Which Dell wireless card for notebook

[flyted]

Is there any reason to upgrade from the most basic wireless Dell card if I only plan to use it for email? They offer so many options now its difficult to figure out whats worth the extra money or isn't.

 

[JackMDS]

For casual use any basic 802.11g would be good.

 

[flyted]

Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Mini-card [add $20 or $1/month1]
Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-card [add $25 or $1/month1]
Intel Next -Gen Wireless -N Mini-card [add $35 or $2/month1]
Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini-Card [Included in Price

Thanks for the reply, should have posted this the 1st time. The bottom one(included in price) was what I was planning on. Any reason for the others? Don't want to be too cheap and end up with an obsolete technology in 2 years, but also don't want to pay for something I'll never use or need. I got some other questions about the processor, like the Celeron540 is standard, $200 more for the Pent dualcore T2330. Again for simple use is the Celeron enough as I remember the old Celerons were poorly thought of. I see you have a lot of posts and have been around a while, mind if I ask you some other off topic questions or would you prefer I go to the appropriate forums to talk processor, memory etc? In any case thanks again.

 

[kevnich2]

Well, this is technology we're talking about. ANY AND ALL of those options will be obsolete in 2 years time. The Next-Gen or Wireless-N cards will be obselete when 802.11n is actually certified. For your use, the 1395 would be just fine, as would the Intel 3945. I wouldn't get the N cards right now at all though.

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: flyted
Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini-Card [Included in Price .

802.11g would be the major public source for Wireless for long time, and a Wireless card can be easily changed if necessary.

Unfortunately people get obsess with ?obsolete technology? which is a nonsensical term most of the time.

I have state of the art Desktops because I need them to be able to do what I do for work.

I use a 4 years old Toshiba Celeron Laptop. The Yahu & Hurrah crowd would call it obsolete but it does perfectly what I need to do with a Laptop.

That said, if Battery performance is important to you so should look close at the specs, there are differences in power consumption that are related to the CPU.

 

[flyted]

That makes sense. Ok so we settled the wireless card issue. Actually I misquoted the upgrade price from the Celeron540 to the dualcore T2330, it is only $50. Seems odd but what I could tell from the intel site is that the T2330 may use less power and have more power saving features, does that sound right? Where could I look up power use for proc's? If so, its worth $50. Also read you can save power by getting more ram so it uses the HD less, I think I can upgrade from 1GB shared ram to 2GB for another $50, that sounds like a good deal if it also saves power. And finally and I'll leave you guys alone, the included battery is a 4-cell 28Wh and $129 for the 56Wh? Just looking at replacement batteries and if they only last 2 years anyway, I'll just stay with the 28.

 

[flyted]

Alright, change of plans here. Everything is now settled except the wireless card issue on a different model. The Dell 1395 802.11g is free. The Dell 1490 802.11a/g is $10 extra. I read a review from an owner of this model and he said to make sure you get the upgraded wifi card or you'll be sorry, he didn't mention if it was the a/g or N card. On another review site they mentioned that 802.11a is gaining populularity at public wifi sites, cafes, etc (thats what I'll use 95% of the time). I thought the 11g model was the latest and greatest and a and b were going away? That said, anything true about what I read and is it worth $10 extra?

Thanks

 

[bluestrobe]

I would go for the $10 extra. Doesn't hurt to have a/b/g capability.

 

[kevnich2]

As bluestrobe said, if you can go a/b/g, go for it, you'll be happy with it. As far as processor, you want dual core. Stay away from the celeron crap. It's worth the extra money to get as much processor as you can afford. As far as memory & battery is concerned, you can save a ton of $$$ buy just purchasing upgrades on ebay. I was able to get two 8 cell batteries for about $65 compared to the $160/each retail from Dell. CPU on the other hand is much harder to upgrade. As far as power usage, dual core CPU's are actually very good as power consumption. My centrino dual core laptop uses far less power than my old P4 laptop and has probably 6x more CPU power.

 

[Muadib]

I think that you would be nuts not to go for the Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-card for the extra $25. It works on both 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz, so it won't be obsolete when the 802.11n spec is finalized.

 

[spikespiegal]

so it won't be obsolete when the 802.11n spec is finalized.

No, but the laptop will.

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: spikespiegal

so it won't be obsolete when the 802.11n spec is finalized.

No, but the laptop will.

:thumbsup:

It is true even on April Fool's Day.

Actually April Fool's day might be a Good day to buy the Draft-n.

 

[programmer]

I'd spring for an Intel-brand card. Their software works really well (the PRO/Set package)

 

[kevnich2]

Don't buy the N crap out there, I would buy the A/G card though. And like programmer said, intel seems to work better than the dell cards but that is just everyone's preference.