Your mini-NAS with the 3D printed case is very cool. I also like some aspects of the zimaboard, like the passive cooling and exposed sata ports and PCIe bus, but the N3450 (Apollo Lake) cpu is ancient - it was released in Q32016. I purchased a passively-cooled CWWK/Topton N5105 firewall/router box from ebay that costs about the same as the zimaboard, but the N5105 (Jasper Lake) has more than twice the performance of the N3450 for just a 10W TDP. The latest Alder Lake N-series (N100, N200,..) are even faster, also rated at a 10W TDP. I just don't see the value in the zimaboard until they modernize the cpu.
I couldn't find one but with more popularity I could see it being done. Also, the Zimaboard site recommends not using anything larger than 2 2.5 inch drives as the power restrictions really don't support anything bigger. I could even see this implemented on one of those 10in racks. Pretty fun stuff
"Building the Perfect Home NAS!" Oh, and by the way, there's no RAID. I IMPLORE YOU IF YOU ARE WATCHING THIS VIDEO. Respect data integrity/security. DO NOT USE CASA OS AS A NAS PLATFORM!
I keep reading this. But I haven't found any nuc style pc with the same specs at the same price (160 dollars with its current discount). Could you please recommend any simple nuc style pc at the same price? Also what makes this attractive to me is how power efficient it is (6-watt TDP before you add peripheral) . Could you please recommend any simple nuc style pc that is so power efficient?
@hyperion6 i don't think that zimaboard is 6w "whole consuption", because the 6w is the cpu only, and in fact the adapter is 12vx3A=36W. There are similar cpu for around 10w,for example i have NUC6CAYH that is a 10 w and a NUC5PPYH that is 6w (cpu only) the benchmark are similar with zimaboard, and being quite old they cost similar to zimaboard BUT they can be upgraded and they have a real ssd, not a emmc (soldered). yes, the costs are a bit higher (a nuc5 + 8 gb + 128 gb ssd would cost around 190€), but... it's a real pc and if yuo have some problems with ram or ssd you can simply replace them.
@@massimo79mmm I don't care if it's upgradable. I want to use it as an emby server with transcoding and the specs of it are more than enough. If I got it right, there isn't anything cheaper that a zimaboard with 8 gb ram on it and with support of hardware hevc transcoding, right? Btw, they do claim TDP 6W. on the specs of the device, I checked it again,. They may lie, but I haven't found anyone posting anywhere that they lie about it.
I bought an HP G3 800 for $50 free shipping. I’m running truenas, plex, windows 11, and others on proxmox and it runs great. I have an internal m.2 and a sata drive. Btw it has 32 gigs of memory installed.
with the value of how mini pc's can offer so much more and that are priced decently, zimaboards and rpi's really meant for the niche audience and not really in the best way anymore due to their rise in cost and low availability too and it's honestly a shame because they are great for the possibilities you can get out of them. i have an rpi4, but i'm pretty soon going to get a mini pc that i can use all the usb ports with, video connections, and even hook up a small little DAS for media storage and there's my microserver or i can even search ebay to achieve a more microserver chassis to use.
There's no real availability issues with Pi's at least. One can walk into a store and grab a pi4 off the shelf in many/most places. They were suffering from parts availability from the whole chip shortages etc that affected corporations around the world. New cars were parked in fields over a year waiting on parts. They finally started omitting options to get em back on track. The pi5's yes are difficult to get yet as they're brand new just released. Yet not officially sort of as they were tracked for Jan release. But they too will become easy to get. They're back to full production
I have an x99 based system with plenty of ram, a 20 core cpu and tiered cache for ZFS... Not o mention the 40GBe card in it. So this Celeron-based stuff is cute, but for me it is far from a 'NAS'.
You can utilize the pcie2.0 port to add extra sata adapters, but would need a power supply for powering those drives. And inboard has some docs on how to install unraid.
Wow, just found this channel. What a great video. I built something similar with intel nuc and a 1:20 scale shipping container for a case. I think I’ll build another one using your design.
Dang this is the video I was looking for also uploaded 7 hours ago cheers I’m gonna pick up the development kit next month thank you again for the video 🎉😯
Has CasaOS fixed the issues with the 'combined drives' spontaneously losing your data? I mean, its Linux so there should be *many* different ways to combine the drives and have them safe?
@@bern71 Yes, it has, but also it has only 2 SATA ports, what if I need more? I was curious if cards like combined 10G+SAS HBA exist, but wasn't able to find any.
Two suggestions-maybe don’t do your screen capture at 1440p (?) makes it pretty tiny unless you’re viewing on a similar large screen. I also don’t think you explained why you’d want to use a slower rate backup solution vs your relatively fast copy-paste approach. For backups, automation is crucial. What you’re getting though here is not only compression but the ability to backup only changed files, and also multiple versions of those files with configurable frequency and retention. That and of course duplicati can also transfer to many destination types like cloud services, S3 buckets, etc.
Ask it to zoom its screen in Windows instead of telling it to lower its resolution if you want things to be larger. You're watching this video but you don't know the basics.
Im watching this on my television with chromecast. From the couch I cannot see or read the details so yeah a bit of zooming in the video editor would help. 👍
You could definitely do it over the internet outside of your home, if you install Nextcloud or a local VPN, otherwise only available if connected to the same wifi
You could look at something like Tailscale (I'm not affiliated with them), like, you could setup one connection at NAS and others at your phone, laptop, etc..
Your mini-NAS with the 3D printed case is very cool. I also like some aspects of the zimaboard, like the passive cooling and exposed sata ports and PCIe bus, but the N3450 (Apollo Lake) cpu is ancient - it was released in Q32016. I purchased a passively-cooled CWWK/Topton N5105 firewall/router box from ebay that costs about the same as the zimaboard, but the N5105 (Jasper Lake) has more than twice the performance of the N3450 for just a 10W TDP. The latest Alder Lake N-series (N100, N200,..) are even faster, also rated at a 10W TDP. I just don't see the value in the zimaboard until they modernize the cpu.
Is there a 1u rackmount 3d printed case that supports a single ZimaBoard and 2x 3.5" drives?
I couldn't find one but with more popularity I could see it being done. Also, the Zimaboard site recommends not using anything larger than 2 2.5 inch drives as the power restrictions really don't support anything bigger. I could even see this implemented on one of those 10in racks. Pretty fun stuff
"Building the Perfect Home NAS!"
Oh, and by the way, there's no RAID. I IMPLORE YOU IF YOU ARE WATCHING THIS VIDEO. Respect data integrity/security. DO NOT USE CASA OS AS A NAS PLATFORM!
i don’t know the hype around zimaboard.
with a simple nuc style pc you have the same power consumption and way more possibilities.
I keep reading this. But I haven't found any nuc style pc with the same specs at the same price (160 dollars with its current discount).
Could you please recommend any simple nuc style pc at the same price?
Also what makes this attractive to me is how power efficient it is (6-watt TDP before you add peripheral) .
Could you please recommend any simple nuc style pc that is so power efficient?
@hyperion6 i don't think that zimaboard is 6w "whole consuption", because the 6w is the cpu only, and in fact the adapter is 12vx3A=36W.
There are similar cpu for around 10w,for example i have NUC6CAYH that is a 10 w and a NUC5PPYH that is 6w (cpu only)
the benchmark are similar with zimaboard, and being quite old they cost similar to zimaboard BUT they can be upgraded and they have a real ssd, not a emmc (soldered).
yes, the costs are a bit higher (a nuc5 + 8 gb + 128 gb ssd would cost around 190€), but... it's a real pc and if yuo have some problems with ram or ssd you can simply replace them.
@@massimo79mmm I don't care if it's upgradable. I want to use it as an emby server with transcoding and the specs of it are more than enough. If I got it right, there isn't anything cheaper that a zimaboard with 8 gb ram on it and with support of hardware hevc transcoding, right? Btw, they do claim TDP 6W. on the specs of the device, I checked it again,. They may lie, but I haven't found anyone posting anywhere that they lie about it.
Nuc is great but doesn’t have PCI or SATA connectors.
I bought an HP G3 800 for $50 free shipping. I’m running truenas, plex, windows 11, and others on proxmox and it runs great. I have an internal m.2 and a sata drive. Btw it has 32 gigs of memory installed.
hackable huh ... wait ... soldered storage?! wtf
with the value of how mini pc's can offer so much more and that are priced decently, zimaboards and rpi's really meant for the niche audience and not really in the best way anymore due to their rise in cost and low availability too and it's honestly a shame because they are great for the possibilities you can get out of them.
i have an rpi4, but i'm pretty soon going to get a mini pc that i can use all the usb ports with, video connections, and even hook up a small little DAS for media storage and there's my microserver or i can even search ebay to achieve a more microserver chassis to use.
Thoughts on the rpi5 instead?
There's no real availability issues with Pi's at least. One can walk into a store and grab a pi4 off the shelf in many/most places. They were suffering from parts availability from the whole chip shortages etc that affected corporations around the world. New cars were parked in fields over a year waiting on parts. They finally started omitting options to get em back on track. The pi5's yes are difficult to get yet as they're brand new just released. Yet not officially sort of as they were tracked for Jan release. But they too will become easy to get. They're back to full production
Why don't put 2 20-24 TB into the tower desktop instead? Bicycle inventing.
Does ZimaBoard powers up two 3.5" HDDs?
Yes, directly off the board
"Fits in the palm of your [Sasquatch] hand"
Truenas is clearly the better option, even if it has a slightly higher learning curve.
Truenas on 8gb are not recommended.
Openmediavauly is probably better for this use case. Just because zfs is very memory intensive.
Openmediavault can run on entry level zimaboard it need 1gb and truenas minimum requirements are 8gb which is not recommended at all
I have an x99 based system with plenty of ram, a 20 core cpu and tiered cache for ZFS... Not o mention the 40GBe card in it. So this Celeron-based stuff is cute, but for me it is far from a 'NAS'.
@@temp50 🙄
Quick questions:
1. How can I put 4 hd instead of only 2 with this?
2. Can I install unRAID on it ?
You can utilize the pcie2.0 port to add extra sata adapters, but would need a power supply for powering those drives. And inboard has some docs on how to install unraid.
great video , you know if you can run home asistant from it?
I did the same thing minus the 3d case with a mini-stx motherboard with i5-7400.
Have u tried plex 4k movies ? Maybe 10bit HEVC 4K ?
6W TDP?
Whats the fan size???
Wow, just found this channel. What a great video.
I built something similar with intel nuc and a 1:20 scale shipping container for a case. I think I’ll build another one using your design.
Dang this is the video I was looking for also uploaded 7 hours ago cheers I’m gonna pick up the development kit next month thank you again for the video 🎉😯
how come the case doesnt look straght
Excellent and very helpful!!! Thanks for sharing 🎉
Great video. Thanks for putting in the effort to explain things in detail.
Has CasaOS fixed the issues with the 'combined drives' spontaneously losing your data? I mean, its Linux so there should be *many* different ways to combine the drives and have them safe?
You can make an array with either: zfs, btrfs, or even md. btrfs would prolly be already installed, if not, apt install would you best your friend
I'm so surprised... I though that the board only supported 2.5" drives...great surprise
i might be the person #169 to have said this but i think my zima board has a fan header hidden under the plexi ...
That’s not small. Size doesn’t matter…………. ;)
P
So what would be the purpose of this specific style of server aside from a back-up. Could you run like a gaming server on it or just file storage?
Minecraft server is definitely possible, Plex server for movies, home assistant server for home automation. Lots of potential!
@@TechRoundUp awesome thanks for the reply. I might pick up one of my own.
It definitely no home lab, complete lack of expandability.
You may want to consider a larger machine with more powerful hardware for actual gaming servers etc
What's the case dimensions? I am trying to make sure it fits my printer
He tells us that at 5:35.
2Gbe, that's unfortunate. At least one multigig NIC would make it more attractive.
It has PCIe so just plug in your whatever card. ;)
@@bern71 Yes, it has, but also it has only 2 SATA ports, what if I need more? I was curious if cards like combined 10G+SAS HBA exist, but wasn't able to find any.
Linux ?
Two suggestions-maybe don’t do your screen capture at 1440p (?) makes it pretty tiny unless you’re viewing on a similar large screen. I also don’t think you explained why you’d want to use a slower rate backup solution vs your relatively fast copy-paste approach. For backups, automation is crucial. What you’re getting though here is not only compression but the ability to backup only changed files, and also multiple versions of those files with configurable frequency and retention. That and of course duplicati can also transfer to many destination types like cloud services, S3 buckets, etc.
Ask it to zoom its screen in Windows instead of telling it to lower its resolution if you want things to be larger. You're watching this video but you don't know the basics.
Im watching this on my television with chromecast. From the couch I cannot see or read the details so yeah a bit of zooming in the video editor would help. 👍
What size is the fan?
120mm
absolutely love this
Ok. Lets see how he can transcode Plex HEVC 4k 10bit please
can we access this storage from anywhere over internet and from any device like phone etc is it NAS. I am looking for an alternative synology or QNAP
You could definitely do it over the internet outside of your home, if you install Nextcloud or a local VPN, otherwise only available if connected to the same wifi
You could look at something like Tailscale (I'm not affiliated with them), like, you could setup one connection at NAS and others at your phone, laptop, etc..
Would be cool if you can customly sell these, I would buy it.
Would save me building it, And Idc about paying for fees