For those of you that use 802.11ac with internal mini PCI-E

[Biker]

Which make/model card do you have installed and what are your impressions with network stability and speed?

I'm planning on replacing the existing 802.11n card in my notebook with one that supports 802.11ac and am leaning towards the Intel line of wireless cards. But before I source a final solution, am open to opinions on what you've found works better.

[AlbertP]

The Intel cards should work right out-of-the-box like all Intel hardware. You should know however that the Intel Wireless-AC 7260 only supports 2 802.11ac data streams (instead of 3). That results in a maximum (theoretical!) bandwith of 300Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 867Mbps on the 5GHz band.
If that is not a problem for you, then Intel is likely the best choice.

There are cards from various manufacturers with the Broadcom BCM4360 chip, these support 802.11ac with 3 datastreams, and are supported by installing the Broadcom STA driver from Driver Manager.
Broadcom cards often cause problems but the BCM4360 is not known to be very problematic, probably because Driver Manager automatically finds the right driver for this chip type. And that makes installation easy.

If you want to know the chip type on a certain card (many manufacturers like Netgear, TP-Link, and other well-known brands do not make any wireless chips themselves!) you can look up your card on http://www.wikidevi.com.

[z31fanatic]

I bought an Intel AC3160. It worked right away and never drop the signal. Well worth the $16 from Newegg.
I considered the more expensive AC7250 but I read too many negative reviews online.

[AlbertP]

AC3160 and AC7260 are the same except for the number of data streams; the AC3160 has one, the AC7260 has two (the Broadcom BCM4360 has three).

There is also a newer Wireless-AC 7265 available; I do not know if that one already works with Mint 17.1, or that you need to wait for a newer Mint edition. The 3160 & 7260 are at least supported in 17.1.

[Biker]

Went ahead and pulled the trigger on the 7260. With the existing connection speed combined with router, the 5GHz band is sufficient with the 2 data streams.

Thanks y'all.