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

Hooted the My Passport Essential SE (1TB) (USB 3.0) from SITEX 2010 for SGD$189.90 (usual price is SGD$209.90). This is my first USB 3.0 device despite not having any computers that support USB 3.0. It is all about future proofing!

Since this portal harddrive supports USB 3.0, the connector on the harddrive itself is a USB 3.0 MicroUSB Port (which looks weird, see picture below) instead of the usual USB 2.0 MiniUSB port. But it is backward compatible meaning your USB 2.0 MicroUSB (NOT miniUSB) still can fit into the port.

USB 2.0 is called Hi-Speed, and now USB 3.0 is called Super Speed (SS).

Box Front

Box Contents

My Passport Essential SE (Silver)

USB 3.0 MicroUSB Female Port

USB 3.0 Cable

USB 3.0 MicroUSB Male Connector

While I was in Vietnam over the weekends, my brother offered to help me get the Western Digital Elements Desktop 1TB harddrive from Comex 2010 at Bizgram stall. I am going to use the HDD for my MacBook Pro Time Machine backup.

Western Digital Elements

Western Digital Elements Portable 320GB- SGD$69.90
Western Digital Elements Portable 500GB- SGD$89.90
Western Digital Elements Portable 750GB- SGD$129.90
Western Digital Elements Portable 1TB – SGD$169.90

Western Digital Elements Desktop 1TB – SGD$109.90
Western Digital Elements Desktop 1.6TB – SGD$139.90
Western Digital Elements Desktop 2TB – SGD$169.90

Source: Western Digital Elements Pricelist

Western Digital My Passport/Book

Western Digital My Passport Essential 500GB – SGD$99.90
Western Digital My Passport Essential 750GB – SGD$139.90
Western Digital My Passport Essential 1TB – SGD$179.90

Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB – SGD$119.90
Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB – SGD$179.90

Source: Western Digital Pricelist

I prefer the WD Elements than WD My Book Essential simply because WD Elements is a no nonsense HDD, it does not include all those crap software like SmartWare within the HDD . It is just the HDD and nothing else. Also it is SGD$10 cheaper than Western Digital My Book Essential. Check out the comparison chart. I also prefer the Matt Black finish of the WD Elements than the Piano Black of WD My Book Essential.

Box Front

Box Contents

Matt Black

USB & Power Port

Power Indicator At The Back

Time Machine

My D-Link DNS-323 decided to give up to me 2 days ago and I have to find a temporary storage to transfer the data from my DNS-323. Unfortunately, I do not have enough space on my computer to store the data and my old external HDD has only 300GB and it is running on IDE. So I decided to get a new external storage as a temporary solution before I get a new NAS or if D-Link is reading this post would be so kind to RMA my DNS-323 (the warranty is over by 3 months).

More on the death of my DNS-323 in the upcoming blog post.

Hooted the Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB from Challenger at VivoCity for SGD$169 (member’s price) and I get to claim SGD$2.00 off for the carpark, so the final amount is SGD$167.

On top of that, for every SGD$50 spend at VivoCity shops, you can get to redeem SGD$1.00 worth of parking at VivoCity. So I got SGD$3.34 in carpark rebates by VivoCity and plus the SGD$2.00 given by Challenger, I got a total of SGD$5.34 in discount!

Box Front

Box Side

Box Back

Box Contents

Front View

Ports

Woke up at 10am today, left my house at 10.30am to Suntec City with my brother for the IT Show 2009. I decided to park at Marina Square instead of Suntec City to avoid jam at the carpark. Reach Marina Square before 11am, and still manage to eat McDonalds Breakfast.

After breakfast, immediately went to wait outside level 6 of the Suntec exhibition center. While waiting, there is this lady from MediaCorp Radio approaches us for interview. She talked to me in English first and then ask me whether I can do a Mandarin interview, I agreed since I got nothing to do. She ask some questions like what are you buying at the IT Show, how often you come to this type of fair and how much savings you can save. I am so handicapped in Mandarin. I have no idea how to translate laser, router, switch, wirless USB adapter to Mandarin!

Exactly at 12pm, the doors are opened and the security personnel got Zerg rushed! Went to the Ban Leong booth first as my brother wanted to take a look at Razor mouse as his is dying soon. As usual the promotion for Razer is nothing fantastic, I think you can get even cheaper outside for certain Razor products (eg: Lycosa Keyboard).

Went to the D-Link booth and asked if I buy above SGD$500 got discount, the sales guy said only if I pay cash he can give me 2% which I thought it is definitely not a good promotion at all. If I pay by credit card, I get free gifts as well as points! UOB is having some promotion, I think if you spend above a certain amount, they will give you some things free. I am aiming on the sure-win lucky dip if you spend more than SGD$850.

Damage at D-Link Booth

• D-Link DIR-855: SGD$299
• D-Link DGS-1008D: SGD$100
• D-Link DWA-160: SGD$119
• Total: SGD$518

After getting my networking stuffs, went to level 4 to Samsung booth to get my multifunction color laser printer. Saw Kelvin from Fuwell and Daniel’s Samsung colleague which I met at BlogOut! 2009. Fuwell is selling Samsung LCD Monitors whereas Harvey Norman is selling the Samsung printers. Samsung printers come with trolley but pushing the trolley though the crowd is no easy task! The printer box is quite bulky whereas the printer is quite small itself. The price for the CLX-3175N is still the same but this time instead of giving Abalone (during Chinese New Year promotion), they are giving a free black toner and you are entitled to buy additional toners at 20% off. Pretty good steal I would say.

Wanted to pay by UOB for my printer and toner but it got rejected! My mom literally max out every credit card when she is in Japan as well as for the down payment of the BMW. So end up paying with HSBC and there goes my sure-win lucky dip. Instead I got a SGD$5 Starbucks voucher for spending above SGD$350 for my UOB card. I kinda like the lucky draw form in IT Show 2009, every SGD$100 spend entitled you for one lucky draw form. I don’t really make an effort to get the lucky draw forms normally so I maybe a bit noob in this area. The lucky draw is carbonized, so you just have to write on 1 and it will be carbon copied to 4 other copies! Also the forms are short and sweet, just fill in your name, NRIC and contact number!

Damage at Samsung Booth

• Samsung CLX-3175N: SGD$698
• Samsung CLT-P409C: SGD$184 (Toner Value Pack)
• Total: SGD$882

After buying all the stuffs that I set out to buy, we went home to put the stuff before my brother send me to school for my Statistics tutorial at 3pm to 4pm.

D-Link Networking Products + Samsung 3-in-1 Multifunction Color Laser Printer And Toner

After my tutorial, went to the IT Show again with Kelvin and Hong Jun. Kelvin went there and got a ViewSonic 24″ monitor with built-in speakers and he helped his girlfriend to get an iPod Nano (Black). Saw Rayman : Raving Rabbids for Xbox 360 at the PlayCraft booth and I immediately bought it! Finally there is a “family” game on my Xbox 360 besides Bomberman to play with Li Xiang. I wished that Raving Rabbids 2 will also be out on Xbox 360, but I think that will not be the case.

Rayman : Raving Rabbids For Xbox 360

Damage at Playcraft Booth

• Rayman : Raving Rabbids (Xbox 360): SGD$49.90
• Total: SGD$49.90

Saw from Hardware Zone that the Ovation booth are selling Western Digital internal harddisk, so went there to get 1TB Western Digital Green Power for Li Xiang, but it is out of stock and the stock will be coming in at about 7pm.

Instead of waiting there till 7pm, the three of us when for dinner at Marina Square food court. Hong Jun, my family and I Just love the curry noodle there! Met up with my secondary school friends there as well. When they came, Hong Jun and Kelvin went home.

After dinner, I went to the IT Show the third time within the same day and immediately went to buy Li Xiang harddisk. This time it is so crowded that I could not even make a call out when I am in the hall! It seems that the base station has been overloaded either that of my iPhone 3G sucked.

Li Xiang’s Damage at Ovation Booth

• Western Digital Green Power (1TB): SGD$165
• Total: SGD$165

I injected SGD$1,449.90, Li Xiang injected SGD$165 and Kelvin injected about SGD$600+ into Singapore’s economy!