Just Delivered is a new section of PC Perspective where we share some of the goodies that pass through our labs that may or may not see a review, but are pretty cool none the less.
When the time is right for dedicated network storage and you don’t want to go through the hassle or complication of building your own FreeNAS or other type of device, one of the best options on the market according to our own Allyn Malventano is a Drobo.
For an upcoming review we just received a new Drobo FS, the network attached version of the Drobo lineup. Available in both a standard and a "Pro" model, the former with 5 bays the latter with 8, they are about as idiot-proof and easy to setup as a NAS can be.
The Drobo FS only has a single connectivity option: the Gigabit Ethernet port for connection to your primed-and-ready router. Adding or swapping hard drives for larger models is super easy and the "BeyondRAID" technology makes it reliable as well as simple to use.
We are looking forward to putting the Drobo FS to the test in the coming days and reporting back to you on the performance, features and reliability of it.
I’ve had a Drobo FS for about
I’ve had a Drobo FS for about 4 months now and love it. I’m using it for backups and a central file share for all of our other systems, as well as a MediaBrowser TV/Movies library for streaming to my HTPC and XBox. I haven’t tested it streaming multiple files to multiple locations at once, but it works great for my purposes.
I’ve got it loaded full with 2TB green drives and performance hasn’t been an issue at all thus far. Currently I’m only using about 30% of the space, so I’ve been thinking about enabling the dual-drive redundancy option for added protection until I really need that last couple of TB. Or maybe at that point 4TB drives will be under $100 and I can start swapping those in in pairs instead.
Glad to hear! Just curious,
Glad to hear! Just curious, have you found a solution that would allow you to access the Drobo off-site?
Ryan – I’m using the FS at
Ryan – I’m using the FS at home and use Orb running on my Macbook Pro for remote access to data. Orb is nice in that it handles all media types: video, music, photos, and documents. The video and music streaming work great on my iOS devices and having access to photos and docs is a nice touch. Orb also has a very cool feature to wake up your computer remotely if it is in sleep/standby mode. Well worth the $10 one-time app fee for access to all 500+ movies I have on my FS.
Jim
I haven’t tried to access it
I haven’t tried to access it outside of my home LAN, but I’d assume that using the Drobo Apps stuff that’s available you could access it via FTP or some other method, as long as you have it set up properly on your router.
I’d be really interested to see Allyn test some of the Drobo Apps actually, I’ve been hesitant to try them out. There is a DLNA app as well that I hoped to enable so that my PS3 could see my content as well, but it didn’t look to be updated very regularly, or lately.
I did see an FTP app on there
I did see an FTP app on there – going to try that out. And I agree, Allyn needs to step up and do that. 🙂
Man I need to get one.
Lets
Man I need to get one.
Lets see if Alan can break this one.
Can it stream 2 HD movies at
Can it stream 2 HD movies at once? Is there enough throughput?
That shouldn’t be a problem,
That shouldn’t be a problem, as long as the FS comes close to hitting the ~ 100 MB/s theoretical limit of output.
I take it that it will be
I take it that it will be something that is tested?
Is this still iSCSI???
Is this still iSCSI???
Nope, this is standard
Nope, this is standard Windows / Samba / etc mounting methods.
are you still working on this
are you still working on this review?
Why is it taking a month to
Why is it taking a month to get the review?
Approaching two months…..
Approaching two months…..
2 months and counting….
2 months and counting….
4 months….
4 months….