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Chat => Entertainment & Technology => Topic started by: addictweb on February 16, 2011, 16:26:03 PM

Title: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: addictweb on February 16, 2011, 16:26:03 PM
Just ordered one of these. (http://www.dabs.com/products/d-link-2-bay-nas-network-storage-enclosure-49GV.html)

D-Link DNS 323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure - NAS server
(http://www.shop.bt.com/images/Product/UNI2/DigitalContent/49/49GV_5DD7420F-59CF-4AC7-8C15-4C6B61289E73_large.jpg)

- Gigabit
- 2 SATA bays with no capacity cap
- Can run linux
- RAID
- FTP / Bittorrent / print server etc
- Power saving features
- Supports fun_plug, Twonky etc Huge community (http://wiki.dns323.info/)

Slightly cheaper at ebuyer (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124390) and BT Shop (http://www.shop.bt.com/products/d-link-2-bay-nas-network-storage-enclosure-49GV.html).

Thought it might suit some of you as well, especially with all this talk of a tek off-site backup network.  :cheers:
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: soopahfly on February 16, 2011, 17:10:34 PM
I'm so tempted...

Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: soopahfly on February 16, 2011, 17:32:08 PM
Ordered, along with a single 1.5Tb hdd.
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: Clock'd 0Ne on February 16, 2011, 17:45:31 PM
Damn you, I don't even need one but that's cheap!

Someone on DVD Forums is selling 6x Seagate Barracuda 500GB RAID Hard Drives for £120 + del too... Bloody storage!
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: XEntity on February 16, 2011, 18:26:27 PM
Quote from: sexytw on February 16, 2011, 16:26:03 PM
Just ordered one of these. (http://www.dabs.com/products/d-link-2-bay-nas-network-storage-enclosure-49GV.html)

D-Link DNS 323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure - NAS server


- Gigabit
- 2 SATA bays with no capacity cap
- Can run linux
- RAID
- FTP / Bittorrent / print server etc
- Power saving features
- Supports fun_plug, Twonky etc Huge community (http://wiki.dns323.info/)

Slightly cheaper at ebuyer (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124390) and BT Shop (http://www.shop.bt.com/products/d-link-2-bay-nas-network-storage-enclosure-49GV.html).

Thought it might suit some of you as well, especially with all this talk of a tek off-site backup network.  :cheers:

Come on... you could have at least credited Hot UK Deals for this one :P

(Just saw it up one there, and out of stock now, otherwise I would have got one too!)
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: soopahfly on February 16, 2011, 18:34:25 PM
I'm going to transfer the recently purchased 1.5tb drive into this unit with the new one, install twonky and transfer my music/movies/tv collection on to it.
Retire one one of  my Linkstations, as I'm having to hang two USB drives off the back of it.
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: XEntity on February 16, 2011, 18:36:51 PM
Sod it... just ordered one from eBuyer for an additional tenner!

Edit: Main reason for purchase is so I can do my automated backup without having to turn on my media centre remotely, as I've given up getting the remote shutdown working on Win 7! Will probably run a 2GB Mirror, just need to investigate drives now :)
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: Eggtastico on February 16, 2011, 22:30:33 PM
nice...
I really want a QNAP
they support lots of stuff
http://qnap.com/QPKG.asp
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: Clock'd 0Ne on February 16, 2011, 22:50:28 PM
I keep eyeing up the QNAP and Synology kit, especially the expandable bay units Synology offer. the long term prospects for RAID and dropping in HDDs every so often is very appealing.
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: addictweb on February 17, 2011, 09:32:57 AM
Quote from: XEntity on February 16, 2011, 18:26:27 PM
Quote from: sexytw on February 16, 2011, 16:26:03 PM
snip

Come on... you could have at least credited Hot UK Deals for this one :P

(Just saw it up one there, and out of stock now, otherwise I would have got one too!)

Haha, yep, I really should have.

I havent decided what drives to put in mine yet, wether to mirror or just go for 4tb. Also not sure i have the cash for 2 x 2tb at the moment.

Decisions decisions. I'll be looking to get the USB port unlocked as a priority so I can run a hub off it with printer and a few other drives. Lots of hacking fun to be had!
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: XEntity on February 17, 2011, 09:59:05 AM
Yep, I saw something that said that it has a 1.5TB limit, but didn't fully investigate yet, but think I'm going to run 2 x 1TB (mirrored) as wont need the extra space for ages..

Maybe we need a seperate guide thread for hacking this as well ;)
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: matt5cott on February 17, 2011, 10:10:35 AM
Nice price but I don't get all these pretty box NAS solutions, you could probably get a full atom system for under £100 and make your own. Put one HDD in it, and one in your normal desktop, no single point of failure.

Redundancy without RAID and all that.
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: XEntity on February 17, 2011, 11:08:06 AM
Raid would give you real time redundancy however, and for £50/60 + HDD you can get a  dual disk NAS, which I expect will consumer less power and easier to manage?

Not saying Atom isn't the way forwards, but everything taken in to account it's not cheaper to purchase or run and in most atoms you will be limited to 2.5" HDs, although you could potentially get more flexibility (but really only if you are going to use the extra features that are not possible with a £50 piece of hardware).

I had considered an Atom build, but wanted the raid really :)
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: matt5cott on February 17, 2011, 11:25:44 AM
Quote from: XEntity on February 17, 2011, 11:08:06 AM
Raid would give you real time redundancy however, and for £50/60 + HDD you can get a  dual disk NAS, which I expect will consumer less power and easier to manage?

Not saying Atom isn't the way forwards, but everything taken in to account it's not cheaper to purchase or run and in most atoms you will be limited to 2.5" HDs, although you could potentially get more flexibility (but really only if you are going to use the extra features that are not possible with a £50 piece of hardware).

I had considered an Atom build, but wanted the raid really :)

Well you can chuck an atom board in anything tbh, sure off the shelf solutions exist but you don't have to buy them.

I hear you on the RAID though as I guess it's nice to have, I just think of it as a bit over-rated sometimes and not actually necessary, I'd rather have the 2nd mirror HDD in a completely different place.


eg. What happens if your NAS box got fried? it is without a doubt a single point of failure, so then you could backup the NAS, but what's the point in having the NAS with RAID if that's the case :-\
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: XEntity on February 17, 2011, 11:37:41 AM
I see your point as well, but the chance of the NAS box having such a critical failure that it would take out the HDs as well would be relatively slim.

My setup personally will be over protective, so will be running the RAID and also a copy on a seperate machine (of some of the more important data, and potentially an off site back up as well, but looking in to software etc for that, as if I lose some of the stuff I'm backing up I could lose some very important stuff to me.

Some of the stuff on the NAS box however will only exist on the NAS, so the RAID will still be important.

I guess it's just down to what you are storing, and how valuable the data actually is. Obviously you don't even need to use the raid just run two disk for extra space and at £50 for the unit you can't really complain for something that will work out of the box and then not have to touch.

£50 would potentially only cover the cost of a windows licence bare in mind, although appreciate there are other options like freeNAS, but then you lose the benefits of other functionality.
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: Clock'd 0Ne on February 17, 2011, 12:32:01 PM
That's why I bought two of the Buffalo NAS systems and have one backing up from the other. Three totally independant redundant data copies; the only thing I'm missing is an offsite!
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: addictweb on February 18, 2011, 17:04:20 PM
Got mine today - really impressed by the build quality! Metal housing, good weight and super easy drive installation.

Dont have drives yet (waiting for payday) so cant do any tinkering. My priorities once i have drive are:

1 install fun_plug
2 get a good bittorrent client up and running
3 get external HD and USB hub support working

Cant wait
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: soopahfly on February 19, 2011, 20:37:47 PM
Dabs are expecting stock Monday/Tuesday.

Hope I get it all before I go away :D
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: Eggtastico on February 19, 2011, 21:02:13 PM
Quote from: soopahfly on February 19, 2011, 20:37:47 PM
Dabs are expecting stock Monday/Tuesday.

Hope I get it all before I go away :D

you should look at the qnaps
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: soopahfly on February 19, 2011, 21:21:34 PM
Then I should look at the price.
Then look back at the alternatives.
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: Eggtastico on February 19, 2011, 21:58:18 PM
Quote from: soopahfly on February 19, 2011, 21:21:34 PM
Then I should look at the price.
Then look back at the alternatives.

£120 for the cheapest, but for me they do a whole lot me - each to their own.
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: soopahfly on February 19, 2011, 22:49:55 PM
Yeah, I know they are better but I've got a budget. :(
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: soopahfly on February 22, 2011, 16:51:10 PM
Got fed up of dabs pissing about with hdd stock so I changed to a 2tb.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: XEntity on February 24, 2011, 23:39:55 PM
Just to let you know eBuyer have it up for £50

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/d-link-dns-323-2-bay-network-storage-enclosure-49-98-with-free-shipping-ebuyer/884541 (http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/d-link-dns-323-2-bay-network-storage-enclosure-49-98-with-free-shipping-ebuyer/884541)
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: Clock'd 0Ne on February 24, 2011, 23:47:47 PM
Damnit I don't need one but I'm really starting to want one  :-X
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: addictweb on February 25, 2011, 10:48:44 AM
I got my drives today, need to flash them but hopefully i'll put a photo guide to getting the basics running up over the weekend.

(Assuming Virgin fit my internet as they have promised to do)
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: XEntity on February 25, 2011, 18:30:19 PM
Quote from: sexytw on February 25, 2011, 10:48:44 AM
I got my drives today, need to flash them but hopefully i'll put a photo guide to getting the basics running up over the weekend.

(Assuming Virgin fit my internet as they have promised to do)

I'm in the same situation, I expect you have exactly the same setup as me then :P (2x Sammy 2TB F4s )
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: addictweb on February 27, 2011, 17:27:13 PM
Drives flashed (see guide (http://www.tekforums.net/computing-internet/how-to-update-firmware-(flash)-samsung-2tb-hd204ui/)).

Im pleased to find out you dont have to RAID the entire capacity of the disk. Ive chosen to RAID 1 (mirror) 600Gb for my important data and leave the rest as linear JBOD for media.

Setup has been pretty trivial so far, pop the drives in, hit the IP, enter Admin with no password to login, then just follow the wizard.

EDIT: All data now transfered, its running like a dream. Only got about 10mb/s while transfering but Im not sure if that was the NAS or my network / netbook / USB drive
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: soopahfly on March 07, 2011, 19:12:05 PM
Just updated the FW on my 2TB Drive, in the process of formatting.

Will be transferring stuff over to this from my other NAS (which I know it gets 20mb/s +) so I'll see if I can confirm your speeds.
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: XEntity on March 07, 2011, 19:24:57 PM
It will also depend on if you format to EXT2 or 3, 3 is more reliable but will run slower...

...I'm getting 12.5MB/s read, and 10.5MB/s write using EXT3 over Wireless N..

Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: knighty on March 07, 2011, 21:14:35 PM
have you tried ftp'ing into it to transfer files like that ?

I've always noticed a massive difference that way (gigabyte network)

jumps from 20meg/sec to 90meg/sec etc...

(my different nas to yours..... but iirc nige noticed the same thing with his nas... (which is different again ))
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: XEntity on March 07, 2011, 21:38:27 PM
FTP seems pretty much the same over N, will give speed another go a bit later from my media PC as that's hard wired to gigabit, Getting about 30% utilisation over wireless (300Mbit) though and get much more when sending files to the PC..


Edit: What NAS are you guys using that's giving the higher bandwidth?

Edit 2: Over hard wired connection getting pretty much the same, and maybe an extra meg read
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: knighty on March 07, 2011, 22:26:52 PM
I was using NASlite running on an old PC :)

(don't bother with it any more, added a couple of tb drives to my main pc and deleted a load of old stuff... it was good when I used it tho!)
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: Clock'd 0Ne on March 22, 2011, 17:21:08 PM
Dabs (http://www.dabs.com/products/d-link-2-bay-nas-network-storage-enclosure-49GV.html) are now doing these for £54.99 if anyone is still interested
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: soopahfly on March 22, 2011, 21:29:39 PM
If Xentity won't sell his to me, I might grab a second from Dabs
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: XEntity on March 22, 2011, 23:08:48 PM
Quote from: soopahfly on March 22, 2011, 21:29:39 PM
If Xentity won't sell his to me, I might grab a second from Dabs

Go for it mate, I my bro is momst likely grabbing mine
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: soopahfly on March 23, 2011, 00:21:14 AM
Quote from: XEntity on March 22, 2011, 23:08:48 PM
Quote from: soopahfly on March 22, 2011, 21:29:39 PM
If Xentity won't sell his to me, I might grab a second from Dabs

Go for it mate, I my bro is momst likely grabbing mine

Cool, I will then :)
Blows my Linkstation Army out the water for performance.
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: soopahfly on March 24, 2011, 09:44:32 AM
Missed it :(

They've gone back up to £355.
Title: Re: Just bought a 2-bay DLink NAS - £50
Post by: soopahfly on April 26, 2011, 17:47:20 PM
(http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb/GamesRadar/us/Games/G/Ghostbusters/Everything%20Else/March%20preview/WeGotOne--article_image.jpg)
WE GOT ONE!!!!11111

Just found one for sale at £65.  So I'll have two in total.