Do yourself a favor, before you spend money on new hardware make sure that this one configured properly. On your laptop (or any computer with a WiFi adapter) download and install INSSIDER from this location
http://www.metageek.net/support/down...er-for-home%2F
Run it, you will see all of the wireless networks within range of you and what channel they're on. I suspect that most of them will be on channel 6 (which yours is probably on) and they are clobbering your connection. Find the best channel (1, 6, or 11) with the least amount of traffic on it and change your router to that channel, will probably take care of your issues.