Drobo vs. G-Safe

[markinhifi]

I need RAID 1 storage. I'm debating between Drobo and G-Safe.

G-Safe only supports up to 1.5 TB of mirrored storage vs. 2 TB in the Drobo. Other than that, there's no other obvious deciding factors to me other than cost. But as long as it's under a grand, I don't care. Which is better?

http://g-technology.com/Products/G-SAFE.cfm
and
http://www.drobo.com/Products/drobo.html

 

[Stephen Mick]

There was just a thread talking about the Drobo. Do a quick search, but…

It's not made for editing, and though it's tempting to use it for that, it just doesn't have the performance from what I've read.

 

[markinhifi]

So it seems that G-Safe or CalDigit VR or Caldigit Firewire VR is the way to go.

Caldigit VR and Firewire VR seem to be essentially the same thing. What's the difference?

http://www.caldigit.com/CalDigit_VR/index.html
http://www.caldigit.com/FireWireVR.asp

 

[Stephen Mick]

That's the way I'd go. I think the "VR" is just the latest model of the FireWireVR, but you'd have to check the details on their website.

 

[Stephen Mick]

Looks like the CalDigit VR has eSATA, FW800 and USB ports.

 

[warwickt]

I stupidly bought a v2 drobo in august it is absolutely hopeless for any production work. it is aimed at the likes of people with low data rates and valuable small objects such as sme , photographers and grandmas photos.

I had a doa drobo v2 and another replacement. it ran so hot with 4 500GB disks I could not handle them for being scalded (65C)

worse: the drobo support is quite dreadful and unresponsive. I think they rely on their drobo user forum which by the way is private and only open to those with registered drobo units. when you read the open issues and troubles you wonder why you bought such a piece of rubbish

drobo is a great concept however with extreamely lousy data rates of 23MB/sec USB and barely 29MB/sec fwire, overheating and intermittent I/o errors, slowdowns while reconstructing, constant going offline conditions and very dissappointing aftersales support, i packaged my 2week old V2 drobo up and gave it to a mate for free for his per-sea.

I went out and bought a jbod enclosure (proavio) and a SAS HBA and have never looked back.

steer clear of the drobo for anything but archive of text files and iPhone pictures.
fwiw
w

 

[monkeyking]

Newertech's Guardian Maximus RAID 1 enclosure is $130,FW800/400/USB 1TB limit. Add your own 10,00rpm SATA drives and go to town.


http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/usb/raid_1/Gmax

 

[markinhifi]

Thanks for all the advice, guys. Looks like i'm going to end up going for the CalDigit VR. I like all the extra info it provides over the G-Safe.

 

[nantnee]

check out 3ware. It comes with raid hardware. http://www.3ware.com/products/Ext_serial_ata2-9000.asp

it also wont break the bank.

 

[Stephen Mick]

The thing you get with CalDigit over all other brands I've dealt with (LaCie, WD, G-Tech and more) is service/support. Their products are premium-priced, and the support they give is worth whatever extra money you have to spend.

Go with CalDigit.

 

[Matt Gottshalk]

The thing you get with CalDigit over all other brands I've dealt with (LaCie, WD, G-Tech and more) is service/support. Their products are premium-priced, and the support they give is worth whatever extra money you have to spend.

Go with CalDigit.

Yup, Caldigit has fantastic support.