For those whose major complaint about the
Drobo was its lack of FireWire 800, today's your day. The new version of the virtualized-storage device features the much requested interface (and a second port for daisy-chaining), but despite the fact that it still lacks built-in Ethernet / WiFi, it does come equipped with an upgraded processor to better take advantage of FireWire 800's higher throughput, as well as a much larger, quieter case fan. Data Robotics claims their new model can achieve data transfer speeds of more than 2x over the original model, as well as outperform ReadyNAS and LaCie models (in RAID 1/5) when tested with identical drives.
The price stays the same at $500 for the device itself, and (as before) you can buy it bundled with two 1TB drives (for $900) or four 1TB drives (for $1,300). For those waiting for the price to dip even lower, Data Robotics is also clearing out inventory on its earlier model; until they sell out, first-gen Drobos will be going for $350, or $750 and $1,075 bundled with two and four 1TB drives, respectively.
posted Jul 8th 2008 at 8:35AM
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matthewmongan @ Jul 8th 2008 8:48AM
i love drobo.
stephen @ Jul 8th 2008 9:07AM
where is the wifi????
woot
1st post
Joseph @ Jul 8th 2008 9:21AM
With the DroboShare add-on you get a wired network connection. Just attached it to your router/wireless access point and all of your wireless devices will be able to reach it.
John B @ Jul 8th 2008 9:47AM
Go take your childish "first post" stupidity to Slashdot where it belongs, a**hole.
stephen @ Jul 8th 2008 9:10AM
damn
someone got there before me!
Bellerophon @ Jul 8th 2008 10:09AM
No eSATA?
What a letdown.
Bring on third-gen then...
BananaBoat @ Jul 9th 2008 12:15AM
No E-SATA and no ethernet. Bring on gen 4 (Gen 3 will add ethernet, Gen 4 will add E-SATA).
Mike Cohen @ Jul 8th 2008 10:20AM
I don't care about FireWire 800 since I don't have any computers that support it. I'd rather have built-in Ethernet instead of requiring a separate unit for networking.
Joshua Ochs @ Jul 8th 2008 11:00AM
On the one hand, I'm happy they've survived to make their second-gen product. On the other hand, I'm deeply, deeply disappointed the NAS functionality is not built-in (along with their nascent applications platform). I thought the market had spoken pretty loudly (via reviews and sales) that Drobo technology was great and what everyone wanted, but NOT when it means adding on a $200 NAS attachment to a $500 chassis.
Put a gigabit ethernet jack in it or GTFO...
Distortedloop @ Jul 8th 2008 10:50AM
FireWire 800 makes the Drobo ALMOST interesting, but not quite.
Where's the eSATA, Drobo? USB and FireWire are so early 2000s. This is 2008 for crying out loud. ;-)
Like Bellerophon, I think I'll wait for the 3rd gen device, or just stick with other, less expensive RAID solutions.
michas_pi @ Jul 8th 2008 10:51AM
A few days ago I was hoping for at least FireWire 400 in this thing and I got FireWire 800.
Fuckin' finally.
Oh, and thank you Data Robotics. :)
karpy91 @ Jul 8th 2008 10:56AM
Funny, I emailed drobo a few days ago about when they would do this and they said they don't discuss unannounced products. Well, here it is. I'm ordering one this week.
benjamin @ Jul 8th 2008 12:31PM
I feel really stupid for having spent extra money on a 'server class' motherboard just so I could accommodate all the SATA drives I wanted to introduce into my RAID setup. If the Drobo had been around then, especially in a Firewire configuration, it would have been ideal.
Oh well, so it goes with technology I guess.
Jeff @ Jul 8th 2008 12:33PM
i could care less about wifi or ethernet (i wonder if i could just plug it in to my airport extreme if i wanted that functionality?)
but Firewire 800 is great news.
better news would be dropping the MSRP down to $299.
i might just pick up on eof the first gen models (if i weren't going to drop $600 on 2 new iphones this week, i already would have bought one)
...$500 for an EMPTY drobo still seems pretty steep to me, especially considering ZFS raid will be in 10.6.....
Joe @ Jul 8th 2008 12:43PM
Be aware that the first generation Drobo is significantly loud if you're using it intensively or even if it's just running in a warm room. Anything over 76ish degrees (F) I find it gets annoyingly loud.
The transfer speeds were always good enough for me but I'll be upgrading just because it's supposed to be quieter - that's reason enough for me.
Apollo @ Jul 9th 2008 9:11AM
FireWire 800 - welcome to 2003 Drobo! You're just late enough to be the last on earth to announce a FireWire800 product. Even those that were using FireWire800 are moving on by now to eSATA.
....And 54 MB/s on FireWire 800!?!?! WTF? Back in 2004 I bought a simple single external hard drives that did over 62MB/s. Drobo has got to take the prize for the SLOOOWEST FW800 RAID box.
I hardly trust any company that makes a product such as this - for data storage - and does not include or support the drives that you will put in it. Hard Drives are usually the first point of failure and by not providing a complete product support Drobo is telling you we don't want to deal with the failed drives. It also means that you have to call Drobo for support of unit and HD manufacturer for support of drives. Finally - 1 Year Warranty on a $500 box? Really Drobo? That's the same warranty I just got on my $29.99 no-name DVD player I just picked up at Wal-Mart.
Finally, what happens when my computer hangs in the middle of a write while the Drobo software is running it's "virtualization"? And what type of a load does this Drobo software put on my CPU - slowing down my computer in essence to process this virtualization? Can data recovery labs recover data from a failed Drobo with the Drobo specialized virtualization software in case of failure related to power, or dual drive failure, etc? No they do not. They sure as heck know how to recover it a RAID 5 with eyes closed should worse happen.
I for one am not sold on this virtualization of storage gimmic. Drives are so affordable, you may as well put a proper protected solution in place from the start. You're not saving, you're simply putting off the inevitable costs for storage you will need, and putting your data at risk while you do it. When it comes to your data storage and it's safety it should be "measure twice, cut once" approach - you should figure out what you need and configure it before you start putting your valuable data on it. Only an uninformed user would risk their data with something like this. Everyone else will go with the field proven (over decades) reliable hardware controlled RAID 5 or RAID 1.
You can take the Pepsi challenge anyday with a proper hardware controlled RAID 5 product and they will spank the Drobo. And you can have a hardware controlled RAID 5 with Gigabit, eSATA, and it's much faster on FireWire800, and it doesn't put any load on your CPU, and it doesn't need any software running on your system. etc. etc. etc.
NEXT!!!
al.degutis @ Jul 9th 2008 8:40PM
I purchased the USB-based Drobo 12 days ago (from yesterday). Had the Firewire version been available I would have purchased that. I went to the Drobostore.com site and could not find a written policy for exchanges or returns. So they don’t have a return policy? So I called customer service. The woman on the phone confirmed that they do not have any policies in place, took my information and said someone would contact me. I followed up with an e-mail via their support form. I found out this morning that they will not exchange it.
Most retailers have either a 14-day or 30-day return policy. I find this to be poor customer service. Especially since they don’t have a written policy online. What if Best Buy, Dell, Apple and others didn't have a return policy? Not acceptable.
fucheeno @ Jul 10th 2008 8:23PM
Hello Al. Did you get anywhere with Drobo. I have been dealing with them today about returning my unit also and they have been very uncooperative. Horrible customer service. For months they had a 30-day money-back guarantee and then they did a huge promotion with the Macbreak Weekly podcast. This was clearly just to dump a bunch of old drobos which are now worth "nothing." And now they have NO mention at all of returns on their website PERIOD. I am waiting for a call back from them but I am not holding my breath.