Just yesterday, Data Robotics announced their latest release of the DroboPro, a business class storage solution, which features a monstrous allowance of hard drive bays - 8 to be exact - catering to all your mediaphile needs. Still, we couldn't help but wonder if the $1300 price tag was justified. I mean, c'mon - you can grab a $300 PC with a large case and RAID to do just about the same thing, right? We've got the benefits and negatives awaiting you, after the jump.
Edit: Correction - it's not a NAS! Despite having ethernet connectvity, you still need to plug this bad boy into a server or desktop PC - not just a router or a hub. Thanks for catching this!
Despite being huge collectors of media stuffs ourselves, we can't bear to look at the ghastly $1300 price tag without cringing a bit inside. Is the device worth it?
Here are a couple of reasons to own the DroboPro in addition to a PC:
- Hot Swappable Storage. Pull dead drives, or small drive and instantly swap them out with larger, working drives all while still able to access data (or playing video from the Drobo without having it skip).
- Mixed hard drive storage sizes which you don't get with RAID. RAID requires same size drive per slice or you only get aggregate of the smallest size slice. Drobo supports any size per slice.
- Automatic format/setup of each new hard drive. Drobo autocorrects bad sectors (marking off) while maintaining your data integrity using the redundant data features of the Drobo. Also if a drive dies, it'll alert you and you just swap the drive out without interrupting any work you're doing. RAID would require you to rebuild without any access (or limited access) to the data in the interim and the RAID rebuild could take hours.
And here are a few reasons why sticking with the PC would make more sense:
- Space savings.Who needs another box around when you can just grab a large case to store the drives?
- You can set up automated image-based backups instead. Though maybe slower, can provide you with whole images of a computer system "as is" in case of a virus outbreak.
So in the end, it's really up to the price you'd be willing to pay for convenience. Is waiting not your game? Then grab the Drobo. If you need to do more than just store files, go the PC route. You'll most likely get much more functionality out of it, but will have to deal with the common gripes of a dedicated PC - crashing, viruses, your little cousin accidentally deleting your My Documents, etc... but all of these are avoidable with the right type of software and backup solutions.
The DroboPro comes with USB 2.0, twin FireWire 800 sockets (both of which are compatible with FireWire 800-to-400 adapters) and a gigabit Ethernet jack. It is set to retail for $1300 later this week.
You can eliminate the problems of viruses and crashing by using FreeNAS, a bunch of inexpensive disks, and an old PC.
http://www.freenas.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=37
http://www.howtoforge.com/network_attached_storage_with_freenas
view Khurt Williams's profile
I'm almost certain that the drobopro is not a NAS. It has to be connected to a server, not just plugged into a hub/switch.
As a video editor, I think the unit is well worth the price. It can hold anything you throw at it (assuming you bought enough capacity) and is fast enough to allow for DV and HDV editing through firewire.... and it works better than any raid. So if you do any real work aren't just looking for a place to store your downloaded torrent files then go for it.
view 19day's profile
This might be the flimsiest comparison between 2 gadgets I have ever seen.
The fact that you don't even understand the basics about the product you are 'comparing' speaks volumes. Drobo PRO is not a NAS.
Pretty hard to compare things when you don't understand the products.
You can do better!
view sfmitch's profile
The drobopro is an Iscsi DAS capable of around 80mb/s - a closer comparison would be with a dedicated fiber channel storage solution - theese come in at an equivelent price but at increaced maintence costs and reduced ease of use.
this is not a product for the vast majority of home users - i think Semipro HD video editors would find difficulty using it to its full extent - it has its market - Pro photographers videographers, and anyone else that needs easy setup, low maintance high speed, high volume storage.
view mojonojo's profile
If the DroboPro didn't cost a small fortune, maybe this struggling photographer would be willing to cough up to the price. Otherwise, PC sounds good with me!
view ekoshyun's profile