I am looking for an external storage solution. I want it to be fast, as I intend to work of it, but at the same time I don't want to go bankrupt over it. I am not a professional, nor do I have any inspirations to be one. I just need a fast, reliable storage solution to work of.
I have decided I want to have a Thunderbolt solution, as it is more reliable than USB on the latest Macbook Pro incarnations. At least on my rMBP.
I want regular harddisks, not SSD as that will get to be too expensive for some decent storage size.
I want to use RAID or similar to increase speed and have some protection for hardware failures. This is not a backup solution; backup has already been taken care of.
I have considered the Drobo 5D, but it is not superfast - though arguably fast enough. I know it is a propriety solution, but so is every other RAID solution. It is easy to setup and maintain.
I also looked at G-Tech Thunderbolt series, but they are 2 drive only. I could buy two and dasiy chain them, but OSX does not support RAID5. Using 4 drives in RAID0 is stupid fast, which is good, but there is also a 4x the risk of a drive failure. While my backups are good and such an even should not result in dataloss, it would be annoying and time consuming. Using RAID10 is an option, but a huge waste of space and hardly economical for home use.
Ditto for the Lacie 2Big Thunderbolt series.
The Pegasus R4/R6 are interesting and very fast, they are also very expensive. If one could buy the enclosure without drives, it would probably be a no-brainer, but alas.
Does anyone here have any opinions, or suggestions on what to get?
I have decided I want to have a Thunderbolt solution, as it is more reliable than USB on the latest Macbook Pro incarnations. At least on my rMBP.
I want regular harddisks, not SSD as that will get to be too expensive for some decent storage size.
I want to use RAID or similar to increase speed and have some protection for hardware failures. This is not a backup solution; backup has already been taken care of.
I have considered the Drobo 5D, but it is not superfast - though arguably fast enough. I know it is a propriety solution, but so is every other RAID solution. It is easy to setup and maintain.
I also looked at G-Tech Thunderbolt series, but they are 2 drive only. I could buy two and dasiy chain them, but OSX does not support RAID5. Using 4 drives in RAID0 is stupid fast, which is good, but there is also a 4x the risk of a drive failure. While my backups are good and such an even should not result in dataloss, it would be annoying and time consuming. Using RAID10 is an option, but a huge waste of space and hardly economical for home use.
Ditto for the Lacie 2Big Thunderbolt series.
The Pegasus R4/R6 are interesting and very fast, they are also very expensive. If one could buy the enclosure without drives, it would probably be a no-brainer, but alas.
Does anyone here have any opinions, or suggestions on what to get?