Killer Wireless-N 1103 Review: Can Qualcomm Take On Centrino?

[Guest]

When Qualcomm bought Bigfoot Networks, maker of the famed Killer Ethernet adapters, we wondered if Qualcomm was right in the head. Could Bigfoot's enhancements possibly translate into benefits in the world of wireless networking? We're about to find out.

Killer Wireless-N 1103 Review: Can Qualcomm Take On Centrino? : Read more

 

[Guest]

Still not buying it.

 

[phamhlam]

I wish they would build better PCI-Express WiFi Adapter. Some of us can't have a cable going through our house or have our computer sit next to the router.

 

[KelvinTy]

I think if you have the lowest latency at your end and leave everything on the server and internet end. Then it would be a lot better, especially there is input lag from everything, monitor, mouse, keyboard, wireless card, router and internet...

 

[reghir]

There are 2 versions of the E4200 did you use version 1 or 2 as version 2 increases to 450Mbps on both bands and full spatial on its 3X3 streams?

 

[MKBL]

I hope TH will review on powerline Ethernet adapter against typical RJ45 and wifi. For the same reason as phalmhlam, my desktop is connected to router by a long cable running across floor, which bothers me and my family sometimes. I've been considering powerline ethernet, but I can't make decision between that and wireless-N, because I have no idea which one has better performance/price.

 

[CaedenV]

Great article! I learned quite a few things from it.

I still think I will be waiting for 802.11ac before upgrading from G though.

 

[jaylimo84]

M. Van Winkle,
Thanks for this nice article.

I own an Alienware M17xR3, with the Killer 1103.
Upon installation, the driver was causing me issues (nothing big tho), and I decided to follow a forum recommendation and install the Atheros Osprey driver instead of Killer's.
It seems the two card are identical apart from the name on it. (Maybe I am misleaded)

It could be interesting to see if the Killer 1103 gets any improvement using the Killer driver vs. the vanilla Atheros drivers, and see if "years of working with the windows tcp stack" pays off. Or if your performance improvement is due to a good, but still normal card.

 

[CaedenV]

[citation][nom]MKBL[/nom]I hope TH will review on powerline Ethernet adapter against typical RJ45 and wifi. For the same reason as phalmhlam, my desktop is connected to router by a long cable running across floor, which bothers me and my family sometimes. I've been considering powerline ethernet, but I can't make decision between that and wireless-N, because I have no idea which one has better performance/price.[/citation]
Indeed, it is an issue. I ended up wiring the house through the HVAC ducts, which is a terrible idea (breaks all sorts of building codes), but better than drilling holes all throughout the house only to move to wireless within the next 5-10 years.

 

[Guest]

The Killer 1103 *IS* available for purchase. Check Amazon... $55 shipped.

 

[XmortisX]

I would like to try this out. If they can make a good pci-e/pci version of this card then definitely would try to push it with my clients. Even though we may get more labor hours for running wires the convenience and idea of avoiding HVAC ducts building codes makes this appealing.

 

[maxinexus]

Cool, but if I can't buy it for my laptop what is the point?

 

[scook9]

For those who want better wireless for their desktop, get one of these and install the laptop card in it

http://www.amazon.com/Express-Wireless-Adapter-Antennas-miniPCI-E/dp/B005JTEREW

 

[jaquith]

There are so many variables what "10', 20' and 60'" means that it is totally impossible to use any wireless benching short of a line-of-sight and unobstructed. Show me a house, short of a mansion, with a 60' line of sight. Further, I've lived in an old house where the frigging walls are solid plaster with wire mesh, and getting a 'usable' signal through a couple of walls was a miracle.

Most folks are running their wireless through several partitioned walls and 20'~30'. The key variable is what's in the walls and how much interference you're running across.

I our current and new house we have a centralized switch and CAT-6 distribution, PowerLine, and (2) Access Points 802.11a/b/g/n. That said, there's NO FRIGGING way I'm going to transfer a 2GB file through the air even though I 'can' -- Flash Drive or NIC. In our house every work area, TV, and bedroom has wired CAT-6 so the majority of WiFi is for our Phones and tablets (e.g. iPhone & iPad).

Further, IF you're using any form of wireless for a Desktop you need to run to the store and either use CAT-5e/6 as your first choice and/or $60~$110 and get a pair of PowerLine. Some of the new Router/Switches/WiFi adapters are including PowerLine built-in.

Lastly, very few Notebooks have the option to accept a half-mini PCIe Card.

 

[dvanburen]

Something seems wrong. During the LoS transfer test you get only 9MB/s. I can get 16.6MB/s with a 2.2GB file from my M6600 w/Intel 6300 to a Linksys E3000 w/DD-WRT over 2.4 GHz. Granted, I am about 7ft LoS vs. 10, but that shouldn't drop you to FastEthernet speeds. Are you absolutely sure you had a GB uplink from the router to the PC? If not then most of these results are skewed.

 

[dvanburen]

Two more results, this time I timed them and moved the laptop to about 9ft. LoS.

3.63GB EXE - 4:06s | 3905548288 Bytes | 15.14MB/s
2.14GB ZIP - 2:23.8s | 2306882779 Bytes | 15.30 MB/s

These are just Drag and Drop via Explorer.

 

[scook9]

[citation][nom]jaquith[/nom]There are so many variables what "10', 20' and 60'" means that it is totally impossible to use any wireless benching short of a line-of-sight and unobstructed. Show me a house, short of a mansion, with a 60' line of sight. Further, I've lived in an old house where the frigging walls are solid plaster with wire mesh, and getting a 'usable' signal through a couple of walls was a miracle.Most folks are running their wireless through several partitioned walls and 20'~30'. The key variable is what's in the walls and how much interference you're running across. I our current and new house we have a centralized switch and CAT-6 distribution, PowerLine, and (2) Access Points 802.11a/b/g/n. That said, there's NO FRIGGING way I'm going to transfer a 2GB file through the air even though I 'can' -- Flash Drive or NIC. In our house every work area, TV, and bedroom has wired CAT-6 so the majority of WiFi is for our Phones and tablets (e.g. iPhone & iPad). Further, IF you're using any form of wireless for a Desktop you need to run to the store and either use CAT-5e/6 as your first choice and/or $60~$110 and get a pair of PowerLine. Some of the new Router/Switches/WiFi adapters are including PowerLine built-in. Lastly, very few Notebooks have the option to accept a half-mini PCIe Card.[/citation]
While I appreciate and sympathize with the remark about plaster walls, the bolded statement is just flat out wrong. Half height cards are the standard now. Intel does not even offer the 6200 or 6300 cards in full height

 

[pacioli]

Lol. I have CAT5e running from one corner of my house to the other. At each corner I have a Dual-Band router/bridge pumping out Wi-fi with the same ID/Pass combo. No matter where I am in my place I am being bathed in wireless waves of internets. I also have a Cat5e running to the switch in the entertainment center to hook up all my web enabled goodies.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]MKBL[/nom]I hope TH will review on powerline Ethernet adapter against typical RJ45 and wifi. For the same reason as phalmhlam, my desktop is connected to router by a long cable running across floor, which bothers me and my family sometimes. I've been considering powerline ethernet, but I can't make decision between that and wireless-N, because I have no idea which one has better performance/price.[/citation]

If you want high speed, get 500Mb power line. It will beat out the wireless easily, unless you have some serious problem with your electrical wiring.

[citation][nom]dvanburen[/nom]Something seems wrong. During the LoS transfer test you get only 9MB/s. I can get 16.6MB/s with a 2.2GB file from my M6600 w/Intel 6300 to a Linksys E3000 w/DD-WRT over 2.4 GHz. Granted, I am about 7ft LoS vs. 10, but that shouldn't drop you to FastEthernet speeds. Are you absolutely sure you had a GB uplink from the router to the PC? If not then most of these results are skewed.[/citation]

DD-WRT is the answer there. It slaughters the stock firmware in all routers. Tomato does too.

[citation][nom]jaquith[/nom]There are so many variables what "10', 20' and 60'" means that it is totally impossible to use any wireless benching short of a line-of-sight and unobstructed. Show me a house, short of a mansion, with a 60' line of sight. Further, I've lived in an old house where the frigging walls are solid plaster with wire mesh, and getting a 'usable' signal through a couple of walls was a miracle.Most folks are running their wireless through several partitioned walls and 20'~30'. The key variable is what's in the walls and how much interference you're running across. I our current and new house we have a centralized switch and CAT-6 distribution, PowerLine, and (2) Access Points 802.11a/b/g/n. That said, there's NO FRIGGING way I'm going to transfer a 2GB file through the air even though I 'can' -- Flash Drive or NIC. In our house every work area, TV, and bedroom has wired CAT-6 so the majority of WiFi is for our Phones and tablets (e.g. iPhone & iPad). Further, IF you're using any form of wireless for a Desktop you need to run to the store and either use CAT-5e/6 as your first choice and/or $60~$110 and get a pair of PowerLine. Some of the new Router/Switches/WiFi adapters are including PowerLine built-in. Lastly, very few Notebooks have the option to accept a half-mini PCIe Card.[/citation]

Even my four year old Gateway M-1624 has TWO half-mini PCIe card slots for wireless cards and such. Most notebook computers nowadays have at least one such slot. In fact, almost all modern notebook computers have at least one such slot. Many have more than one.

 

[dvanburen]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom].DD-WRT is the answer there. It slaughters the stock firmware in all routers. Tomato does too.[/citation]

I can't help but think of the connection to the PC. 9MB/s just screams FastEthernet. I could understand DD-WRT contributing to a 10% or even 20% increase in perfomance, but we are talking a 60% to 70% difference in performance.

 

[jaquith]

While I appreciate and sympathize with the remark about plaster walls, the bolded statement is just flat out wrong. Half height cards are the standard now. Intel does not even offer the 6200 or 6300 cards in full height

my four year old Gateway M-1624 has TWO half-mini PCIe card slots for wireless cards and such. Most notebook computers nowadays have at least one such slot. In fact, almost all modern notebook computers have at least one such slot. Many have more than one.

I have both X58's and an X79 with 6-core CPUs and an HP EliteBook Mobile Workstation, but my no means is any of that 'typical' nor does it by any stretch of the imagination represent the Majority. Operative word Majority.

Most Notebook's either have their WiFi (or other forms of wireless) - Integrated or Non-User replaceable or accessible.

Sure, 'some' Notebooks have ALL sorts of options and user configurable add-ons. Again, the majority simply do not.

 

[dvanburen]

[citation][nom]jaquith[/nom]Most Notebook's either have their WiFi (or other forms of wireless) - Integrated or Non-User replaceable or accessible.[/citation]

This is so incredibly wrong I can't find the words to express it. I have yet to encounter one notebook where you could not remove and/or replace the wireless network adapter, which is almost always a mini-PCIe card. Sure, sometimes you have to remove the keyboard or an access cover, but it's nothing anyone with basic knowledge of how to use a screwdriver can't handle.

 

[scook9]

[citation][nom]jaquith[/nom]I have both X58's and an X79 with 6-core CPUs and an HP EliteBook Mobile Workstation, but my no means is any of that 'typical' nor does it by any stretch of the imagination represent the Majority. Operative word Majority.Most Notebook's either have their WiFi (or other forms of wireless) - Integrated or Non-User replaceable or accessible. Sure, 'some' Notebooks have ALL sorts of options and user configurable add-ons. Again, the majority simply do not.[/citation]

Dude, stop talking out your ass. See post above.


And I interpret the above as you having several of the Clevo notebooks utilizing desktop CPUs....ALL of those take a half height mini-pcie wifi card. Your HP does also....Have you ever even opened your laptops up or do you always just buy the most expensive ones without knowing much about them?

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]dvanburen[/nom]I can't help but think of the connection to the PC. 9MB/s just screams FastEthernet. I could understand DD-WRT contributing to a 10% or even 20% increase in perfomance, but we are talking a 60% to 70% difference in performance.[/citation]

DD-WRT actually shows HUGE improvements over stock firmware.

[citation][nom]jaquith[/nom]I have both X58's and an X79 with 6-core CPUs and an HP EliteBook Mobile Workstation, but my no means is any of that 'typical' nor does it by any stretch of the imagination represent the Majority. Operative word Majority.Most Notebook's either have their WiFi (or other forms of wireless) - Integrated or Non-User replaceable or accessible. Sure, 'some' Notebooks have ALL sorts of options and user configurable add-ons. Again, the majority simply do not.[/citation]

Every laptop that I've ever looked into (a fairly high number) has wireless on a removable card. Some of the lder models had mobile versions of PCI instead of PCIe, but they were removable nonetheless (I looked into two old P4 notebooks, both had removable wireless and I even removed one of their WiFi cards due to it being faulty).

Sorry, but I find it hard to believe that most laptops don't have easily removable WiFi after seeing that every laptop I've ever opened and almost all of those that I've researched have easily removable WiFi. Some needed the keyboard removed or the case taken apart, but all were easy and accessible in under three minutes of work. Not all of them had more than one slot, but they had at least one. Going to even OEM websites and looking up their current models, I find that they almost always have removable wireless cards.

Also, the M-1624 isn't some high end notebook, it has a crappy Turion 64 x2 TL-60 @2GHz (mobile version of the Athlon 64 x2), 2GB of RAM, a 250GB 5400RPM hard drive, a mere wireless G removable WiFi card, and I could go on and on, but it most certainly does represent the low end laptops. Also, those P4 notebooks I just mentioned were also cheap, low end Inspirons. Almost every laptop that I've opened up was low end and none of them were more than mid-range.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]scook9[/nom]Dude, stop talking out your ass. See post above.And I interpret the above as you having several of the Clevo notebooks utilizing desktop CPUs....ALL of those take a half height mini-pcie wifi card. Your HP does also....Have you ever even opened your laptops up or do you always just buy the most expensive ones without knowing much about them?[/citation]

I think that he was trying to say that his machines have them, but are by no means average machines and that average machines don't have them (he's still wrong, but I think that you misinterpreted his post).