Last week, Apple announced their wireless backup device, Time Machine. This device is an Airport Extreme with a hard drive in it. Now a few of you will be familiar with the fact that the Airport Extreme has a USB port which has the ability to add a printer, or a hard drive, or multiple USB devices if you use a hub. Now the question is should I go with an Airport Extreme and get an external hard drive, or should I go with Time Capsule.

If you want to backup your Mac with Time Machine to a wireless hard drive then this is a no brainer at this stage. Only Time Capsule has the ability to backup to a drive wirelessly. Hooking up a USB drive to an Airport Extreme will not work for Time Machine. In the future, Apple my release a firmware update that allows for you to use an external drive for backing up with Time Machine but until then, you only have one option.

But for people wanting to use it as network attached storage, you have 2 options. You could get Time Capsule and  you would have the convenience of having an Airport Extreme and a Hard Drive in one small package. The other option is to get an Airport Extreme and connect a USB hard drive to it. There are a few disadvantages of doing this instead of getting Time Capsule. First, you have just used twice as much space as the single unit would have. You also have used the only USB port on the device and if you decide you want a printer on the network through the AirPort Extreme, you will require a USB Hub. The final disadvantage I can think of is the amount of power sockets the devices will take up. There is one for the Airport Extreme, one for the Hard Drive, another one if you want to hook up a printer and another for if the hub is powered. That is 4 plugs you require, instead of the 2 if you used Time Capsule with a printer.

Now, how do the prices compare. An Airport Extreme costs $179 and you can get a Western Digital MyBook 500GB for $118 or a Western Digital MyBook 1TB for $251. This brings the total for an Airport Extreme + 500GB External Drive to $297 and an Airport Extreme + 1TB External Drive to $430. The Time Capsule 500GB model costs $299 and the Time Capsule 1TB model costs $499.

The 500GB Time Capsule is prices pretty similar to the Airport Extreme with a 500GB external drive. With such little difference in price, I would recommend if you only want 500GB at this stage, getting Time Capsule would be the way to go. You can always add external drives to it afterwards if you decide at a later date that you want more storage. The 1TB Time Capsule is prices quite a bit higher than getting an Airport Extreme with a 1TB external drive. You are paying quite a bit extra for the convenience of having it in one package.

To conclude, if you are going to be using it for Time Machine, there is only one option. If you are using it for network storage, if you are looking at 500GB, I would say get Time Capsule. If you are looking at 1TB, you have to decide which is better for you and your situation. Ultimately, it is your decision on if you would rather convenience over price for this configuration. On another note, you might be able to find cheaper external drives elsewhere but I have decided to use Western Digital MyBook’s for my example because I have found this product to be cheap and reliable for my friends and myself and would definitely recommend their product. If price is a factor, do your research.

Note: All prices are in US Dollars and were taken from the Apple Store and Newegg websites on the 24/01/08. Prices may vary in different countries. This article is only a guideline, you should do your own research on prices and products to see what options are right for you.Â