbps. Not much for browsing with any sort of images enabled, and the ping to google is 996ms, but it would be fine for text-only surfing and chatting. Haven't been able to try it in the car (call may get dropped due to Cingular's low voice quality) but with all those rollover minutes and unlimited night and weekends, always-available connectivity would be awesome.

 

[cheesehead]

I'd go for an external card. Turning a wireless card on and off in Linux is a pain in the kiester, and cards with full driver support are'nt too hard to find.

I've seen Orinoco Gold's on E-bay for less than 40$. These will outperform almost anything.

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: Cheesehead
I'd go for an external card. Turning a wireless card on and off in Linux is a pain in the kiester, and cards with full driver support are'nt too hard to find.

I've seen Orinoco Gold's on E-bay for less than 40$. These will outperform almost anything.

I disagree. Stuffing external card makes laptop less useable. Ndiswrapper utility makes wifi in linux as easy as in windows.

 

[electrosoccertux]

OK I opted for the internal wireless. From what I've read its not that hard to get working in Linux, plus much progress has been made lately reverse engineering it. Should be lower power anyhow.