Drobo has extended its line of storage peripherals with the five-bay Drobo 5D3, a Thunderbolt 3-equipped storage array capable of connecting a pair of 4K displays downstream of the enclosure.
The Drobo 5D3 can connect five 3.5-inch drives, and also has an "accelerator bay" to install a mSATA card for faster caching. Besides the pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports, it also has a USB 3.0 Type C port for peripheral or display connection.
Using one Thunderbolt 3 port, and the USB 3.0 type C port, a pair of 4K displays can be connected to the unit with video provided by the host computer. Drobo notes that the LG Ultrafine 5K display can be connected as well, but no other displays are supported in that configuration.
The 5D3 provides 15W of charging power to a connected computer. A built-in battery backup allows the array to shut down in an orderly fashion in the event of a power failure.
Mac HFS+ is natively supported, as is Time Machine. There are no restrictions on type or manufacturers of drives that can be installed in the enclosure.
Prices for the Drobo 5D3 range from $699 for an empty enclosure with included six-foot Thunderbolt 3 cable to $1899 with four 6TB drives. Amazon is offering no interest financing if paid in full within 12 months using the Amazon.com Store card, while B&H will not collect sales tax on Drobo 5D3 units shipped to addresses outside NY and NJ.