Sharing many features with its predecessors
in the WD My Cloud series of Network Access Storage (NAS) solutions, the WD My
Cloud EX2 gives us more than just a 2-bay option to the series. Its performance
and simplicity truly makes this NAS stands out from the crowd.
With a sleek book-like design more akin to
the original WD My Cloud rather than the more industrial-looking My Cloud EX4,
the My Cloud EX2 has two easy-to-access, tool-less, top-loading hard drive
bays, a gigabit LAN port, and two USB 3.0 ports at the back.
The
WD My Cloud EX2 has high performance, ultimate reliability and affordable
package
Although the My Cloud EX2 lacks a built-in
display, the features are not easily missed. This is because the EX2 has been
designed to be easy to setup and maintain. In our testing, we got the NAS up
and running out of the box within 10 minutes.
There
are two USB 3.0 ports accessible from the back of the unit
As the NAS did not come with an
installation disc, you will need to point your browser to the URL that is
stated on the starter guide, then download and run the installation program.
Just enter your particulars, make your selections and the installation will be
done in no time. From there, you should have access to four icons on your
desktop and full control over the NAS.
The WD My Cloud Dashboard remains one of
the most user-friendly, web-based NAS graphical interfaces we've seen.
Important information is laid out efficiently, the menus and features are easy
to understand and use, and above all it is fast.
The
WD My Cloud Dashboard is informative and easy to use
But, that's not all. Using the web
interface, you can also schedule the server to handle tasks on its own, such as
downloading files from various websites or torrent sources. There is also an
app store, where you can add more features and functionalities to the server.
It is also capable of connecting to Android
and iOS mobile devices. However, we find that the interaction between the NAS
and the portable device being more suited for file backups rather than content
streaming.
The My Cloud EX2 unit that we tested came
with two 2TB WD Red hard drives preloaded and set up in a RAID 1 configuration.
Although the NAS could support up to two 4TB hard drives, which would result in
a total of 8TB of storage in RAID 0 configurations, this setup is not
recommended as the RAID 0 configuration leads to high risk of data loss.
There
are three WD EX2 models (2TB, 6TB, or 8TB) which feature WD Red hard drive
What the WD My Cloud EX2 does best above
its predecessors and most other two-bay NAS solutions is its performance. In a
RAID 1 configuration on a Gigabit connection, the My Cloud EX2 is capable of
105MB/s read and 70MB/s write speeds.
With its relatively affordable price, ease
of use, and excellent performance, we would recommend the WD My Cloud EX2 as an
upgrade or as a new NAS in a network.
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Specifications
·
Expansion: 2x USB 3.0 ·
Network: 1x Gigabit Ethernet ·
Power Supply: 100-240 vac ·
Temperature: 5°C ~ 35°C ·
RAID Modes: JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1 ·
Dimensions: 171 x 155 x 99 mm ·
Net Weight: 1.6kg ·
Drive Bays: 2x 3.5-inch SATA 6 Gbps HDD / SSD
(Hot-swappable) ·
DRAM: 512 DDR3 RAM ·
CPU: Marvell ARMADA 370 (Mv6710) (Single Core
ARMv7 @ 1.2 GHz) ·
HDD Trays: 2 ·
Price: $356.84 (4TB)/ $449.20 (6TB) / $603.14 (8TB)
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