I suppose it is time to write another review on Drobo Mini that I had acquired under the desperate need for storage space in March 2014 after switching my main photo editing and database handling computer from my ageing Lenovo X201T (Core i7 with 4GB RAM and 120GB SSD).
Specifications of my Drobo Mini unit are as follows:
4x HGST 1TB 7,200rpm 2.5" hard drive
1x Crucial 120GB micro solid state drive
connected to my Macbook Pro 15" (Intel i7, 16GB RAM with 500GB PCIe SSD) via a Thunderbolt connection.
Installation
Setting up the physical unit was easy and done under 5 minutes. Installation if drobo dashboard software is required to manage the parameters of the unit such LED brightness, monitoring health and status of the hard drive units. This may
The Drobo Mini Unit (Physical unit and connection interface)
As shown above, 4x HGST (Hitachi Global Storage Technologies) 1TB drives. Installation is a simple as pushing the drives in until a click. Removal of dead drives is as easy and simple.
The front cover of the drive is just a magnetic panel. A sticker with (relatively) important information was attached on the inner side of the front cover.
Interface on the Drobo Mini includes 2x Thunderbolt ports (for daisy chaining of other thunderbolt accessories), 1x USB 3.0 port with super speed support. To the right of the USB connector is the DC in connector (which locks in place to the drobo unit with a twist, preventing unintended disconnection) and the power button (rather small and tiny). The power button has a click feedback.
Two ventilation fans (one on each side of the unit) visible on the rear of the Drobo Mini unit helps to keep 4 hard drives at operating temperature.
Performance
Transfer speed with my (above stated) configuration easily reach speeds of 180-200mb/s. This is especially useful if your workflow includes use of RAW files such as adobe DNG or Nikon's NEF
File transfer at such speeds allow easier handling of large files in workflow such as when dealing with large RAW photo libraries and compiling and editing video projects.
Note that all observations are based on the thunderbolt interface between Drobo mini and my Macbook Pro and I have yet tried the performance on USB3.0 interface.
Concluding words
Due to the fact that this small hard drive array allows USB 3.0 connections other than higher throughput thunderbolt connections, working on the array using both Mac OS X systems and Microsoft Windows based OS would not be an issue.
Performance remains good up until today (8 months after I have the unit) with the array filled more than 2/3. Currently only 900GB left out of 2.7TB of usable space. The SSD within the array sure helped buffer the more frequently used files (especially when working on photo libraries).
The overall impression I had with this unit is quite good considering the impressive speed and flexibility due to the available connection options.
The Drobo mini array is coated with a "rubberised" finish with rubber feet and allows multiple unit stacking (and daisy chaining through the thunderbolt interface). Should one of my hard drive in the array (total of 4 hard drives) fail, I should be able to retrieve my data (though I have yet try the recovery performance and time required). According to Drobo, this unit still functions if you have one hard drive failure but should another fail in the array, your data would likely be destroyed.
Finally....
Aesthetics 8 / 10 (simple design and pleasing to look at)
Functionality 10 / 10 (works with both Mac OS and Microsoft Windows)
Noise 7 / 10 (quiet whirling from the two cooling fans audible when working in a quiet environment)Performance 9 / 10 (considering that there are only 2.5" hard drives inside the array, the performance achieved was far from typical 2.5" hard drives)
Value 5 / 10 (quite expensive to setup a fully loaded unit, costs of Drobo Mini excludes the 4 hard drives and 1 microSSD required to boast the performance of the unit)
Overall 80 / 100
