Thunderbolt Multi-Drive Storage Solutions

So, unless someone asks...I'll save you the 4 month story as to why the Drobo 5D failed me. In the meantime, I'm hoping to see what the community has to say about the current 4-8 bay multi-drive storage solutions.

I bought the Drobo 5D initially 4 months ago because it had all the features I was looking for and then some.

• 5 Bay x 3.5in HDDs
• 1 Bay x mSATA SDD for the data tiering that I so desperately seek
• Thunderbolt (and USB 3.0)
• Even the BeyondRAID which essentially means I didn't have to deal with traditional RAID restrictions anymore, a big plus.
• A sexy software interface

Well anyways, it failed me. I went through 4 different Drobo 5D units and about 15 different HDDs. Drive bays failed and some eventually melted off. Yes, you read that correctly. So, I'm hoping that some of you have suggestions as to possible alternatives to the Drobo 5D features that I listed above. I'm not afraid of traditional RAID, it's just fussy and kind of outdated in my opinion...but if it works...I guess I'll roll with it.

Thoughts?