The Drobo 5D is a direct attached storage device (DAS) with five 3.5" carrier-less bays that features USB 3.0 and dual thunderbolt ports. Though similar in design to recent Drobo models, the 5D that we previously announced adds a lot of new features including: support for HDDs and SSDs, increased memory, a faster processor and battery backup. Drobo designed the 5D with media creatives such as video and audio editors in mind understanding their need for high capacity, high performance devices. Drobo offers a couple of other devices in the family such as the Mini which has the same features but with support for four 2.5" drives, as well as the 5N network attached storage device (NAS).
The Drobo 5D benefits from a significant feature set. Uniquely, unlike most other DAS devices, the 5D has a bay on the underside which can house an mSATA SSD to cache critical, frequently accessed data for increased performance. Users can choose a smaller capacity mSATA drive if their HDDs aren't capacity robust, or they could swap in a larger 128GB or 256GB mSATA SSD to heat up performance more significantly. The 5D also offers BeyondRAID technology with single or dual drive redundancy to provide data protection. Additionally, drives can be swapped for storage expansion instantly. Rounding out the features, there are two Thunderbolt ports - one of which supports daisy-chaining to enable users to utilize the speed of Thunderbolt on their other devices.
The Drobo 5D is available now with a 2 year warranty and a $775 street price. That includes both a Thunderbolt and a USB 3.0 cable.
Drobo 5D Specifications
Connectivity
2 x Thunderbolt ports; second port for daisy chaining (Mac OS X only)
1 x USB 3.0 port
Capacity
Up to 5 x 3.5" SATA II / III hard disk drives or solid state drives (sold separately)
1 x mSATA solid state drive (sold separately)
BeyondRAID Features
Thin Provisioning
Instant Expansion
Mixed Drive Size Utilization
Automatic Protection Levels
Dual Disk Redundancy
Virtual Hot Spare
Data Aware
Drive Re-ordering
Management
Drive bay indicator lights, capacity gauge, status lights
Drobo Dashboard version 2.3 or later
Operating System Support
Mac OS X 10.7.x Lion
Mac OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion
Windows 7 SP1 32 and 64 bit
Windows 8 32 and 64 bit
File System Options
Mac OS X: HFS+
Windows: NTFS
Hardware Features
Carrier-less Drive Bays
Power Fail Protection
Kensington Lock Port for Security (lock not included)
Additional Software Features
Data-Aware Tiering
Drive Spin Down
Dim Lights
Dimensions (WxHxD): 5.9" (150.3 mm) x 7.3" (185.4 mm) x 10.3" (262.3 mm)
Weight: 8.5 lbs (without hard drives and power supply)
Power and Cooling
External Power Supply: AC Input – 100-240VAC~2A, 50-60Hz; DC Output – 12V, 12.5A, 150W max
Single, fixed, variable speed cooling fan
Acoustics – Normal Operation: 24 dBA
Standard 2-year warranty; extend to 3 years and enhance support with DroboCare
Design and Build
The Drobo 5D has a unique design because of its completely tool-less access to its carrier-less bays, but before we get to that, we'll have a look at its build and quality. The whole device is black and is enclosed in solid metal to keep the unit cool. Drobo employs plastic for several other parts of the build, unlike some more premium looking comparables such as the LaCie 5big NAS Pro. The rear grille, the door, and the bay enclosure are all composed of plastic. Overall, the exterior enclosure feels solid, but some of the plastic pieces such as the bay flaps feel flimsy.
