Drobo S on the fritz, how fast is the Drobo FS?

Drobo - End of Sale Drobo FS
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My Drobo S is acting funny. Support doesn’t seem to want to help. I don’t know why I’m even considering another product, but anyways…

Currently I have a Mac Pro on 24/7 sharing the Drobo over the network and online via VPN. It’s connected via eSATA, so on average I get 90MB/s read/write (intranet).

Now if I move to a Drobo FS, I imagine I don’t need run a Mac Pro as a server anymore. I can move those server duties to a Mac mini (one that I’ve already tested) which consumes a fraction of the power. Does all the stuff I need (including hosting the VPN); obviously the issue is it doesn’t have eSATA and I’m not moving back to FW800 and definitely not USB 2.0 (because that’s why I upgraded from the first gen, to the 2nd, and then the S!).

How is the Drobo FS in terms of read and writing stuff? What about power consumption?

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DroboFS typically is <40MB/sec reads and <30MB/sec writes. In one instance that I’ve never managed to explain or replicate, I once got sustained 70MB/sec for one long transfer. It’s not going to be anywhere near the Drobo S speed, even under the best of conditions.

If you haven’t yet bought it I’d look elsewhere, especially at NetGear who works directly with the netatalkd team on AFP support. I know I’ll never buy a thing from DRI again.

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Thanks. That would be too slow; that’d be like going back to USB 2.0