Viraj's Weblog

I picked up a cool external storage device called a Drobo. It's marketed as a 'storage robot', but there are no robotics involved. They use a proprietary RAID-like scheme that typically gives you more storage than the various RAID levels. The price is reasonable too: $499.

Are there any problems? Well the only issue I have is with the noise. That thread does not exaggerate at all; this thing sounds like a blowdryer/jet engine when the fan kicks into high, which is almost random. For what I'm using it for, in a home theatre setup, it's really unacceptable. So I took advice from one the posters on that thread and decided to open it up and replace the fan with something quieter. It turns out the fan in the unit is a Sunon PMD1208PTB3-A and is 3900 RPM, 49 CFM, and 42 dBA! That is ridiculously loud. I bought a Vantec SF8025L from Fry's which is rated at 2050 RPM, 27 CFM, and 21 dBA. The Drobo was rather cumbersome to take apart, but not too bad. I had to splice in the fan cables because it had a non-standard fan connector, but once it was in it worked pretty well. It's much more quieter now. Of course it's a lot less airflow, but I honestly don't care. It was simply unbearable in its previous state.

Now I hope my place doesn't catch on fire . The drives are hot, but not exceedingly.