Mike has posted an informative thread regarding the D-Link DNS-321 NAS here:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/Networking/D-Link-321-NAS-and-the-Live-review/td-p/21327
Also, if you purchase it today (Friday 30th April), you’ll be eligible for a $20 rebate, making it an even more attractive option.
I still haven’t pulled the trigger on a NAS yet (despite starting the thread 3 months ago!). Managed to stabilise my network somewhat and the WD TV Live connects fine 99% of the time (gets screwy if I turn the Live on before the share PC, which is the rare 1%).
My search continues and I’ve been considering running a 2x1TB NAS in RAID 0 for performance and hooking up a 2TB external USB drive to synch up / act as an effective mirror.
The following NAS drives would seem to support that:
- Synology DS 210j (~ $230, diskless)
- ZyXEL NSA 220 Plus (~ $250, diskless)
- QNAP TS 210 (~ $280, diskless)
- Netgear ReadyNAS Duo (~ $247 after rebate, inc. 1 x 1TB)
The WD My Book World Edition II with 2x1TB drives is excellent value at $240 but doesn’t support RAID 0 unfortunately (nor am I sure it would sync to an external drive).
Of the above, the Synology seems a compelling choice given their history (need to add another $160+ for a pair of 1TB drives though). But the ReadyNAS Duo is best value. Just need to buy a matching 1TB drive and I can set it up as RAID 0. Hmmmm.
The 2nd route would be to forget RAID 0 altogether and get a single drive NAS with a 2TB drive but again the ability to sync to an external 2TB USB drive. With that in mind I have the following options:
- Synology DS110j (~ $150, diskless)
- ZyXEL NSA 210 (~ $72 with rebate, diskless)
- QNAP TS 110 (~ $172, diskless)
Well, it goes without saying that the ZyXEL NSA210 is extremely tempting. I actually really liked the look of this way back in January when cjeman recommended it (hence Kudos-ing him). The only thing stopping me was that by nature I’m a procrastinator and some comments regarding the media server software placed doubts in my mind.
But for $72 I think I could live with it purely as a network share box! The only other niggle was speed, as most reviews comment on it being sluggish compared to other (admittedly more expensive) units.
Probably pair it up with a 2TB WD Caviar Green WD20EARS for ~$140, making the total around $233 inc. tax.
QNAP at $100 more is completely out of the running.
The Synology is still tempting due to excellent benchmark results and its famously awesome interface but with a 2TB drive comes in at $320 inc. tax. I think I could justify that…
It goes without saying that I’m still undecided but hopefully this update makes others aware of the options available. :)
