EX2 Ultra expecting to be faster?

Continuing the discussion from New Product - My Cloud EX2 Ultra (2/17/16):

Intresting will it possible to buy new empry box and install drives from my current EX2 there? Will it give me some increase in performance? Or drives should be faster than 5400 rpm, I have in my EX2?

Hello,

According to the specifications of the new unit, it has a better processor and more memory ram. So, I guess performance should be better on the new one.

Can you please provide more information about this question? I’m not understanding it clearly.

With the marginal upgrade here, you will probably feel you wasted your money. Especially if you use the same 5400 drives. Why not save up a few hundred bucks more and get an upgrade you will be impressed with; e.g. either of the ones from the newer EX/DL series with Red drives inside. I have a DL2100; the max transfer speed is rated 115 MB/sec and I basically get that by it cruising steadily at 113 MB/sec. Also has memory you can inexpensively add to so the unit can run useful apps like virus scanner and PLEX which some folks like.

Hi,

Thanks.

Under 5400 I meant, my drives in EX2 now are rated 5400 rotation per minutes and not 7200 rmp. And I wanted to ask, has it sense to put my 5400 drives to EX2 Ultra to get higher performance or has no sense with 5400 against 7200.

Mike, Thanks. Good idea, Dl2100 looks much better and should work faster even with RED drives, shouldnt it?

I wish I bought it initially, but missed for some reason.

Of course it does; it better be since it costs much more! Spec for file transfers is 115MB/sec under ideal conditions, and I get consistent 113MB/sec speeds. Streaming video is lightning fast to iPad, etc. using 5G signal. Very fast to the wired WDTV and everywhere else. Suggest if you get this or another WD NAS you get it pre-configured with the Red drives; you save some money and hassle compared to buying all as separates.

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Mike.,

Sounds really good. But I dont need to buy pre-configured, as I have drives in my EX2, it will be cheaper to use them. Hmm… but idea, I can think now about remote backup, bring EX2 to mother’s home and buy DL2100 for my self, to be super fast and backing up to EX2 remotely. Well all safe and fast, paradise.

Do what’s best for YOU. Good luck with it all.

From what I think, EX2 Ultra will be almost twice the speed compared to the older version. Basically, EX2 Ultra has same CPU and RAM amount as WD EX2100 which there is almost no problem about its performance. And that you suffer from the speed, I guess, it’s nothing related to the hard drive at all. WD EX2, the old version, has way too slow CPU that makes everything slow. Therefore, by getting WD EX2 ultra, or DL2100 and continue using same hard drive, you should get way better performance.

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There are quite a few models between the WD EX2 ultra, and DL2100, so good luck making your decision.

I just bought a WD ex2 ultra hoping to use the PLEX app to play videos to my amazon fire HD and samsung phone. The NAS has been a big let down. None of the HD videos play and PLEX says that the server is not powerful enough to transcode the videos. Synology ds214 easily plays the same videos without any problem. I am beginning to regret the purchase. Should I wait to see if WD would fix the issues with a firmware or should I just return the WD ex2 ultra and stick with Synology?
Any suggestions?

Loaded questions/comments here . . . .Before you read what I wrote here, go here and then com back here.

I have a Fire TV, too. The EX2 Ultra is a lower end NAS. The Sinology you mention could be a higher end NAS; I don’t know it. My WD DL2100 NAS is at the higher end of the model chain. I recommend folks select from either the EX or DL 2100/4100 line of WD NAS devices compared here.

PLEX works fine on my system when streamed from my DL2100 to my wired, WDTV playing on TV They might do fine this way from an EX2 Ultra to a WDTV, because the WDTV streams fine from shared drives on the network, too. Everything streams well to my iOS and Android mobile devices, and my wired Roku.

I have a FireTV wireless Stick (Gen 1) connected to my fast gigabit wireless 5G signal. The rub comes in with the FireTV Stick. It just can’t handle the data stream smoothly, either because the decoding is done via software versus hardware, it may not have a fast enough CPU. A wired Fire TV box, could do better perhaps but I am not going to buy one just to find out. I have devices that can do what I want and don’t need an upgrade of the Fire TV.

I have enough different devices and ways to stream to tell why something is not doing well. I mentioned why the FireTV kind of ■■■■■, and I have come to find that wired (versus wireless is better) and hardware decoding versus software decoding is better I found over the past few years. Streaming Netflix to FireTV is fine, but streaming hi quality mp4 videos (from blu-rays) is a disaster. They stream fine to an iPhone or iPad because these devices have the muscular hardware to do the decoding, whereas the Kindle tablets have issues with same videos.

BTW, my older wired Roku2 XS has a PLEX app, and it works fine there as well. But keep in mind the PLEX server is my DL2100 NAS.

Bottom line, I really do not want inexpensive wireless media boxes like Fire TV or my Chromecast2 anymore, except for travel use. I find them a bit of a joke for home streaming use. They are a classic example of we get what we pay for them.

Now, for you, I suggest you likely forget about the FireTV if it is old model; especially if wireless.

Go buy a Roku3 top-end model (at Costco) for around $100, connect it to your network via wired if possible, and just stream your media to it without using PLEX from your new NAS. And add the Roku Media Player app to it. You can enjoy Netflix and Amazon Prime video, too, on it. For not much more than a Fire or Chromecast you have a great stream player for only a few bucks more. There are also Android media players, too, but I don’t have any, because I don’t need one now.

I know I must have neglected something, but I need to stop now and go watch some media streaming!

I do want to say your WD NAS could be fine for most thing, but the devies you

In my opinion, either get DL2100, wait for the price on amazon at $299(it goes up and down), or stick with Synology. As Mike mentioned, DL2100 will do way better job. Also, from what WD had been doing, I kind of think that there will be new version of WD DL2100 within a year as they are releasing new series as upgraded products of the same price. Therefore, in my point of view, you should return WD EX2 ultra, if your Synology is still good, and wait to buy either DL2100 or EX2100(new version). Note that if you want it now, and want WD, go for DL2100. Else, you can try new version of EX2100(there is no information about new version yet) which should be quite faster than EX2 ultra. Also, right now, WD EX2100 is just as same speed as WD EX2 ultra, so don’t buy this version if WD EX2 ultra does not work.