Drobo unboxed and dissected in one fell swoop

Just when you thought we couldn't geek out anymore about Data Robotic's new Drobo "intelligent" storage array, along comes tipster Ben with a snazzy photoset complete with unboxing shots and scandalous pics of the internals. Apparently Data Robotics was selling 'em at a "lemonade stand" outside the company HQ in Mountain View, CA for $200 off the rather pricey $700 sticker price, and Ben just couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy one and rip in. Any unconfirmed reports of Engadget editors patrolling the streets of Mountain View tomorrow in search of such "lemonade stands" will most likely be baseless and unfounded.

[Thanks, Ben L]

[andy @ Apr 13th 2007 5:35PM]

a product like this really should have firewire 400 at least, 800 would be ideal.

[anonymous @ Apr 13th 2007 5:39PM]

it should have all possible connections for a drive that is almost everything to the drives. USB, Esata, network, firewire and any others that are aviilable.

[Joshua @ Apr 13th 2007 5:44PM]

It should make coffee and give me a blowjob. How dare they not include those features.

[johnny5 @ Apr 13th 2007 6:09PM]

"It puts too much sugar in the coffee; the blowjobs could be better."

[pslax15 @ Apr 13th 2007 6:32PM]

If anyone is actually interested in buying one, go to http://www.drobostore.com and be sure to use this discount code "REFPHILS" so you get $100 off. The codes expires on 5/30.

[ajs @ Apr 13th 2007 8:03PM]

Meh. I watched the video on their web site. I think I'll stick with my current plan of getting an Infrant NV+ and using their X-RAID technology. Something like this should be a true NAS with Ethernet connectivity.

[CapWKidd @ Apr 13th 2007 10:17PM]

Paul Miller, are you serious? He got $200 off?!?! For that money I'll buy one :)!

[alfredm @ Apr 13th 2007 10:29PM]

Does anyone know what chipset is in this device (the 2 chips with the large "M"s and why I would want this instead of a ReadyNAS NV, especially considering the devices cost about the same?

[Justin @ Apr 13th 2007 11:44PM]

so... does it really allow you to lose 2 drives out of 3, and replace them.. and still lose no data? where was that 2 drives worth of data stored? or is it like I dreamed about.. the other 2 drives were not filled even up to 20% before they were swapped out.. I still want to know how you can store 3 drives worth of data on 1 drive.. or maybe I'm the only one that wonders this =( ?

I'm still skeptical.. esp when I can buy 4 500gb hd's and a raid controller for less than this puppy.

[CapWKidd @ Apr 14th 2007 12:52AM]

I was just noticing..... if you go to the virtual Drobo site:
http://www.drobo.com/drobolator/
Add 4 500gb HDs .... now, add 1 1TB HD ... notice how the space does not increase? You have to add 2 1TB HDs before you get any more space, and then you only get 400gb more.... for 2 TB of space added... Now, you do see a marked increase when you put in 3 1 TB drives, but I thought the point was to add drives as you needed, not needing to add several, like RAID 5 on the ReadyNas, you have to upgrade all 4 drives to get the increase in space ... but at least you can add 1 drive at a time to the system... you just need to wait for each to rebuild, then when the 4th one goes in, tadah, you now have 2.5 TB of space instead of 1.5 TB of space... Does not seem like the Drobo is giving that much... unless you just have a couple of drives now.... and you will add more later.... hmmm... now, if you had an 8 drive Drobo.....

[LJKelley @ Apr 14th 2007 12:58AM]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1431869&CatId=1454

I know it isn't the full features set... but this is RAID Card that allows differnt size hard drives to be attached internally in your computer for fault safe operation. Its $24.99... This "drobo" is way over priced. Anybody have experience with a device like this? Its worth it just for the additional IDE Ports...