(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best laptop network adapters

Thank you for taking the time to reply!

1. The case's website and manual mention that I should be looking for a power supply with a maximum length of 160 mm to aid in cable management so I picked the CORSAIR RMx Series for their size and quality. Would an SFX PSU help even more? Or would it require additional mounting hardware? Based on your comment I'll likely drop the wattage down to 650W.
   
2. I would like to use a wifi card, but I'm unsure of what I should be looking for. Some options include warnings not to use them with Intel processors. Others do not have that warning. I assume that I could use the latter if I knew what I should be using as my search term to find the antennas to install them. Any help would be appreciated.
   
3. Though I feel slightly cruel withholding the information, I'd like to just leave my need for mATX's expandability over mITX as private beyond saying it's due to my work. May I inquire as to your reason for asking? Is there perhaps a size issue that I've missed?
   
4. I have considered the Cerberus (particularly for its size), but I was unable to get a satisfactory answer about if using the HDD rack would compromise one or both of the bottom fans in my mATX Case posts. The SG10 allows for two HDDs and two SSDs behind the main space without compromising the six fans, though there may be questions as to cooling the HDDs.
   
   Thank you for the great questions! Any further help is greatly appreciated!

for wifi just buy something like this

makes sure it has an antenna

For motherboard stick with good brands like asrock, MSI, asus, gigabyte, evga

you need to make sure your motherboard is compatible with your CPU and RAM. Also, some boards do not allow overclocking your CPU, so if you intend to overclock be sure to get a board that supports it.

You can find your exact CPU and RAM model on pcpartpicker, add them to your build, and then search for motherboards. It will only show you boards that are compatible. If you have questions let me know

• WiFi: Use a PCMCIA WiFi Card. The 2000-era ThinkPads probably use internal MiniPCI (extra large, old style), but I wouldn't bother with it. ThinkPads are infamous for their whitelists.
  
• Hard Drive: IDE isn't very high performance anyway, so cheap flash memory should be fine. Just use a CompactFlash card with a $5-15 IDE-to-CF adapter. Any adapter will do, as long as it is 2.5". I recommend this double adapter , since you can plug two cards in at once! (1 master, 1 slave drive)
  
  • If you want to use SDCards (which are significantly cheaper and higher capacity than CF cards), make sure you use this specific CF-card to SDCard adapter as well. It is designed to send the correct IDE signals (important for the iPod).
    
  • All this might seem counterintuitive, but don't risk your money with strange, cheap CF-to-SDCard adapters. Stick to what works.

Thanks for the HWM Manual.


It seems as though The only Atheros chip that is Free is the AR9271, However the only pci-e card I found, comes with only a single antenna jack.:/ The AR9285 PCI-e card comes with two antenna jacks, but is not listed in the Atheros Free Firmware.

http://www.amazon.com/Atheros-Wireless-802-11b-150Mbps-Support/dp/B00FJ08VDO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1397188751&sr=8-3&keywords=atheros+ar9271

http://www.amazon.com/Atheros-AR5B95-AR9285-802-11B-PCI-E/dp/B005HMZ8B2

Appears as though my only option is to get the AR9271 and use only one antenna:/

Am I missing something? any other suggestions?

Thanks

Don't worry about the speed since like you said your Internet connection is going to be the limiting factor. Find one with the highest dBi gain you can. Also if your router supports 5GHz get a dual band card so that you can try on both the 2.4 and 5 frequencies. This popped up on a quick Amazon search but do your research. Cheers!

You can usually get an mini-pcie aircard to install internally. Definitely the best option if you can afford it.

Something like this (don't assume this will work in your laptop, find out for sure):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M933TPE/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1535523722&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00JY4SHEY&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1N5MCKQQ72C7DVTBEKEW

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor | $189.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard | ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard | $54.99 @ Newegg
Memory | Team - Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory | $176.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Crucial - MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $79.99 @ Amazon
Storage | Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $41.77 @ OutletPC
Video Card | MSI - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB ARMOR OCV1 Video Card | $273.98 @ Newegg
Case | NZXT - S340 Elite (Black/Blue) ATX Mid Tower Case | $82.99 @ SuperBiiz
Power Supply | SeaSonic - EVO Edition 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | $39.99 @ Newegg
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $990.69
| Mail-in rebates | -$50.00
| Total | $940.69
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-20 21:36 EST-0500 |

If you're fine with increasing your budget by ~$50-75 you can get a 1070 instead of a 1060. Not totally necessary, but seeing as how you'll be using a 144hz monitor, the extra framerate can definitely help.

[Here] (https://www.amazon.com/Meross-Adapter-600Mbps-Wireless-Antenna/dp/B075GTZ56K/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1511231859&sr=1-2-spons&keywords=wifi+dongle&psc=1) is a link to a usb wifi adapter.

You can already buy Ethernet cards that you can directly connect a fiber optic cable too. For example

Fiber optic cables are much thinner, have longer range and greater capacity, but as they are much more expensive than traditional Ethernet cables so Ethernet cables are the preferred choice when they are good enough.

The fastest broadband available in my area is 362 Mbits / s the fastest Ethernet standard can operate at 10000 Mbits / s so there is a lot of headroom before Ethernet isnt fast enough.

ebay has a nice article about the different types of Ethernet cat standard cables (essentially copper wires) here

Im using belkin pcmcia wifi G card on T20 and win xp (need it because of drivers for ccd camera) and it works ok. Its this card https://www.amazon.co.uk/BELKIN-Wireless-802-11g-Notebook-F5D7010/dp/B0040NH3WG

Looks like you have the Broadcom BCM4313 which is unsupported :(

You could try to either replace that with a supported card that is also whitelisted in HP's BIOS, or use a USB dongle instead. this card should work with OS X, though I don't know if your BIOS will accept it.

Here's a list of some usb wifi adapters you could check out too. I've personally used this one on Mountain Lion and it worked well, though since it doesn't have native drivers it relies on Realtek's drivers and wifi app, so it won't show the wifi icon in the menu bar (OS X thinks it's connected via ethernet) but it worked well and I got good speeds from it.

Wireless USB WiFi Adapter AC 600Mbps Dual Band 2.4G/150Mbps+5.8G/433Mbps WiFi Dongle with High-gain Antenna Complies with 802.11 b/g/n/ac Standard Supports Windows & Mac OS X System (Black) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0759J2V74/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_p-8VAbEYJNE1W

I use this one, works great. Gets 100-120mbps up and down on 5GHz without issues from across the house. Comes with a CD for drivers.

You most likely have a free mSATA slot inside. You can get something like this atheros card which doesn't require non-free firmware.

Nice! I wonder if this would work with a direct thunderbolt 3 to SFP+ adapter like this one...

I think you'll need about 8-10gbit.

Any legitimate DP 1.2 cable should do it. I find Amazon a bit more trustworthy for cables. I've ordered this Startech cable (but haven't tried it yet obviously) :


http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00JPINOCY

You might want to look at spending 20 bucks on a better supported card.

You are m.2.

https://youtu.be/1WWf1SJ3X44


https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005511/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html

https://www.amazon.com/AX200NGW-MU-MIMO-Wireless-Bluetooth-Support/dp/B07SH6GV5S/

Yes you can swap out the Wi-Fi card, its a standard interface. Unless they changed it in recent Stealths, this is the one in my late stealth V2 Killer Wireless 1535

As for the SSD, you can replace it with as big an SSD as you can buy that fits the M.2 2280 slot and physical size. Just keep in mind the SSDs in the blades are M.2 NVMe SSDs, they cost a pretty penny more than the standard 2.5in drive

The Intel AX200NGW is probably the best wifi card available if you do need to get one.

This is not the exact card I got, but I'm sure this will work for you.

Important!!!: Just know that you need to have wired internet access after you install it, so you can go into control panel hardware settings and update the driver. Wireless is completely off line until the driver update!

For the AX201 card, I read that it requires an Intel chip:https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000054819/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html

>The main difference between the two is that the Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 is a CRF module that uses the Intel proprietary interface, and thus can only be used with select Intel chipsets and platforms.

On Amazon for both AX200 and 201 cards it states:https://www.amazon.com/UFON-802-11ax-Adapter-Network-Wireless/dp/B07SH6GV5S?th=1

>★【Applicability】: The wifi 6 adapter can be used in Laptops with an M.2 connector standard Key A or E (Not for Key M and B,Key M and B is used in SSD) socket or desktop with an M.2 slot printed with "WiFi" logo. The Driver support Win10 64bit/ Google Chrome OS/ Linux. DO NOT use on systems with BIOS lock(example: older Lenovo). Use only on Intel based systems that are runing Win10 64bit.

yeah I doubt that adapter would fit. This image is more of what I was thinking about. You'll have to make sure that the antenna wires are long enough to make up for the connectors location on the board.

Amazon link

Transporting video (a bandwidth hungry service) over Wi-Fi (a relatively slow network) often results in issues. Chromecast devices are flawed because they are 2.4 GHz only and only have a single antenna. That's a link rate of 65 Mbps and actual throughput in the 30s (under optimal conditions). Since you only have a 802.11g router the actual peak throughput is only about 23 Mbps. Once you factor in distance, 802.11 congestion, 2.4 GHz interference, and any other impediments such as the TV itself being in the way of the Wi-Fi signal, the actual throughput will be less. Streaming Netflix from your laptop on Wi-Fi means there are three concurrent streams on the wireless network: one from the base station to your laptop, one from your laptop to the base station, and one from the base station to the Chromecast.

You need to offload devices from the wireless network and plug them in when possible. Second, upgrade devices to 802.11n as 802.11g is just too slow. If you buy a new wireless router but your client devices still have 802.11g radios, that device will still connect at 802.11g speeds.

The laptop probably can be upgraded by swapping the mini-PCIe 802.11 card. The PS3 can't, but you could plug it into a wireless bridge adapter (Ethernet cable between the PS3 and the device which connect to the wireless network). Ideally you'd run Ethernet cable to the PS3 to reduce online game latency.

Three lengths of Cat5e that are joined with RJ45 couplers. The cable was then tested to ensure that it is not miswired.

It's no different than if I ran a single length of Cat5e from one wall plate to another and then used another length of cable to plug into the router and satellite.

router Asus AC3200

Dongle: Kootek AC 600Mbps USB Wifi Adapter Wireless 802.11ac Wifi Dongle Dual Band 2.4 GHz / 5GHz AC Adapter for PC Windows 10
System
REALTEK Wifi app


What else would help?

​

Like this M.2/NGFF?

https://www.amazon.com/AX200NGW-MU-MIMO-Wireless-Bluetooth-Support/dp/B07SH6GV5S

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33010619009.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.260411d1FmrxpX&algo_pvid=0114fa76-ed54-4daf-af1f-bb6f6bf28a5e&algo_expid=0114fa76-ed54-4daf-af1f-bb6f6bf28a5e-4&btsid=f145e6f6-27d2-4896-ba2a-a8d3dc87f9c5&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_52

The problem with booting without the flash drive is probably related to the EFI partition on your hard drive not being set up correctly. Try mounting the EFI partition with a program like Clover Configurator and confirm that everything is on the partition inside the folder entitled EFI. You've probably already seen it, but the guide here has everything you need for macOS on the T420.

A good guide to get iMessage working is available here.

Two WiFi adapters that will work out-of-the-box in the T420 and require no configuration whatsoever in macOS are the Dell DW1510 and Dell DW1515. You will need to install a modified BIOS without the WiFi whitelist to use either one of these cards. That modified BIOS is available here.

I couldn't tell you for sure, I'm using this without any issues right now, however.

So I had just done a basic search on amazon for "5ghz adapter" and this came up:

https://www.amazon.com/Kootek-600Mbps-Adapter-Wireless-802-11ac/dp/B01M3V6BGK/

Would this work?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A31IXVY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SH6GV5S

You can upgrade the WiFi module to the latest WiFi 6 model for $19 so it's not a big differentiator.

It does exist.

Here is the desktop version of your link

You could get a 5ghz network bridge and connect the PS3 to it.

There are always USB adapters such as this one or ones that go into your PCIE slots if you have an open slot and your CPU has enough PCIE lanes such as this one .

I was about to order the WiFi card you linked but I'm a little worried it wont work on the ubuntu 4.14 kernel. According to this Intel page it seems to require a 5.1+ kernel. If so is there an older card you recommend? I don't care about connection speed as the networks I connect to are old and slow anyways.

​

edit: perhaps this card? According the Intel page it works on 4.14+ kernels. I don't know if "no vpro" is a problem as my system has a vPro inside sticker.

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Wireless-Ac-9260-2230-Gigabit/dp/B079QH5KW1/

edit2: I went ahead and ordered the Intel AC 9260. Can always order something else too if it doesn't work.

Smh im a dumbass

Card- https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07SH6GV5S?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Cables- https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01GMBUS8O?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title