Warranty, support and Drobo+Synology issues

[pmcd]

I have a Drobo (2nd G) attached to a PPC Mini, WD My Book World Edition II on a gigabit net and a DNS-323 from D-Link on the gigabit network ( the Mini does not have gigabit capabilities). These stream off to a Mac Mini (Intel), Popcorn Hour C200 and an Asus O!Play Air. The D-Link product is "slow" and yields about 15 MBs r/w transfers (faster reading). The WD is faster (over 20 MBs) while the Drobo does ok at around 10MBs - it's much faster when connected directly). I am trying to make some sense of all of this and thought I would replace the DNS-323 with a Synology DS410j and not have the Drobo on the Mini. The Drobo would then hopefully be able to back up the Synology NAS via USB ( I don't mind formatting things ext3 or ntfs). The Synology unit would then become the main nas and hopefully backed up via the Drobo. Can this be done? I was also hoping for a 50% increase in transfer speeds over the DNS-323.

My main concern with Synology ( & Qnap) lies with support. If the unit fails then do they supply advanced replacements, is the shipping rma painless, etc... The Drobo is great that way as is the Western Digital from Canada. A 2 year warranty is meaningless if it results in a lot of downtime and requires more work shipping things back to the company than buying a new one. Does anyone know how the various NAS companies handle replacements from Canada?

Thank's...philip

 

[thiggins]

I can't speak for how any vendor handles replacement product. You need to check their warranty and service.

Most any NAS you pick is going to easily outperform the D-Link. Just check the NAS Charts. If you are concerned with service, you might lean toward NETGEAR ReadyNASes. While their customer service is by no means perfect, they do have a larger worldwide support network. And you can also purchase service plans.