We are back in the leader of the cutting edge storage. Thank you so much Western Digital Philippines for the opportunity to review the WD My Cloud EX2 and the WD Red. For few years now I personally switched to Western digital due to its support and turn around replacement that is real lightning fast. Not to mention that we are going to have a detailed review on their Cloud Devices, combining the bare Cloud NAS Appliance from Western Digital and its beefy NAS hard drive. You can check out our unboxing of the WD Red here.
As we go along the whole review, Western Digital Philippines sent us initially WD Red NAS hard drive since the my old NAS Appliance doesn't support due to its firmware limitations and we will be benchmarking My Cloud EX2 along side attaching these two beefy hard drives. For starters, we will be showing you guys from start to finish on how to rig the My Cloud EX2.
Pre-Rigged My Cloud EX2 and Two WD NAS Hard Drives
Under the Hood
Now we go to the assembly part. Since the hard drive is literally bare we are going to show you on how to place the drives carefully.
Assembly Time!
In this photo we are detaching the screw from the enclosure. The purpose of the cover mount is literally to secure and hold the hard drive in place.
Screw Procedure
Grab your Philips head screw driver to attach the pull mount assembly for the My Cloud NAS EX2. You better do it carefully guys since it's made of plastic it might tear or getting damage during the mount process if it's done in a wrong way.
Mount EX2
In this photo the hard drive is carefully mounted on the My Cloud EX2. Please take note that if you see the hard drive interface where SATA Data port and SATA power port, align them correctly or else you may end up wrecking the hard drive in an instant.
Installation Complete! Let's Rock!
I created and prepared a Windows 7 Virtual Machine for testing purposes in order to understand the Network Attached Storage in a Windows Environment since I'm using Mac OS X 10.9.x. By Default you can type in http://mycloud or the Assigned IP Address. You can check it out on your router. (Note: Router used on this testing / demonstration is a megabit router not a gigabit router)
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User: admin
Password: none
Note: IP Address may vary on your current network configuration.
In this review i will be configuring RAID 1 for testing / demonstration purposes currently the Network Attached Storage is configured to RAID 1. Since it's a common practice for System Administrators across Operating System Platform Standards. Implementing Stock Firmware for out of the box experience. You may check out Western Digital My Cloud EX2 NAS Unboxing & Detailed Review! (Part 1) to check the details of RAID 1.
Now we have successfully created a RAID 1 configuration on the Western Digital My Cloud EX2 now we start benchmark on the device. Initiating NASPT (Network Attached Storage Performance Tool) standardized to ensure the data comparison performance.
DATA COMPARISON
Based on the benchmark data, Western Digital Red NAS is a considerably beefed hardware, Attached on EX 2 is impressive with it's functionality, features and build quality. With the up-to-date usability every consumer / professional is sure with its capability. Western Digital My Cloud EX2 alongside with the Western Digital Red NAS is achievable in terms of execution. Before anything else as evident by this data performance based review, However unexpected surprises occur when transferring files from large chunks of files to small sizes by batches were compared and made a side-by-side comparison to it to ensure same data obtained. Overall performance was too good for non-intensive data transfers but for Enterprise level Network Attached Storage the world is very much different in terms of Data Transfer Speeds, It may vary how many users and Data Sizes are being Read and Write on the Network Attached Storage Hard Drive Itself. Given on its specs and price this is already fairly priced alongside with the Western Digital Red NAS. Although i have no obtained information what kind of RAID Controller Western Digital My Cloud EX2 is using.
Chart: Western Digital Red NAS Performance via My Cloud EX2Description: Western Digital Red NAS via My Cloud EX2 PerformanceTags: WDC, Western Digital Philippines, My Cloud EX2, My Cloud, WDC Red, WDC Red NAS, Geekypinas,Author: Geeky Pinascharts powered by iCharts
Based on the benchmark data, Western Digital Red NAS is a considerably beefed hardware, Attached on EX 2 is impressive with it's functionality, features and build quality. With the up-to-date usability every consumer / professional is sure with its capability. Western Digital My Cloud EX2 alongside with the Western Digital Red NAS is achievable in terms of execution. Before anything else as evident by this data performance based review, However unexpected surprises occur when transferring files from large chunks of files to small sizes by batches were compared and made a side-by-side comparison to it to ensure same data obtained. Overall performance was too good for non-intensive data transfers but for Enterprise level Network Attached Storage the world is very much different in terms of Data Transfer Speeds, It may vary how many users and Data Sizes are being Read and Write on the Network Attached Storage Hard Drive Itself. Given on its specs and price this is already fairly priced alongside with the Western Digital Red NAS. Although i have no obtained information what kind of RAID Controller Western Digital My Cloud EX2 is using.
Pro's:
- Solid Construction
- Built Amazingly Well
- Blazing Read Performance
- Easy GUI (Graphical User Interface) Tailored for Minimalist Approach
- Replacing Hard Drive is a breeze
- Easy
- Streamlined setup
Con's:
- Low Write Performance (Firmware Issue Perhaps)
Related Articles:
- WD Red Unboxing: http://www.geekypinas.com/2014/09/beefy-western-digital-red-nas-hard.html
- Western Digital My Cloud EX2 NAS Unboxing & Review! (Part 1): http://www.geekypinas.com/2014/10/wd-mycloud-ex2-unboxing-and-review.html
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