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| Yes Drobos are really a backup device. Mine is an older model (4 bay, FW800) and it can't read any faster than about 25-30 meg a second. Every so often it just stops for a bit and has a think. There is no way you can use it as a media drive to edit from. Ars Technica posted a great 2-part article that looks at how Drobos work in fine detail: http://arstechnica.com/business/2011/03/drobo-review-1/ http://arstechnica.com/business/2011/04/drobo-review-part-2-day-to-day-use/2/ Even though they're reviewing a newer model, they also experience exactly the same performance that I see with mine - a max data rate of about 30 meg a second, and occasional pauses as the machine catches up. The throughput seems to be limited by the power of the - or the underpowered - ARM processor which runs the thing. So unless they've significantly upgraded the speed of the processor - something they haven't done with any of the other models - I would be very sceptical that a thunderbolt connection would actually mean faster data rates. After all, Firewire 800 can do about 100 megabytes a second and yet I never see more than about 25. As a backup device I'm pretty happy with the Drobo, and their cost has fallen massively since I bought mine. But if there was something newer, cheaper, and fast enough to edit ProRes from then I'd be very tempted to switch. -Chris (PS. The comments in the Ars Technica articles are very interesting and have a few suggestions about competitors, including the NetGear ReadyNAS pro. I'll check it out... but it does look like the easy upgradability of the Drobo is still not matched by other external storage products) On 07/06/2012, at 6:25 AM, Richard Bajjalieh wrote: > Wow! Very different from my experience but good to know. > > Tim, > > Did it act this way out of the box, or over time? > > I had an internal Raid 5 array that I built that acted that way which is why > I bought the Drobo. So far, so good. > > Rich Bajjalieh > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Tsassoon [mailto:tsassoon@aol.com] > Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 12:23 PM > To: After Effects Mail List > Subject: Re: [AE] [OT] Alternatives to a Drobo > > Phooey. I had an eSATA Drobo and it was just as ridiculously slow as all the > others, with equally annoying software. It's basically like RAID 5 with an > order of magnitude more software overhead. It slows to a crawl as you > approach the utilization ceiling, which seemed awfully close to 50%. Call it > "RAID 50", or even "RAID 500". Thunderbolt is unlikely to make any > difference, since bus speed isn't the problem. But try it if you like, but > keep the box and packing you can eBay it as "Like New!". > > > Tim Sassoon > SFD > Santa Monica, CA > > Sent from my iPhone > > > > On Jun 6, 2012, at 5:48 AM, Benny Christensen <bennychristensen@me.com> > wrote: > >> FYI - I just saw an article about a new Thunderbolt Drobo. > > +---End of message---+ > To unsubscribe send any message to <ae-list-off@media-motion.tv> > > > +---End of message---+ > To unsubscribe send any message to <ae-list-off@media-motion.tv> > |
