When comparing Western Digital 4TB My Cloud vs Netgear ReadyNAS RN212, the Slant community recommends Netgear ReadyNAS RN212 for most people. In the question“What are the best NAS enclosures under $300?” Netgear ReadyNAS RN212 is ranked 2nd while Western Digital 4TB My Cloud is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Netgear ReadyNAS RN212 is:
The Netgear ReadyNAS 212 has three USB 3.0 ports and an eSATA port, useful for attaching extra peripheral storage to the device. While USB 3.0 ports are common on NAS units, eSATA ports are somewhat less common. This is an advantage because eSATA based storage devices are both very popular and powerful (eSATA provides faster data transfer speeds than USB 3.0).
Specs
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Pros
Pro Offers excellent value for money
This NAS unit comes with a 4TB Western Digital Red Hard Disk pre-installed. Considering that a similar 4TB HDD would cost $150 by itself, this $160 NAS offers great value.
Pro Easy access via browser control panel
It has a user-friendly control panel that can be easily accessed with a standard web browser.
Pro USB connectivity
If you hook up a USB storage device, you can access its stored files as a regular NAS storage volume.
Pro Good connectivity for fast data transfer
The Netgear ReadyNAS 212 has three USB 3.0 ports and an eSATA port, useful for attaching extra peripheral storage to the device. While USB 3.0 ports are common on NAS units, eSATA ports are somewhat less common. This is an advantage because eSATA based storage devices are both very popular and powerful (eSATA provides faster data transfer speeds than USB 3.0).
Pro Affordably priced quad-core option
This is one of the most affordable quad-core NAS units available. Virtually all other quad-core options are slightly more expensive while only offering little advantage. When compared to Netgear’s corresponding dual-core model, the 212’s media transcoding performance is twice as fast.
Pro Great as a media server
It can stream Full HD multimedia files to your computer, smartphone, tablet or smart TV with ease. It can handle video transcoding as well, unlike less powerful NAS units. The large storage volume (16TB) also ensures that you will have more than enough space for your movie and music collection.
Cons
Con Slow GUI
GUI is almost unusable due to lag. Moving files around and organizing files already on the drive is a headache.
Con Available with Western Digital hard disks only
Buying this NAS pre-installed with non-Western Digital hard disks is not possible.
Con No data protection features
As with most single-bay NAS units, you risk losing all of your stored data in the event of a disk failure. You can still use an external USB drive to manually backup your files every once in a while, though.
Con Official documentation leaves much to be desired
The documentation lacks important technical parameters such as CPU, RAM size and type, power consumption and even read/write speed. The Western Digital web resource also doesn’t include a list of compatible applications.
Con Transcoding capabilities are limited
Although it can flawlessly transcode a single Full HD video stream, it cannot do the same with Ultra HD/4K video files. It also cannot transcode to multiple client devices at once.
