Hello! You can run any Half Mini-PCIe Wireless Card you wish. I would make sure its an 802.11 AC Dual Band at least. I've had good luck with Intel brand. As for installing it, here is the manual with super easy instructions: http://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/alienware-x51-r3_service%20manual_en-us.pdf
Double check your router and settings on machine. It's not un-common for certain machines to require localized tweaking.
I suggest using real ethernet cable. It's much faster than WiFi and it's not like the x51-R1 is a portable device. They also make boxes that turn any device with a ethernet port into a WiFi-capable device.
With a full-sized (dual-slot) video card installed, I don't think there is a spare PCIe slot. If you have a single-slot video-card, a real full-sized PCIe x1-x4 (famous-maker) WiFi card might fit and work good.
Beamermt79's suggestion is pretty good too, but the problem might be the antenna (being inside metal case) or old antenna is not-optimal for newer mini-cards with more recent WiFi protocols.
Normally, I would say just get a nice external USB-WiFi-Dongle. But they are not particularly fast and only having USB-2.0 ports to plug-into (no USB-3.0) will also limit throughput.
beamermt79
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January 31st, 2018 10:00
Tesla1856
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January 31st, 2018 14:00
Double check your router and settings on machine. It's not un-common for certain machines to require localized tweaking.
I suggest using real ethernet cable. It's much faster than WiFi and it's not like the x51-R1 is a portable device. They also make boxes that turn any device with a ethernet port into a WiFi-capable device.
With a full-sized (dual-slot) video card installed, I don't think there is a spare PCIe slot. If you have a single-slot video-card, a real full-sized PCIe x1-x4 (famous-maker) WiFi card might fit and work good.
Beamermt79's suggestion is pretty good too, but the problem might be the antenna (being inside metal case) or old antenna is not-optimal for newer mini-cards with more recent WiFi protocols.
Normally, I would say just get a nice external USB-WiFi-Dongle. But they are not particularly fast and only having USB-2.0 ports to plug-into (no USB-3.0) will also limit throughput.