It is either this wireless card (the Intel one) or a Dell card. The former is because it is recommended on the HP page and will fit into my computer. The latter is because the university computer-help-desk-guy says that these Dell wireless cards are guaranteed to work with their wireless network. The pro of the mini is that it is small. My laptop is lean, so lean that it does not have a CD drive, it does not have a floppy drive, and is only 3 lbs. heavy. I wanted it to be as lean as possible, and paid a lot more for it to be 3 lbs. rather than 6 lbs. and sacrificed a ton of system specs. Now, I'm going to add something that juts out of the laptop like a cardbus? Seems to defeat the purpose of buying my computer in the first place. The disadvantage of the mini-pci card is the cost, and compatability issues as I can't just pick any mini-pci card off of ebay and expect it to work.
I am unaware of whether mini-pci cards or cardbus cards are more reliable or not, price I can compare but if anybody has any experience with wireless cards, appreciate a short post.
<edit>More Info: Looks like you need to get the HP mini-PCI card, or the bios won't let you start. Glad I found out about this before, motherfuckers. So it's either the $79 USD choice (not including shipping) or the under $30 CDN card. Fucking asswipes.</edit>
<edit 2>Meant to call the company motherfuckers, not the peanut gallery
</edit 2>Brian