Tiny NAS! ZimaBlade NAS Kit Review - Jellyfin Install, Linux/CasaOS, & 2 NAS HDDs

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I really like this ZimaBlade X86 Single Board Server. It's a ton of fun and extremely useful. I has a quadcore (one of 4), ram slot, gigabit port, DisplayPort, and PCIe 4x port.

So, since it's x86 and has a RAM slot, the sky is the limit. It comes with CasaOS, which I think is good for most. It's an OS that makes installing docker containers trivally easy. I installed Jellyfin with a few clicks.

In this video, I'm testing the entire ZimaBlade 7700 NAS Kit. You get 16GB of RAM, A dual SSD cable adapter, and a little dual hard disk rack (oh, and a USB C power supply).

One note, DO NOT use this USB C power supply with anything else... It's usually safe... but I fried some stuff trying.

#zimablade #zimaboard #linux #casaos #debian #nas #jellyfin

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[ezforsaken]

I like the concept a lot, but I can't justify ever buying one when it's just not that great for the price. There's plenty of other cheaper options, they are just more diy and not that pretty; again I'm a practical person so I don't ever see myself with the zima stuff, it's neat tho.

[JosephFrietze]

I have been seriously considering this kit. I am running a RasPi4 with two external hard drives sharing my media library via a MariaDB MySql database to multiple Kodi installations around the house. It works.

[ShucksHowdy]

Great video! This adds another option for my shortlist of NAS upgrades. Running a NUC for my home server and finally transitioned my apps into containers. Loving the setup but always looking to fiddle with something new, and CasaOS webui looks pretty sleek.

[weholmes]

I had the NAS kit in my cart a few months ago and forgot about it. $160 for the kit is reasonable. It's back in my cart now!

[skyrout]

Long time hadn't seen your videos! It's good to see you doing your stuff. Thanx for an interesting information, keep on keeping on.

[EightiethRaptor]

Always been on the lookout for a nas but never pulled the trigger on one, might actually get this setup it seems simple enough for my needs and i like the open look of the Bay instead of the boring rectangles the other companies offer

[yorkshireplumbing]

Casa OS huh, looks really nice.I missed the CPU on the board, but 95% for x86 transcoding a video seemed excessive.
I've basically set up my own NAS on an R-pi3b+ and backup solution with Restic.3D printed 2.5" 6 bay minirack, bom!
For anyone new to Jellyfin always install the Jellyfin client app on your devices to pass on video transcoding to the client, web browsers can be funny about codexs and force the server to do it, which as you can see here depending on the power of and number of users/processes, can suckup a massive chuck of cpu resources.

[invalidchicken]

In regards to Jellyfin performance I seem to recall you setting up the Asustor Nas with the OS on the Raid 5 array with 1 nvme for a read cache. Having the OS and docker on an nvme raid 1 would very likely improve overall system responsiveness. With the 4 nvme slots you could still have a read/write cache for the raid 5. That would require completely reinitializing/rebuilding from scratch, so I'm not sure you would be willing to go that route.

One feature emby recently implemented is being able to store library images alongside the media while also caching a copy on another volume. I like keeping artwork with media, but hard drives are slow. Having the cache on an nvme greatly improved image load times and responsiveness for me.Not sure if that feature has made it to Jellyfin as I haven't tested it in a while.

[the_mad_swimbaiter]

So I'm personally running the ZimaBlade as a step up from my raspberry pi running omv. I dove in headfirst and run proxmox on my blade and i passed the drives over to a vm instance of truenas. I love experimenting with this thing as a micro home lab lol. I'm running a 10TB wolf hdd and a sata m2 with a m2 on the pcie. Good times

[eizures]

Would be interested in you running through IceWhale's ZimaOS that is in beta ATM. I believe this brings RAID functionality as well as a few other things that are missing from CasaOS.

[nddulac]

Some time back, I was building a new server for home, but I messed it up. So a threw in an Odroid H3+ (N6005 cpu, 16 GB RAM + 2 6TB drives in raid zero) and I have used that for the last year and a half, for Plex, Nextcloud, Web server, Pihole, and a few other things. I do have this kit with a pair of 10 TB HDDs all built, but I have yet to turn it on, let alone mess around with it.

[cannonkingz]

For the longest time I've wanted to put my physical collection onto a Nas server but not being that confidant with tech its always seemed beyond me, after watching this video yea not so much anymore haha, thanks for sharing ill definitely be setting one up in the near future

[lagz]

What's that quake/painkiller like game that you've shown in some of your past videos as showcase for some hardware? I'm unable to find it. thanks

[dimitriid]

I've seen some JBOD e-sata drive bays on the cheap I wonder if putting that plus this would actually make a fairly inexpensive TrueNAS Scale set up I think it should work just fine, I know external drives are usually a no-go but if you're using e-sata and not USB it should be reasonably reliable no?

[GathTeakell]

kislux I love you so much and watching your videos makes my day brighter

[_Nobody_Special]

It's cool and all, but I'm just not sure what I'd use it for. For it to make sense for me it would realistically have to replace my minimalist 8700k Unraid box running all the usual stuff. I'll definitely check out CasaOS though, looks pretty interesting.

[praetorxyn]

I wonder if the speed difference is due to CasaOS using Docker vs a native NAS app, or if they’re both Docker, maybe CasaOS is using the LSIO Docker container?

At the moment, I’m running a Synology DS918+ but I hate how outdated their Docker Engine is and find DSM limiting in some ways. I’m planning a DIY NAS with ECC and TrueNAS Scale, and moving my Docker containers to a VM on the MS-01.

[RighteousBruce]

How much power does it use? Under like 20w idle?

[artemisa]

That NAS case gets so hot, not a great design. I had to change mine to one with a fan