@pastrychef Depends on your needs. For video editing, VMware and many applications only DroboPro will do because of certain features and capabilities. BTW, DroboPro can do those things at about 1/6 the price of the nearest competitor.

@THJ Thank you THJ. If you have real storage needs, you understand the benefits of DroboPro and the benefits far outweigh the price. This product is not targeted at the Windows Home Server crowd. Think more of the VMware ESX crowd. If all you've got is a few MBs and a few quarters and some pocket lint, DroboPro is not for you.

Oh, and to be clear, you CANNOT build something with DroboPro's capabilities at home for any price. If you think you can, you don't understand the product and/or have never used one. Its not just the hardware that makes it useful--its the software features that are unique. And to the questions about it being proprietary--yes it is, but so are all SMB and enterprise RAID systems used by real corporations. For instance, try to take your EMC RAID disk pack and put them in a Promise Array or an Equallogic box.

@(Unverified) The original Drobo was NOT JBOD. That pretty much disqualifies everything you have to say.

@(Unverified) Magnets yes. Don't worry you'll be fine. Do you know anything about hard drives? They have magnets inside too.

You can create up to 255 16TB (or bigger?) volumes now. The 2TB limit disappeared years ago.

LaCie drives look nice...too bad they got hot and fry out after six moths. The difference between LaCie and Apple is that Apple has design AND technology whereas LaCie just has design. That's why all the pro photographers I know have gone to Drobo from LaCie.

I too frequently use Excel and even though I have Mac Office 2008 I am pretty much forced to go into VMware Fusion to run the Windows Office 2007 version of Excel because I require some features--plus I NEED the FULL set of keyboard shortcuts for financial modeling. Why can't MS deliver Office for Mac that's on par with Office for Windows? I think that the lameness of Entourage and Excel in particular (and of course the rest of Office) are holding back OS X and Macs from succeeding even more in the SMB and enterprise.

You're so right. Cables always win over wireless. That's why that whole wireless ethernet "wi-fi" thing never got any traction and died a quick death.

Are you kidding? Wireless HMDI would be incredible in the long run! Granted this was only the first step, but it had to start somewhere. For instance, imagine (eventually) being able to stream iTunes videos, YouTube, Hulu or anything else directly from say a wireless HDMI equipped laptop to a TV. That would obviate the need for expense and complicated toys such as Apple TV many NAS devices and the complexities of UPnP for many of us. Cables are great, but say you live in NYC and rent a very awkward apartment with cement or brick walls...running cabling isn't always an easy option, especially in a tiny apartment.

I really hope something like this happens someday!

I want it!

Connect a Drobo by USB. Just use the WHS for media serving and the Drobo for safe, expandable storage.