NAS Reviews

Introduction

Disk manufacturers who also make NASes have a price advantage over manufacturers of BYOD products. This is certainly the case for the recently updated My Cloud Mirror Gen 2. The My Cloud Mirror Gen 2 is very similar to the more business-oriented My Cloud EX2 we reviewed in March of 2014. The new Gen 2 has a different processor, a white case and the SOHO My Cloud feature set.

Our review unit was the $310 4 TB model. However, the Gen 2 also is available in a $370 6 TB version (2 X 3 TB) and a $410 8 TB version (2 X 4 TB). Each of the models arrives preconfigured for RAID 1 (mirrored), so your actual available fault-tolerant storage will be half the stated capacity.

Priced at $310 with two 2 TB drives included, the Gen 2 is cheaper than quite a few BYOD 2 bay NASes. I'll be using the Seagate NAS Pro 2-Bay and NETGEAR ReadyNAS RN202 for comparison throughout the review.

The Seagate NAS Pro 2 bay, like the Gen 2, includes two 2 TB drives in its $340 price. For a BYOD NAS, I chose the NETGEAR ReadyNAS RN202 because, priced at $250, it was the cheapest BYOD NAS that also had a better Total NAS score than the Gen 2. If you add the cost of two WD RED 2 TB drives at ~ $95 each, the total cost for the RN202 with an equivalent amount of storage rises to $440.

The callouts below were taken from the user manual. While WD has a support section with downloads for the Gen 2, the user manual isn't one of the available downloads. We found a link for the manual in the help section of the Gen 2's user interface.

The front panel is very simple - there's just a single power/status LED and a LED for each drive. A combination of red, blue or not lit coupled with various blinking patterns tells you what you need to know.

WD My Cloud Mirror Gen 2 front panel callouts and LED key

The image below shows the rear panel callouts and LED indicators. The single Gigabit Ethernet port has two status LEDs - one for link speed and one for activity. There is a pin reset, a Kensington security slot and two USB 3.0 ports. There's a small, very quiet fan positioned at the front bottom of the case that moves air across the drives and board. The Gen 2 was rated as very quiet and drew 14 W active and 6 W on standby with the two WD Red 2 TB drives spun down..

WD My Cloud Mirror Gen 2 rear panel callouts and LED key

Inside

The image below shows the main board with the heatsink in place.

WD My Cloud Mirror Gen 2 main PCB with heat sink

This image below shows the board with the heatsink removed to expose the processor.

WD My Cloud Mirror Gen 2 main PCB without heat sink

This is a completely new board, not the same as the WD My Cloud EX2's. Table 1 below shows the key components for the comparison two bay NASes.

The My Cloud Mirror Gen 2 arrives preconfigured for RAID 1. There is no possibility for RAID Expansion. Changing to RAID 0 or JBOD completely deletes all data from the drives.