Buying a Wireless Card?

PhysicistSarah

New Member
I've experienced a few issues with my current wireless card (The range is rather small, even compared to older laptops, especially in buildings such as schools), the performance is subpar in my opinion, and I would like to change it out for something better :)

I've my current wireless card is a RTL8188EE Wireless Network Adapter, I believe it is this one: https://www.amazon.com/Realtek-RTL8188EE-80211-WiFi-709848-001/dp/B011JFX2C2

I'm relatively new to computer hardware, but I've researched the standards (802.11 /a/b/g/n/ac), and I know what they mean. My laptop is an HP ENVY 17 Notebook PC (E8A23UA#ABA), and I've used lspci to get that the wireless card attaches by a mini PCI-e port.

I'm pretty sure that I want a newer generation card, probably an /ac, variant with a wide range, but I'm not sure how to compare different wireless cards, or which ones I should consider getting.

Is there anything I should be careful of that new people might not know about when shopping for wireless cards? Do you have any recommendations?
 

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
In the past, HP and Compaq laptops have been extremely picky on their wireless cards and will fail to boot if it is not a supported card.
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
In the past, HP and Compaq laptops have been extremely picky on their wireless cards and will fail to boot if it is not a supported card.
This seems to be a lot less common now from my experience, I'd imagine it would take almost any of them since it's not too old. Usually I see it on like 2013ish and older machines.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
+1 for the 7260 I moved mine into a $15 laptop, instant improvement over the single band n one that was in there.
 
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