Drobo - 5400 or 7200?

[master00]

Im planning on getting a Drobo S. However, Im torn between getting 5 - 2TB 5400 drives or 5 - 1TB 7200 drives. I plan on using it strictly for data storage and as a capture scratch.

I'll be using it via ESATA but was wondering if I would notice a significant difference between the 5400 and the 7200 and if that difference is worth the loss of space?

Anyone have any idea what drives would be best for use in Drobo S?

 

[calderone]

I currently have a Drobo v2, I went 5400 and I regret it. I don't get the speeds I would have hoped for.

I will be switching to a Drobo S or Pro and will probably go with 7200RPM drives. I think you would notice the difference in speed.

Make sure you get drives that Data Robotics has approved:
http://support.datarobotics.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/149

Same for the eSATA card: http://support.datarobotics.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/332

 

[master00]

Thanks for the info. I guess I'll go with the 7200's. How would the Drobo respond by mixing 7200's and 5400's? Im assuming it's best to keep the drives at the same speed, yes?

 

[Gav2k]

7200 drives kick out alot of heat and tend to be noisier. The 5400's will keep up with the drobo s no issue.

 

[enberg]

I currently have a Drobo v2, I went 5400 and I regret it. I don't get the speeds I would have hoped for.

I doubt the drives are the bottleneck. the Drobo 2 has show less than impressive benchmarks.

 

[master00]

I think it's probably a bad time to buy a Drobo considering that it doesn't support USB 3.0 or SATA 6/gbs. Im probably just going to wait it out.

 

[pastrychef]

I agree with enberg, the 5900RPM drives are not the bottleneck on the Drobos. The Drobos themselves are rather slow. I have two Drobos (four bays with FW800). On one of them, I had four 7200RPM 1.5TB drives and, on the other, I had four 7200RPM 1TB drives. I have since replaced all the 1TB drives and two of the 1.5TB drives with 5900RPM Seagates. I have not noticed any difference in performance.

 

[calderone]

I doubt the drives are the bottleneck. the Drobo 2 has show less than impressive benchmarks.

I had the opportunity to test some newer 7200RPM drives with my model and there was an increase in speed. While the drives may not be the bottleneck, they still don't perform well.

 

[Shuttleworth]

Does the drives cache size make any difference to the performance of the Drobo?

 

[pastrychef]

Does the drives cache size make any difference to the performance of the Drobo?

As far as I can tell, no. I haven't done any benchmarks, just going by my perception.

 

[pprior]

5400 drives will in no way slow the drobo. The limit is the hardware within the drobo.

An individual 5400 drive can easily hit 80mb/sec today, an array of 4+ could easily hit 200+mb on a high end box.

With the drobo you'll be lucky to even see 30% of that speed.

 

[natethelen]

Does anyone know of anywhere online where someone has done 5400/7200 performance test comparisons. And/Or Caviar Black/Green comparisons?