I bought a Drobo 5C purely for my media (although I'm using it for Time Machine too now), and I thought I'd write a review explaining why I went the route I did and my first impressions with this storage system so that it's easier for others to make informed decisions when looking to buy (expensive) hardware. As well: Benchmarks.
After having a completely full 1TB external drive fail on me and losing all my data on the drive (I didn't lose anything I couldn't get back), I decided that it was time to upgrade from the simple USB connected external HDDs to something capable of holding a lot more. My household only has one computer (mac mini) with a few devices (ipad, android phones, PS4) so a NAS was overkill (plus I needed transcoding and every indication was I needed to spend big or build to get the power I needed).
I was looking for something that would protect me from drive failures (the only way I've ever lost data!) but truthfully, though I'm computer literate enough to figure out how to setup a (hardware or software) RAID, I didn't feel it was worth the headache, esp when trying to expand in the future (like with tradition RAID 5 or 6) or needing to invest enough to buy the # of HDD needed (Raid 6 or 10). RAID hybrids and other options felt like I needed to invest more time than I wanted learning how to implement them. I'd rather spend that time with family. So when it came down to priorities, I decided to spend money and save time rather than save money and spend time.
So with that in mind, I looked into Drobo. I could buy as few or as many (up to 5) drives as I wanted, they could be however big/small/fast/slow I needed, all mixed up - it didn't matter. +1 for convenience; +1 for expandability
Since I was going the DAS route the choice was between the 5C and 5D. I considered the 5D briefly because it was advertised as ideal for "home media use", but it was considerably more expensive and the extra features it had I couldn't see myself using. Plus nothing about the hardware gave me the impression that it would be noticeably superior to the 5C for my application. So, I jump in to the 5C.
I purchased 3 3TB HDDs with the unit, there is space for 5 drives, the other 2 can be added at any time. The Drobo is connected via USB 3 to my (late 2014) Mac Mini. 9TB -> 5.44 TB (after redundancy) -> 3.44 TB for media/2TB for Time Machine.
Drobo is as easy to setup and use as the company claims. The whole thing (from packaging to their design and ease of use) feels like they got their inspiration from Apple - it just works. The unit automatically kicks into single disc redundancy w/no other options (eg. JBOD) other than dual redundancy at the click of the mouse (if I have the free space available). It also asks if I want a partition for a time machine backup. i was super clear and easy to use.
Considering the 5D is advertised as ideal for home media use and this one isn't, I thought I'd put it through a "worst case scenario" real world test by playing 4 x 1080p videos (through Plex to ALL my devices, each video different) at the same time (considering my children are not allowed any screen time, this won't happen in the near future) while Drobo was still doing the initial Time Machine backup. The result: One stream sputtered once (I think it was my mac mini TBH) but other than that they all played flawlessly for the 15 minutes they were on. So, I have no concerns about its speed as a NAS for my PMS (you can judge the benchmarks for yourself below, I don't know enough to have an opinion).
All my complaints are fairly petty: The drive requires Drobo software (Dashboard) to set it up, to access certain features of the device and to know how much space is really on/left in the drive (since the computer thinks its a 64TB drive - so that it's expandable). The Dashboard is sometimes slow to recognise the device (read: NOT the computer). I haven't tried the device with the dashboard uninstalled but I've read that it works perfectly fine without it AFTER the setup is finished.
There aren't some of the options one might expect from a RAID unit such as JBOD, RAID0, & RAID1(although, technically if there are only 2 drives in it it'll be something like RAID1), plus it comes at a fairly steep price tag (and the 5D is even pricier). I haven't had the drive long enough to see how easy it is to expand storage, or replace a failed drive, but so far it has functioned as advertised, and if it continues to do so those tasks should be simple procedures too.
Now: The Benchmarks:
Results 52.75
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.11.5 (15F34)
Physical RAM 8192 MB
Model Macmini7,1
Drive Type Drobo 5C
Disk Test 52.75
Sequential 35.21
Uncached Write 486.09 298.45 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 349.41 197.70 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 9.72 2.84 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 172.56 86.73 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 105.13
Uncached Write 79.91 8.46 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 558.75 178.88 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 92.74 0.66 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 77.14 14.31 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Overall, I'm very happy with the purchase. It was fast and easy to setup, works like a typical external HDD after setup, and provides me with all the storage I need now with the option of easy expansion in the future.