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Drobo
- Thread starter robrose20
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I have about 100 dvds or so plus 400 cds...I'd like to get most of them on a drive to use in conjunction with Apple TV and then put all the discs in storage. Generally I'd go for files that are as high quality as is reasonable...would the Drobo make a good media server for this amount? I was sorta thinking of going for a 2tb external FW drive but was thinking that would fill up rather quick. At least the Drobo can expand as the media does.
A friend of mine has a Drobo, I did find it to be a tad on the noisy side...sounded like a fan. One of the major perks of Macs to me is how quiet they are...I'm a musician/sound artist and value a quiet environment. Anyone out there find the Drobo noisy?
A friend of mine has a Drobo, I did find it to be a tad on the noisy side...sounded like a fan. One of the major perks of Macs to me is how quiet they are...I'm a musician/sound artist and value a quiet environment. Anyone out there find the Drobo noisy?
I have a version 2 and it's way louder than my mac pro. It's annoying.
It's also dog slow. I've just about had it.
I get only ~10mb/sec read and write speeds over FW800. So time machine (which is what I use it for) takes FOREVER when it has to back up a few GB.
I have been a drobo fan for a couple years, but the weaknesses have worn on me over time.
It's also dog slow. I've just about had it.
I get only ~10mb/sec read and write speeds over FW800. So time machine (which is what I use it for) takes FOREVER when it has to back up a few GB.
I have been a drobo fan for a couple years, but the weaknesses have worn on me over time.
Actually after my post yesterday I realized I'd had enough. I ordered the Lacie 4Big quadra and it will be here tomorrow (hurray Amazon prime!).
It's quite a bit more money than the Drobo, but if it's truly as quiet as they say and performance is 10x-20x the drobo, I think I'll be happy.
I'll post my experience one I get it up and running for others interest.
I'm going to relegate my drobo to time machine backups off my Airport extreme in the basement. For my kids and wife who don't generate much data I think it will serve well in that capacity and noise won't matter.
Initial impresions of 4big Quadra:
Much faster than drobo (AJA shows 120mb/sec in RAID5 with hot spare - using 3 active drives). This using eSATA. My drobo as I posted routinely got 10-12mb/sec using same system on FW800.
Not much quieter, if any. Fan so far has made a varying level of noise which is actually more annoying than the constant drone of the drobo. I'm disappointed in this part which was a major reason for the purchase. I'm majorly annoyed by computer noise, but this is much louder than the mac pro I run below my desk. Not impressed with the silence factor.
Much faster than drobo (AJA shows 120mb/sec in RAID5 with hot spare - using 3 active drives). This using eSATA. My drobo as I posted routinely got 10-12mb/sec using same system on FW800.
Not much quieter, if any. Fan so far has made a varying level of noise which is actually more annoying than the constant drone of the drobo. I'm disappointed in this part which was a major reason for the purchase. I'm majorly annoyed by computer noise, but this is much louder than the mac pro I run below my desk. Not impressed with the silence factor.
I'd be inclined to have it run in a closet, computer noise in my studio drives me nuts as well. Perhaps there's a temperature controlled sound proof box that can be purchased to stick the drive in. I dunno what the solution is. All my external FW drives are fairly quiet but they're low capacity (Maxtor 300gb, WD 500gb & Glyph 200gb).
I picked up a Drobo about a month ago and it has been silent. I don't hear it at all. I have it connected to a Mac mini via a Firewire 800 to Firewire 400 cable. Speeds are nothing to write home about... I would say I get anywhere from 10 to 15Mb/sec. When I connect to the Mac mini via AFP on a gigabit ethernet LAN, I essentially get the same speeds. I have absolutely no complaints about how it has been running.
I was interested in drobo for a while. I have a bunch of work and media files that I would likely jump of a bridge if I lost. I keep semi-annual backups on dvds (in a safe deposit box, in case my house burns down). The drobo, however, seems to have a propensity for dying young.
Ultimately, it seems like just buying a separate normal enclosure from a drive manufacturer like WD or Seagate makes more sense. I'm sporting two WD MyBook mirrors through the Airport BSE, and a WD Elements drive for TM backups. The two MyBooks are somewhat redundant, since each is already a RAID 1 mirroring, but just in case that enclosure dies (as the Drobo enclosure does), I will still have a functioning second. Its got a crazy long 5 year warranty, so I like knowing that I'll be set for awhile. (PS, why the hell are Time Capsules only a year-long warranty?)
Plus, you don't need to worry about having to buy one of those Drobo share network connections.
Ultimately, it seems like just buying a separate normal enclosure from a drive manufacturer like WD or Seagate makes more sense. I'm sporting two WD MyBook mirrors through the Airport BSE, and a WD Elements drive for TM backups. The two MyBooks are somewhat redundant, since each is already a RAID 1 mirroring, but just in case that enclosure dies (as the Drobo enclosure does), I will still have a functioning second. Its got a crazy long 5 year warranty, so I like knowing that I'll be set for awhile. (PS, why the hell are Time Capsules only a year-long warranty?)
Plus, you don't need to worry about having to buy one of those Drobo share network connections.
f/u post: I'm returning the 4big quadra. It's noisier than the drobo and I can't live with the noise, despite the speed improvement.
I'm changing my overall plan and moving the drobo to the basement hooked to my airport extreme for whole house time machine (kids imac and wife MBP) and got a WD 2TB external drive which is fanless and will hopefully therefore be quiet for my TM backup.
The drobo has been very stable in my experience, just noisy and SLOW (biggest complaint).
I'm changing my overall plan and moving the drobo to the basement hooked to my airport extreme for whole house time machine (kids imac and wife MBP) and got a WD 2TB external drive which is fanless and will hopefully therefore be quiet for my TM backup.
The drobo has been very stable in my experience, just noisy and SLOW (biggest complaint).
Offsite backup
Hi guys, could Drobo be used to easily create off site backups? Could you purchase 3 drives, have one that lives permanently in your Drobo, and swap the other 2 every week, that way you would always have 2 drives in Drobo, and an off site backup. Is this possible?
Hi guys, could Drobo be used to easily create off site backups? Could you purchase 3 drives, have one that lives permanently in your Drobo, and swap the other 2 every week, that way you would always have 2 drives in Drobo, and an off site backup. Is this possible?
When I first got my Drobo, I just dragged and dropped about 2.5TB to it. I've never experienced any with time outs with my Drobos...
Can I ask whether you are using 5400RPM or 7200 RPM drives in the Drobo?
I've heard a about a lot of People editing straight off the Drobo so I'm pretty surprised to hear about such Slow Speeds, even over Firewire.
I'm looking at getting one sometime in the Future (When I can justify the price in the Budget
) And while Speed is not the most important aspect, It's definitely one of the Added points. I'lll be curious to hear if other people are suffering similar slow transfers.
While 'm not streaming 1080p or editing straight off of the Drobo, I have streamed plenty of 720p / 5000kbps+ content with no problems. Although this isn't the case with every slow Drobo, there is a correlation between having a drive Drobo is beginning to suspect is faulty, and slow transfer speeds.
As I said, this isn't the definitive reason, but after sifting through the forums quite heavily over a year plus, this has been seen in many decoded logs.
Good luck with any decision you make. This is like the Ford/Chevy/Dodge truck debate. They all have their merits, and they all have their deficiencies.
As I said, this isn't the definitive reason, but after sifting through the forums quite heavily over a year plus, this has been seen in many decoded logs.
Good luck with any decision you make. This is like the Ford/Chevy/Dodge truck debate. They all have their merits, and they all have their deficiencies.
To me, the drobo seems like the "idiot proof" solution. When I was looking for a raid storage solution, I was first drawn to the drobo for obvious reasons (ease of use, looks, campatibility) but decided eventually it was not for me. I've heard things about them being slow and not all that great so I began to look around more. IIRC the drobo is like $500, for a little over $300 I could have bought a 4 bay raid enclosure from OWC that had not only fw800 but esata, usb, and fw400. I would lose functionality this way because I would have to buy all the drives at the same time and set the raid up like that. The I discovered the QNAP NAS. This gave me all* the functionality of a drobo (which mainly includes RAID level migration and expansion) along with so much more. The model I picked, TS-410, was only $450. So it was cheaper than a drobo and is basically the same footprint but with added functionality. So there are other options out there. I'm not saying the drobo isnt good, I just don't think the device warrants its high price tag.
*The only benefit to the drobo over any other solution was the mix-n-match of drives with different capacities. This didnt really matter to me since I wanted to fit it with 4 2tb drives anyway
*The only benefit to the drobo over any other solution was the mix-n-match of drives with different capacities. This didnt really matter to me since I wanted to fit it with 4 2tb drives anyway
I have both an original and a version 2, it is a night and day difference. I had to actually prop the front cover open a little bit with a bit of plastic to keep the vibrations from being ridiculously loud. V1 is a noisy beast! The v2 is silent however, and the FW800 is nice.
QNAS TS-410 - $449.99 - But no Firewire support which I need.
Lacie 4Big - $749.00 -- Has FW400/800.
Drobo 4Bay - $359.00 - Has FW800 but no FW400! (which I want for my Mac Mini)
1TB 5400 Green drives go for $80. 4X80 = $320. $359.00 + $320 = $679.00.
So the Drobo with 4TB is cheaper than the Lacie 4Big by $70. I wish I could listen to both systems before buying. I want one that's quiet since we will be running Boxee off it though our Mac Mini
actually, fw400-800 cables do exist. Anyway, why do you NEED firewire? Remember, just because something is connected with FW800 doesn't guarantee you 800Mb/s. I've read reports that the Drobo averages around 15MB/s write where as my NAS over Gig Ethernet writes at about 28MB/s on average. That was the point I was trying to make. If you have some other specific reason why you "need" firewire, then by all means disregard my post.
According to the following review, using Firewire yields better performance.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/08/drobo-second-gen-mini-review/