NAS, ATV3 improving speed

[jer99]

I broke down and purchased a DROBO 5N and populated it with 11 TB and a 256G cache. I attached it to a 1G switch in the Home Theater cabinet that goes to the ATV3 and a 1G router. The router goes to my PC running iTunes.
The speed is about 500Mbs to the drobo.

I still have a delay upon startup and am wondering what ideas people may have for minimizing the delay as much as possible.

For example, I have an old PC laptop running XP. If I put that on the same switch in the Home Theater cabinet, will that make a substantial difference?

What other ideas are out there?

 

[Revelation78]

Couple of questions...

Please provide make and model of the "1G switch."
Please provide details, make/model of the "1G router."

Is your Apple TV hard wired or wireless?

Have you ever fully tested your throughput from your computer to your Dorbo, and I mean actually tested it?

Is your Drobo setup as an iTunes/Media server or is it just a "drive" and you have another device acting as the media server?