Airport Extreme with external harddrive vs Time Capsule internal harddrive

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Airport Extreme with external harddrive vs Time Capsule internal harddrive

Hi everyone, I finally decided to buy one of these new Airport devices equiped with 802.11ac wifi. I just cant decide which one to buy, time capsule or airport extreme. I will not be doing backups, so my main purpose will be to put some media on hdd and share them on network. I want to know which one performs better: extreme+external harddrive (usb2.0) or time capsule with its internal drive. If you can give some numbers , data transfer rates that would be perfect of course.

Posted on Sep 8, 2013 4:23 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 8, 2013 4:34 AM in response to cnltf

Are you using it over wireless or over ethernet??

Speed on wireless until you get new AC units is probably not too different between the USB and internal disk. They are very different on external. but I have not seen a proper review or comparison of speeds on the new model.. the last Gen4 is equally fast though so the difference will not be great.

Read the whole review.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4577/airport-extreme-5th-gen-and-time-capsule-4th- gen-review-faster-wifi-/4

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Answer 2

cnltf Author

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Sep 8, 2013 4:39 AM in response to LaPastenague

I ll be using it over ethernet mostly. wifi for ipads iphones appletv etc. I have seen the review you have posted but I am wondering if it is also same with the new gen airports. So internal hdd will perform better than external hdd connected to usb2.0 if I use it over ethernet?

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Answer 3

Sep 8, 2013 5:03 AM in response to cnltf

Absolutely.. so far as the numbers I have seen the latest disk throughput is not up to the standard of Gen4.. I think it can improve but at the moment the firmware is too new.

Remember the Gen4 TC was optimised over a long period. So I would actually expect same or slightly slower speed from Gen5 TC internal disk. The speed over ethernet of the external plugged in by USB is very poor.. and will not get better with firmware.. it is processor and USB bound.. usb2 is always slow on routers.

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