Time capsule out of order : which is the cheapest and best alternative ?

[plancton]

Hi,
My old Time Capsule 3rd gen (Model A1355 - 1 Tb) is out of order (supposedly the power supply is dead).
I was using it as a wifi-router and data backup for Macbook and PC.

I think that repairing it will be quite hard and I am looking for an alternative which would be the most simple and cheap to avoid buying a Synology NAS. I don't need a media center and I am rarely using File sharing.

I have an old MacMini 2007 (DD 120 Gb and Wi-fi card not working) and I also have a Raspberry Pi 3 that I don't use. I could try to give them a second chance.

What would you advise me to do to replace this time capsule to use it as a wifi-router and data backup for 2 x 512Mb laptops (Mac and Windows) and not spend 500 $.


Thank you

 

[Feek]

Swapping the PSU on those older Time Capsules is pretty easy and they're available on eBay.

 

[Wando64]

You could attach a 1TB disk to your mini and backup to this shared drive.
This is how I do it, albeit with a 2012 mini.

In fact you could probably extract the disk from the time capsule and put it in an enclosure attached to the mini.

You will still need a new router though.

 

[plancton]

@Feek : thank you, this solution has two problems : 1Tb will soon be not enough for me, that's why I am also looking for a more durable or extensible solution and above all I am not sure to succeed (one screw is very hard to remove on the back and I need to use a tool so the very beginning is not encouraging ! I also hope that the PSU is really the problem but you're right, for 20-30 $ it could do the job ...
@Wando64 : thanks, if I change the Wi-fi card , it could be OK but I don't know if it is easy or use an external USB one.
And will the old macOS be able to deliver a performant Wi-fi signal ?

And what about buying an old Apple Airport Extreme Router and connect the hard drive from the time capsule to the USB port ? Will I still be able to use Time machine for backup in this case ?