Upgrading laptop N wifi card to AC?

[rpeters83]

I have a Intel Advanced-N 6235 card in my laptop and was wondering if upgrading to a AC card would be as simple as dropping in a replacement, or if there is more involved. I appears to be a 2x2 card, so would I be able to use a 2x2 AC replacement? Thanks.

 

[Deleted member 278999]

I have a Intel Advanced-N 6235 card in my laptop and was wondering if upgrading to a AC card would be as simple as dropping in a replacement, or if there is more involved. I appears to be a 2x2 card, so would I be able to use a 2x2 AC replacement? Thanks.

Depends if your laptop needs whitelist.

If so, you can work around it by getting a different higher end card that came with it on other variants, and sometimes you can use cards from same series (6 in your instance). If not, you'll need a modified bios.

Keep in mind you'll need an AC router to take advantage of this and 2x2 mimo for that! 2x2 mimo is more important than AC for most users.

 

[Pandur]

You should be able to upgrade to an Intel AC 7260 (just beware and don't buy the N 7260 version). I have done this on numerous laptops myself. There is an AC 7265 as well but I have not tried that. And the newer AC 8265 is pcie m.2 only so it's not compatible with the slot your current card sits in.

Kwaz is correct that there is a theoretical issue with whitelisting of cards. But in practice I have never run into this problem going from one Intel card to the next generation. Ymmv of course.