TimeCapsule or Airport Extreme+USB harddrive?

cvam1985 · Oct 1, 2011

Having trouble deciding between getting a TimeCapsule or an Airport Extreme with a WD External Harddrive....I think financially it'd be about the same amount.

Basically I just want a router that will be able to share media and stream it.

I don't really have any interest in TimeMachine back ups, and I know that's the only thing Apple advertises the TC for, but I also understand it can be used as a NAS. I hear that the drives in the TC are/were kinda wonky. Any opinions are appreciated.

Kashika · Oct 1, 2011

Get a TC.

If you hook up an ext hdd to either an AEBS or a TC it cannot use your old time machine backups. It's also slower than you'd expect.

The new ones don't have weird drives (at least not to my knowing). They just appear to be very slow (10-15 MB/s transfer speed) and get very warm.

It also has a built in function to access the data on it, wherever you are.

cvam1985 · Oct 1, 2011

Kashika said:
Get a TC.

If you hook up an ext hdd to either an AEBS or a TC it cannot use your old time machine backups. It's also slower than you'd expect.

The new ones don't have weird drives (at least not to my knowing). They just appear to be very slow (10-15 MB/s transfer speed) and get very warm.

It also has a built in function to access the data on it, wherever you are.

Thank you for the information. But just as a NAS and forgetting all about Time Machine backups, is the TC still the better solution? And if I go the TC route, will I be able to disable Time Machine completely?

Kashika · Oct 1, 2011

You don't have to use Time machine on it. I use mine for storage and use an external drive for TM

Though that made me lose me older backups, which wasn't a big deal for me.

The TC is a powerful dual band router, which makes it's NAS capabilities more interesting. It's nowhere near as fast as a physically connected drive, but much better than the alternatives

scrappledog · Oct 6, 2011

Kashika said:
You don't have to use Time machine on it. I use mine for storage and use an external drive for TM
Though that made me lose me older backups, which wasn't a big deal for me.

The TC is a powerful dual band router, which makes it's NAS capabilities more interesting. It's nowhere near as fast as a physically connected drive, but much better than the alternatives

I just bought an AirportExtreme as my router to extend solid range throughout my house as my modem comes in through my above-office garage. I didn't know anything about TimeCapsule and wonder if I should've gotten it instead? I do wish to eventually add a hard drive off the AirportExtreme if not.

blevins321 · Oct 6, 2011

scrappledog said:
I just bought an AirportExtreme as my router to extend solid range throughout my house as my modem comes in through my above-office garage. I didn't know anything about TimeCapsule and wonder if I should've gotten it instead? I do wish to eventually add a hard drive off the AirportExtreme if not.

They have the same hardware as far as routing is concerned. Speed aside, the advantage of doing it your proposed way is that you can add storage as you please without having to spend a ton on new TC models.

glitch44 · Oct 6, 2011

So the new Time Capsules still get really hot?

lowonthe456 · Oct 8, 2011

cvam1985 said:
Basically I just want a router that will be able to share media and stream it.

I've given up finding a solution to this. I have no idea why apple, who sells 2x the number of laptops than desktops, has no solution to this.

blevins321 · Oct 8, 2011

lowonthe456 said:
I've given up finding a solution to this. I have no idea why apple, who sells 2x the number of laptops than desktops, has no solution to this.

Netgear sells a router that supports media streaming via the DLNA protocol. HERE is the link. DLNA is compatible with XBMC (I think), PS3, XBox 360, etc...

lowonthe456 · Oct 8, 2011

blevins321 said:
Netgear sells a router that supports media streaming via the DLNA protocol. HERE is the link. DLNA is compatible with XBMC (I think), PS3, XBox 360, etc...

iTunes capatible? I'm guessing its just a shared library right?

cruiser34 · Oct 10, 2011

i'm looking at a time capsule too but i'm not sure how it all works

i want a wireless solution to both backup my data and store my music/films

can i do this with the TC. would i need to partition it?

thanks

iEric · Oct 10, 2011

Just to warn ya, the TC has a life expectancy of 18-20 months. I just found out, as mine just died and I googled it and it led me to a thread here on MR talking about it. Apparently it's a problem. Should think about that before shelling out $250.

Wondering if anyone knows if the Airport Extreme lasts longer than an average of 20 months.

blevins321 · Oct 10, 2011

iEric said:
Just to warn ya, the TC has a life expectancy of 18-20 months. I just found out, as mine just died and I googled it and it led me to a thread here on MR talking about it. Apparently it's a problem. Should think about that before shelling out $250.

Wondering if anyone knows if the Airport Extreme lasts longer than an average of 20 months.

That was an issue with the ones a couple generations though. No reports of this on the recent ones though.

iEric · Oct 10, 2011

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

Oh really?? That's good to know. That means I will get the TC tomorrow! Thanks!!

iEric · Oct 10, 2011

blevins321 said:
That was an issue with the ones a couple generations though. No reports of this on the recent ones though.

Wait...just thinking of it..maybe there are no reports of this happening because it has been fully 18-20 months yet...like if they bought it in late 2009 when this was claimed "fixed", they still have a couple more months, maybe a year left before it dies...

JasonR · Oct 10, 2011

For what it's worth my airport extreme has been running flawlessly for about 3 years. I can't even remember having to reboot the thing ever.

I can't speak for the time capsule, however. I'm planning on buying a small 2 TB NAS for my network for time machine and media storage.

hafr · Oct 11, 2011

cvam1985 said:
Having trouble deciding between getting a TimeCapsule or an Airport Extreme with a WD External Harddrive....I think financially it'd be about the same amount.

Basically I just want a router that will be able to share media and stream it.

I don't really have any interest in TimeMachine back ups, and I know that's the only thing Apple advertises the TC for, but I also understand it can be used as a NAS. I hear that the drives in the TC are/were kinda wonky. Any opinions are appreciated.

Despite quoting your first post, I've read the whole thread

I would advise you to get the AEBS, and not the TC. There are two main reasons:
1) read/write speeds are about the same to the internal disk in the TC as to external USB hard drives connected to the AEBS
2) you pay more per GB for the TC than for an AEBS + an external drive

The only thing the TC has going for itself, in my book, is that it's an "all in one" solution. One box, one power cord. But it's an expensive solution, and it's a lot more hassle if you need/want to switch the drive.

cruiser34 · Oct 11, 2011

JasonR said:
For what it's worth my airport extreme has been running flawlessly for about 3 years. I can't even remember having to reboot the thing ever.

I can't speak for the time capsule, however. I'm planning on buying a small 2 TB NAS for my network for time machine and media storage.

how will that work with the NAS. is it one drive partitioned?
1 for time machine and the other for storage?

thanks

Brian33 · Oct 11, 2011

cruiser34 said:
i'm looking at a time capsule too but i'm not sure how it all works

i want a wireless solution to both backup my data and store my music/films

can i do this with the TC. would i need to partition it?

You can't partition the TC's internal drive without disassembling the unit. And while you're free to put your own files on the disk, remember that it will eventually get filled with backups. This is OK -- Time Machine will delete old backups as necessary -- but will make it inconvenient to place any more files on the disk.

I would suggest you get a TC plus a USB external drive, plugged into the back of the TC. Use the TC internal drive for backups, and the external for your data and media (or vice versa). Now your media is network-accessible.

Another thing to remember, however, is that these "manually placed" files on the TC (or an external drive connected to a TC) are not backed up by Time Machine. If they're valuable files, you must keep another copy somewhere!

Regards,
Brian33

cruiser34 · Oct 11, 2011

Brian33 said:
You can't partition the TC's internal drive without disassembling the unit. And while you're free to put your own files on the disk, remember that it will eventually get filled with backups. This is OK -- Time Machine will delete old backups as necessary -- but will make it inconvenient to place any more files on the disk.

I would suggest you get a TC plus a USB external drive, plugged into the back of the TC. Use the TC internal drive for backups, and the external for your data and media (or vice versa). Now your media is network-accessible.

Another thing to remember, however, is that these "manually placed" files on the TC (or an external drive connected to a TC) are not backed up by Time Machine. If they're valuable files, you must keep another copy somewhere!

Regards,
Brian33

thanks very helpful. i'm beginning to understand now.

hmmmm, yes i guess as the only TC you can now buy is a 2TB

i would need to use the TC for my music and films, but then it would need to be backed up somewhere else again.
if i connected a USB drive to the TC can that be partitioned or does Time machine always need a whole drive to itself?

Brian33 · Oct 11, 2011

cruiser34 said:
hmmmm, yes i guess as the only TC you can now buy is a 2TB i would need to use the TC for my music and films, but then it would need to be backed up somewhere else again.
if i connected a USB drive to the TC can that be partitioned or does Time machine always need a whole drive to itself?

One can buy a 3TB Time Capsule, if one can afford it! (http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD033LL/A/Time-Capsule-3TB?fnode=MTY1NDA0Nw&mco=MjI5NTkwNDc)

I haven't done it, but I'm pretty sure you can partition the external drive, and Time Machine will just use the one partition you point it at.

cruiser34 · Oct 11, 2011

Brian33 said:
One can buy a 3TB Time Capsule, if one can afford it! (http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD033LL/A/Time-Capsule-3TB?fnode=MTY1NDA0Nw&mco=MjI5NTkwNDc)

I haven't done it, but I'm pretty sure you can partition the external drive, and Time Machine will just use the one partition you point it at.

cheers

in that case i might be better with something like a NAS?

more flexibility to partition a drive and throw it in.
these are wireless aren't they? working through your router?

edit: i have a little 320GB external drive i just partitioned in disk utility. pointed 1 partition to TM and the other as just a drive. seems to work fine. i can drag and drop to the 2nd partition.

.

Creepus · Oct 11, 2011

Will iCloud make the TC obsolete? If I can access my media via the cloud on to my Apple TV then I don't really need a networked HD, right? Any thoughts?

blevins321 · Oct 11, 2011

Creepus said:
Will iCloud make the TC obsolete? If I can access my media via the cloud on to my Apple TV then I don't really need a networked HD, right? Any thoughts?

I might be wrong about this, but Movies and Tv Shows aren't going to be stored on iCloud AFAIK. Music yeah but videos aren't included at this point.

Creepus · Oct 11, 2011

Yeah I just read some posts on that. Most unfortunate.

What they need to do is create a comprehensive monthly pay service where you can store all of your content and actually stream (not this cached BS) it to all of your Apple media viewers (iphone, ipad, apple tv, laptops, desktops, etc.) I'm sure they'd like to do that, but can't due to bandwidth/infrastructure limitations. Perhaps someday...

TimeCapsule or Airport Extreme+USB harddrive?

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