This Tiny Affordable Server Makes HomeLab Easy!

Today we are taking a look at the brand new ZimaBlade, which is a follow on from their ZimaBoard that we looked at previously. The new ZimaBlade is an ever lower cost option for starting a HomeLab and CasaOS makes things easy to get up and running in minutes with your favourite applications like Plex, Home Assistant, JellyFin and more!

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[hybrispsycho]

great stuff i bought the zimaboard 832 after your last video and actually use it as a second unraid server and love it. love these little mini pcs

[Danandrea]

It would be cool to see how those boards will handle a HA+Frigate setup, using a google coral tpu stick.
I'm using something a bit more powerful for this, but I'll be happy to buy one of those if they can handle more or less x5 8mp cameras behind frigate

[Wes-sl]

Hi! How does the ZimaBlade (and ZimaBoard) compares to Home Assistant Green for Home Assistant and Home Bridge?

I guess it is possible for Home Assistant Green to be used to set up NAS and VPN too.

Thanks to any reply in advance! Cheers!

[BenSycha]

Very much enjoyed the video Lewis. Good amount of info and presented in a clear, relaxed and fun format.

My complaint is I don't need one of those right now but you are making me want to spend money as usual on shiny things 😂.

Totally agree that it should have some form of riser card set up for the cage. Having several zima cages with expansion cards in a row sounds great

[MrBlwfish]

Performance is OK, and power consumption is also OK I guess, for the performance, but we are still talking about a 7 year old chip. There are LOT of other options out there, in the used mini PC and in the ARM SBC realm. I just don"t see the USP for the product. If it would be cheaper, or it would come with N6005+ CPU, yeah, maybe.

[fedefede]

I'd like to see the 10G nic connected and tested

[Airbag]

I was so surprised when I saw the zima blade and board actually support 3.5" drives.. That's pretty cool..
All it's missing is a second pci-e slot haha.. I love the nvme addon and the 10Gbe addon but we need both together in a NAS use case to be able to better saturate the 10Gb link

[brainz-brainz]

Considering the age of the CPU I would opt for used Dell or Lenovo minipc

[blakadders]

I run my home server with 20+ containers including two Home Assistant instances on a J3455 for years now and its fast enough for those tasks

[mugwuffin]

Lewis, great video thanks. Do you think CasaOS is a good alternative to Proxmox for a basic home lab for a novice?

[BeardedTinker]

Sooo jealous - mine still hasn't arrived... Great video!

[zyghom]

@9:14 - this is only SATA port - not power port. You need external power supply for even 5x SSD. Not talking HDD then ;-)
One big issue: either 10Gbps/4x2.5Gbps OR SATA OR NVMe - not all at once.

[ewenchan]

Would you happen to know what the idle power consumption is for the ZimaBlade?

[travel_with_mig]

Hey man. Thanks for the video. I’m planning to build a nas to stream video. Do you know if those cpus support video transcode?

[Bigrob]

Can someone please confirm or correct my current understanding when comparing the Zimaboard -vs- Zimablade?
That being... The Zimablade is a newer, lower cost and less powerful alternative to the Zimaboard.

My intention in the near term is to replace the Raspberry Pi 4 - 4GB RAM, which runs my Home Assistant Installation.

[CMDRSloma]

I am disappointed, from the video it looks like most of these PCIE cards won't fit with the enclosure on. Looks like raiser is a must. The older Zima board is much better in that regard, especially with a 3D-printed NAS / SSD case.

Honestly, I'd rather see a real-life use case demonstration than unboxing or whatever this is called video because I see no difference from regular advertising.

[lazerusmfh]

I personally like the n105 or n200s have used many running proxmox, I find the price to be about 125 bucks too high for that server for me

[alejandrortl]

Is it powerfully enough for a home serv?

[DaHaiZhu]

Seems like all the accessories where all just thrown in as an after--thought and not planned out.

[abeindoria]

What is the point of getting this over a corporate recycled HP Prodesk SFFPC or whatever for $60 on ebay, apart from size/weight? You arguably get more power from that and if it's controlling your house, chances are you are not taking it with you anyway.