...when you can just pull the drives out?!?

$499 != £350

Someone find a Grey Importer and publish contact details.

I love the Drobo, but I would never use it for a main storage device, simply because it is soooo ssslllloooowww...

The thing can't even keep up with USB 2 speeds.

Nice that it has FW 800s. However, if all they've done is "double" the speed that can't even keep a USB 2 pipe full, I'm not sure why they didn't make one of the ports a FW 400.

Well, once you buy the Drobo and the Share, and then the drives, it'll have worked out to be the same kind of price as an Infrant/Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ anyway, so you may as well go for a grown-ups NAS box. I was in the market for a new NAS, and came across the reviews at TrustedReviews. They kinda speak for themselves, but suffice to say, the Drobo looses out big time when you compare it to the ReadyNAS, so I plumped for the ReadyNAS and have certainly not been disappointed. And it comes with a 5 year warranty that covers the drives too.

Cheers,

Rolf.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/networking/review/2008/06/30/Data-Robotics-Drobo-DroboShare-DAS-NAS-Box/p1

http://www.trustedreviews.com/networking/review/2008/05/05/Netgear-ReadyNAS-Duo/p1

http://www.trustedreviews.com/networking/review/2007/10/08/Netgear-ReadyNAS-NV-/p1

If you are backing up using Time Machine, Drobo + Time Capsule = happy. Until Apple decides to let Time Machine do its thing with an off-the-shelf NAS this is the way to go for multi-Macbook homes.

oh, sorry, that's right, I'm wrong, they DO have Ethernet support, but only if you pay an addition £150 for the add-on pack (what a rip off ! ...) "Pay £150 for something you get as standard on every other product on the market !" great marketing !