Time Capsule 4th Gen

[AshScache]

I don't mean this to be a rehash of any of the other threads on the Time Capsule, or to reignite discussion of the circa-2009 issues with the Time Capsules. Anyway, I'm a new Mac convert (15" MBP), and I'd like to add a NAS & N network to my home (I'm currently running a G rounter for my Windows based machines.

Is a Time Capsule the right tool for this, or should I get an Airport Extreme with an external hard drive? Does a Time Capsule work as an NAS, or is it really only a backup solution? (I was thinking I'd put my iTunes library there).

Also, it seems that earlier TCs had major reliability issues; does that hold true for the new TCs, or were the issues addressed (power supply going out).

Thanks!

 

[LaunchpadBS]

Sorry to jump in but I've got the same question(kinda) so would also be interested to know and haven't seen anything on the forum for this.

I'm considdering either going time capsule or airport extreme + NAS/USB external, as I have 2 external drives atm.
Does the airport extreme work with a NAS drive?

Also can I format a NAS drive's partition to HFS+ for a time machine backup?

The price of the time capsule is the issue for me here.
a 3TB NAS drive is £150 + Airport Extreme £139 = £289
a 3TB Time Capsule comes in at a staggering £399

I'm also assuming the speeds would be +/- the same if even the NAS+AE being faster a the NAS drive is raid.

 

[blevins321]

One big limitation of APE+HD is that Apple doesn't easily support doing Time Machine over a USB drive on the APE. That said, the APE is a fabulous router. My network speeds are much faster compared to my Linksys N router. Time Capsule can do Time Machine and standard network storage functions too.

If I could recommend a terrific solution, I'd do APE + Synology NAS. For the APE, 2-Bay NAS, and 2 2TB hard drives, you're running at about the same total price as the base Time Capsule. And you can expand the drives and use external USB drives as you wish, too. HERE is Amazon UK's 2-bay. It supports Time Machine (which was a big draw for me). It also is a torrent downloader and media streamer. HERE is a software review that I wrote about the 4-bay but the 2-bay has the same firmware.