Airport Extreme N Upgrade, difference between upgrade cards?

[musek]

I've been researching upgrading the old Airport Extreme wireless card in my 17' MacBook Pro (it's one of the late 2006 models, so didn't come with the Airport Extreme card that could be updated with the 802.11n enabler).

Pretty much every tutorial I find recommend the standard $50 Apple AirPort Extreme Wireless Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro MA688Z/B.

However, I also found that OWC has an $89 Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n Wireless Mini-PCIe Card for Intel Based Mac Desktop & Notebooks APL6615048K.

Both appear to be official hardware, and both seem to be upgrade cards for the early Intel macs. I've been searching for several days now and can't find any info about any differences between the two cards, other than price of course... in fact, I can't really seem to find any info on the APL6615048K anywhere except on OWC (and they don't really have any info about it).

My question is does anyone know about any differences between these cards? Is the APL6615048K card possible the newer Airport Extreme card (and likely better, as it would have newer chipsets)?

Generally I wouldn't bother asking about this kind of thing given I can't find any info about the APL6615048K card, usually I'd go for the one that has info and recommendations all over the web (the MA688Z/B one), except I also noticed FastMac's N wireless upgrade card is also $89... and generally a non-apple upgrade product is cheaper/same price as the comparable official apple hardware upgrade.

Anyone know anything here that can help me? I really hope so, I'd like to upgrade my MacBook Pro ASAP so I can start using the awesomeness of 802.11n!

 

[fehhkk]

To truly enjoy the awesomeness of 802.11n, I'd recommend the Airport Extreme Base Station. 5GHz is full of win and awesome.

 

[LedCop]

I purchased a cheap generic Broadcom mini pci-express 'N' card (the same chip used in Macs) off eBay about a year ago and upgraded my 2006 15" MBP.

Wireless N at 2.4GHz or 5Ghz frequencies work perfectly and I have the 10-12 MegaBytes a sec without drop-outs to prove it. Worked fine in Leopard and is working just as fine in Snow Leopard.

 

[mex180]

Apl6615048

I just purchased the card for my 2006 macbook pro and it will not work. The card if for 3 wire and the original only has 2.

I've been researching upgrading the old Airport Extreme wireless card in my 17' MacBook Pro (it's one of the late 2006 models, so didn't come with the Airport Extreme card that could be updated with the 802.11n enabler).

Pretty much every tutorial I find recommend the standard $50 Apple AirPort Extreme Wireless Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro MA688Z/B.

However, I also found that OWC has an $89 Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n Wireless Mini-PCIe Card for Intel Based Mac Desktop & Notebooks APL6615048K.

Both appear to be official hardware, and both seem to be upgrade cards for the early Intel macs. I've been searching for several days now and can't find any info about any differences between the two cards, other than price of course... in fact, I can't really seem to find any info on the APL6615048K anywhere except on OWC (and they don't really have any info about it).

My question is does anyone know about any differences between these cards? Is the APL6615048K card possible the newer Airport Extreme card (and likely better, as it would have newer chipsets)?

Generally I wouldn't bother asking about this kind of thing given I can't find any info about the APL6615048K card, usually I'd go for the one that has info and recommendations all over the web (the MA688Z/B one), except I also noticed FastMac's N wireless upgrade card is also $89... and generally a non-apple upgrade product is cheaper/same price as the comparable official apple hardware upgrade.

Anyone know anything here that can help me? I really hope so, I'd like to upgrade my MacBook Pro ASAP so I can start using the awesomeness of 802.11n!