Unbiased opinion appreciated

As the title of the thread asks, I am seeking a totally unbiased opinion regarding noise levels for the WD My Cloud Ex2.

The reason I ask is this.  I already own a My Book Live which I would describe as almost totally silent.  The only noise I ever hear from the MBL is a slight click as the drive wakes up, after that - nothing, which I love.

I went to a friends house yesterday and he’s recently purchased a DS213J Synology NAS.  The drives he has put inside the NAS are two 3TB WD Red 3.5 inch HDD, the same as are found inside the Ex2.

I was suprised and shocked at how noisy the Synology is compared to the MBL.  With the Synology we are back to the days of HDD crunching and churning chatter.  It just reminded me of an old P4 tower computer.

I have been weighing up the pros and cons of both the DS213J and the WD-Ex2.  However, after seeing and more importanly hearing the 213J in operation I really don’t think I could live with it.  Now, given that the WD Ex2 uses the same drives as fitted to the Synology I could do with an honest appraisal of the noise levels for the Ex2 - anyone? 

I’m amazed no one has been able to respond to my post, as it is the simplest of questions? Perhaps given it’s newness there is little ownership presently and those that do own one are fully satisfied so have no reason to visit this forum?

If anyone does see this post a reply would be greatly appreciated.

Still no Ex2 owners able to respond to my request I see?  Oh well! I will visit again tomorrow and hope for better things. Pretty worrying that the amount of Ex2 owners visting the forum is so small.  That could point either to very satisfied customers or very few customers of the Ex2. 

I could I suppose ask the question on the Duo forums but if my memory serves me correctly that was a lower powered machine with different HHD’s.

It was the HDD’s on the Synology that caused the noise not the NAS itself which was wisper quiet.  However, once the WD Reds had a large file to deal with then they became quite vocal.

The product was just released a couple weeks ago. Still getting into the channels.

I know from the one I have at home - which I store in my entertainment cabinet, I cannot hear it. It does have a fan, but it does not kick in until pretty high temperatures.

Thanks for that update Tony,

It’s reassuring to hear.  One thing that drives me to distraction is noise from a PC.  I cannot understand, unless of course it is a fault in the design with the Synology case why the WD Reds chatter is so noticable.  My friend fed it a 5 gig file and the chatter from the two drives talking to each other was really something you could not ignore.

Looks like another WD then to replace my single drive MBL. 

Hello,

I reopen this thread because I can’t find informations about the noise level of the EX2. I’ve searched the web but found nothing except a few reviews saying it’s low, which is not a really precise indication, and WD doesn’t give any information about this.

I’m looking for a NAS which could stay turned on 24/24. I had a Synology but the noise is too high, I had to turn it off or put it in hibernate mode as soon as possible, which limits the usage.

I’d like to know if some people who bought the EX2 have experience about proximity noise (I don’t have other choice to put my NAS just behind my Mac so it’s very close).

Thanks for help.

My EX2 is in another room from where I mostly do work on, so most of the time I can’t tell you about it’s noise level on 24x7 basis…but I have on a few occassions walked into the room, while files were being copied or shortly after it was active, and I have not heard much sound even when I was close to the device. The only time I can hear a very faint hum is when I kneel down and bring my face inches from it. So I would say, based on my limited exposure, it is relatively quiet. Compared to my HP laptop’s fan, when I’m doing a CPU-intensive task like video processing, that I can hear from the other end of a room, the EX2’s noise is nothing.

I own the EX2 and leave it on 24/7.  The only noise I ever hear out of it is the occasional head movement of the hard drives while transferring large quantities of data.  This unit is very quite, I dont have access to a DB meter to provide you with any more information than that.  Hope this helps.

Thank you all.

Do you think the fan is always running or it stops and only runs sometimes (like when there is big demand on disks) ?

I’ve learned that a small fan running quickly is more noisy than a big one running slowly, and the EX2 is very small.

Is there any vibration problem with it or it’s well fixed ?

Thanks.

The fan only runs as required by internal temperature. (Mine rarely comes on.)  The unit as a whole is extremely solid and I see no vibration issues at all.  (It also has rubber isolation feet)

Same experience here. My fan rarely comes on…depends on internal temp. And no vibration issues either.

I have two EX2 units with 2x4TB RED WD HDs in. I can confirm they are very silent.

I also have a 3 TB WD My Book Live and in my case I perceive more the sound from Live one, because it vibrates more on the surface it is than EX2, since EX2 has better isolation with the surface (rubber stands are thicker), furthermore, I had to put some foam between Live and the surface to mitigate the noise/vibration, and nothing needed with EX2.

I have also a My Cloud (single RED WD unit) and it is quiet too.

I was concern about having two HDs in and also about the active fan, and so far I am impresed, but I must admit I have not put them under hot temperature conditions to trigger them to their maximum speed (I guess will happen on summer).

Mine is working its butt off, since I just loaded a couple of TB on it including lots of pictures and videos.  From what I read it is going to take quite a while for it to finish doing its thing with all the media files.   However, despite near 100% CPU for days, I hardly ever hear it, even though I sit just a couple of feet from it. Also, despite the activity I have never seen it get hot enough to make the fan turn on.

Wish it had more CPU power or way to control process priorities though because performance is terrible for now.  Before I got it loaded it was cool, responsive, and would even sleep at night.