Server vs Network Storage (Drobo FS)

[dennykyser]

I want to ask a few questions before I get serious about building a server.

I run a full time photography and video business and up till a couple years ago built all my computers with great success.

I did switch half our computers over to Mac, as with HD Video it just works better for me.

I will give a little of my current storage setup if you want to read but the question I have is.

For File sharing among 5 computers (2 mac and 3 PC's) Is it worth building a server or just going with something simple like a Drobo FS?

I want the best speed possible, I need a LOT of storage (at least 8TB) and if it means anything I have several computers that are a few years old laying around.

I have so many hard drive setups its crazy. Besides many Lacie rugged drives I also have the following raid setups.
A 4TB drobo on my mac, a 4tb esata cavary array on on pc and also a Netgear NES 4tb network storage.

All these have problems. My drobo for my mac is formated for mac and not accessable from pc's. esata Cavary is a pain when a computer goes out, have to swap the esata hardware, download drivers etc, just a major pain.

 

[tlarkin]

If you want to stay Mac to keep it all Mac and simple I would suggest this:

Mac Mini, with an external FW800 drive that you can remotely back up to, and then another set of FW hard drives to back up the back up just in case something fails.

If you want to go cheap, you can build a cheap PC and load Linux on it and use NFS or Samba for the file sharing. If you don't know Linux you'd probably have to pay someone to do it for you.

 

[FXB]

IF you have all the components to build a backup server I suggest going that route as you can ensure that the server does what you want it to based on the flavour of linux you choose. Since you also have multiple drives it would be best to use a tower rather then a NAS enclosure. Some cases have 10 3.5 bays.