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Drobo FS
8.0
final rating

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Criteria Comments Rating
  • Expandability 5 drives is just about perfect for me. 8 would make this criterion score "great," but at this point in time asking for 8 in the price of the FS is unreasonable. good
  • Media support From DroboApps to Drobo PC Backup, I can't really ask for more things to do with my storage. great!
  • Speed The one issue with Drobos in general is that their file architecture slows them down. Their BeyondRAID software is user friendly, but not as fast as RAID 5. so-so
  • Noise Supremely quiet. I have it about 4 feet away from my computer and I can't hear a thing. great!
  • Design and form factor Pretty big, but the design is fantastic. The magnetic front plate was a total surprise, and a great touch. Dim-able lights are fantastic. good
Detailed review
The Drobo FS offers pretty much everything I could ask for in a NAS. Large drive capacity, tons of configuration, and well thought out design. Would it bother me if it was 10-20 MB/s faster? No. But speed is something I'm definitely willing to trade away for how incredibly easy it is to setup, use, and manage.

Comments (1) subscribe to this review's comments

Mitchellmckenna

Mitchellmckenna

I haven't looked into the file-sharing/streaming (NAS) market very much, but I've gotten the impression that Drobo markets the Drobo and Drobo S as backup tools and the Drobo FS for NAS (+ backup). It's got a steep price tag, but seems to be the del facto personal NAS device. Especially for people looking to avoid the headaches that come with building your own NAS (FYI for the techy types who ARE looking to build their own NAS my buddy Frank Leng has a great article here: frankleng.me­/2010­/05­/01­/zfs­-powered­-nas­-the­-ultima...).

What were some of the alternatives you looked at like the cheaper Synology DiskStation DS712+ (gdgt.com­/synology­/diskstation­/ds712­-plus/), and what made you go with Drobo FS?
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