Gigabyte AirCruiser N300 802.11n WiFi Adapter

We have looked at many Gigabyte motherboards and graphics cards at Phoronix, but this computing company also maintains products in the mobile and communication sectors with such products as Bluetooth adapters, VoIP devices, Ultra Mobile PCs, wireless routers, and 802.11b/g/n wireless modules. Today we are checking out our first Gigabyte wireless product as we review the AirCruiser N300, which is a MiniPCI 802.11n (draft) wireless adapter. This wireless adapter uses the Ralink RT2860 chipset, and in this review we'll tell you how to setup this wireless card using ndiswrapper on Ubuntu 8.04.

Features:

- Fully compliant with 802.11n draft standard
- Advanced MIMO Technology
- WiFi Multimedia (WMM) Support
- Backwards Compatible With 802.11b/g
- Power Saving Design
- Mini-PCI Type III B Interface
- Supports three U.FL/I-PEX antennas
- FCC & NCC Certifications

Contents:

The Gigabyte AirCruiser N300 (GN-WI30N-RH) module arrived in a slim cardboard container the size of a CD jewel case. Included with the Gigabyte packaging was just the AirCruiser driver CD and the MiniPCI GN-WI30N-RH module. As this 802.11n WiFi module is designed for use inside notebooks by system integrators, there are no included antennas, but this module supports up to three antenna connections.

Examination:

The three antennas connectors are on the front of the wireless module's PCB right along the edge. The Gigabyte sticker contains the Gigabyte model number, FCC ID, MAC ID, and serial number. The PCB was made in Taiwan while the rest of this module was assembled in China. The Gigabyte GN-WI30N-RH uses the Ralink RT2860 wireless chipset with support for 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n (draft standard).