External Hard Drive Connection Questions???

[BEEFc58]

I have some questions about the connections for external hard drives. My current set up is a 1.83 Core 2 Duo Mini hooked up to a 50" Panasonic Plasma. Because I use the Mini as a media center, I have two Newertech Ministacks piggy backed to each other through USB 2 and then hooked into my Airport Extreme. The Ministacks hold my entire DVD and music libraries. I have a direct ethernet link between the Mini and the Airport extreme so that I can get on the internet with the Mini, access the info on the Ministacks though the Mini, run my network at 802.11n at 5ghz and still get a hold of the info on the Ministacks through my Macbook wirelessly.

My question is, am I loosing anything by not having the system hooked up through Firewire directly into the Mini?

I am starting dislike having multiple external hard drives. I would eventually like replace the Ministacks with a Drobo, as I would like to have everything backed up. I don't really run anything off the hard drives except for movies, tv shows and music though the mini. Everything works great now, but would it work better if I had a Gen 2 Drobo Firewired directly into the mini? Or would the 1st Gen Drobo work just as fine (it only has a USB2 connection)? Would I also be able to share the Gen 2 Drobo over my network (USB 2 hooked to the Airport Extreme) while having it directly hooked to the Mini by Firewire?

What is a good example of when Firewire is almost absolutely necessary over USB2?

Thanks for the help,

BEEF

 

[BEEFc58]

No help?????

 

[cuestakid]

how big are your drives now? I ask because getting a drobo to equal whatever you have may be VERY expensive and you will likely need the $199 droboshare for network connectivity

 

[BEEFc58]

One hard drive is 500GB and the other is 1 TB. Would I need a Drobo Share if I have an Airport Extreme? I would just plug the Drobo into the AE, like plugging the Drobo into the Drobo Share, correct?

I was just wondering if I would get anything out of plugging the Drobo into the Mini by Firewire? Would I see my movies quicker? Would the system run faster?

Thanks for looking!