Superdrive or AE Base Station?

[reaper]

Ok, so I'm going to be getting a 15" pb for when I head off to school in the fall. The question is this... I already have a Dual 1.25 MDD FW 800 with a combo and superdrive, which I will be keeping, and I was wondering if people who have the sd in their laptops actually use them (that is, if they have a sd in their desktops as well)? I say this, because I have a crappy Dell G router now and I can get the AE Base Station for roughly the same price as switching out the sd for a combo on the pb. I would still have a 4x superdrive in the pm, but I would be losing the ability to burn dvds on the road. I am looking forward to the possibility of also adding a few Airport Express' to the mix once I get a little more money, so the guaranteed compatibility of the AE Base Station with those is also quite appealing.

Any thoughts, suggestions, rants? Thanks.

- reaper

 

[crowdaddy]

Well how much DVD burning do you expect to do? I think outfitting your house with the apple wireless peripherals would be a lot cooler.

 

[mkrishnan]

For starters, how often do you burn DVDs on the SD you have now? I don't have one in my iBook and I don't miss it much....

OTOH, does anything not work about your Dell G router? Are you planning on using wireless print sharing or WDS, or does the Dell not have good security features? It'd seem to me that if you have a working 802.11g WAP then there isn't much point in rushing out to get a AEBS unless one of those three things applies.

Or rather, put off buying the first one until you get the Express units. Especially, unless you need the LAN port, if you're thinking of a "few" Expresses, why bother with an AEBS at all? The only thing you'll miss is the LAN port and the modem port -- cuz you ought not really need an external antenna if you're going to put multiple WDS Airport Expresses around the house. So from that perspective, my advice would be to either get the SD or hold onto the money until the Express comes out, and then either buy the Express(es) and an AEBS or just the Expresses at that time. Who knows also if the AEBS will get upgraded by then....

FWIW I have an AEBS but it was the only (and first) WAP I've bought. My second is a Netgear 802.11g which hasn't arrived yet, primarily to live at my parents' house as a Fathers' Day gift (they use PCs so no sense in spending $200 to get them an AEBS!).

 

[jknight8907]

Get both. You can get a good router for under $50 after rebates.

 

[reaper]

For starters, how often do you burn DVDs on the SD you have now? I don't have one in my iBook and I don't miss it much....

OTOH, does anything not work about your Dell G router? Are you planning on using wireless print sharing or WDS, or does the Dell not have good security features? It'd seem to me that if you have a working 802.11g WAP then there isn't much point in rushing out to get a AEBS unless one of those three things applies.

Or rather, put off buying the first one until you get the Express units. Especially, unless you need the LAN port, if you're thinking of a "few" Expresses, why bother with an AEBS at all? The only thing you'll miss is the LAN port and the modem port -- cuz you ought not really need an external antenna if you're going to put multiple WDS Airport Expresses around the house. So from that perspective, my advice would be to either get the SD or hold onto the money until the Express comes out, and then either buy the Express(es) and an AEBS or just the Expresses at that time. Who knows also if the AEBS will get upgraded by then....

FWIW I have an AEBS but it was the only (and first) WAP I've bought. My second is a Netgear 802.11g which hasn't arrived yet, primarily to live at my parents' house as a Fathers' Day gift (they use PCs so no sense in spending $200 to get them an AEBS!).

Well, I do actually use the sd quite a bit, as I make DVDs of family get-togethers and the like. I don't know how much I would use it on the road though, since I think it's probably a lot easier to do the video editing on the pm I have now, and not the pb. I was just thinking about it in terms of not having the functionality. You know... if there's something out there why not have it, and how much is it worth in comparison to a completely wireless house?

Also, with the AEBS, the reason I would be thinking about getting that rather than holding onto the router I have now is because I am not sure if the expresses will work with other routers (especially Apple working with Dell... what are the odds? ). I definitely need a LAN port (my pm doesn't have a wireless card) so I would have to get the AEBS and then use the expresses around the house for speakers and as repeaters to make my new condo completely wireless. That way I would be sure that they would work together, but maybe it's not worth it?

Any thoughts on whether the expresses will work with other routers, or how easy it is to do video editing on the pbs? Thanks.

- reaper

 

[reaper]

Well how much DVD burning do you expect to do? I think outfitting your house with the apple wireless peripherals would be a lot cooler.

Yeah I agree... the more I think about it, I could even edit the video and dvd on the pb and then archive it to the pm with iDVD 4.0 and burn it from there when I got home (if I, for some reason, really had to video edit on the road).

Well, here's to the hard decisions in life. Cheers.

- reaper

 

[ipirate]

Any thoughts on whether the expresses will work with other routers, or how easy it is to do video editing on the pbs? Thanks.

All 802.11 (b/g) devices, or "wifi", which is what the airport express is, must conform to the same standards. Meaning?: They will work with any other "wifi" or ethernet products...becuase they have to. You couldn't get your device approved with the IEEE, which allows you to say a product is "WiFi Certified".

Ok, sorry...short answer: Yes, it will work with everthing becuase it has too.