Can I install SATA SSDs in My Cloud EX2

For various reasons I want to set up NAS/RAID with SSDs as opposed to HDDs. The My Cloud EX2 Ultra (diskless option) looked ideal for this. I intended to use 2 x WD Blue 3D NAND Internal SSD 2.5 inch SATA units; logically I just need to sort out a suitable mount to hold the drives in the EX2 carriers, but the data and power connections should all be fine. I checked with WD and got the following response:

“While physically you can indeed workaround the slots of the enclosure and connect the SSDs inside, most likely, the SSDs will not be detected or work correctly because the RAID controller of the My Cloud Ex 2 Ultra is does not support such drives.”

I’m unclear why this would be. The SATA data and power interfaces should be standard, and I assume that as the EX2 is designed to take a variety of third-party drives it would perform any partitioning or reformatting required when rebooting after a new drive installation. Can anyone shed any light on this, or tried similar themselves?

It’s a bit short-sighted, because SSD costs are coming down all the time, and for many applications the relatively low number of write operations mean that long disk life can be expected and reliability will exceed that achieved with mechanical drives (I know not everyone will agree, but humour me - I’m in the JFK “we choose to to this not because it is easy, but because it is hard” camp

Just a guess, but it might be that the OS doesn’t have support for TRIM?

Thanks for that - yes could be. I just got a follow up from the WD tech who responded originally. He stated that the My Cloud although the motherboard has SATA ports it’s not configured like a normal computer motherboard and therefore drives not on their published compatibility list might not work - apparently they have tested a couple of SSDs in My Cloud and found that they weren’t recognised.

I guess if it’s a firmware issue then a future upgrade is possible…

Someone even is selling the Ex2 Ultra with Samsung Evo SSD drives in Germany as a bundle:

so it should work and for sure is worth a try…
On the other hand, with the mounted two WD Reds mechanical drives I already have permanent effective transfer rates of approx 650 MBit/s in RAID 0 mode and I fear its not the NAS that is the limiting factor. The receiving or sending computer or the transferway as well as other data on the Network may slow it down.

But if you are in the need for speed and have a proper working GBit Network, I think it’s worth a try… Order two at A*** and return if does not work :slight_smile: