Should I get a Drobo or Synology?

[pimpin-tl]

I like the raid features of Drobo and how easy it is to use, but not much App support it seems to be a bummer on it. My brother has owned a drobo since 2008 and has had no issues with it.

I have some drives laying around and can make use of them in a drive like the Drobo where you can mix drives. (6tb, 3tb, 2tb, 500gb) is what I have.

I also use CrashPlan to backup online and I heard it works with NAS devices, some even have Apps for it.

Would like some opinions from those who own these out there.

Thank you!

 

[JHeiderman]

I've had a Drobo 5n for a few years now. Its been rock solid and the one that I have has the SSD port for faster write caching. It's always been used with a dedicated PC that has run Crashplan/Plex/Handbrake Encoding/etc. Basically my "Server" and the Drobo was the storage component.

If I were in the market NOW I would absolutely consider a Synlogy or QNap instead. One that has a fast enough cpu for Plex encoding and the ability to run a Virtual Windows machine for any "PC" type needs I may need via my iPad or remote access when traveling/etc.

My buddy got a QNAP T451+ (I may have butchered the model but you know the one). Its a pretty fun device with all the cool things it can do and the HDMI output and ability to be administered via a real monitor/keyboard if necessary is pretty cool. Once my Drobo starts to get a little long in the tooth I'm looking squarely in that direction.

- J

 

[nk215]

If you can swing for a Synology model that supports btrfs, get that. Mix drives support is OK.

If not QNAP gives you a lot of features for home use (more multimedia centric than Synology). I don't think QNAP support for mix drives is any good.

For roll your own with freenas so you can remove/add HDDs to your pool as you please. Ignore the 8GB minimum freenas recommendation. 4GB is enough for home use.

 

[grimpr]

You can consider Stablebit Drivepool on Windows 10 or Unraid on Linux, both can run Virtual Machines.

 

[pimpin-tl]

I actually forgot to update this thread. Already bought a synology 1515+ and it has been great. Doing everything l wanted so far. Thanks everyone.


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