Hello, I’d like to ask you if the products My Cloud EX2 and EX4 are compatible with WD Red Pro drives. Furthermore, I’d like to know if I buy a My Cloud EX2 or EX4 in your online shop, are these products equipped with WD Red or WD Red Pro? Thank you!
Welcome to the Community.
It would be best to contact the WD Store with regards to this inquiry
I know the EX2’s are equipped with Red drives - not Red Pro’s. Think that the EX4 follows suit as well.
Overall, they should be compatible. Again, hit up the wd site for more info, but Red drives were designed with one purpose - NAS compatibility.
AFAIK, the biggest differences between Red and Red Pro are:
a) Performance: You sacrifice IntelliPower to gain performance - Red Pro’s are fixed 7200 rpm drives…so by nature, they’re much more responsive.
b) Warranty: Red - 3yrs, Red Pro - 5yrs.
c) Capacity: Red - max 6TB, Red Pro - max 4TB (as of today).
d) Cost.: Red Pro is pretty much always going to be pricier.
Really, it depends on your use. Are you a home user or a small business? You’ll probably be ok with the Red drives.
If I were in the situation again…hmm…I’d probably go with the Red Pro’s. 3 year warranty is just a little too weak for me, although there’s tremendous value in what the EX2 has to offer.
With current pricing, it’s almost like they’re giving the enclosure away. It’s hard to beat that…
Bonus suggestion: if you have the time, buy one spare drive now, then buy the enclosure a couple of weeks later. When it comes in, throw the drive you bought in it, let it rebuild the array, and now you’ve not only staggered your drives (it should be from a different batch), but you’ve also got a hot spare, should anything go wrong.
WD doesn’t seem to stagger them by default.
Second Bonus Tip: If you’re just using it for home files, go with the MyBook Mirror. Fewer features, better price.
Ever since they switched to Red drives in that one, it’s straight-up cheaper to buy the enclosure for the drives alone.
