Mini USB Wireless N Adapters - How well do they work?

Speed · 11 May 2010 at 20:52

Hi Guys,

Looks like the only option for wireless on my Laptop is USB after the Mini-PCI has packed in. Must be something fundamentally wrong as a new Mini-PCI card doesn't help. Anyways...

So how well do these mini USB wireless adapters work? With their size, I'm guessing receiption might be an issue?

This is the sort of thing I'm thinking of:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-035-EX&groupid=46&catid=1600&subcat=

Thanks,

Mark

Azra · 13 May 2010 at 19:22

I've used edimax ones in customer builds and they are surprisingly good.

PatZ1989 · 14 May 2010 at 09:34

my friend had one, and he was less then amused. any game which required online connectivity would just occasionally drop out

Speed · 14 May 2010 at 12:15

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm not a huge fan of Edimax having had issues before but after HP got back to me it appears that this will be my only option.

Kotu · 15 May 2010 at 02:32

I tried a few different makes but the only one i found stable for online gaming was the edimax one.

Azra · 15 May 2010 at 16:20

I have never used for gaming but they stream hd content without any discernable loss or certainly in the places I have used them.

me227 · 15 May 2010 at 16:23

The mini pci network cards can be quite easy to replace on some laptops. You should have a look.

Speed · 15 May 2010 at 16:24

Hmm, well I went ahead and ordered that cheap OcUK/Edimax version yesterday, hopefully should be here Monday.

I just hope it works properly!

Speed · 15 May 2010 at 16:26

me227 said:
The mini pci network cards can be quite easy to replace on some laptops. You should have a look.

Tried that, its not the card. It appears to be a serious and common problem with the F500 series, needing a motherboard replacement: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c01480071

dbeckett · 20 May 2010 at 23:42

Speed said:
Hmm, well I went ahead and ordered that cheap OcUK/Edimax version yesterday, hopefully should be here Monday.

I just hope it works properly!

Any update on how well it worked? Looking into these for a mini pc I have, currently has a pci wireless network card but is very unreliable

Speed · 21 May 2010 at 11:41

It worked ok, signal strength wasn't great but I expect that is more down to our house and its construction than anything else. Even with the signal strength right down the internet was still quick so it looks good for our usage.

I would however suggest that if you do anything like gaming, downloading etc you should go for a different PCI Card. The only reason I'm using a dongle is because I've been forced to, a decent card should work much better.