D-Link replied me after a week and a follow-up email from me. The normal repair price is USD$61 (SGD$86) and after the repair is done, I will get an additional 3 months warranty.

However, out of good will, they are willing to give me 30% discount off the repair charges which is now USD$42 (SGD$59) and an additional 3 months warranty, so that makes it 6 months warranty in total. They accept cash only and for some reason they do not quote in SGD$. Weird.

Despite their good gesture, I don’t want to take the risk of my DNS-323 failing again and I have to repeat the whole process of backing up my data onto an external HDD and then copying the data back to the NAS. It is a nightmare and I got a shock and felt lost when my NAS fails.

I decided to get a new and better NAS instead which is the Synology Disk Station DS210j. Got it for SGD$408 from Memory World at Funan. I think this is the last piece available in Singapore, the next shipment is coming in next month. Thanks to KK from Funan’s Memory World for reserving it for me. You can go look for him if you are looking to buy any Qnap or Synology NAS =)

Box

Box Contents

DS210j

Front

Back

Open

Inserting HDD

DS210j On My Table

I am still considering whether or not to take on the good will and repair the NAS and keep it for other purposes or sell it away.

I purchased my D-Link DNS-323 on the 1st September 2008 during Comex 2008.

3 days ago, my DNS-323 decided to give up on me, just after 1 year and 3 months! The warranty for the DNS-323 is only 1 year so my warranty had just ended! Argh!

I thought I might try my luck, I wrote in to D-Link saying I am a blogger blah blah blah and a huge fan of D-Link, spending SGD$519 worth of D-Link products during IT Show 2009 and to see if out of goodwill, they can RMA for me. But if it fails, at lest I tried and time to hoot a new NAS.

Here is what happen:

• I found my DNS-323 switched off and immediately power it back on.
• Works normally after powering it on, but after an hour, the DNS-323 disconnect itself from the network.
• I tried powering it off and on again by pressing on the power button but to no avail.
• I have to manually plug out the power cable and plug in back in again and press the power button to power it on.
• Works normally again, but as usual, after an hour, it disconnect itself from the network again.
• Power button still does not work, have to manually plug out and in the power cable to reboot it.
• This time round, the power LED light blinks non-stop after booting up
• I tried hard reset, swapping the harddisks, removing the harddisks, all could not work, the power light continue to blink.
• I seek help from my friend, Andy, who is an expert with D-Link products, tried some of his method but still could not get the DNS-323 to hard reset

While waiting for D-Link to reply me, I did some research on 2-Bay NAS and have narrowed down to the following 4 choices which is within my budget.

SYNOLOGY Disk Station DS210j

Price: SGD$408
Official Link: SYNOLOGY Disk Station DS210j

QNAP TS-210

Price: SGD$514
Official Link: QNAP TS-210

NetGear ReadyNAS Duo (Diskless)

Price: SGD$429
Official Link: NetGear ReadyNAS Duo (Diskless)

Thecus N3200 Pro

Price: SGD$499
Official Link: Thecus N3200 Pro
Note: This is 3-Bay NAS, but I included it because it is within my budget.

The purpose of me using a NAS is to share files within my home network and to use it as a BitTorrent machine. I also backed up my files on it, so I will definitely run RAID1 with it. Any recommendations on which one I should settle for eventually? Please leave a comment. Thanks a lot!