Bought the D-Link DNS-320 (SGD$109) and 2x Western Digital 3.5″ SATA Caviar Black 1TB hard drive (SGD$115 each) at Comex 2011 last weekend.

I still bought back a D-Link NAS after my bad experience with D-Link DNS-323 because the DNS-320 is meant for my mom’s office and D-Link service center is just located behind my mom’s office in case anything happens.

I wanted to get the Synology DS211j instead but unfortunately it is out of my mom’s budget. I initially also wanted to get the Buffalo LinkStation Pro Duo, but after reading SmallNetBuilder’s review on it, I decided to give it a miss as the review was pretty bad.

The differences between DNS-320 and DNS-323 is quite significant. Now the hard disk is loaded via the top which makes it slightly easier to install as compared to front loading. The user interface has also been revamped and now it bares no resemblance to the usual orange/white/grey D-Link’s interface, it is a much welcomed change but it is a little laggy though. So far for NAS, I have not seen a better web interface than Synology’s DiskStation Manager (DSM).

For a more technical review, check out my friend, shadowandy, blog post entitled D-Link DNS-320 – Layman speed test.

D-Link DNS-320 Box

Western Digital 3.5″ SATA Caviar Black 1TB

HDD Is Now Loaded Via The Top

DNS-320

Brand New User Interface

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 They accept cash only and for some reason they do not quote in SGD$.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!

Comex 2008
Comex 2008 was held in Suntec City Convention Center from the 28th August 2008 to the 31st August 2008. I hooted the following:

For My Mom:

• Canon Color Ink For Canon Printer MX700 – SGD$50 (Free SGD$10 NTUC Vouchers)
• 2x Canon Black Ink For Canon Printer MX700 – SGD$44 (Free SGD$5 NTUC Vouchers)

For Li Xiang:

• Canon Color Ink Value Pack Canon Printer MP160 – SGD$55 (Free SGD$5 NTUC Vouchers)
• Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse – SGD$19.90

For Myself:

• D-Link DNS-323 – SGD$199 (Sim Lim Square’s Fuwell selling for SGD$235)

D-Link DNS-323
I have been aiming for the DNS-323 for quite a couple of weeks, Fuwell is selling for $235 which is a little steep. I am quite surprise Comex is only selling for $199 as from what I heard PC Show 2008 which is held back in June is selling for $189. But nevertheless, it is still cheaper than $235. I went to Comex on Thursday, 28th August 2008, and at 12pm sharp, when the doors are open, I headed straight to the D-Link booth. I have already did my homework on where the booth is located. Once I am at the booth, I told the temp staff I want the DNS-323 and he got stun for a few seconds as I think he didn’t expect me to buy it so fast, if I am not wrong, I am the first customer of the booth.

2 weeks before Comex 2008, I have already went to Sim Lim Square’s Fuwell to buy Western Digital Caviar Green Power (GP) 1TB for SGD$220. At that time I did not want to run RAID 1 and hence I only bought 1 HDD. But after getting the DNS-323 and playing it on Friday, I decided to try RAID 1 and hence the next day I went to Sim Lim Square’s Fuwell to get the exact same hard drive which I bought 2 weeks ago. The price is still the same.

Western Digital Green Power hard drive is fantastic, it is very quiet, even when I put the 2 hard drives into the DNS-323, overall it is still quiet. The only irritating thing is the blue LED lights which is so bright when all the lights are off.

I got a major problem when running RAID 1 on the DNS-323, the formatting of drives always get stuck at 94% and after lots of goggling, I realized that it is a firmware bug. I downgraded to 1.04 (currently is 1.05) and set the inactivity timer to 90mins instead of the default value and that seems to solve the problem.

D-Link DNS-323 Box

D-Link DNS-323 Box Contents

Western Digital Caviar Green Power (GP) 1TB

Space Chimps
Caught Space Chimps a couple of weeks ago and the movie was just average, the funniest part of the movie are all in the trailer.

Death Race
Caught Death Race last week, starring Jason Statham, Joan Allen and Ian McShane. It is directed by Paul WS Anderson. The movie was good and basically it is a action packed movie almost throughout the whole movie.

WALL-E
WALL-E stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class and EVE stands for Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator. I have been wanting to watch this movie since the trailer aired in Singapore quite a number of months ago. Managed to catch it at GV Max on Friday midnight show. The show was good in terms of both storyline and humor. Go and catch it.

I saw the toy selling for SGD$19.90 for both WALL-E and EVE. So tempted to get it but in the end didn’t get it. You can view the toys here.

Dad’s Back For 4 Days
My dad came back on Saturday for 4 days and will be leaving on Tuesday, 2nd September 2008. Vietnam has a public holiday and his company give them another day off and my dad just need to take 1 day leave and he can come back for 4 days.

We have been bringing him around eating and eating as Hanoi food is not suitable for him. He lost about 2kg and now I can see his 6-pack.

The next time he will be back shall be in December 2008 where his contract ends. He might renew his contact if the offer is good.