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I've got a HP ProBook with a rather meh Qualcomm QCA9565 wireless N card (1x1), and I'm considering getting an Intel Wireless AC card to replace it.

I have two choices: the Intel 3160AC which is a 1x1 card, or the 7260AC which is a 2x2 card.

Would there be any use installing a 2x2 card, especially when my laptop shipped with only 1 antenna embedded in the display? Would I be able to connect on the 5GHz band? Thanks!

ryanswj
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  • You can always add your own second band to the laptop.Just find a laptop wifi antenna from an old laptop .Connect it to your wifi card in your new laptop.On the other end connect it somewhere which I can get good signal like where the original antenna is.Just remember that HP laptops have a wifi whitelist which has to rremoved – Suici Doga Jun 08 '16 at 02:08

2 Answers2

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Don't bother installing a 2x2 card if you aren't going to connect it to a well-designed, well-placed second antenna.

I've seen 2x2 cards/drivers choke when one of their antennas is disconnected. It seemed as if the card wasted time trying to do 2x2 that would never work, instead of just sticking to 1x1 operation.

Besides, a 1x1 AC card can reach PHY rates up to 433Mbps, whereas a 2x2 N card (such as the 7260AN you're looking at) would max out at 300Mbps even if both radio chains were hooked up to good antennas. If only giving one radio chain an antenna, that card will max out at 150Mbps. So go with the 433Mbps card instead of the 150Mbps card.

Spiff
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  • Except 11ac isn't helping unless he has a matching access point. – Daniel B Dec 11 '14 at 22:32
  • @DanielB Doesn't everyone have 802.11ac access points? They've been out since mid-2012, good ones since mid-2013! :-) – Spiff Dec 11 '14 at 23:38
  • Haha, certainly not. They're becoming affordable now, slowly. Virtually all ISP routers are 11n. Also, "normal" users don't upgrade, ever. – Daniel B Dec 12 '14 at 05:55
  • I have a 802.11ac router, the Asus RT-AC68U :) – ryanswj Dec 13 '14 at 07:45
  • I've gone ahead and bought the 3160AC as well. Thanks all for your participation! – ryanswj Dec 13 '14 at 07:45
  • @Spiff **“Virtually all ISP routers are 11n.”** And all are of varying quality in the way they negotiate with other 802.11n devices thanks to the many different factors required to get 802.11n to work: 2.4Ghz/5Ghz, etc… – Giacomo1968 Dec 13 '14 at 07:49
  • @Spiff, but the OP was comparing it to an 2x2 AC card, not 2x2 N (as you wrote). Then I have a question: would it help to shortcircuit the secondary antenna's socket on the card (in some way) to make the card not choke during operation? – saulius2 Aug 10 '16 at 09:53
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    @saulius2 OP edited his question from 7260AN to 7260AC after I answered, but didn't mention it to me. It doesn't really change the answer that you shouldn't bother putting in a card with more radio chains than your enclosure has antennas. Putting a 50 ohm terminator on the open antenna connector isn't likely to make much difference. If the card is going to choke on having one chain impaired, it's going to choke no matter what way that chain is impaired. – Spiff Aug 10 '16 at 10:11
  • Ah, thanks for clearing that out. Then, the likeness of the card choking (or not) is decided not only by it's software (in OS) / firmware but by the hardware too (I state this as an electronics engineer) – properly terminated input RF circuit should give different electrical "view" to the RF amplifier when compared to open RF circuit. I mean, when proper zero signal is generated on the RF amp output, nothing prevents the design possibility for rest of the card simply switch it's internal logic to operate in 1x1 way. But that fact is to be decided in field test only, I guess. Thanks once more. – saulius2 Aug 17 '16 at 08:29
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Nope, you actually can't do it, aside from the supposed advantage of a 2x2 card on a system with one antenna, there is one peculiar problem with most of the HP notebooks, the hardware is BIOS locked, so you are limited to choices offered by your BIOS(unless you want to modify/flash it, at your own risk). Second, upgrades in HP notebooks require you to have HP part number on it, a hard burned serial number sort of thing. So you have to double check if that is the case with your notebook too. Now, as for 5GHz and 2.4GHz dual bands, nah, there is not that much difference,bottleneck always will be the physical I/O of disk/network, not router(in 99% of the cases). And the only advantage you get with dual band routers/host devices, practically is that you can separate the data streams, much like giving two lanes for data on same highway.

Siddharth
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  • Thanks for your reply. I've actually gone and gotten the 3160AC single-band card and it works perfect. Btw my laptop (ProBook 4x0 Gx series) does not appear to have a whitelist. – ryanswj Jan 21 '15 at 14:27
  • @ryanswj That is great, apparently HP doesn't block their business users for such upgrades. – Siddharth Jan 21 '15 at 15:15
  • I think Hp has recently gone easy on the white-list, it's not just business laptops but other mid-range laptops too seem to work with replacements. – Ashesh Sep 21 '15 at 18:31