Wd Diskless My Cloud Ex2 Ultra Network Attached Storage Review

Verdict

Pros

• Quick file transfers
• Easy to fix up and use

Cons

• Not many tertiary-party apps
• Ownership with disks doesn't become y'all a discount

Primal Specifications

• Review Cost: £430.00
• Two 3.5-inch bays
• Dual-core one.3GHz processor, 1GB RAM
• 2x USB3 ports
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Toll for empty enclosure: £140

What is the WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra?

The My Cloud EX2 Ultra is a NAS with room for two 3.5in difficult disks, priced to compete with cheaper models from rivals such as Synology. It has strong file transfer operation, and is particularly like shooting fish in a barrel to set up and configure to share files across your home network and the net.

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WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra – Specifications and design

The NAS is bachelor both with and without difficult disks. The diskless version is £140, with 4TB (£260), 8TB (£430) and 12TB (£530) editions too available. I was sent the 8TB version to review, which is fitted with two 4TB WD Cherry hard disks.

Because these disks would toll around £290 to purchase separately from the NAS, in that location's no real cost benefit to buying a version with preinstalled disks.

Bear in mind that a sensible arroyo with a two-disk NAS is to gear up information technology upwards as a RAID ane array, where data is mirrored across both disks. This means that if one disk fails you lot won't lose any data, simply yous will lose half your bachelor storage capacity.

The My Cloud EX2 Ultra is a smart-looking NAS with a clean pattern. At that place's nothing on the front, and 2 USB3 and an Ethernet port on the rear. I would have liked a power button, then I didn't e'er take to shut information technology downwards from the web interface.

If you do need to fit or supplant disks, it'due south an piece of cake process. A quick push button press opens the top of the NAS, you unscrew a bracket and use a plastic tab to pull the disk out. It's not quite equally easy a job as with Synology's models, but there's so little in it to make any real divergence.

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WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra – Setup

Setup is simple. Once the NAS is plugged into your network and switched on, you lot become to mycloud.com/setup to discover it on your network. The setup application then walks you through choosing a password for the administrator interface and setting upward My Cloud accounts, which lets the NAS' users access its contents from exterior your network.

Each of the EX2 Ultra's users volition demand to sign upwardly for their ain My Cloud business relationship, which will let them access any shares on the bulldoze to which they have permission. This was the only part of the setup procedure that gave me trouble, throwing up a couple of 'unspecified errors' when I tried to create multiple My Cloud accounts. This wasn't really a problem, every bit it's elementary to set upwardly these accounts later in the NAS spider web interface.

WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra – Operating system

If y'all're used to using NAS devices from manufacturers such equally Synology or QNAP, you lot may find the EX2 Ultra's interface a fleck of a shock. Instead of something that looks similar a desktop operating organization with windows and icons, you get tabs and sidebars, a chip similar a router interface – if at least a especially clear and friendly one.

The Domicile screen gives you an overview of the NAS's status, and usefully splits used storage into categories – Movies, Photos, Music and Other – so you can see if your holiday snaps are hogging all the space. The Users section makes it like shooting fish in a barrel to add together users, configure passwords, set who can admission which network shares and assign disk space quotas, while creating and configuring network shares couldn't be easier with the options in the Shares section. Plug in a USB disk (Fatty, FAT32, NTFS, HFS or EXT2/three/4) and information technology pops up equally a network share, without you lot having to do a thing.

When it comes to this kind of basic administration, this is the easiest NAS I've used. It'southward far simpler to organise your network shares and assign user privileges than on Synology'south operating organisation, for example. There was ane section where I would have liked some more than information, however. Out of the box my examination NAS had its two drives configured as dissever volumes, but it'due south more sensible to set them every bit RAID 1. This mirrors your data across both drives, so if one dies yous won't lose any information. The interface gives you this information, which is useful.

However, what it doesn't tell you is that switching to RAID 0 or Spanning is a risky business. These drive modes tin can requite you lot a speed heave (RAID 0) or brand both disks announced equally a single big bulldoze (Spanning), but if one disk breaks you volition lose all your data. I would have liked this gamble to be spelt out in enormous messages during setup.

WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra – Apps

The EX2 Ultra may be seriously like shooting fish in a barrel to use, simply this comes at the expense of flexibility. Synology and QNAP NAS drives are awash with apps, from mail servers to personal wikis to CCTV, and have software stores to help you add together more functions. The EX2 Ultra is much more than limited, with Barebones apps for downloading files from HTTP and FTP servers and over Bittorrent, and a very simple file viewer.

These work well plenty, but don't offer the aforementioned desktop application experience you'll notice with Synology'due south powerful apps. In that location is a button to add 3rd-party apps, simply the selection is pretty minimal; simply 16 apps listed, compared to over 100 for Synology'due south devices.

One characteristic that's particularly piece of cake to fix up is DLNA/UPnP media streaming. Only plough on media streaming in Settings, then select any of your shares and flick the media streaming switch, and y'all'll exist able to admission media from that share from a UPnP customer on your network. I had no problem streaming videos to Windows Media Actor and VLC on Android, or photos to BubbleUPnP. Music files also worked fine, with the usual UPnP limitation that songs with more than than one artist (such as Get Lucky by Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams) will be listed separately from the balance of the album. To fix this I ordinarily need to remove all featured artists from songs.

WD My Deject EX2 Ultra – My Cloud

This isn't the first NAS I've seen to let you lot access your files from outside your abode network, but it's certainly the easiest to prepare. Each user on the NAS tin can have their own My Cloud username and password, and once this is fix (picket out for the initial setup email catastrophe up in Junk mail) you tin log in at mycloud.com and browse and download everything stored on the NAS. You lot tin can upload files, too.

This all works fine, as long as you're aware of the service's limitations. There are no fancy extras, such as music streaming, and you can't select multiple files to download at in one case – you lot have to download the parent folder as a zip file. The photo viewer works well, giving you a thumbnail view and a preview that you can flick through with your keyboard'due south arrow keys. Information technology's a perfectly serviceable way to access your home files from anywhere. You can become more features, such every bit music streaming, by installing the WD My Cloud app for Windows.

WD too provides the My Cloud app for Android and iOS. This gives you a clean interface to browse folders on your NAS, or you can select Photos, Music or Videos to view only files of that blazon. Music files will stream over the internet, as volition video files if you have a compatible video histrion installed (such every bit VLC). The app will too upload photos and videos direct to the NAS. It'southward simple and does the job.

WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra – Performance

This isn't an expensive NAS, simply information technology is a quick 1. In RAID i mode, a batch of sub-100K documents was written at 12.8MB/s and read at nineteen.7MB/s, while a selection of two-5MB photos was written at 53.3MB/due south and read at 57.9MB/s. Finally, a 570MB film was written at 98.6MB/southward and read at 107.4MB/s. These speeds put the NAS within x% of the Synology DS216, which costs significantly more.

Should I buy the WD My Deject EX2 Ultra?

If you need a NAS simply to share files on your home network and over the cyberspace, the WD My Deject EX2 Ultra is hard to beat. I loved its clean interface and the fact that it was so easy to fix up users, shares and internet access. Its app ecosystem is nowhere near as developed equally Synology or QNAP'south, however, then if you want your NAS to act more like a mini computer than a simple network hard disk, the EX2 Ultra won't be for you lot.

Related: Synology DiskStation DS216 review

Verdict

An piece of cake-to-use NAS that's great for high-speed file transfers and sharing data over the internet, but those after powerful extra features should wait elsewhere.

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