[mythtv-users] RAID versus Drobo

[Eric Robinson]

I'm planning a Myth network for HD content using one [powerful] backend
and three frontends.  I'm currently trying to figure out how to store
the massive amounts of data required for HD and have narrowed things
down to two options: RAID and Drobo (http://www.drobo.com/).

As I see it, the SATA based RAID would be nice for it's simplicity and
speed.  The motherboard I will be using should support dual RAID-5
setups offering me tons of space with 750GB drives.  It may prove more
costly to run, however, if the drives don't spin-down when not in use.

The Drobo is interesting because it is hot-swappable and expandable.  If
a drive fails you can remove it and place a similarly sized drive or
bigger one and the Drobo will rebuild itself.  If you need more space
(as bigger drives become available) you can simply pull out an old one
and put a new one in, letting it rebuild and expand into the new space. 
It uses  USB 2.0 for its bus.  The Drobo can spin down when not in use,
which is nice given the number of drives and power consumption.  USB
2.0, however, has a much slower data transfer rate than SATA (USB 2.0's
480Mbps versus SATA's 3.0 Gbps).

As I'm doing HD, I figure that the drives will require a lot of
throughput to handle the multiple frontends and backend IO.  Would a
Drobo suffice or should I keep it simple with RAID?

Thanks,

Eric