Upgrade from RTL8821CE wireless card to Intel 3168ngw, hp pavilion x360 14-dh0036nl

[FernandoMorea]

I want to report the successfuly upgrade from RTL8821CE to Intel 3168ngw in my  hp pavilion x360 14-dh0036nl.

Some photos:

 The old one is a AW-CB304NF, the new is the Intel 3168NGW, maybe this information is usefull to someone else.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

That is great news, but now you have no Bluetooth, since the other terminal on the card is for Bluetooth and wifi antenna diversity.

If you wanted to do something like that, you could have installed a much better card such as the Intel 9260 AC non-vPro model.

While I agree that the Intel card is a better card, it has the same specs as the RTL8821CE...72 MBPS on the 2.4 GHz wifi band and 433 MBPS on the 5.0 GHz wifi band.

[FernandoMorea]

Yes, bluetooth is not my priority.

I know that are similar wifi card , but the realtek one was randomically disconnecting from my wifi network.

With this cheap upgrade the connection is stable, no drops or disconnection.

I don't know why HP installs those faulty wifi cards on cheapest model.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I agree with you 100%.

Both the RTL8821 and RTL8822 cards are nothing but trouble.

[FernandoMorea]

Another crazy thing from an engineering viewpoint is the empty space that there is in my model.

Instead of a mechanical hard drive there was a small weight to balance the weight.

I bought a zif connector from amazon to try upgrade a little more this machine:

 I know that they makes those things only to justify differents prices and different models.

At least Hp products are easy to open and upgrade.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

That was a good idea to install a hard drive instead of having dead weight.