D-Link DNS-320 2-Bay Network Attached Storage (NAS) $89.99 w/FS @newegg.com

i would cough up the extra $50-100 for an entry level synology NAS (ds212j).. i had the dlink and it was basically a glorified external enclosure... poor performance and lacking in features.. i have the ds212+ now and the hybrid raid function is worth the extra alone... its like a drobo where you can upgrade the capacity one drive at a time without rebuilding a new RAID each time

from my personal experience upgrading from a $90 dlink to a $150 synology ds212j

- dlink got about 13MB/s max transfer speed over gigabit
- synology gets about 30MB/s on average
- synology hybrid RAID supports different capacity RAID drives and single drive upgrading, with the Dlink you have to transfer all your data to a backup drive and transfer back when you upgrade... takes days
- dlink software is very basic and lacking in features
- synology DSM is like a full linux suite and supports 3rd party plugins
- one issue i had with the dlink software was that it didnt support magnet links for the bit torrent client, the synlogy software supports this and you can even load your own client like transmission
- some other cool plugins i use on the synology NAS (not supported on the dlink) is servio which supports real time 1080p transcoding (mkv, h263) to my PS3, also has official logitech squeezebox server app, advanced DVR functions to use with my wireless foscams, etc...
- synology NAS also supports real time AES data encoding (software on ds212j) ... i keep a separate partition thats encrypted for personal files.. on the dlink its pretty much avaiable if you have access to the machines

great beginner NAS, good price

The DNS-320 also does the fun-plug mod (google D-Link DNS-320 ffp) so you can turn it into a nice little headless Linux box , though again the 128GB of RAM will cramp you a bit if you try to do too much.

Pretty sure you meant 128mb

If you can deal with the whining fan noise, it's a good price. That's the reason why I sold mine on CL.

Couldn't agreed with you guys more. I have the D-Link NDS-321 and DNS-323, both are turtle slow with basic functions and buggy software. 323 is a tad faster however. Just bought a dj212+ and the difference is night and day. Write is about 40-50MB/s. Read is 70-90MB/s. The Dinks can only dish out around 10MB/s read. Once I have some time to transfer all my stuff from both of the turtle NAS, I'm getting rid of them both and buy one more of the slower ds212j as the dj212+ does cost quite a bit more.

I have a DNS-321 and I have heard that the system will corrupt files during the copy process. have you noticed this? I have a lot of stuff backed up and mirrored on a couple 2tb WD Green drives, and I don't mind the speed but I have been worried about using it due to what I had heard about the data getting corrupted. Any experience with that?

For the two years I've been using the 321, I have not experienced corrupt data while copying (knock on wood). I too have two WD 2TB Green drives, but I have the pre 4k sector drives (WD20EADS) and I bet those people with corrupt data have the post 4k drives (WD20EARS) which could contribute to the problem. When I bought the drives, I specifically paid more for the older pre-4k drives because I know these D-Links may run into problems with newer drives and they have long stopped upping the firmware.

Darn, I have the Post 4k Drives.. I guess I need to buy a new NAS then...

I would if I were you. Well, I did, the 212+ that cost 4x the money. After only a couple days usage, I say it's well worth it. If you don't need 50-100MB/s, you can get the 212j or 213j for half the price of the 212+.

Can I just get a raid card, install it in my machine along with the 2 drives and have it show up under My Computer as another single drive where data is mirrored?

I bought this about 1.5 yrs ago from a Staples deal for ~ $70. With the provided esata multiplier card I get lower read/write speeds ~ 12 MB/s. When I use it with my newly built AsRock esata port on the motherboard, I was able to get ~ 25-33 MB/sec. Overall, I am okay with this as a remote storage device but I'd not buy it again. Over the years I have debated on how I can expand my storage and finally concluded that building a HTPC/server is much better financial bargain than buying an expensive raid/NAS box for similar kind of features.

Dammit! I don't know what happened, I must have missed a decimal point or something...