additional time capsule vs ext hdd questions

[halfmonkey]

Has anybody compared harding wiring the time capsule speed vs using a thunderbolt equiped ext hdd? I'm interested in knowing if a thunderbolt equiped ext hdd is faster than a time capusle hard wired to my imac?

Also, does anybody know the speed of the 2tb tc? Is it 5400rpm or 7200rpm?

Lastly, I saw the 3tb tc at an apple store and it described it as server grade hdd. Can someone explain to me what this actually means. Does this mean that it's more reliable? Considering that it's $200 more for one more TB, it seems like a lot of money to ask for.

 

[Weaselboy]

They use a WD "Green" HDD like this model. It is a bit of a reach to call them "server" grade... but they do.

After the initial backup, subsequent TM backups are just incremental and not all that large. I really don't think you will see much difference going with TB HDD.

I have seen people just buy the 2TB version then tear it open and put in their own 3TB drive. Voids the warranty of course, but it would save some money.

 

[halfmonkey]

They use a WD "Green" HDD like this model. It is a bit of a reach to call them "server" grade... but they do.

After the initial backup, subsequent TM backups are just incremental and not all that large. I really don't think you will see much difference going with TB HDD.

I have seen people just buy the 2TB version then tear it open and put in their own 3TB drive. Voids the warranty of course, but it would save some money.

I don't see myself splurguing and getting the 3tb as my imac is only 1tb. Also, if and when we get our kids their first laptop or desktop, I think 2tb will be plenty of back up for my imac and their computers and we might even end up upgrading the TC by then depending how years will have passed since this purchase.

...anybody have any thoughts on the speed of the ethernet connection vs the thunderbolt at 7200rpm connection? I'm hoping someone with some serious technical understand of the speeds between the two formats would be able to tell me which one in theory should be faster.

 

[Weaselboy]

...anybody have any thoughts on the speed of the ethernet connection vs the thunderbolt at 7200rpm connection? I'm hoping someone with some serious technical understand of the speeds between the two formats would be able to tell me which one in theory should be faster.

Most hard drives fall around 70MB/s in random write speeds. GB ethernet is 125MB/s, but in the real world with network overhead you really get more like around half of that. Add in Time Machine overhead to slow things down even more. The Thunderbolt (10Gb/s) connection is not going to help and the hard drive will be the limiting factor.

If you really want noticeably faster speeds you are going to need to move up to an SSD.