Setup and Configuration
We used a Macbook Air (mid-2013), which only has Thunderbolt 1 support. Nevertheless, it should enough to test the Drobo 5Dt. We just wanted to see how well it works with a Macbook and to see if there are any speed improvements over using external USB 3.0 and external Thunderbolt 1 hard drives.
For the Drobo 5Dt, we used 5 x 1TB Western Digital hard drives (Blue), which are designed for desktop PCs, but can be used in a NAS. Ideally, you should go for the Red version which are optimized for NAS. Having said that, you can actually use ANY hard drive size (or type) of your choice, as long as they have the SATA connector.
For testing, we used Disk Mark v 1.15 and Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, which can be downloaded from the Apps Store. It will provide us with the read/write speeds of the Drobo 5Dt. We will be comparing it with the Macbook Air’s internal SSD storage, a WD Passport external USB3.0 hard drive, as well as a Buffalo external Thunderbolt 1 hard drive.
Drobo Dashboard
Once the drives are installed into the Drobo 5Dt, we need to configure it. Just download the Drobo Dashboard software from Drobo’s website and let the software detect the drives. The software allows you to format the drives on the NAS or reset the Drobo (restore factory settings and removes the previous RAID configurations).
Our Drobo 5Dt features a 128GB mSATA SSD for acceleration. Drobo calls it “Hot Data Cache”. You’ll notice there is a little icon showing you the extra mSATA SSD – Acceleration Active.
