Simple NAS purely for backup

[angelsguardian]

Hi all

Hopefully a fairly simple question. I'm looking for a device to attach to my home network to be a target for Time Machine for 3 Macs. It does not need to serve anything as that is taken care of by an external drive attached to one of the Macs. Don't anticipate needing more than 1Tb. Here is the setup:

1 late 2006 iMac mainly serving iTunes and acting as very light study machine. Only system backup not media.
1 late 2010 Macbook.
1 mid 2012 Macbook Pro.
2 ATV3
TP Link router with gigabit and 450mbps wireless N. iMac wired, 2 books wireless.

So I don't really need a Time Capsule as the networking is good as it is and they're expensive. Really looking for something reliable and simple to wire to the router with a max budget of £150.

Thanks

 

[faxoli]

Simplest and cheapest would be to attach USB hardrives to your router

 

[angelsguardian]

Simplest and cheapest would be to attach USB hardrives to your router

Great minds think alike! I'm just trialling using an old laptop drive (just to see if it works) attached to and shared by the router and Crashplan to see how that goes. Will have to look up the largest drive it can share.

 

[throAU]

Got an old PC? Try FreeNAS? http://www.freenas.org You can configure FreeNAS as a time machine drive, and the next version (in beta) can act as an itunes server, DLNA server, torrent box, etc.

If you're willing to spend a little bit more you could possibly build an atom based machine in a small case with a pair of hard drives for resiliency...

 

[angelsguardian]

Just to finish off the thread this is what I did. I tried hanging a USB drive off my router but it wasn't found reliably. In the end I got a couple of WD My Books from eBay and use them attached to my iMac as Time Machine targets which works perfectly is quite quick enough.

Thanks for your help