I’m just got a Drobo 5N which I am using for general file storage and Plex Media Streaming. I have 2x 3TB WD Red hard drives installed which are working fine. I’ve been reading a lot about the mSATA Accelerator Bay and was just wondering if it would actually be worthwhile in my investing in ether a 64GB or 128GB mSATA SSD to use in it.
I’ve read various articles about it but can’t work out exactly what benefits it offers. Some sites says it increases access speeds by 3 times others state it has no affect on write speeds.
My personal experience after fitting a 64GB Plextor unit was a noticeable improvement in Plex and other media streaming. That is the only improvement I noticed because it’s the only area in which I had experienced any problems with the standard out-of-the-box 5N.
Your mileage may vary. Objects in the rear view mirror may be closer than they appear. The value of your investment may go down as well as up.
Thanks for your reply. I’ve noticed a few issues with Plex myself when it has to transcode anything, etc so have just ordered a 128GB Plextor mSATA off Amazon (I’d have gone with the 64GB but it wasn’t much more for the 128GB so I went with that instead). Should be with me on Tuesday.
I added a 128GB mSATA in my Drobo5N when I received it, so I don’t know what streaming performance was like without it. The mSATA won’t help with writes, but read caching should improve. The best thing I did with Plex was move the app off my Drobo and onto my media PC for the extra transcoding power. The media is still stored on my Drobo of course, but it’s processor isn’t up to the task of on-the-fly transcoding.