Drobo or TC + external HDDs

[zedsdead]

The Drobo S is rougly 200$ more then the 2nd gen Drobo and only adds another bay (and esata and usb 3 but I doubt mac users take advantage of this)

Synology offers more for less. PC-less features saves lots of power and eliminates the need to get a mac mini to run an iTunes server.

There are major difference internally in the chipset used inside the Drobo as well as the noise. The chipset makes the raid faster, and the noise is less than the gen-2. Also, the Drobo S allows you to set dual-drive backup incase two drives fail, as well as other more minor settings such as dimming the lights, etc...it's way more than just adding one drive bay (which is also a good thing).

I have had both and can attest to these differences. The Drobo S is also built better.

 

[mike457]

The ATV doesn't do so great with 1080p if I'm not mistaken so if I rip them for 720p that should save some space? Most of the torrents I see are around 700mb which would give me roughly 420GB if I ripped my movies down to that size. In the end I would imagine I could get away with the 2-bay Syno?

The ATV2's native resolution is 720p; it downconverts 1080p to 720p. If you use the Handbrake settings for the ATV2 (which produce 720p files when working with HD sources), you are going to get larger files than you think. Expect the average DVD to convert to about 1.5GBb using that preset. You will not be happy with the blocking and artifacts on your big screen TV if you try to be more aggressive than that in your settings.

 

[Bye Bye Baby]

I can thoroughly recommend the drobo. I have two.

I have around 4.4TB of media and it is stored on one drobo and backed up on the other. The other drobo is at my parents house and they use it. A replica system of my own.

The drobo offers a flexibility that no other system has to offer. Of which I am aware.

I can recommend. people often talk about these things in the forum without any experience.

 

[itickings]

I can recommend. people often talk about these things in the forum without any experience.

Just curious, how long have you had them? Have you had to replace dead hard drives or deal with firmware updates yet?

 

[MovieCutter]

I've got 16TB in my DroboPro for the last year without any problems. Sits connected to a Mac Mini and streams 1080p blu-ray rips to my theater without a problem.

 

[martin1000]

I have a 2nd generation drobo that is quiet and works perfectly for storing all of my itunes content.

Adding additional hard drives (or swapping drives) is a breeze.

I also use Crashplan to backup my drobo, just in case.

 

[ChrisA]

I think I'm going to try a 2-bay Synology NAS with 2 3TB HDDs and a couple 2TB external HDDs. Runs close to the same price and the reviews for Synology seem to be a little better than Drobo. The only thing that bothers me is that a few people say they only have 2.7TBs usuable after formatting their 6TBs.

What else would you expect with a two drive RAID? One drive is always use for redundancy. With two drives you loos half your capacity and with four drives you loose 25%. Best economy is with 5 to 8 drives but few home uses need that much space.

 

[Rocco83]

why did you need the mac mini? Why are you using powerline ethernet? I haven' heard many good things about it.

Powerline Ethernet because I don't feel like dishing out the big money for underground cat6 cable to run for a 100 feet, then run it up through the floor, and put terminals in the walls. Also, I really don't care to use WDS because the with the way my house is setup the 5Ghz signal would diminish quite a bit by time it reached the far AP from my modem. I have more faith in the Powerline Ethernet...not too mention the fact that it is roughly a 1/3 of the price of running ethernet cable from one end to the other.

I don't need a mac mini, but I want one as my htpc.

 

[Rocco83]

I highly recommend one of the newer Drobo S drives. Much better than the original models. I use it for iTunes and video editing and it works great.

If you would have read further up the post you would have realized I have a $750 budget for everything. I can't blow all the money just on the NAS. If I blow it all on the NAS mainly all I would have would be a $750 paperweight.

 

[Rocco83]

so I guess since we have people in this thread now from both sides of the fence (drobo and synology). Would I be better off with a Synology DS411J or a Drobo DR04DD10? I really do not like the fact that the Drobo doesn't have the ethernet features, but I do like the firewire.

 

[AppleDApp]

Powerline Ethernet because I don't feel like dishing out the big money for underground cat6 cable to run for a 100 feet, then run it up through the floor, and put terminals in the walls. Also, I really don't care to use WDS because the with the way my house is setup the 5Ghz signal would diminish quite a bit by time it reached the far AP from my modem. I have more faith in the Powerline Ethernet...not too mention the fact that it is roughly a 1/3 of the price of running ethernet cable from one end to the other.

I don't need a mac mini, but I want one as my htpc.

power line is not a 1/3 of the price but it is more convinient.

Cat6 1000ft powerline solution

 

[Rocco83]

power line is not a 1/3 of the price but it is more convinient.

Cat6 1000ft powerline solution

I don't need riser rated, I need underground. Combine the price of that, the little extra like terminals, ends, cost for digging the 200 feet and trying not to mess anything up drilling up from the crawl space through the wall and trying to put the terminals in.

I'm sorry I'd rather plug something in the wall that works and will give me the speed I need rather than putting more than a few hours of work into it and more money...

 

[AppleDApp]

Based on current feedback what setup are you leaning towards?

 

[Rocco83]

Pretty up in the air about it. They are both the same exact price so I have no idea which one I want. The Drobo does have better feedback on newegg, but the Synology seems to be favored on the MacRumor boards.

 

[AppleDApp]

Pretty up in the air about it. They are both the same exact price so I have no idea which one I want. The Drobo does have better feedback on newegg, but the Synology seems to be favored on the MacRumor boards.

well it seems the Synology offers more features question is do you need the features.

remember
synology is faster and quieter
more features

Drobo is easier to insert drives no down time

 

[Rocco83]

inserting the drives really isn't going to be a problem for me with the Synology. I would also rather have the speed and if the speed is much better in the Synology than the Drobo I'd rather go with the Synology. I really could care less about all the extra features. I don't need surveillance or any of the extras, just need it to stream media to an ATV2.

 

[zedsdead]

inserting the drives really isn't going to be a problem for me with the Synology. I would also rather have the speed and if the speed is much better in the Synology than the Drobo I'd rather go with the Synology. I really could care less about all the extra features. I don't need surveillance or any of the extras, just need it to stream media to an ATV2.

The Drobo is more than fast enough for itunes and the Apple TV. It is also very easy to add more space as needed.

 

[OmegaRed1723]

The Drobo is more than fast enough for itunes and the Apple TV. It is also very easy to add more space as needed.

Agreed on that count. I have no problems streaming 20+MB/s 1080p files. My limitations come from wifi, not the Drobo.

 

[nizmoz]

The drobo does have a optional ethernet bottom piece you can purchase. It's just very hard to find.

 

[Rocco83]

well I really don't need all of the extra features that come with the Synology, and if the Drobos have the speed to steam HD movies with no problem that really makes the playing field even for me. The only thing right now that is swaying me is that I like the Drobo cosmetically much more than the Synology 4-bay.

 

[AppleDApp]

well I really don't need all of the extra features that come with the Synology, and if the Drobos have the speed to steam HD movies with no problem that really makes the playing field even for me. The only thing right now that is swaying me is that I like the Drobo cosmetically much more than the Synology 4-bay.

what speeds can your ISP offer that is also a bottleneck. The faster the speed the higher quality content you can stream. What will the future bring? Keep that in mind.

 

[Rocco83]

what speeds can your ISP offer that is also a bottleneck. The faster the speed the higher quality content you can stream. What will the future bring? Keep that in mind.

I believe that by time we get to the next stage of quality a 4-bay NAS wouldn't be near enough for what my library will be then.

 

[tdfreeman]

I've got a Drobo FS and I've had no reliability issues. I've upgraded all 5 drives from 1TB to 2TB to 3TB drives with zero data loss. I've updated through 3 firmwares if I recall correctly. Drobo seems safe and flexible (easy to upgrade drives). If you are only using it for streaming to one unit, the Drobo is fine. My initial plan was to use it as all my storage (docs, movies, iso, pictures, etc) along with multiple iTunes libraries. However, doing more than one thing on it at a time seems to kill the box. Transfer speeds drop from 20MB/s to 5-10MB/s total across streams. Maybe it's just the FS NAS, not sure. My plan was to create multiple shares (cartoons, kids movies, family, r rated) with different iTunes libraries to separate the permissions. However, you cannot stream multiple videos with the throughput.

For space, I've converted about 485 of my movies using Handbrake using about 700GB of space. I used a modified universal setting for some. When the ATV2 preset came out, I started using it. When converting Blu-Ray, I use a better setting, but I've not converted that many due to the time they take (guess would be less than 10).

 

[Rocco83]

I've got a Drobo FS and I've had no reliability issues. I've upgraded all 5 drives from 1TB to 2TB to 3TB drives with zero data loss. I've updated through 3 firmwares if I recall correctly. Drobo seems safe and flexible (easy to upgrade drives). If you are only using it for streaming to one unit, the Drobo is fine. My initial plan was to use it as all my storage (docs, movies, iso, pictures, etc) along with multiple iTunes libraries. However, doing more than one thing on it at a time seems to kill the box. Transfer speeds drop from 20MB/s to 5-10MB/s total across streams. Maybe it's just the FS NAS, not sure. My plan was to create multiple shares (cartoons, kids movies, family, r rated) with different iTunes libraries to separate the permissions. However, you cannot stream multiple videos with the throughput.

For space, I've converted about 485 of my movies using Handbrake using about 700GB of space. I used a modified universal setting for some. When the ATV2 preset came out, I started using it. When converting Blu-Ray, I use a better setting, but I've not converted that many due to the time they take (guess would be less than 10).

Might be a deal breaker for me. I am going to be streaming to at least 2 different ATV2s, if not to a 3rd one in the next few months depending on finances.

 

[tdfreeman]

Might be a deal breaker for me. I am going to be streaming to at least 2 different ATV2s, if not to a 3rd one in the next few months depending on finances.

After posting, I wanted to verify as I've put at least one firmware upgrade on since testing. I don't have any iTunes data on the box currently, so I just tested with file copies. I started the first and it moved at about 18-20MBps. I started the second and it jumped to 27-30 MBps. I then started a third and it jumped to 36-38 MBps. It seems they may have fixed the issue in the latest firmware. All this was on a wired network to my Mac Mini. I've not done extensive testing, so just be cautious. Theoretically, HD only needs around 3-4MBps (30Mbps), so multiple streams may be possible now. I've also added the 3TB drives, so it's also possible that the box slows down as the drives fill up. I've seen this with other software striping implementations, but didn't test it on the Drobo.