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No grey antenna on M17x?

post #1 of 7
9/29/09 at 12:13am
Thread Starter 
So i recently got a m17x and this thing had the worst wifi card in it ever. My airport extreme a floor apart was consistently at 2 bars(poor) while my old m1730 with a intel 4950 was getting next to max all the time (4/5 bars, good to excellent)

Anyway, since the m17x had a half height (yeah they jipped us) card I bought a intel 5300 and put it in, but I noticed that the m17x only has 2 antenna connectors. (went from 3 mini pci e slots on the m1730 to 1 taken mini pci e and 1 half mini pci e on the m17x =() Anyway, the card works fine and had equivalent to maybe better connectivity than the 4965 card (3 connector card), but.... I'd love the more performance if possible.

Anyway, getting to the point... anybody install a 3rd antenna(grey) on their laptop? Any performance differences?
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post #2 of 7
9/29/09 at 9:26am
No but what router are you currently running?
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post #3 of 7
9/29/09 at 6:44pm
Thread Starter 
I'm sorry the original post wasn't clear. I run an airport extreme base station and using the aw1510 i'm getting the 2 bars. The 4950 gets a pretty consistent 3-4 bars (sometimes 5) while the 5300 gets a consistent 4 to 5 bars (of 5)
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post #4 of 7
10/1/09 at 9:35am
Ah so you're comparing the wireless signal strength with other notebooks.

Alienware describes their internal wifi as "Internal Wireless a/g/draft-n with MIMO (2x2) Technology)"

It's probably made by Intel, can you confirm in device manager?
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post #5 of 7
10/1/09 at 12:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sccpu3d View Post
...
Anyway, getting to the point... anybody install a 3rd antenna(grey) on their laptop? Any performance differences?
Though the 3rd antenna supposedly enhances the connection, I have yet seen any improvements with the "current" routers that we use in house.

cheers ...
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post #6 of 7
10/2/09 at 12:45am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve@NBF View Post
It's probably made by Intel, can you confirm in device manager?
The wireless that came with the M17x is actually a broadcom chip (Dell1501 aka AW1501 aka Broadcom 4311)

Quote:
Originally Posted by qhn View Post
Though the 3rd antenna supposedly enhances the connection, I have yet seen any improvements with the "current" routers that we use in house
are you comparing the same chip with and without the third antenna or different ones? also, which manufacturer's wireless cards do you have?
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post #7 of 7
10/2/09 at 6:28am
I use TP-Link 3T3R WLAN 11n without the 3rd antenna, since my comp does not have one

cheers ...
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