Data Robotics Drobo USB 2.0 & FireWire Enclosure

$5 off $5+ orders using eBillme coupon code Buy5OFF0110 [Exp 12/31]

$5 OFF $100 Coupon in our Software Store [Exp 11/30]

$10 off $200 for New Customers [Exp 12/31]

$5 off $100 for New Customers [Exp 12/31]

Newegg Rosewill Dual Bay SATA to USB Enclosure $35 Discuss (2)

ZipZoomFly ENERMAX Aluminum 2.5" USB 2.0 Enclosure $5 Discuss (0)

Newegg Rosewill 3.5" SATA to USB/eSATA Enclosure $25 Discuss (0)

Tiger Direct Thecus N4100PRO 4 Bay AMD NAS Server $345 Discuss (2)

I've never tried one, but these and their big brothers are used extensively by the bigger visual effects houses, and they're supposed to be excellent. It's unfortunate this one doesn't support eSATA.

Yeah, and $200 extra for the device that allows for network sharing?!! What a ripoff.

Drobo sounds good, but I found had a number of short comings.
1. Very Slow, no matter which connection - IT IS SLOW
2. Writes to drive so only Drobo reads it. When drive breaks, if they are still around, only option is to spend another $400. You won't be able to slip dives out and install into external case. Data wil be unreadable.
3. Better/Cheaper option I found, was to take the four HD's get a a $40 Hard Drive dock and daily switch drives. Gives me a four day period of protection each week that I know will work any time I need it.
4. Some people love it, I found it to be unreliable and way over priced.

For that kind of money I want a real NAS with an ethernet connection.

Huh? #1, I've never heard of the special effects houses using these. I know many are using HP MSA and other arrays, Red Hat Cluster Suite and various storage options, but never Drobos.

For this money, get a Windows Home Server.

Far more usefull, expandable, and reliable. Oh, and my WHS server easily saturates my gigabit ethernet. Stream three HD movies to different devices in the house? No problem for a real server. Drobo? Not a chance.

No network means $400 just to have external enclosure to be connected to your pc.

If your pc doesn't have enough space - just buy pc case which can handle up to 10 drives for $50 and be happy.

This enclosure should be $40 or less to be reasonable deal.

$600 for the same with network - you must be kidding. Build good home server just for $200 and spend another $400 for hdds.

Interesting concept combining drives of different sizes in a pseudo raid configuration, but it does this with a lot of overhead. Ultimately it's almost too good to be true. Look up reviews on Newegg, a bunch of people have lost data or their unit went bad. #1 - I would think special effects houses would use a professional NAS with RAID 10, 6, etc.. unit like a NetApp, not a proprietary 4 drive solution like a drobo.

To post comments, please Sign In or Register.       Forgot Password?

Registration takes seconds! Once registered you'll have members only access to a Favorites bookmark list, a fully customizable User Profile, and the ability to instantly add your thoughts to each discussion topic.