DSM-G600, DNS-3xx and NSA-220 Hack Forum

Although it may seem counterproductive, I'm interested in turning my three DNS-343 units and my one DNS-323 unit into Direct-Attached Storage (DAS) devices. I'm wondering if this is possible.

The units work OK as NAS devices and I'm able to access them - with some patience. I am converted to MAC OS X and I continue to see access speed issues. This is mainly with initial connection and browsing in Finder - it can take well over a minute to actually see the contents of a directory with a modest number of files, say, close to a 1000. Unfortunately, this never gets any better, at least not session-to-session. This is not related to drives spinning up after going to sleep for energy-saving purposes.

To gain improvement for my mass storage performance, I will probably implement Snow Leopard Server on a Mac Mini and then connect DAS devices to that. Ideally, I would re-use the DNS devices for this purpose rather than buying something like Promise SmartStor DS4600s to replace the DNS units. Just don't know if it can be done - I'm thinking not, since I don't believe the USB port would support connecting to a server.

TIA for any thoughts or advice.

Thanks,
Gary