Wireless card questions

Hey i'm building a new pc, and was wondering how important a "top dollar" wireless card is to get in regards to connection speed. I would guess that wireless in general isn't as reliable, but are wireless connections slower than direct cable connections? I have a shared connection with four other roommates, and i'm not close to the modem... So I think wireless is my only option?

Also if anyone could recommend a type of card i'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks,

 

I don't think that you're really going to see a huge difference if any in speed with a higher end wireless card. You may get a better connection from farther away, which could effect your speed if you're far enough away from the router.

Wireless shares the bandwidth, so if you have a 54Mbps connection and 4 people using it at the same time, that 54Mbps is split 4 ways.