New Toy !!! Part Duex !

Rojin said:
It'll be interesting to see how quiet the Drobo is as well.
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Not really bothered, I got the FS version so its LAN only, not USB, meaning it will be sitting next to my Apple Time Capsule away from my iMac in a different room. All connected via Wifi N Network.

I've heard there is an app that turns it into my very own Cloud storage ! Imagine all the data in it as cloud storage!
 
I have a 2nd generation Drobo and love it. Last month a drive failed and the recovery was exactly as it says on the tin (although took a fair while). The ability to add any size disk at any time is invaluable for increasing storage with zero, and i mean zero, fuss.

twoblacklines said:
And apart from number 5 i would much rather build a small pc server out of old 2nd or 3rd hand parts, you can fit more hdd's in and do so much more with it!
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You could build a PC to do the same, but why would you? Far to much extra work and maintenance not to mention the additional benefits the drobo offers. I have had the same argument with a number of people some of which have gone on to try the Drobo and not gone back.
 
If looking at these worth considering a WHS such as the HP units, been using one for three years and is probably one of my most useful pieces of kit I have.
 
drunken fool said:
I have a 2nd generation Drobo and love it. Last month a drive failed and the recovery was exactly as it says on the tin (although took a fair while). The ability to add any size disk at any time is invaluable for increasing storage with zero, and i mean zero, fuss.



You could build a PC to do the same, but why would you? Far to much extra work and maintenance not to mention the additional benefits the drobo offers. I have had the same argument with a number of people some of which have gone on to try the Drobo and not gone back.
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Exactly, my argument is that equipment like these should serve us, not us spending valuable time serving it.

I mean, unless you find it fun building it and spends regular time maintaining it then fair enough. I get up at 6:30 to go to work, don't get home till the evening and then i have a bunch of things to do. So i don't really have what you call spare time. My Spare time is now spent on photography, which has become a business so as the old saying goes, time is money.

Plug and play. Leave it to do it's thing. End of story.

Why on earth do i want to sit in a room with cables, mobo, HD, software, keyboards and google scripts and such to get it up and running? When my time could be spent photography a wedding, or as simple as sleeping!
 
twoblacklines said:
And apart from number 5 i would much rather build a small pc server out of old 2nd or 3rd hand parts, you can fit more hdd's in and do so much more with it!
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Your missing the point.

It's easy to use, setup and configure.

Apart from a self build PC using far more power and being completely OTT for what he needs.

I stream 1080p HD videos from my 7D (5.5MB/sec - max is 18MB/sec) using my Airport Extreme and USB attached HDs, why on earth you would need a self build server for that I have no idea.

The only benefit I can see using a home server is eeking the final 25MB/sec out of the gigabit spec, but then again, it's for backups, raw speeds don't matter.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Why on earth do i want to sit in a room with cables, mobo, HD, software, keyboards and google scripts and such to get it up and running? When my time could be spent photography a wedding, or as simple as sleeping!
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Indeed. I spend my day dealing with IT, why would i want the complications when i get home as well?!?
 
Camelpaw said:
Sounds awesome! Which capacity did you go for and how much?

I have a 4TB WD Sharespace and it doesn't have many fancy features, but it runs RAID5 and keeps all my pron... No wait, photos all neat and tidy! Not to mention the 2.5 terabytes of other bits 'n' bobs :p
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I got the 5 bay Drobo FS (£500 ish) and 2 x Samsung 2TB F4 eco drives at £85 each. The whole thing came to like £670.

VERY steep for what it is at the moment, 2TB storage, but when the 3TB HDs are out, i'll get a couple and plonk it in and i am done. I don't need to connect a monitor and run some software, or shut it down and boot it up.

Unwrap drives, put it in.

Go back to do something else.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Unwrap drives, put it in.

Go back to do something else.
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1 thing, plan to do something else for a long while. Can easily take 10 hours+ rebuild to a new drive depending on how much you have in there. However, you can still use it whilst it does it.

Just be wary of some of the 'eco' drives. Have heard a number of issues with the WD green drives blowing up after short life spans due to the tech used to spin down the discs when not being used conflicting with the drobo firmware.
 
I heard about the WD drive problems from one user review, something about the head resting far too often killing its life cycle. Hence I got a Samsung, I have always had better luck with Samsung Spinpoint so I am sticking with them :)

Noted with adding new drives, do it just before bedtime then when i wake up it will be done :p
 
I've been planning on doing this for some time but forking out £150 a month on car insurance has scuppered my plans somewhat.

I totally agree with Raymond/Concorde etc. Unless you can't afford it or you really enjoy playing with hardware/installs/drivers etc it just doesn't make sense to do a self-build.
 
Thing is I have all the bits to build my own already so it's difficult to justify the extra expense at the moment. Unless the running costs are massively different of course. Then again a nice small and quiet NAS would fit better in my setup...
 
Raymond Lin said:
I got the 5 bay Drobo FS (£500 ish) and 2 x Samsung 2TB F4 eco drives at £85 each. The whole thing came to like £670.

VERY steep for what it is at the moment, 2TB storage, but when the 3TB HDs are out, i'll get a couple and plonk it in and i am done. I don't need to connect a monitor and run some software, or shut it down and boot it up.

Unwrap drives, put it in.

Go back to do something else.
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Ouch that's not cheap, that's why I suggested the HP WHS box. Plug power in, plug network cable in, run client on any of your machines (windows or mac), job done. So simple yet fairly powerful if you want to do more with it.

Can you access the Drobo remotely (via web)?
 
I guess when i was younger (as when i was a student), I had a lot more time to spare. And saving money was more important, which mean I upgraded my Graphic card, format windows, even did a little overclocking myself just to see.

Now days, I just can't be arsed with all that. I mean that's why we have people in different professions. We go to doctors to treat our illness, we go to Lawyers to keep us out of jail, we go to accountants to do our bills, they do what they are good at. So I pay people like the ones who make the Drobo for the Drobo. As you get older, you get less spare time (even though i have never slept this little before in my entire life), so every little bit of time saved is worth it.

The people who argue its best to make your own are normally still in university I bet, unless they really love building computers and the challenge.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
I guess when i was younger (as when i was a student), I had a lot more time to spare. And saving money was more important, which mean I upgraded my Graphic card, format windows, even did a little overclocking myself just to see.

Now days, I just can't be arsed with all that. I mean that's why we have people in different professions. We go to doctors to treat our illness, we go to Lawyers to keep us out of jail, we go to accountants to do our bills, they do what they are good at. So I pay people like the ones who make the Drobo for the Drobo. As you get older, you get less spare time (even though i have never slept this little before in my entire life), so every little bit of time saved is worth it.

The people who argue its best to make your own are normally still in university I bet, unless they really love building computers and the challenge.
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Lol, that last dig is hilarious.

I ask you this, can you use your drobo as a reliable ftp server, and can you use it for folding@home (might aswell put the power it uses to some use).

Can you also use it as a media server for other multimedia ?

Can you use it as a backup machine incase your mac dies ?

The list goes on, a photog's career / life is all about efficiency, and spending more money on something that does much less is not efficiency.
 
Yes, it can be used as a FTP server (though that is NOT why i bought it)

No, i dont do folding home, i tried that when i was at uni for a day, i don't care about finding Aliens anymore. And I realise I don't want to pay for electric bill for someone else.

It can be use as a media server (see apps)

I did not get the Drobo to back up my OS, I have a Apple Time Capsule for that. Hence my OS and Data are backed up in DIFFERENT physical drives.

How's that for efficiency, and i don't know how acting as a media server or looking for Aliens going to help me as a photographer...

Your turn? :p

p.s. I think you got mixed up what efficiency is.

I want a BACK UP box that is EASY to use, ZERO FUSS, so i can go do something else. That is efficiency.

I don't want a FTP server, i don't want a media server, i don't want to do Folding home (WTF ? Get that crap out of my house!).

Take a day off, sit on my ass, putting motherboards together, putting cables together, building the damn thing, testing the damn thing. That is NOT efficient.

The same day i could have gone out and shoot a wedding and make myself a nice little sum of money, which is a few times more than what i would have saved building my own NAS.

THAT is efficiency.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
Why i chose the Drobo

1 - it is hot swap
2 - gigabit LAN
3 - can take ANY Sata HD, any size in any combination
4 - up to 2 disk fail and STILL work
5 - easy to set up, instructions are plug in HD, plug in cable, power up.
6 - expand as you grow, just take out the smallest drive and replace eith larger one

I have never heard of other NAS system that does all the above, especially the part whe it is that simple to set up. Trust me, i know nothing about NAS, i don't even know what NAS stands for!
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the Qnap does everything except 4, which is a nifty trick. No idea where it keeps 1tb of data if both your hard drives fail however. Presume it must have a 3rd one in there or something ?
 
MrLOL said:
the Qnap does everything except 4, which is a nifty trick. No idea where it keeps 1tb of data if both your hard drives fail however. Presume it must have a 3rd one in there or something ?
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I think to have the ability with 2 failing drives you need to have all 5 bays occupied ? I am not 100% sure but it is listed as one of the features.
 
that makes sense then.

Still a nifty piece of kit. Although the qnap does the same, they will probably cost a similar ammount and do a similar ammount. So comes down to personal preference :)

which one did you get by the way ?
 
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