GEN 3 MAC PERFORMANCE (drive testing)

Drobo - End of Sale GEN 3
1

Did some testing with the GEN 3 on the MAC, testing the difference between WD Green drives and WD Black drives.

All testing was completed using the following settings:

-15" Macbook PRO Retina display (late 2012)
-2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
-8 GB RAM
-OSX 10.9.3

Testing was performed with the GEN 3 fully populated with either WD green drives or WD black drives. Testing was done following this article: http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/787/kw/performance%20test

GEN 3 with Green drives installed.

http://www.amazon.com/WD-Green-Desktop-Hard-Drive/dp/B006GDVREI

The Green drives showed an average read time of 81 MB/s, with average writes around 52 MB/s. You do see read peaks as high as 92, and many mid to high 80s, so reads are decent with Green drives. Writes did have some peaks of 65, and remained steady in the high 50s low 60s.

GEN 3 with WD Black drives installed.

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Cache-Desktop-WD1003FZEX/dp/B00FJRS6FU/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1402903750&sr=1-1&keywords=wd+black+1tb


The WD Blacks showed a large increase in performance, with reads as high as the 200 MB/s, and Writes as high as 179 MB/s. Largely increased performance with the black drives, with both reads and writes averaging in the triple digits.

Conclusion: If performance is a large need, it can be worthwhile to invest in higher end drives. This includes any NAS quality drive, or even enterprise class SATA drives.

If anyone else has any other performance tests on the MAC with the GEN 3, feel free to share. Please post the make and model of the drives, and a link to the drives you have installed. Please also post some details of the MAC you are using, and please do make sure it is on USB 3.0.

2

this is very cool info to know :slight_smile:

i wonder how possible it is, to get similar test but using all wd Red drives?

3

I am using a MacBook Pro with Retina Display with my new Gen 3 Drobo. I am seeing a HUGE speed increase as compared to my old Gen2 on FW800, using the same diskpack. My Gen2 maxed out around 20-26MB/s.

4

hi mac, do you have any info regarding the drives you are using too?

5

Sure:
Bay 0: WD15EARS-00M (WD Green 1.5 TB)
Bay 1: WD15EARS-00M (WD Green 1.5 TB)
Bay 2: WD20EARS-00S (WD Green 2.0 TB)
Bay 3: HDS5C302 (HGST I think, 2.0 TB)

6

many thanks

7

You seem to have already tackled the question I have and need guidance on: I have MacAir mid 2013 with OSX 10.9.2 connect to Belkin Thunderbolt hub via thunderbolt connector (hub only has one ethernet port: MacAir only has USB or thunderbolt port) I want to try to connect a Drobo FS model DRDS2-A as direct connect (ethernet only) to use for file storage. Is this possible through the hub? If so, what should I do for internet connect as WiFI is not reliable from our location for web and downloads.

I have downloaded Drobo Dashboard 2.5.2 [64171] but the last time I tried to connect direct on my MacAir through TB Hub, the hub settings goofed up. I may have not had the power/connection sequence in the right connection order as I later had to get Belkin support to help me get hub reset so it would work properly. I have not tried to tackle the DroboFS connection since getting the hub reset, and thought I would solicit guidance from knowledgeable folks as I am new to the whole Mac thing along with Drobo, but thought better to try than toss a good file storage device going idle as my spouse just upgraded his Drobos(he is on PC still). Appreciate any advise from folks who have already done this.

8

Wow. Those speeds are great! It looks like the Gen3 is a ‘mini 5D’.

9

I just got a Gen3 and benchmarked it with 3x 4TB Red drives. I get around 220/180 Read/Write speed. Pretty impressed.

10

Here are my performance numbers when connected to a 2009 Mac Mini core 2 duo using the USB 2 port.

With 3 2TB WD Red empty drives:

Blackmagic 2GB file: USB 2  35MB/s read/, 31MB/s write

Copying a 5.1G file: 
- read from the Drobo in = 140sec giving an average read speed of 36MB/s	
- writing the same file back in 148sec for a transfer speed of 34MB/s

With 4 2TB WD Red 60% full drives:

Blackmagic 2GB file: USB 2  34MB/s read/, 47MB/s write

Copying a 2.15G file: 
- read from the Drobo in = 60sec giving an average read speed of 36MB/s	
- writing the same file back in 62sec for a transfer speed of 35MB/s

Blackmagic 5GB file: USB 2  38MB/s read/, 49MB/s write

Copying a 5.1G file: 
- read from the Drobo in = 139sec giving an average read speed of 36MB/s	
- writing the same file back in 147sec for a transfer speed of 34MB/s

I think these numbers are excellent for USB 2 equipped computer. Also, the selected file size does not impact performance too much.I think Blackmagic results appears optimistic.

Waiting for Apple to produce new 2014 Mac Mini to try again!

11

all this info is useful, and thanks for the reds tests :slight_smile: