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Domo Arigato, Robot Drobo!
Ralf Maximus:
While they call it a "robot", Drobo is really just a fancy NAS box. Four bays, built-in processing & intelligence, an array of connection options. Yawn. So what?
http://www.drobo.com/
What makes Drobo different is its ease of use. Apparently it's totally automated. No configuration. Just plug in up to four SATA hard drives -- any size, any manufacturer -- and it reconfigures itself on the fly to manage them. It's like RAID for dummies.
And, you might be a dummy to pay $499 USD for the thing (with no drives), since cheaper solutions exist. But then again, how much time have we all wasted troubleshooting a RAID system, or discovering that the new drive you just bought isn't compatible with the other in the pair, or figuring out that your SATA cables are just *this* much too short to reach the freekin socket?
Drobo takes care of all that technical shiat for you. And for Mac users: it's 100% TimeMachine aware.
Might be worth a look if grandma starts editing videos or something.
f0dder:
I should look up what components cost in .US, or wait and see what this box will cost in .DK...
but for $600 (and this is denmark, with relatively expensive electronics), I can build a full machine with 2x320gig sata disk, 2 gigs of ram, decent case+psu, socket775 motherboard, and a Celeron CPU (from the core2 family - only singlecore, but core leetness and ~35W power consumption). That's ~$100 more expensive than a Synology NAS box (WITHOUT drives). Does mean I have to set up linux and everything on it myself, but still...
Anyway, it does look & sound like a very nice little box, and you don't get that kind of form factor (and silence?) when building yourself.
Ralf Maximus:
but for $600 (and this is denmark, with relatively expensive electronics), I can build a full machine with 2x320gig sata disk, 2 gigs of ram, decent case+psu, socket775 motherboard, and a Celeron CPU (from the core2 family - only singlecore, but core leetness and ~35W power consumption).
--- End quote ---
Why bulk up the processing side so much? 2GB of RAM seems like a lot for what amounts to a file server. I'd go with the min spec required for whatever operating system you want. For instance, XP is quite happy with 256MB, so long as you're only serving files. And even a cheapo AMD single core is ridiculously overpowered for NAS duties.
Anyway, it does look & sound like a very nice little box, and you don't get that kind of form factor (and silence?) when building yourself.
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Yes! That's one thing I forgot to mention. It looks purty. The damn thing is seductive in its sexiness, and if I built one myself I just *know* the roar of spinning fans would drown out all else.
Yes, yes I know.. I've fallen in love with a runway model. But if she can juggle four SATA drives from four different computing epochs without any backtalk, then maybe the love is justified?
mouser:
posted earlier this year:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=8785.0
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=8432.0
Ralf Maximus:
Crap. Ohwell, at least I know my runway model has been around...
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