WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra NAS Review

WD’s My Cloud EX2 Ultra is the upgrade version of the My Cloud EX2 with some enhancements in Interface and sharing content. The device has LAN and USB both connection ports, so you can connect it to the network as well as directly connect with the PC using the USB port.

Design and Build

The material used to build My Cloud EX2 is matte black plastic wraps around the sides and front seamlessly. It possesses 2-bays for 2 x 3.5-inch hard drive bays with  hot-swap capability and tray-less design. The front of the body has 3 LED status lights for power/connectivity, bay 1, and bay 2.  The top and bottom are covered in a ventilated covering to disperse heat effortlessly. The backside features ports: power port, 2 USB ports, Ethernet port, reset button, and a lock slot.

Setting up 

Setting up the drive is very easy and straight forward. To insert or remove the drive you just need to the top ventilated cover by pushing the button resides on the top.  It has to trayless design for the drive that means you no need to screw or unscrew the drive before removing or inserting. To fasten the drive with the NAS box it has a metal strip with a screw type bolt. You simply need to slip the drives into the bay and lock it inside.

The review unit came with two 4TB drives.  For setup just plug the My cloud over the network and point your browser to mycloud.com/setup and it will find out the IP address on which your device has been configured. By default, there is no password and the username is an admin.  You can set a password later for  protecting your data from others.

My Cloud EX2 Apps and features

WD also offers mobile apps for Android and iOS devices; also you can access it from the desktop as well for both Windows and iOS by using the browser. The app and software can be configured easily with the same user credentials. You can access the drive using the app or software if connected to the Internet. You can view, copy and save files while using mobile and desktop apps. Further for  one logical group or data safety it also supports RAID 0, RAID 1, JBOG and spanning.

WD added advanced features to the drive such as support for DLNA/UPnP  and iTunes devices for streaming media through an Internet connection for remote access.

For sharing the NAS or particular folder to group of peoples you can use the Share option. Create a profile and you are ready to go.

Performance: WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra is equipped with a CPU:Marvell ARMADA385 1.3 GHz dual-core and Gigabit Ethernet that offers stunning transfer speed and remote access. To check the real world performance of the NAS drive, we transferred the assorted data of 1.4 GB. When it came to performance, this NAS turned in excellent results, with a read speed of 114MB/sec and 115MB/sec for writing using the testbed (Intel Core i7 CPU, 4X2 Kingston DDR3 RAM, Windows 7 OS and Cooler Master 350 Plus) on our local network. It is very impressive speed and a good option for users who are looking to expand their data storage, this is an economical choice.

We were able to add users via the PC app and users were able to access the device without any delay. Transferring the data from one device to another was quite easy. We were able to stream videos and edit documents effortlessly within a group of four. Even using the smartphone to access the device was a seamless experience. If you are looking for some solid entry-level NAS covering all you basic needs such as file serving and streaming media, the WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra NAS is for you. It’s affordable and fast along beautiful and intuitive. It lacks some advanced features offers by some 2-bay solutions at slightly higher price.