Transition from Drobo 5N2

[Enquiries]

I have a Drobo 5N2 with a 256GB mSata containing 5 ea, 4TB WD Red drives configured with double redundancy giving me 10.84TB usable with about 1TB being used. I use it for music access via a Naim Unitiserve over the network and for photography backup. The 5N2 was bought in 2018 to replace a Drobo FS that failed after 6 years and that is when the WD Red drives were added also. After seeing your YouTube video about Drobo going Chapter 11 I think I better start looking for a replacement. I access it over a home 1GB CAT-5 network. It has worked well this +5 years but I don't want to be stuck if it decides to fail like the FS did.

My desire is to get a NAS setup that is faster than the 80-100MB/sec I currently get. Is that possible with my 1GB CAT-5 network? I also have an Apple Studio Ultra that makes the NAS painful to use for photo access. Maybe get a reasonably prices NAS for music access and photo backup then use a DAS for photography access?

Your comments appreciated.

[ed]

Thanks for reaching out. Considering your current Drobo setup and the desire for faster speeds, transitioning to a Synology NAS could be a solid move. The SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) is akin to Drobo's drive mixing capability. However, do note that transferring data to the new NAS might require manual effort.

Given your usage scenario with music and photography, a Synology NAS like the [DS923+] would be a great fit. With its AMD Ryzen R1600 processor and 4GB DDR4 ECC RAM, it offers a performance boost.

Now, regarding the network speed, your 1GB CAT-5 network might pose a bottleneck. To fully unleash the potential of a faster NAS, consider upgrading to a faster network infrastructure like [CAT-6] or even [CAT-6a]. This can significantly enhance data transfer speeds within your home network.

For smoother photo access on your Apple Studio Ultra, having a separate DAS (Direct Attached Storage) for photography might indeed be a good strategy. It allows for dedicated and fast access to your photography files without affecting other NAS functions. Explore DAS options compatible with your Apple Studio Ultra for an optimized workflow.

Feel free to use the NAS Finder Tool
https://nascompares.com/nas-builder/