Is there any difference between My Cloud Mirror Gen 1 and Gen 2?

I have been deciding between purchasing one of two My Cloud Mirror products:

  • 6TB My Cloud Mirror Gen 2
  • 8TB My Cloud Mirror Gen 1

Does anyone have either? Is there any notable difference between running Plex or the WD software running on Gen 1 vs Gen 2? Should I just be thinking about space in the grand scheme of things? I’ve managed to find both for about the same price, so it’s just a question of being a generation behind with two extra terabytes and what issues I might face.

Plex ran like an absolute dog on my Gen1 when I tried it. If you’re interested in running apps then personally I’d go for a Gen2 device with the better CPU.

You can always upgrade the drives later to larger ones (out hang 2 USB drives off the back) but you can’t upgrade the CPU later.

Haha I just tested out Plex today and agree it runs very slow even doing things like just adding channels (not even watching them). That’s ok I figured it would. Wonder how much that faster CPU improves it.

That I can’t comment on, indeed I’d be interested to know myself. Not that I plan to use Plex (I run Kodi on a Raspberry Pi, with my MCM just acting as the file store), but of general interest for other MCM apps.

[quote=“DarrenHill, post:2, topic:139589”]
Plex ran like an absolute dog on my Gen1 when I tried it. If you’re interested in running apps then personally I’d go for a Gen2 device with the better CPU.[/quote]
Perfect; that’s the kind of response I’ve been looking for. I assumed a faster processor would be better on the software end, and with Plex being a new addition, I’m not surprised that it doesn’t run optimally. If I buy one of these, I only want to have to get it once, so I’ll gladly go big.

Will the CPU handle any size drives? Could I just buy the 4TB Mirror for instance and just buy two 8TB drives and replace them? (No idea if that’s even economical let alone possible) Never done this exactly, but I’m assuming there are certain brands or specs that are better than others. I’m really only familiar with that Backblaze article that claimed WD > Seagate > Hitachi

Either way, that’s an excellent point that I could upgrade the drive space later on but not the CPU power.

Thank you for testing it out and giving an account on the quality. I wasn’t able to find how many MB of RAM were on the Gen 1 but the Gen 2 has 512MB and the faster processor, so I’m sure it’ll be better on that level alone.

Both have 512MB for the RAM.

Both Gen 1 and Gen 2 have 512MB of RAM. I recall reading somewhere that the RAM in the Gen 2 may be faster memory, but I can’t find where I read that. But aside from maybe that, the only difference between the two is the processor (speed and dual vs single core plus manufacturer).

WD sell MCMs with 4TB, 6TB and 8TB, so they will contain 2x2TB, 2x3TB and 2x4TB WD Red drives (note if you’re running RAID1 then they will appear as 2, 3 and 4TB storage devices respectively). I think there is an article somewhere in the WD Knowledgebase about what drives are compatible, but I can’t find it. You could ask that question to WD support if you need to know.

WD will always recommend their own Red brand, which comes up to 6TB so you may be able to put 2x6TB in. Again I’d ask that directly to support, if one of the WD people on here doesn’t know and chime in directly here.

6TB will work for sure I don’t see why a 8TB from someone else wouldn’t work but maybe someone else can confirm that. I seen some one in a review of the the next model up from the My Cloud Mirror used 2x8TB and was getting nice speeds from the drive around 170MBs

If you mean the EX2, that is available up to 12TB (2x6TB drives) from WD themselves, which is the maximum size for WD Red drives that are used. That’s not to say that larger drives of a different type or manufacturer couldn’t be used of course.

No it was the DX2100 I think . The EX2 is almost the same as the mirror except for a few software features like iSCSI

Nothing major in the hardware performance? I thought that, being an entirely different product line, would be a large step up. I’d debated going as far as the EX2 for my needs, but that was before I was aware you could swap out the drives so easily on the Mirror.

Nothing major in hardware spec EX2 is the same hardware as a Gen 1 Mirror.

Both run single core 1.2 Ghz CPU 512MB Ram

I might have missed some but here is some of the differences(Software) EX2
iSCSI, volume virtualization
IPV6
Active directory
Encryption(Maybe not sure if the Mirrors has this)

Riiight, I think I remember reading about it more now. It looked like it was geared more towards a business environment and more of an overkill for what I’m looking for in a home entertainment system with redundancy.

I think another week or two of padding the Fun Fund and I’ll spring for the 6TB My Cloud Mirror Gen 2. That’ll probably suit my needs for quite some time.

My Cloud Mirror is a Marvel Armada 370 SoC with 1.2 GHz,
My Cloud Mirror Gen.2 is Marvel Armada 385 1.3 GHz Dualcore SoC

@Joerg_A - I was hoping you’d join this discussion.

Do you happen to know where (on the Knowledge base I think?) the list of compatible drives for the MyCloud series can be found these days? There’s reference to a list in the manual (section 12 / page 133 under Replacing a Drive) but it just points you to http://wd.com/mycloudmirror which no longer contains the information (at least that I can find from looking through the page).

I’m presuming all Red drives up to the 6TB max should work, but is there a wider list available of other WD (or indeed other suppliers) known-working products that can be used to replace or upgrade existing drives?

Hi DarrenHill

yes, there is a compatibility list but a bit tricky to find - sorry for that…
This list can be found in WD My Cloud EX2 model / Features / Compatibility

Compatibility list of My Cloud EX2

Sorry for inconvenience :sunglasses:

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Is that just for the EX2 or does that carry over to the My Cloud Mirror (and/or other WD drives) as well?

@Joerg_A- thanks, that’s the list I remember (perhaps in a slightly different format).

I saw the similar page for the MCM, but it only lists the UPS section, not the drive section. It may be something to replicate across to the MCM page, presuming it’s equally applicable (which I guess it is, given how similar the MCM and the EX2 appear to be).