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adam9c1

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 2, 2012
1,878
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Chicagoland
What is the largest drive that will work in the tower Time Capsule? Do I need to worry about one brand vs another?
Will I see speed benefits if instead of a larger drive I use a SSD?
 

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,032
7,875
What is the largest drive that will work in the tower Time Capsule? Do I need to worry about one brand vs another?
Will I see speed benefits if instead of a larger drive I use a SSD?
Since the transmission speed of the Time Capsule is slow, you won’t really notice any benefit to using an SSD. That said, if you have a newer Mac, you might be better off buying a new router that supports adding a disk drive through USB, rather than trying to stretch the life of the Time Capsule.
 

mdgm

macrumors 68000
Nov 2, 2010
1,665
406
Or better yet get a NAS. These are designed to provide network storage and perform better than USB connected to a router.
 

adam9c1

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 2, 2012
1,878
311
Chicagoland
I do have a NAS and it's working great.
I'd like to use the native backup solution of the Time Capsule as another layer of data protection.
 

Brian33

macrumors 65816
Apr 30, 2008
1,424
354
USA (Virginia)
What is the largest drive that will work in the tower Time Capsule?

I had success putting a 5TB Toshiba HDD in my tower Time Capsule. Used it for a few years until the HDD failed.

There’s no point in putting an SSD in because it seems that it’s the processing power of the TC that’s the limiting factor.
 
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MacProRumours

macrumors newbie
Oct 18, 2021
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I had success putting a 5TB Toshiba HDD in my tower Time Capsule. Used it for a few years until the HDD failed.

There’s no point in putting an SSD in because it seems that it’s the processing power of the TC that’s the limiting factor.
Speed isn't the only consideration: an SSD will run cooler and quieter and use less electricity. I have acquired a Time Capsule A1470, without disk drive. I could put in a regular HD, but I wonder if it would be possible to put in an SSD and for it to work?
 

Brian33

macrumors 65816
Apr 30, 2008
1,424
354
USA (Virginia)
Speed isn't the only consideration: an SSD will run cooler and quieter and use less electricity. I have acquired a Time Capsule A1470, without disk drive. I could put in a regular HD, but I wonder if it would be possible to put in an SSD and for it to work?
That's true. Especially if you really want it quiet!

Yes, I would certainly expect a SATA SSD to work fine inside a Time Capsule. In fact, I was recently planning on that path because I wanted it silent. I even bought a 2.5" to 3.5" HDD adapter so it would fit in nicely. In the end I decided to put the 4TB SSD into a USB enclosure and plug it into the back of the TC instead, at least for now.
 
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