For USB Support on 5D, 5D3, 5C, We now have Beta version of Drobo Dashboard v3.6.0 for USB support on Apple Mac M1. You can just … The Drobo 5D … The 5D can be had for $599, which has both two Thunderbolt ports and USB 3.0 connectivity as well. Drobo designed the 5D with media … UPDATE 2/24/2017: I’m back with drobo! The front of the enclosure is like the 5C and 5D before it, held on by magnets this piano black finish houses the Drobo logo at the top. 757 Comments. Though similar in design to recent Drobo models, the 5D that we previously announced adds a lot of new features including: support for HDDs and SSDs, increased memory, a faster processor and battery backup. EDIT: If you plan on leaving your house and wanting to take the Drobo's data with you, and you don't have a reasonable enough upload speed or you'd be going somewhere without internet, then get the Drobo Mini. Drobo 5C 5-bay USB Type-C DAS Review - More Bays! The Drobo 5D is a direct attached storage device (DAS) with five 3.5" carrier-less bays that features USB 3.0 and dual thunderbolt ports. When I originally wrote this post, 5-years ago, it was definitely with a different “drobo” — as a company, and “drobo” as a product. I’m Done with drobo. Removing the door, we have access to all five bays. Maximum Volume Size and Largest Drive Capacity. mSATA. Dobo markets the 5C as a “Self-Managing USB-C storage solution. The Drobo 5C, with a nice budget entry level price of $349, does miss out on one feature that I enjoy from the 5D, which is the mSATA accelerator card–used as hot cache for all the transfers back and forth. Today we have an interesting product from Drobo to review, dubbed the 5C. Products include cutting-edge USB Type C and or Thunderbolt™ 3 interfaces which connect directly to your computer to provide faster access speeds. Drobo 5C will support up to 64TB drive sizes. Drobo 5D, Drobo 5N, and Drobo Mini have an additional drive bay on the bottom of the chassis, the Drobo Accelerator Bay, to accept an mSATA SSD. What this means is with Drobo products you have no need to micro manage your storage device, you can mix and match hard drives including drive capacities by simply inserting your hard drives of choice and the Drobo 5C takes care of the rest. If you would like to try this Dashboard version for M1 USB support, create a support case and let us know. No reason to get the 5D if you plan to use the Drobo on more than one machine. Start with the capacity you need today, then when more storage space is needed, throw in another drive, or replace a smaller capacity drive with a larger one. While larger capacity drives can be used in a Drobo as they become available, Drobo products have a current maximum usable storage limit with the latest firmware and dashboard versions. The Drobo 5D launched a few years ago and continues to be a pricey solution, running close to $600. Most SSDs come in a 2.5" drive form factor. Drobo supports larger capacity drives in order to enable users to expand their Drobo Storage. But you can start with much less. While this is fine for Drobo Mini, Drobo 5D and Drobo 5N have 3.5" drive bays. The Drobo DAS line includes Drobo 5C, Drobo 5D3, and Drobo 8D. The Drobo 5D3 is designed to meet the data storage needs of today's media creators and demanding professionals. 9. Drobo 5D3 5-Drive Storage Array, Thunderbolt 3/USB 3.0 Type-C. To use a 2.5" SSD in a 3.5" bay, a carrier is needed. Scott Kelby. Drobo products are designed from the ground up to meet the data storage needs of today’s media creators and demanding professionals. June 15, 2012.