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Time Capsule vs. AEBS + Hard Drive

B

bondsbw

macrumors member
Original poster
Could anyone give me a rundown on exactly the differences between buying Time Capsule and buying an Airport Extreme and a 500 GB/1 TB hard drive? With recent developments, I'm thinking of buying one or the other, but I want to know the best value.

I'd like comparisons of cost, speed, ease-of-use, compatibility (Windows, Mac, Linux), ability to use from more than one computer, ability to use multiple partitions (say, one for TM and others for plain storage), expandability, etc... anything you can think of.

I have a feeling that Time Capsule is the better buy (except for expandability and ability to hook it up as a USB drive directly to the computer).

Thanks!
 
Time Capsule is an AIO device with Airport Extreme Wireless N with either a 500GB or 1TB drive. It's truly designed to work with Time Machine whereas it will backup multiple Macs in the house wirelessly with Time Machine. You can also use it as a NAS for Mac with Tiger or PC's with Windows XP/Vista.

Airport Extreme is just a wireless N router that allows you to connect any external HDD with a USB plug to the back of the AEBS. This setup works with the AIRDISK feature in the Airport Utility. You can only backup one computer in the house via Time Machine as well as a NAS for non-Leopard Macs and PC's.
It's all about choice but TC is much more convenient feature wise as well as reducing so many wires.
 
Is the Airport Extreme the same size as a Time Capsule? I was at the Apple Store today checking out the Time Capsules, and they're freaking huge!
 
The TC is bigger than the Extreme.

I haven't done any official benchmarks, but streaming to/from my TC seems a lot faster than streaming to my Extreme + external USB drive.
 
TC has a SATA (and thus faster HD) instead of the USB 2.0 external HD, which would be a lot faster than AEBS + an external HD.
 
TC has a SATA (and thus faster HD) instead of the USB 2.0 external HD, which would be a lot faster than AEBS + an external HD.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you'll see the speed benefit of the SATA drive in the TC unless you use the Gigabit connection. Otherwise, the speed bottleneck will be your wireless or even your regular ethernet connection, as both are slower than even USB 2.0. I'm speaking theoretically, as I haven't tested the actual rates on either...hopefully someone will do an objective test.
 
powz said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you'll see the speed benefit of the SATA drive in the TC unless you use the Gigabit connection. Otherwise, the speed bottleneck will be your wireless or even your regular ethernet connection, as both are slower than even USB 2.0. I'm speaking theoretically, as I haven't tested the actual rates on either...hopefully someone will do an objective test.
Click to expand...

That's a good point (unless it is a USB 1.1 drive):
USB 1.1 = 1.5 Mbit/s or 12 Mbit/s
USB 2.0 = 480 Mbit/s (280 Mbit/s realistically)
SATA I = 1,200 Mbit/s
802.11n = 248 Mbit/s
 
powz said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you'll see the speed benefit of the SATA drive in the TC unless you use the Gigabit connection. Otherwise, the speed bottleneck will be your wireless or even your regular ethernet connection, as both are slower than even USB 2.0. I'm speaking theoretically, as I haven't tested the actual rates on either...hopefully someone will do an objective test.
Click to expand...

Theoretically that is correct, although I have experienced that streaming from the TC is much smoother than doing so from an attached drive.

But I'm concerned about this AEBS only allowing 1 TM backup? How does this work? One computer backing up per disk?
 
Tom J said:
You can only backup one Mac with Airport Extreme/Airdisk and Time Machine?
Crap !
Click to expand...

I don't have an Airport Extreme, but couldn't you partition the External HD before you hooked it up to the AEBS? Then just back up each computer to a different Partition? Might not be as nice as TC, but it might work no?
 
aristobrat said:
The TC is bigger than the Extreme.

I haven't done any official benchmarks, but streaming to/from my TC seems a lot faster than streaming to my Extreme + external USB drive.
Click to expand...

Could you get some rough comparisons for us? Trying to figure out which route to take. Any help appreciated.
 
thenewguy said:
But I'm concerned about this AEBS only allowing 1 TM backup? How does this work? One computer backing up per disk?
Click to expand...

I can't believe that's true. Surely with sharing/permissions set correctly you can do more than one. Or at least partition with each partition available to a different computer.
 
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