ZimaBoard 2 1664 x86 Home Server, Quad-Core N150, 16GB DDR5, 64GB eMMC, PCIe 3.0×4 Expansion, Dual 2.5GbE & Dual SATA3.0, Low-Power 24/7 Fanless, All-in-One NAS/Router/Docker/Home Lab with ZimaOS

I bought my Zimaboard 232 for a pfSense project, to build a dedicated site-to-site Wireguard tunnel between my data core pfSense router and a new remote node. As a long-time Raspberry Pi builder, I was really excited by the possibilities of the Zimaboard. My first impression was that the coolness factor is just off the charts. The heatsinks look sweet. No fans. Dual NICs, PCIe slot, how cool is this! The chipset even supports AES-NI CPU crypto, which is really important for VPN routers (even though I don’t get to take advantage of that with Wireguard). The possibilities are vast with this thing. For my application, I added rubber feet to stabilize it on a flat surface. The Zimaboard has enough weight to make it stick to a desktop nicely with the added feet. I’m a bit surprised this wasn’t included with it. Installing pfSense was exactly as it usually is (F11 key to enter boot device selection to boot from USB). It went quick with no surprises. It assigned the two NICs to re0 and re1, left and right ports on the rear of the Zimaboard respectively. I have read online that pfSense sometimes has issues with Realtek NICs, but after 3 weeks of heavy traffic utilization, I have had zero glitches. I have not had to disable hardware checksum offload in pfSense. Solid. I have pushed close to 10 TB of data through my Wireguard tunnel in the last 3 weeks, and it hasn’t missed a beat. The processor keeps up with Wireguard throughput up to around 150mbps very well. I will attach a screenshot of the pfSense dashboard that was captured after a large file transfer had been running through the Wireguard tunnel for about 10 minutes at around 80mbps. This is perfect for my application. It also comes with some very cool stickers, which I just love. Nice touch. Rock solid on pfSense so far. So cool!

I bought the ZimaBoard as a small server for my barn which lacks heating and air conditioning. The ZimaBoard's big heatsink looks perfect, and removes the possibility of a fan failing in the harsh environment. It hasn't faced summertime heat yet, but it runs cool so far. I'll update this review if something goes wrong when the hot weather arrives. It seems like the ZimaBoard would be comparable to the Raspberry Pi 4, but as much as I love the RasPi and the company's mission, the ZimaBoard is really in a different league. It seems snappy, and my benchmarking confirms it: The ZimaBoard is much faster, and it runs amd64 architecture which is nice. It has a bigger footprint than the RasPi, but it's still tiny. Quality is far nicer than I expected at this price point, and it feels heavy and solid. So far so good. It appears that this will be a great little headless server, and might even have enough grunt for desktop use. UPDATE 07/23/2023: It's summertime and my ZimaBoard has stayed up without a hitch, even in an environment without air conditioning. This week I moved 7TB of data through it with rsync, which caused a continuous load of about 35% CPU usage for 24 hours, and it handled the task, no problem. And this was during a heat wave with 100°F (~38°C) daytime temps. Once the CPU nears 50°C it throttles down, keeping temps in check, and without much performance hit in my case. Turns out, the ZimaBoard is as rugged as it looks, and the passive heatsink does its job, even in the heat. UPDATE 08/05/2024 It's been two snowy winters and two very hot summers and my Zimaboard has been rock solid, all without climate control. Aside from reboots from updates or the occasional power outage, it's been up and available, no hiccups, no drama. During an especially frigid stretch last winter I threw a shoebox over it for a couple days, but I doubt if it even needed it. I always know that when I SSH over to it, it'll answer. Couldn't be happier.

A great homelab or NAS setup for those interested in running a headless setup! The ZimaOS web interface is very easy to use and allows for a much simpler experience for adding apps and other services than your typical linux based homelab. The app store has a nice selection of apps and utilities to choose from in the realm of network solutions, file sharing, media servers, etc. I also appreciated the ease of setting up file sharing compared to linux based/command line alternatives. My only issue with the product was that despite having a miniDP output, the ZIMA OS does not natively support a display. In my case, I purchased this device to partially serve the purpose of a NAS as well as power a display for my home automation system via touchscreen display. Ultimately, I had to abandon the ZimaOS and install a linux distrobution instead to have it meet my needs. That said, it was also very simple and the hardware did very well accommodating multiple different distros and touch screen capabilities. I do however wish that the product description made clearer that despite the hardware having a display output, the Zima OS does not support an external display.

Have had this unit for the better part of a year and it works great. Initially I had issues with the CasaOS software that came with it. Couldn't get any support, which was very disappointing and cost me a lot of wasted time trying to figure out myself. About a week or so later a software update came out which fixed the issue. Since then, I have enjoyed the unit. One gripe I have is when using the SATA connector, it won't recognize existing data on the drive. So it needs to be blank or it needs to be reformatted. With the USB ports, this is not an issue. Otherwise, the unit has fast data transfers. Also, I recommend using a third party software like Tailscale to be able to securely access the connected drives remotely. This setup is far superior to the Synology I had before it. Its also very quiet.

arrived on time and setup in seconds 5 star review.

Worked flawlessly for a year. Now rebooting every day. No support online so far.

Ho acquistato questo mini-pc ultra compatto dopo aver visto alcune configurazioni per server e media Plex online, così mi sono orientato anche io su questa soluzione. Lo Zimaboard è una scheda completa con processore e ram installati, un sistema operativo su base linux preconfigurato alla quale è possibile connettere delle memorie e connettere il tutto alla rete. In confezione arriva la scheda con il suo alimentatore ed un connettore sata per un disco. Le dimensioni sono molto compatte, parliamo di un dispositivo che è più piccolo di un HDD da 3,5" con una ricca dotazione di porte, fra le quali due usb, due ethernet, una mini DP per un monitor, doppio connettore per dischi ed addirittura un connettore per pcie per espansioni. Per la mia configurazione mi è bastato connetterla via ethernet al modem ed entrare tramite browser nel sistema operativo CasaOs, un'interfaccia grafica che consente di monitorare la scheda, configurare eventuali dischi ed installarvi applicazioni per le più svariate funzioni: server, domotica, Plex, backup, ecc, il tutto con un minimo di smanettamento affrontabile anche da inesperti cercando qualche consiglio sul web. Nel mio caso specifico io vi ho collegato due HDD da 3,5" tramite un adattatore proprietario per sfruttarla sia come server sul quale condividere certi file e salvarli in un "cloud casalingo", accessibile tutto tramite browser (e se configurato bene anche da remoto via internet), sia come media server utilizzando Plex sulle varie tv e pc di casa, caricando così tutti i film e serie tv che possiedo e rendendole accessibili da qualsiasi dispositivo. Se pur una configurazione di base richieda un minimo di nozioni o ricerca, una volta regolato a proprio piacere risulta semplicissimo utilizzarla. Plex oltretutto consente addirittura di vedere film in 4k HDR Dolby Atmos senza problemi da HDD fisico e con la configurazione 232 (ovvero con 2GB di ram e processore minore della gamma), una vera goduria! Il tutto con un costo veramente limitato se si pensa che i NAS costano di più senza alcun disco all'interno. Ovviamente la mia configurazione è di "recupero" e può essere migliorata in qualsiasi momento (a parte la Zimaboard che va scelta in fase di acquisto con il taglio di memoria voluto) utilizzando degli ssd o addirittura M2 con apposito adattatore pcie per velocità ancora maggiori! Nel mio caso mi ritengo più che soddisfatto con l'attuale sistema, perchè riesco a farci ciò che volevo senza problemi. Il sistema operativo è comodo e funzionale, è piuttosto completo e personalizzabile con le varie app da installare ognuna con la propria funzione, per cui ce la si può configurare a piacere nei dettagli. Posso consigliare tranquillamente la scheda, che ormai mi accompagna da diversi mesi senza perdere un colpo, forse meglio nella configurazione 832 che è la più potente e consente di fare più cose multitasking senza saturare memoria o scaldare troppo. Indicata per chi sa smanettare un po' ma anche ai neofiti, semplicemente cercando sul web qualche guida o consiglio per configurare le proprie applicazioni. Forse consiglierei anche di applicare una ventola di raffreddamento sulle alette superiori, soprattutto se, vista la compattezza, la si posiziona in qualche spazio ristretto con un disco che scalda a sua volta nell'utilizzo, così da evitare qualsiasi problema dovuto ad eccessivo calore ed allungarne la vita! Veramente una sorpresa e completamente personalizzabile per i più svariati utilizzi, un prodotto top per i server casalinghi!

Micro pc súper funcional, dedicado para ser un servidor personal, NAS privado, servidor multimedia, con casa Os preinstalado

Does everything that I was missing from the RPi: on board storage and Sata ports.