Airport + External HDD, vs. Time Capsule?

Hi, I've been a Mac user for about 5 months, so I'm not the newest of switchers, but I'm not sure whether this belongs here or in the Airport Forum.

I'm about to buy a new router and I'm pretty sure I'm getting one from Apple, if for no other reason than my good experiences dealing with AppleCare.

I've been backing up my files on DVDs and 16-gig flash drives, partly because I don't have a lot to back up. But I do want to take advantage of Time Machine now, and I'm considering Time Capsule as a combined HDD and router. Yet I've read many bad stories about failed Time Capsules, and I'm inclined to buy an Airport Express or Extreme and buy a separate HDD to hook up to my MBP for Time Machine use.

I'm hoping anyone could offer their opinions/experience on this!

Lastly, if I end up going with Airport + external HDD, which would you guys recommend -- Express or Extreme? I live in a 2 bedroom apartment.

Thanks to all in advance!

The stories are typically all related to the first gen and it supposedly dying at 18 months.

I have one of those first gen units. It's now over 3 years old. Mine is used as an extension - connected via 100' ethernet to my primary router and sits in my entertainment center providing ethernet connections to my satellite, HTPC, B-R, etc. along with providing a 2nd wifi 'n' only network I run on this side of the house. It's used for general storage and for TM backups of two Macs.

The first issue I've had with it in all that time was yesterday morning - woke up and it was flashing yellow - a reset of my D-Link took care of the problem - so still, no problems with the TC itself.

Before my WHS gave up the ghost, I'd measured moving files that traveled probably 140-150' from the HTPC to the TC to the D-Link to the WHS at up to only 10% under gigabit speed.

While not necessarily my first choice and a tad on the expensive side vs other options, for those needing a router and a backup solution with their Macs, I think the TC is a fine choice for that.

I think TC works fine, my personal preference though is for a separate external drive. I don't like the idea of my router and drive being the same because of one goes bad, or you decide to switch routers for some reason, then things get much more tricky.

Command Alt Ego said:

Hi, I've been a Mac user for about 5 months, so I'm not the newest of switchers, but I'm not sure whether this belongs here or in the Airport Forum.

I'm about to buy a new router and I'm pretty sure I'm getting one from Apple, if for no other reason than my good experiences dealing with AppleCare.

I've been backing up my files on DVDs and 16-gig flash drives, partly because I don't have a lot to back up. But I do want to take advantage of Time Machine now, and I'm considering Time Capsule as a combined HDD and router. Yet I've read many bad stories about failed Time Capsules, and I'm inclined to buy an Airport Express or Extreme and buy a separate HDD to hook up to my MBP for Time Machine use.

I'm hoping anyone could offer their opinions/experience on this!

Lastly, if I end up going with Airport + external HDD, which would you guys recommend -- Express or Extreme? I live in a 2 bedroom apartment.

Thanks to all in advance!

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A Time Capsule or Airport Extreme/External Drive would both work well but
the Airport Express will not ,as far as I know only accept wireless printers on the USB port and doubt a network drive will work on the ethernet port of the Express.

Thanks to Bobtomay, Schweb and osxx for your help.

I decided to get an Airport Extreme, ultimately because hard drives fail and I feel more comfortable keeping them separate from my router, for simplicity's sake as Schweb mentioned.

Now I'll be looking at external HDDs.

Simple is always better. The AE is a great router and should more than suffice. You can find top of line external hard drives at "Other World Computing". I especially like their triple interface Mercury on the go line.

Thanks, chscag. I set up the Extreme very easily. The "n" sure seems faster than my old linksys "g".

I checked out the OWC link. The 1 TB model seems nice. Do you own one?

I have the 500 GB model (a bit older) with the triple interface and it's really nice. I'm currently using it for Time Machine backups. I have it attached via the FW 800 port.