Tell us which laptop.

Today, a laptop will typically have a wireless (WiFi) network adapter
inside. Dell commonly uses one of two cards, a private label Broadcom
card (the 1390) or an Intel card. In truth, either will work and is
fine. These are B/G cards (e.g. support 802.11b and 802.11g). I think
that they are now also offering an 802.11n card. Note that 802.11n is
not yet final [note that the cards are often called "draft N", because
they are based on the draft of the specification, WHICH COULD CHANGE],
it's expensive, and personally I think that purchasing such a card at
this time is premature and a waste of money. So go with the 1390 or the
Intel card, it's not a big deal either way.

As for the router .... I would not buy the router [any router] from Dell
at all. It's a separate piece of equipment, it doesn't go in the
laptop, and you can do as well or almost certainly better by just going
to a computer or office store and buying a router there. For the most
part, any router should work with any network card, as long as at least
one supported standard (802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g or 802.11n) is common
to both the router and the WiFi card in the laptop.

On the graphics card, that's more complex. You definitely want a card
that will support Vista with Aero/glass, even if you don't currently
plan to use it. The problem is, Dell is inconsistent and at times just
plain wrong about which options will and will not support it. In
particular, it's not absolutely clear if computers with video based on
Intel GMA [graphics media accelerator] 950 will or will not support
Aero/Glass (but the most informed money seems to think that GMA950 will
support Aero/Glass, although perhaps not well). It's also not clear if
the Dell offering of the ATI X1300 based video will or will not support
Aero/Glass. It is clear that the Dell ATI X1400 video option will
support it, but it's the most expensive option that they offer.


mpk2778******.com wrote:
> Hi,
> I want ot by a Dell Laptop. i am trying to configure it, but getting
> configuration conflicit at the wireless network cards and routers.
> Can anybody help me out in solving this.
> Also let me know which graphic card is good for a 15'.4''/2.16GHz/2GB
> RAM.
> thanks
> mpk
>