D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure Review

Nemo - January 1, 2009
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Model Number	DNS-323
Hardware Version	B1
Firmware Version	1.05
External Interface	10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Port
Jumbo Frame Support	Up to 9000 bytes MTU
Additional Ports	USB print server port
HDD Size	2 x 3.5" SATA Drives (not included)
Drive Capacity	Up to 1TB drive
CPU	500 MHz Marvell 88F5181
Memory	64MB
Flash	8MB
IDE Controller	Marvell 88X7042
NIC	Marvell 88E1111
OS	Linux 2.6.12.6
File System	EXT2
HDD Configuration	Standard, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1
Power Supply	External adapter
Cooling	40mm fan
Dimensions	(W x D x H): 4” x 7.8” x 5” (101.6mm x 198.1mm x 127mm)
Weight	2.7 lbs (1.2 kg) - without drives
OS Requirement	Windows XP SP2/Vista
Regulatory Certification	FCC Class B, CE, VCCI, CSA
Warranty	1 year limited

Features:

Two Hard Drive Bays for 3.5” SATA Hard Drives of Any Capacity¹
Simplified Hard Drive Installation Process – No Tools Required
Four Hard Drive Configurations: Standard, JBOD (Linear), RAID 0, and RAID 1²
High Performance Gigabit Ethernet Connectivity (Up to 23/15MBps or 184/120Mbps Read/Write)³
Built-in FTP Server for File Access from the Internet⁴
Scheduled Downloads from Web or FTP Sites
Full or Incremental Backups
Real Time Backups With the Included Backup Software
Users and Groups Can Be Assigned to Folders with Read or Read/Write Permissions
Quotas For Users and Groups
Automatic E-Mail Notifications
Power Management for Conserving Energy and Extending Hard Drive Life
UPnP AV Server for Streaming Music, Photos, and Video to Compatible Media Players⁵
iTunes® Software will be able to automatically find and play music directly from the DNS-323
Built-in USB Print Server for printing from any PC on the Network
D-Link Easy Search Utility
Configurable by Web Browser
Supports Jumbo Frames
Enables you to change from Non-RAID to RAID 1 configuration without losing data on the hard drives.
Supports BitTorrent

1 Hard Drive(s) not included.
2 RAID 1 mirroring requires the use of 2 internal SATA drives.
3 Speed results will vary depending on the benchmark utility, hard drive configuration, and the network environment used for testing.
4 Note that use of an FTP Server to access files over the Internet does not provide for secure or encrypted transmissions.
5 D-Link cannot guarantee full compatibility or proper playback with all codecs. Playback capability depends on the codec support of the UPnP™ AV media player.

I'd like to point out something regarding the claim of support for "Drives of Any Capacity". After doing some research, I found that this statement was made before Seagate came out with the Barracuda 1.5TB drives. While some people report they have been able to use these drives in Standard mode, the DNS-323 does not support 1.5TB drives in a RAID array although a fix is supposed to be available in the next version of the firmware (1.06).