Regarding AC1750 AC1900, how to get most of it?

[dikkiedirk]

If you get an AC 1750 or AC1900 router you will only benefit from it if you have a AC client I presume.

Which devices support AC speeds?

Can a laptop be upgraded with an AC adapter? So far I only found one, the Intel AC 7260. Is it an easy upgrade? Can I just take out the current one and drop in an AC 7260 and will it work. I noticed that many people have problems to get it working. Do older laptops support these AC adapters? I have a Asus laptop with Core i7-2630 that I plan to upgrade. Do you need Wndows 8.1 for full support of AC devices, or will Windows 7 do too?

 

[thiggins]

Yes, you need an AC client to get the higher link rates that AC routers can provide. Remember, the higher link rates are on the 5 GHz band. The 2.4 GHz side is N.

Achieving the 600 Mbps on 2.4 GHz for AC1900 routers is even harder. You need a 3x3 client that supports 256 QAM. Right now, only the ASUS PCE-AC68 does this and it is is a desktop PCIe adapter.

USB AC adapters are available, but are AC1200 at best. The Intel A7260 is also only AC1200. This means highest link rates you will get are 300 Mbps in 2.4 GHz and 867 Mbps in 5 GHz.

Very few devices have AC built in. Samsung's latest Galaxy Tabs now do and so do some of their smartphones. You will need to check specs carefully.

 

[azazel1024]

One thing to mention is that Windows 8/8.1 seems to have a much more efficient netstack when it comes to wireless performance. Simply switching from Windows 7 to 8.1 on my laptop changed my wireless performance dramatically. The Intel 2230 adapter I had in my laptop went from around 14MB/sec received and about 16MB/sec transmit performance to about 20MB/sec Tx and Rx just by switching operating systems and no changes to driver settings (latest Wifi driver before and after).

The 7260 is a pretty decent card. I swapped it in to my laptop in anticipation of replacing my N300 2.4GHz router and AP with AC1200+ router/AP combo in the coming months. Its slightly faster on 2.4GHz than my 2230 was.

In general though, laptop adapters (with an exception or two) are going to be AC1200 adapters. Just like current Laptop 802.11n adapters, anything more than 2:2 is likely to be and remain rare for 802.11ac once it is mainstream. So getting a router/access point that is better than AC1200 is likely to end up being a waste on the whole. Unless of course it is cheaper to get the faster router/access point.

 

[dikkiedirk]

Thanks so far.

I have an ASUS N55SF laptop with a Core i7-2630 CPU. Is an upgrade to an AC7260 adapter possible. At the momen it has a Intel 6235 adapter inside.

Should I upgrade to Win 8.1 to get the best AC experience?

 

[azazel1024]

Probably. I'd ask on an Asus forum though.

For best performance, 8 or 8.1 probably. Mine could be purely conincidental as I don't have any other platforms running wireless clients to test with to see if there is a general performance increase with moving to 8/8.1, or if it simply happened to be better driver/OS compatibility on my specific hardware implementation with my HP laptop and the 2230/7260 between Windows 7sp1 and Windows 8.1.