IceWhale Launches ZimaBoard, a Low Cost Home Cloud Server

[TheLostSwede]

IceWhale Technologies has launched ZimaBoard, a low-cost single board server that functions as personal cloud storage and software router, and allows users to set up a VPN, stream 4K video, access media collections, and reinvent smart home projects on Amazon. Three models with tiered processing power are available in the brand's shop for US customers: ZimaBoard 216 (2 GB RAM, 16 GB eMMC storage, dual-core Intel Celeron processor) is $139.99 USD, ZimaBoard 432 (4 GB RAM, 32 GB eMMC storage, quad-core Intel Celeron processor) is $169.99 USD, and ZimaBoad 832 (8 GB RAM, 32 GB eMMC storage, quad-core Intel Celeron processor) is $229.99 USD.

"Following our Kickstarter campaign and fulfillment to backers in July, we're excited to announce our move to Amazon," said founder Lauren Pan. "Getting here was no small feat, especially after more than a year of chip shortages and unpredictable lockdowns, but here we are. ZimaBoard is one board to rule them all—one that puts individuals back in control."




"We as individuals put a lot of faith in the big-name cloud providers," said Pan. "For many people it seems a necessary evil to store their confidential files, precious photographs, and media with these dominant players for so-called safe keeping. But the thing is, we see time and time again that these providers do not respect privacy. Users frequently have their personal data sold and stolen. And, to add insult to injury, providers issue a monthly bill."

"As such, lots of people are looking to distance themselves from big tech and major players in the cloud space," continued Pan. "Sovereign computing by way of personal servers is emerging as a viable option, but until recently, this space has been dominated by geeks, crypto fans, and hackers. With ZimaBoard, we wanted to create an accessible option for the average user wanting to set up a home cloud."

Indeed, IceWhale is an organization on a mission to decentralize computing power and storage layers for Web3. They believe that privacy should matter to everyone, and a home cloud should be accessible. To that end, they've created ZimaBoard, allowing people to build their own cloud autonomy.

Key Features

• ZimaBoard allows users to easily expand their personal cloud to 36 TB disk space (2x SATA) as their data grows. They can enjoy fast reading and writing experience just like their local hard disk when connected via gigabit network.
• With its superior compatibility offered by the x86 chipset, users can turn ZimaBoard into a hardware router. They can create secure VPN connections, run lightweight services like FTP Servers, BitTorrent Clients, perform Traffic-Shaping and QoS, or even set up private access to their office computer.
• The Plex Media Server installed on ZimaBoard transforms the way users browse and enjoy their personal media library. Users can organize their media, stream their favorite collections of movies and TV shows anywhere on all of their devices. They can enjoy millions of high-resolution tracks via Tidal.
• Users can boost teamwork seamlessly on documents and spreadsheets in a protected environment. With ZimaBoard, they can set up a large-volume shared disk at home or in the office. This means users can edit their videos, photos, and documents with others on multiple systems in real-time.
• In practice, Zimaboard as a personal server offers excellent development possibilities and performance/price ratio as an x86 microserver. For example, it is ideal for git server, web server (Apache / lighttpd / NGINX), print server, chat server, or a Minecraft server.
• ZimaBoard can be used for data collection, data buffering, and data preprocessing to provide accurate and effective on-site IoT data for the cloud or local server, offering instant decision-making to provide agile responses, significantly reducing cloud and network infrastructure dependence.
• ZimaBoard is complemented by IceWhale's elegant, easy-to-use, open home cloud OS called CasaOS. This community-based open source software is focused on delivering a simple home cloud experience around the Docker ecosystem.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[thewan]

i would argue if you want to get away from necessary evils, an intel based platform is not somewhere i would runaway to. the lesser evil would probably be AMD, but the best one would probably to avoid x86 all together.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I want one just for the Plex of it all.

 

[Zendou]

i would argue if you want to get away from necessary evils, an intel based platform is not somewhere i would runaway to. the lesser evil would probably be AMD, but the best one would probably to avoid x86 all together.

Is AMD the lesser evil? I mean the company found its success in reverse engineering Intel processors back in the day and reselling them. Since Intel needed more fabs at the time they decided to use them for production instead of suing them out of existence. Neither company is without its faults, but I always find it odd to attribute morals to giant corporations. They will all always make moves that are self serving, and as publicly traded entities they have a literal fiduciary responsibility in doing so.

 

[ymdhis]

Sadly, this uses Realtek NIC and only 1GbE. At least there's two of them though.

put intel 2.5GbE NICs in there, 4 sata ports, and perhaps a case that can fit 4 HDDs. I don't even mind if the TDP doubles for the bare board, it would still make for a perfect NAS machine.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Interesting form factor for essentially the same thing I've repurposed my ol' Core 2 machine for. I bet it would even run the same Fedora Server OS. Nice!

 

[dragontamer5788]

i would argue if you want to get away from necessary evils, an intel based platform is not somewhere i would runaway to. the lesser evil would probably be AMD, but the best one would probably to avoid x86 all together.

Intel is way more open than (insert random ARM maker here). Good luck finding docs on Broadcom ARM chips. RISC-V isn't available yet in this power-level.

This is a very interesting board, and I'll be looking into it. I've always thought Rasp. Pi was "too small" for most people's use, but ZimaBoard 216 is just 2GB of RAM as well. I wouldn't be comfortable running a slew of docker stuff off of something like that.

What's the power-usage of this board? I'm sure its more than Rasp. Pi 4. But random "always on" Linux server could very well be useful to a lot of techie's home offices.

 

[ymdhis]

Yeah, this looks similar to the old Odroid H2, which unfortunately is not made anymore. Low power x86 with 2 SATA connectors. But it uses a lower powered weaker CPU, and only 1gbe ports. Unfortunately FreeNAS does not play well with Realtek NICs, that's why I mentioned that an Intel NIC would be better, then it would make for a kick ass mini NAS.

 

[Tom Yum]

Is AMD the lesser evil? I mean the company found its success in reverse engineering Intel processors back in the day and reselling them. Since Intel needed more fabs at the time they decided to use them for production instead of suing them out of existence.

Wow, so much wrong with this. Firstly, AMD had been selling original integrated circuit designs profitably for 7 years prior to being selected as a second-source manufacturer for the 8080 by Intel in 1976 and extended in 1982 to cover x86 (a condition of IBM's contract with Intel to supply the IBM PC). Some successful non-x86 AMD unique products over this time include the Am2901 bitslice family and the Am29000 32 bit RISC microprocessor series.

The first reversed engineered x86 processer by AMD was the AM386 in 1991 (22 years after AMD was founded), which came about because Intel reneged on its 1982 cross-license agreement with AMD. Intel did sue AMD to stop sales of the AM386, but Intel lost that case. Boiling down AMD's history to basically a Intel clone house shows a fair amount of ignorance on your behalf, luckily there is the internet and books on the topic if you want to educate yourself.

 

[The_Enigma]

Sadly, this uses Realtek NIC and only 1GbE. At least there's two of them though.

put intel 2.5GbE NICs in there, 4 sata ports, and perhaps a case that can fit 4 HDDs. I don't even mind if the TDP doubles for the bare board, it would still make for a perfect NAS machine.

Ya, that's what I was thinking. If they had a new model at the top of their lineup for $250-299 that had 4 total Sata, came as a case that could slot up to 4 drives in, and had a 2.5gb network port this thing would be awesome for personal cloud and NAS.

 

[Jism]

Ya, that's what I was thinking. If they had a new model at the top of their lineup for $250-299 that had 4 total Sata, came as a case that could slot up to 4 drives in, and had a 2.5gb network port this thing would be awesome for personal cloud and NAS.

The PCI-E slot allows you to extend with an additional S-ata controller. You just have to be practical.

 

[Initialised]

If you stack them does it become a ZimaFrame?

 

[lemonadesoda]

This is a great price starter server for DIY. I don't like the design though, I'd prefer something easier to rack mount and 4x SATA drives, but the concept and pricing seem on the mark for beginners.

Speed and power efficiency is perfect for single-digit user/clients.

UserBenchmark: Intel Atom D525 vs Celeron N3450

 

[zlobby]

Yeah, no. Lost me on the intel thingy.

 

[Easy Rhino]

I want one just for the Plex of it all.

Jellyfin.

 

[Frick]

Jellyfin.

Will look it up. Plex sucks.

 

[claes]

Plex sucks.

Just curious, what makes you say that?

I’m not the biggest fan of plex, but I stick to it just because I don’t feel like jellyfin, emby, or kodi have caught up, particularly with the “extras” (trailers and behind the scenes, similar/related titles, search by director/actor, lyrics with sync, etc).

 

[Easy Rhino]

Just curious, what makes you say that?

I’m not the biggest fan of plex, but I stick to it just because I don’t feel like jellyfin, emby, or kodi have caught up, particularly with the “extras” (trailers and behind the scenes, similar/related titles, search by director/actor, lyrics with sync, etc).

Jellyfin does lack some of the extras but I don't use those so that does not bother me. Plex phones home all the time. They know all of your activity.

 

[Frick]

Just curious, what makes you say that?

I’m not the biggest fan of plex, but I stick to it just because I don’t feel like jellyfin, emby, or kodi have caught up, particularly with the “extras” (trailers and behind the scenes, similar/related titles, search by director/actor, lyrics with sync, etc).

One part is that it really wasn't what I thought it would be. It tries to be a streaming service, with libraries and genres and whatever and that just felt messy to set up. The big reason though is that a lot of stuff would just dissapear from the libraries, and once it was gone I couldn't add those files again. Wrong format for filenames possibly, but Plex shouldn't decide how I name my files. A media server should just be able play the damned files.

 

[Logoffon]

I love how the 4th promo pic shows what appears to be a very Chinese OEM looking laptop running some old version of OS X...
perhaps they couldn't get a polycarbonate MacBook for that?

 

[claes]

One part is that it really wasn't what I thought it would be. It tries to be a streaming service, with libraries and genres and whatever and that just felt messy to set up. The big reason though is that a lot of stuff would just dissapear from the libraries, and once it was gone I couldn't add those files again. Wrong format for filenames possibly, but Plex shouldn't decide how I name my files. A media server should just be able play the damned files.

I had this issue, too, but then I had it with all of the services I’ve tried. Ended up giving up and using filebot to organize everything.