Time Capsule NAS?

Can one of the TC's be set up to be used as a real NAS, or is it just a dumb box?

I guess the answer depends on what you mean by, a "real" NAS, since a "real" NAS literally has its own operating system built into the product.

The Time Capsule is a simple Wi-Fi router with a built in hard drive that can be used for simple file sharing. It has no real "brains" compared to a "real" NAS.

Whether or not the Time Capsule will do what you want as far as media storage is open to question.

Having tried to store an iTunes Library and a image library on the Time Capsule, I can say that access is going to be slow compared to a NAS. Want to hear some music? It might take15-20 seconds or longer at times for music to start after you hit the play button.

Want to edit an image? It might take even longer for the image to display.

In addition, the iTunes Library and image library tended to get "lost" after a few weeks, and I had to regularly and manually "point" the application to the Time Capsule hard drive location to get things going again. Things would work OK until the library got "lost" again.

Not recommending that you try to use the Time Capsule as a NAS........(it was designed by Apple as a simple WiFi router with a built in hard drive to store Time Machine backups.......not house libraries that will be used on a "active" and regular basis.

That being said, some users find that the Time Capsule works OK for their needs.

The bottom line.......to find out how well......or if.....the Time Capsule will work for your purposes on your network, you will need to try things out on your network.

Another question that might need some thought would be how you plan to back up the data or media/image libraries that will be stored on the Time Capsule, since it cannot back itself up.

Since Apple got out of Airport business (network routers.. confusing terrible name) people are searching for suitable alternatives for TC and express in particular. A few of us here use Synology NAS. Not cheap... but a lot of effort put into working with Apple environment. The Time Machine compatibility is excellent.

If you want to run plex then I strongly recommend you go for x86 model like 918+ which is very popular. Remember quality NAS drives (WD red, Seagate IronWolf, are still going to cost you more than unit so saving $200 on a cheaper unit will bite you in the end!! It is certainly going to cost more than working 2012 mini for example but is built for the job.

You don't need to populate all the drive bays immediately.. so one or two disks are fine to start with. People do buy 4 drives though if you want to efficiently use RAID to protect against disk loss. My own approach is to use single drives... with no raid.. just configure the backup to external large USB disk which are cheap. Do not trust RAID as a backup.. it isn't. RAID will not protect against hardware failure of the unit or mistaken deletion of files.

A Synology RT2600AC router with USB3 drive as a replacement for the TC offers a much cheaper solution. It won't run plex but has a lot more disk functionality cf average wireless router USB connected hard drive. Most of the synology NAS firmware is available in the router version firmware without all the apps that make the synology so good. It is obviously no where near as fast as the NAS but better than the TC internal disk.

I would definitely go for the DS918+ as mentioned..

The QNAP equivalent is also very good.. big improvement in the QNAP apps lately..

I got a QNAP to try.. older rack model but with i3 processor. I still have not tested with Time Machine due to illness.. and testing short term in my experience is fairly useless.. It needs to go for 2 months or more.

See the comparison here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1AA36dUnL4&t=39s

For most Apple people I would recommend Synology just because it is rather slick and less android/linux looking.

If you are a DIYer.. I don't have a genuine Synology.. I have a J1900 board running Xpenology.. Just for full disclosure. Xpenology is a DIYer dream.. but not for faint of heart.

FWIW, I have the Synology DS916+, an older model than the DS918+, that I've had for several years now. In addition for using it for Time Machine backups, I also use it as my home's Plex media server. Both functions have been flawless. My only suggestion is to be sure that you "max-out" the memory on it to get the best overall performance.

The D111 or D112 are older models. I suggest that you use the "compare" option on the Synology website to help you understand the differences on their various models to help you decide if a single vs. multi-bay NAS is better suited for your networking goals.

Ref: https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/compare/DS118/DS918+

You may also find their NAS Selector helpful.

If the budget allows, a NAS by Synology would be the way to go.

Don't buy anything without a decent celeron at least. Plex is CPU demanding.