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NAS: Drobo vs QNAP

H

Hexley

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Original poster
Jun 10, 2009
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I am looking for a Gigabit Ethernet NAS that can read/write data at 90MB/s for sustained periods of time.

Thing is I am stuck between a Drobo or a QNAP.

This will be used for Time Machine Gigabit LAN to four computers, Bittorrent, remote access and media streaming via Mac, Windows and Popcorn Hour.

Anyone with a good/bad experience with either? :)

Note: Popcorn Hour A-110 can only serve files at 2.5MB/s regardless of HDD or router used.
 
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I don’t know much about Drobo, I picked up QNAP 559 PRO II on Friday. I have been playing with it for few days and it is loaded with features, most of the functionality is easy to setup and it is both Mac and Windows compatible and extremely quiet. I am very happy with it although it was mad expensive, I needed something powerful and reliable and QNAP is one of the best NAS solutions out there.

QNAP has all the features you are looking for. Options may differ depending on which model you get. I have not tested read/write speed, mostly busy right now with setting up RAID and getting FTP and SSH working. I will report back once I start migrating data.
 
I have a QNAP and from what I've read it has superior services and performance then Drobo.

A better comparison would be Qnap vs. Synology. They're about the best from what I've researched.
 
blueroom said:
Also check out Synology, I found it just a hair better with OSX than QNAP.
Click to expand...

You know its funny, but my researched was slanted towards Qnap with regard to OSX compatibility.

What specifically is better with OSX on the Synology.
 
I had recently had both a QNAP & Synology (the QNAP was on sale and would have been slightly cheaper). By default it exposed shares and the Synology didn't. I also preferred the Synology interface. Otherwise they are very similar.
 
I'm very happy with my QNAP TS 459 pro. Specially after the smooth FW upgrade for AFP/Lion authorization issue.
Connected via gigabit Ethernect to my iMac and wifi router.fat enough for all my iTunes needs an backup.
I don't use TimeMachine. I preferred the good old manual way via rsync
 
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I give you that, regardless of hiding them, I see all the shares. That does bug me a bit but given that this NAS is only for me as I manage the family's comptuers. I chalked it up to one of those peculiarities.

I read about possible performance degradations with synology on Macs so that's what pushed me more into Qnaps direction. Plus for my needs, I preferred Qnap's interface over synology.

Feature wise I found them to be quite similar and you really can't go wrong with either one.

Back on topic, I see more issues with Drobo and the OP would be better served with either Qnap or Synology and avoid Drobo altogether.
 
I have a FW Drobo and regret buying it. It is very slow especially with simultaneous threaded requests. Most of the time is much slower then even a single drive setup.
I had to move my iTunes library off of it because I was unable to playback a video smoothly while podcasts where downloading.
I find that it is only really suitable as a backup device.
 
I think Drobo are nice NAS but not sure how it compares to other more popular brands such as synology, qnap and buffalo.

or you can try http://www.nasreview.org/find they have a nice list where you can filter and compare
 
I have a Synology DS1511+ and it's faster, according to benchmarks on smallnetbuilder.com, than an equivalent QNAP and you get a faster processor for less money. There are no issues with compatibility with OSX except since Lion changed AFP. Synology have a new firmware in beta right now that sorts the problem out. I don't have any issues with Snow Leopard.
 
to add a question to this thread, which of these qnap, synology or drobo streams movies, music and everything you throw at it the best?

i know "best" to someone else is always different, but for laymans terms which has less amount of issues streaming movies and msuic, and simultaneously to different tv's and atv's?

thanks
 
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My understanding is that you want to avoid paying for enterprise level features you don't need. While the QNAP 419 has a faster proc and more memory than the QNAP 412 that extra power may only come into play in multi user environment. Best depends quite a bit on your specific use case. Currently I'm favoring the QNAP 412 for backup and media streaming, though I'm still looking at options.
 
I as well am stuck! I am contemplating between the qnap ts-412 and the synology ds411j or even the ds410. My main purpose is for it to download torrents and hold and stream 1080p movies accross 3 tv's via wdtv live media players which are all connected via 500 mbps homeplugs.
I honestly do not think I will be using any of the extra features. Any input will be appreciated! I just need to know weather any of these systems will be capable of streaming and downloading well.

Thank you
 
cswetta said:
I as well am stuck! I am contemplating between the qnap ts-412 and the synology ds411j or even the ds410. My main purpose is for it to download torrents and hold and stream 1080p movies accross 3 tv's via wdtv live media players which are all connected via 500 mbps homeplugs.
I honestly do not think I will be using any of the extra features. Any input will be appreciated! I just need to know weather any of these systems will be capable of streaming and downloading well.

Thank you
Click to expand...

I recently had 26 torrents going on my DS411j while I was away for a few days on vacation. The iPhone quick-adding application is terrific. It sustained download speeds of 1.5Mbps across 200 connections for the entire 6 days (my max Roadrunner speed). In addition, a couple friends that were housesitting were streaming movies to my ATV2 the entire time, and they said it had no problems. I've never had a problem doing multiple actions on it.
 
I'll add my 2¢... The Drobo FS is painfully slow. I've got one that can't stand to use any more. Write speeds are especially horrible, regardless of having fast drives, gigabit ethernet and up-to-date firmware.
I'm going to pull the drives out of it and repurpose a 2006 Mac Pro to act as network file server. Network file transfers to/from the Mac Pro are easily 5x faster.
 
Oh thanks! its good to know that if I do go with synology I'll be safe! Much appreciated
 
Hexley said:
I am looking for a Gigabit Ethernet NAS that can read/write data at 90MB/s for sustained periods of time.

Thing is I am stuck between a Drobo or a QNAP.

This will be used for Time Machine Gigabit LAN to four computers, Bittorrent, remote access and media streaming via Mac, Windows and Popcorn Hour.

Anyone with a good/bad experience with either? :)

Note: Popcorn Hour A-110 can only serve files at 2.5MB/s regardless of HDD or router used.
Click to expand...
 

I currently have two Drobo's and both units have failed one causing me to lose all my data. The company sent me replacement units but I am currently working on backing up all my data buying a QNAP and selling both drab's (sans hard rives of course). I would recommend staying far far away from Drobo since the software they use means if the unit fails all your data is lost unless you buy another drobo and since I've had 100% fail rate on both my units I'm not confident in them at all.
 
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