Drobo Offers

[Melbosa]

I got this from a Drobo contact at VMworld 2011 today, and thought I would share with you guys:

If you visited us at VMworld, or even if you didn't, you can purchase any Drobo at www.DroboStore.com and get up to $100 off instantly using discount code 100DROBO at checkout.

Or purchase a Drobo, Drobo S, or Drobo FS from any authorized reseller before September 30, 2011, and receive up to $100 back through our mail-in rebate. Click here to obtain your reseller mail-in rebate form. (Offer valid in US & Canada only)

[Tom]

Very cool. I'd think about the DroboFS if I had the cash. 5 disk array with gigabit ethernet? yes please. stick 4TB drives in it and call it a day

I wonder if Thorin qualifies for that mail in rebate? He did buy it before Sept 30 (and hopefully not too much before).

[Mr. Analog]

Damn! Very tempting, I'm getting close to filling up my existing 4 TB already

[Thorin]

$100 back would be nice.

Is that 4 x 1TB drives, or 5 x 4TB drives?  Do they have 4TB drives yet?  If it's 4 x 1TB, why not put in 5?

I'm not totally sold on the DroboFS (even though I own one).  I think I'd look at Synology's DS-411j, just for the extra features it has (although it doesn't allow hot-swapping drives).

[Mr. Analog]

Yep, mine's the original 4 bay Drobo with 4 1TB drives and it's almost full now. I guess I could buy bigger drives...

[Tom]

$100 back would be nice.

Is that 4 x 1TB drives, or 5 x 4TB drives?  Do they have 4TB drives yet?  If it's 4 x 1TB, why not put in 5?

I'm not totally sold on the DroboFS (even though I own one).  I think I'd look at Synology's DS-411j, just for the extra features it has (although it doesn't allow hot-swapping drives).

Yeah, there are 4TB drives now. Seagate and Hitachi/WD both have 4TB drives out now I think, but they only seem to be selling them in external enclosures. But they should have internal drives out "soon".

I was thinking of slowly upgrading my array to 2TB drives since they are dirt cheap now. And that'd double my space (eventually, linux sofware raid doesn't make changing volume sizes simple, the entire array has to have the same size volumes or you can't reshape it).

The nice thing about those Synology and Drobo units is they don't care about volumes being equal sized which makes upgrading one drive at a time possible.

Though I /could/ partition the new drives into two parts, and add the two halves as separate volumes, but that would impact speed somewhat (probably cut it in half actually, raid array is really only as fast as its slowest unit, so if a drive is seeking about to access two halves at a time, it could cut speed in half or worse).

[Thorin]

Hmm...  To get the mail-in rebate form, I have to give them my first and last name, email address, and phone number (these are all marked as "required fields").  Is it worth it?  $100 for personal information like that?

[Mr. Analog]

Hmm...  To get the mail-in rebate form, I have to give them my first and last name, email address, and phone number (these are all marked as "required fields").  Is it worth it?  $100 for personal information like that?

I'll give you a candy bar!


mmmmm .... candy

[Thorin]

I am now "aa bb", reachable at 000 000 0000 and randomname@mailinator.com.  I _did_ let them know I'm in Canada, so they know which form to send me.

It's $100 in US dollars.  I'll have to time the deposit of the cheque for when the greenback is at least equal to the loonie.

Oh, and the form has to be mailed in postmarked no later than October 31st, and the purchase has to be between August 1st and September 30th.

edit: damnit, bought my Drobo two weeks too early to qualify!

[Mr. Analog]

Appalled! Appalled I tell you at your lack of honesty!

Sincerely,
Joe Datamine
1060 West Addison
Chicago Illinois, 60613
(773) 404-2827