WD MyCloud EX2 Ultra 8TB NAS Review

QNAP and Synology have always been on my radar when it comes to pre-built desktop NAS devices. For more than a decade now they’ve been developing some of the best home and business network attached devices money can buy and today I consider them both pretty unbeatable.

Despite being considered industry leaders and having been in business for well over a decade now, neither Synology nor QNAP are well known brands – they certainly aren’t mainstream, even in the tech world.

One of the problems for adoption has been retail price. A basic two-bay model with decent performance for a home user is going to cost around $300 in diskless form. Add in a couple of hard drives and the overall expense is akin to that of an entry level PC, though this is essentially what today’s NAS devices are.

A more familiar name threw its hat into the ring around four years ago when Western Digital began developing its Red series hard drives for 24/7 operation in NAS servers. Today they have not one but two drive series targeting NAS devices: the Red and the Red Pro. Not stopping there, in 2013 WD launched its own range of desktop NAS boxes that hail from the company’s My Cloud range. The devices themselves look nice and they are impressive enough from a pricing standpoint.

The base model My Cloud 2TB costs just $130 or $230 for the 6TB model, not to mention the My Cloud Mirror 4TB for $350. None of these WD units have hot-swap bays and although they come in a number of pre-configured capacities, a diskless version doesn’t exist – or didn’t, anyway.

In 2014 the company released its My Cloud Expert series with the EX2 and EX4, both of which can be bought with or without disks, diskless costing $155 and $230 – again, both are affordable.

Frankly, since then the WD NAS lineup has become a little confusing as it now features a large range of products that all have similar names and features.

Today we’ll be looking at the newly released My Cloud EX2 Ultra, which is essentially a more consumer-friendly version of the existing My Cloud EX2100.

WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra

Like the previous EX2 model, the new EX2 Ultra can be purchased in a range of capacities as well as without drives. We have the 8TB model on hand but it’s possible to purchase this device in 4TB and 12TB configurations as well. For those wondering, WD uses its Red series drives and each pre-configured model comes with two hard drives of equal size, meaning our review unit includes a pair of 4TB drives.

The device measures 165mm tall, 99mm wide and 157mm deep, which is extremely compact even for a two-bay device. Empty, it weighs just 0.8kg, though expect that to be as much as 2.4kg once loaded with a pair of 6TB drives.

The device is looks itself look quite sleek , with a curved one – piece grey front panel that wrap around either side . embed in the front panel towards the bottom is a black strip which feature the WD logo , product name and more importantly some lead indicator that show drive status / activity and a power button . If all is well these LEDs is light will light up blue but if there is a problem such as a drive failure they will turn red .

The top and bottom are cover by black ventilate plastic panel . internally the drive are mount vertically and at first there appear to be no active fan , which is surprising as the wd red drive can get quite hot . As it turn out there is a small fan mount in the front of the device , though I am not sure how effective it is . The airflow is mostly restrict and despite make quite a bit of noise , I had a hard time detect any airflow at all .

The slotted vent panel design continue around back , though there are n’t actually any vent , it is ‘s ‘s just a pattern . What ‘s important here is the small I / o panel is is which feature a single gigabit Ethernet connector , two usb 3.0 port and a 12v DC input . This is is is the beginning and end of the EX2 Ultra ‘s connectivity as there are n’t any front panel connector .

On top of the unit built into the ventilated panel is a thumb-sized indentation that looks a bit like a power button you might find on a PC case, the irony being that the EX2 Ultra doesn’t actually have a power button. This button releases a catch which allows the top panel to open on a hinge.

Inside are a pair of 2.5″ drive bays and they’re occupied by the two Red 4TB hard drives which are locked in place by a small metal bracket that can be removed using a single tool-less screw.

The drive slot into place using a pair of custom screw which are attach to the rear mount hole in the drive and one of them feature a pull tab for removal .

Between the hard drive sit the gut of the EX2 Ultra which include a Marvell Armada 385 1.3 GHz dual – core soc and 1 gb of DDR3 memory .

The Armada 385 is an SoC that we’re familiar with as it has been used extensively by Synology, most recently by the DS216, a unit we’ll mention again shortly as it’s a direct competitor to the diskless My Cloud EX2 Ultra.

For now, there isn’t much else to say about the physical design of the My Cloud EX2 Ultra, so let’s move on to the software side of things.