Time Capsule vs Extreme with ext HD

Chic0 · #1 January 16th, 2008, 01:27 PM

Hi

For my setup at home, I recently purchased a Airport Extreme base station and have my external 500GB HD connected to it via USB. I am able to access this drives over network and have my entire 90gb iTunes library stored on it.

Now as you all know Time Machine is unable to work for me with my Powerbook G4 and Airport drive setup.

I have been toying with the idea of selling my AE and ext HD and just buying the Time Capsule with 500gb HD instead.

I know Time Capsule is not yet released yet, but does an yone know if there will be significant increase in performance when using the drive over network?

Currently I am using 802.11g. When playing music fro mthe ext HD and trying to do anything else with it, it is quite slow, sluggish and sometime painfully unresponsive. Do you think Time Capsule with built in server-grade HD will resolve these issues?

Any help/advice would be great

Thanks

C

ElDiabloConCaca · #2 January 16th, 2008, 07:19 PM

It's not the hard drive speed that's the bottleneck in your situation -- it's the slower network you're using. 802.11g isn't capable of much more than about 2 or 3MB per second transfer rates on average. Using 802.11g with either the Time Capsule or some other router with an external hard drive attached is going to be slow.

I would look into upgrading to 802.11n before I looked at changing out hardware only to find out you're getting identical speeds.

Besides, the "server grade hard drive" is probably just more robust and durable than a standard drive, not faster (after all, it's meant to run 24/7). We'll have to see what kind of hard drive is in the Time Capsule, but I would suspect it's a standard 3.5" SATA II hard drive -- which you could NEVER hope to max out with data transfer over any existing wireless network.

Chic0 · #3 January 17th, 2008, 02:13 PM

thanks for the info.

Yeah my mate reckons part of the problem could be 802.11g. Thing is though becuase I am using Powerbook G4, i am limited to using that at the moment. My plan though is to upgrade to new MacBook Pro later this year.

In meantime, I htink I will wait on the reviews of Time Capsule when it is released.

Cheers

zynizen · #4 January 19th, 2008, 08:40 AM

Hey, I had a similar problem in my condo, but yeh its definitely the g wireless. There are about 15 to 20 other wireless networks within range of me, so I switched the Airport to wireless N, on 5ghz channel, and my disconnects/droppage stopped completely, 14mb/sec throughput via iMac and MacBook Pro.

As far as i'm concerned if technology keeps improving, this is equivalent to ethernet

bbolin · #5 January 25th, 2008, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

It's not the hard drive speed that's the bottleneck in your situation -- it's the slower network you're using. 802.11g isn't capable of much more than about 2 or 3MB per second transfer rates on average. Using 802.11g with either the Time Capsule or some other router with an external hard drive attached is going to be slow.

I would look into upgrading to 802.11n before I looked at changing out hardware only to find out you're getting identical speeds.

Besides, the "server grade hard drive" is probably just more robust and durable than a standard drive, not faster (after all, it's meant to run 24/7). We'll have to see what kind of hard drive is in the Time Capsule, but I would suspect it's a standard 3.5" SATA II hard drive -- which you could NEVER hope to max out with data transfer over any existing wireless network.

Is there an upgrade path to 802.11n? Currently have mac mini 802.11g

ElDiabloConCaca · #6 January 25th, 2008, 08:42 AM

You would need a router that supports 802.11n, and your computer would have to support 802.11n.

"Upgrading" to 802.11n usually means buying new equipment that supports 802.11n or verifying that your equipment supports 802.11n -- there's really no other upgrade path. If you have an Intel Mac mini, then it probably supports 802.11n already. If it's a G4 Mac mini, then I don't know... if you can provide the exact model of Mac you're using and the exact model of router you're using, we can probably tell you if they support 802.11n.

bbolin · #7 January 25th, 2008, 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

You would need a router that supports 802.11n, and your computer would have to support 802.11n.

"Upgrading" to 802.11n usually means buying new equipment that supports 802.11n or verifying that your equipment supports 802.11n -- there's really no other upgrade path. If you have an Intel Mac mini, then it probably supports 802.11n already. If it's a G4 Mac mini, then I don't know... if you can provide the exact model of Mac you're using and the exact model of router you're using, we can probably tell you if they support 802.11n.

It is a G4. Dosen't sound like it's worth it to me at this point. From Apples site it appears the 802.11n is compatible with 802.11a/b/g.

So I would guess the Time capsule Airport would work with my mac mini 802.11g if I were to decide to get it.

ElDiabloConCaca · #8 January 25th, 2008, 09:37 AM

802.11n is different from 802.11g which is different from 802.11b which is... ad infinitum.

Most routers and computers, if they support 802.11n, will also support 802.11g, and will also support 802.11b. But, not all computers and routers that support 802.11g will support 802.11n.

802.11a is basically the same as 802.11n, but it is designed to operate on a 5GHz frequency instead of a 2.4GHz frequency. To complicate things even more, 802.11n works on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

At any rate, yes, Time Capsule will work over 802.11g, but it will be slow.