Really now? Time Capsule slower than USB?

I just bought a 1Tb Time Capsule, and I don't have a wireless internet connection where I live right now, so I thought I'd just set it up as a wireless HDD to Macbook Pro.

Turns out, it works great, but the speed is something along the lines of 4MB/s to 7MB/s. WOW! That's just crazy!

My WD Passport does 20MB/s, and the $500 1Tb Apple HDD can't do at least 10MB/s?

Does anyone have any ideas? Any experience?
I'm still using Tiger, would that have to do with anything?

Any help would be super appreciated!!

 

I just picked up a .5 TB Time Capsule. I have a .5 TB WD Mybook USB drive that I currently do my backups on. I want to move it to the Time Capsule and use the Time Capsule for backups and the Mybook for network file storage - mainly music, movies and shared files. This means I will sit through a long first backup. USB 2 maxes out at 480 MBPS. 802.11N claims to maybe reach 300. I have gigabit ethernet so I should get the same performance wired that I got USB but slower performance via wifi. When I get around to trying this out, I will come back and post.

Before doing anything, I expect USB and gigabit ethernet to be tied and 802.11n to come in a distant third.

 

Seems like you are connected to your Time Capsule via 802.11g, not 802.11n. Try changing the Time Capsule settings to enable 802.11n only and see what happens. Alternatively, you can use Airport Utility (Applications/Utilities) to change your wireless connection settings.

 

Well, I tried 802.11n and g and 5Ghz and everything, but still can't get more than 7MB/s.

Which really makes the TC a really slow but very expensive toy.

Anyone else?

 

You really shouldn't expect more from wireless transfers...

 

If you have more than one computer, try a file transfer via wireless from one computer to another. (Using the Time Capsule as the wireless access point).

Basically to see if it is a wireless problem or a drive issue in the Time Capsule...

Edit;
Are you using Time Machine to do the file transfer, or are you doing it manually? Trying to work out theories...

Edit again;
Try testing out with ethernet and note the speed of that. If you have a friend with an Apple laptop running Leopard, try theirs out..

 

OK, so first, Wireless N isn't even a final spec, and ALL my experiences with Wireless N have been utterly awful. I'd expect the Time Capsule to perform in line with my experiences with WiFi N. So, if you were expecting fast transfers over WiFi, you very much mistaken, unfortunately. I think the idea of the TC is great, but in practice it very well may suck eggs.

 

You won't get anything near 300mbps with Wireless N, based on my experience. I can't actually remember what my speeds were, but pathetic is definitely one of the adjectives I remember using.

I'd love to hear otherwise, of course, since perhaps Apple's implementation is improved over the Dell 1500N cards I used with my Netgear N router many moons ago.

 

Uh... USB and gigabit ethernet tied? Hell no. Firewire 800 comes close.

Remember... USB 2 is 480 MbPS (that is Mb not MB) compared to 1000MbPS. Considering the HUGE overhead USB has, it will come no where near gigabit speed.

Maybe once N gets finalized it will be good. If you're really looking at transferring large amounts of data over your network (over a gig) I'd def. suggest using a gigabit connect. It will be done in a flash.

 

i have no trouble with N at all,

i have no problems playing back large HD video files over N.

your experience with networking really depends on the router that you are using.

 

I've never had any issues with N.

 

*sigh*

Stop making me spend money!

I just ordered a Time Capsule 500GB. Figured I'd replace the drive instead of paying the ridiculous amount for the 1TB. Anyway, I'll let you know about speeds when I receive it.

I wish I didn't need to PAY for stuff to review it *sigh*.

And why did I just order one? I just have to know if it works or not, so I can actually make informed opinions, I guess.

I have a disease...

 

The 1TB isn't too bad of a price, considering they don't use the cheaper drives (Or claim that they don't). The drives inside of those still retail for $275-300.

What do you plan to use your 500GB drive for after you pull it out?

 

No idea. Some data storage. I think the Time Capsule WAS taken apart, and it was shown to NOT be a server grade drive. You can buy any old 1TB for a little over $200 right now, and a little under $200 if you find one at the right time. I'd rather pay $299 for a 500GB, and then replace it with a 1TB for another $200. I'm leaning toward a WD Caviar GP 1TB, since they run cooler and quieter than whatever's in the TC right now.

 

I would wait a few more months before buying a 1TB drive. They have some new platter tech that is supposed to be released this summer, which will drop the prices down a little.

Either way, I just looked up what drive they use in the Time Capsule, and they are pretty good (high) quality drives, and the same drive they use sells for $269 at NewEgg. (HDS721010KLA330 incase you wanna check). But you are right, they aren't server grade...

 

Wow this really sucks. This is what the people from discussions.apple.com had to say about it:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1443511&tstart=45

Which basically means I'm stuck with this really expensive 1Tb drive for 500 FREAKING US DOLLARS!

 

I don't mean to rip on anybody, but that Danny guy doesn't seem to have a whole lot of substance to his claims.

What were the results of what I suggested to try for testing?

If it fails to go over 10Mb/sec hooked directly to ethernet, then the Time Capsule has a problem. If the speed is reasonable, then something is wrong with the wireless settings/configuration/hardware. (Basically this is to figure out if the Time Capsule can physically transfer at faster speeds, which I believe it can. The processor doesn't need to be super fast to handle data transfer)

So try that out.

 

Alright so I hooked up my TC with an Ethernet cable, and the speed is indeed faster (12MBytes/s) when transferring files to the disk but it's still slow compared even to my bus-powered USB drive...

Any ideas, configurations, settings, stuff like that?

 

I don't have a Time Machine to test on, but I'm still looking up info.

I'm trying to find a report of somebody's actual speeds on one that isn't "slow".

In the mean time, give Apple a call and complain, and see what that gets you.

 

I really don't know but maybe this might help

 

That should come on a CD with any new Airport Extreme base station, and I'll assume with Time Capsule as well.