Intel 6300 with RT-N66U

[Quicken]

I recently installed the Intel 6300 on my ASUS K55A (Windows 8 64 bit) and have been fiddling around with the WIFI card settings to achieve the "300" mbps that it brags about on two streams, yes, I know, that's the theoretical speed. I was actually curious about others' settings and if anyone else is seeing a consistent 300 mbps. After a ton of reading and testing this card, I have been getting consistent, but not constant, 270 mbps with two antenna's on the card, my router forced to 40 mhz on both 2.4 and 5. I am working on my laptop that is two floors directly above my n66u router (located in my basement).

I have set my band preference to 5 ghz and then 2.4 ghz to see the differences in speed and have been getting the 270 mbps regularly on 5 and 240 mbps on 2.4. So I now keep it at preferred band of 5. I have tried "no preference" and noticed some major stop/start while watching basketball online. At a band preference of 5 ghz, I see no issues whatsoever...it is as smooth as butter.

I plan on getting the third antenna, but was wondering if anyone has a consistent 300 mbps on two streams (my laptop is fully capable of utilizing this card to it's fullest offering). If so, what is your config and how far are you from your router.

I figure, if it "can" push out 300 right now, why can't I get it since inSSIDer is showing that my router is pushing 450 mbps. Probably beating a dead horse on this topic, but I am rather weird when it comes to maximizing hardware capabilities . Furthermore, what is the likelihood of me achieving 450 mbps when I add the third antenna. I ask because I like to move large files from my laptop to my main PC down in the basement and vice versa. I edit videos upstairs then render them downstairs since my PC is a beast.

On a side note, I tried running the Intel driver v. 15.5.6, but found the card to function best at v. 15.5.3. My router is phenomenal and running firmware .260 and I have literally had non-stop connection since the moment I purchased it 3 months ago with the exception of rebooting from any configuration adjustments I have made.

 

[thiggins]

First, the N66U supports 450 Mbps maximum link rate, not 300.
Some cards support only a maximum two-stream rate of 270 Mbps, not 300. The difference is not significant in terms of actual usable throughput.

Running a three-stream card with only two antennas attached will result in erratic results. What happens is that the card reports to the access point/router that it is capable of three-stream link rates. But when the tries to provide those link rates, the card can't respond.

Either go back to a two-stream card or get the third antenna.