ZimaCube NAS hands-on: This 6-bay NAS has a lot of potential

I used quite a lot of NAS servers over the course of the final decade, and it is not usually there is a new model on this class. That’s what IceWhale is doing with the introduction of the ZimaCube. The Chinese model is best-known for its ZimaBoard single board server — consider it as an x86 various to the Raspberry Pi 4 — and having used it for the higher a part of the 12 months, I prefer it fairly a bit.The ZimaCube is a way more bold effort that’s designed to go up in opposition to the most effective NAS servers out there at the moment. So what’s attention-grabbing in regards to the ZimaCube, you ask? Well, is has six drive bays, first rate internals that go as much as a 10-core Core i5 on the Pro mannequin, 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet as customary, M.2 bays, and even Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. You get 256GB of M.2 storage out of the field together with 8GB of RAM with the bottom mannequin, and the {hardware} prowess mixed with the elegant design makes it worthy of consideration.IceWhale is crowdfunding the ZimaCube proper now, and I used to be despatched a unit a month in the past for testing. I used it alongside the likes of the DiskStation DS923+, so this is what you’ll want to know in regards to the ZimaCube, and whether or not it’s best to spend money on the NAS in lieu of extra established manufacturers.ZimaCube NAS: Pricing and availability(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)The ZimaCube is presently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter, with normal gross sales slated to kick off subsequent 12 months. There are two variants of the ZimaCube out there: a quad-core mannequin that is powered by Intel’s Alder Lake-based N100, and a Pro model that has the 10-core Intel Core i5-1235U.The ZimaCube with Intel N100 might be purchased for $499, a reduction of $200 from its estimated retail worth of $699. The ZimaCube Pro is offered for $899, which is $300 off its $1,199 retail worth. The ZimaCube Pro has twin Thunderbolt 4 ports, and Ice Whale can also be introducing a ZimaCube Pro Creator Pack for $1,599 that features the ZimaCube Pro, 64GB of reminiscence, 1TB SSD, and an NVIDIA Quadro RTX A2000. The Creator variant is slated to debut at $1,999 as soon as it hits retail, so that you’re taking a look at financial savings of $400.ZimaCube NAS: Design(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)Before we get began, I have to level out that the model of ZimaCube I’m utilizing just isn’t the retail mannequin. IceWhale despatched an preliminary model of the NAS so I may check the {hardware}, and it would not even have the ZimaOS software program that is going to be put in out of the field on retail items — it as an alternative runs CasaOS, the identical OS that is on the ZimaBoard. That stated, I used to be capable of flash the ZimaOS construct on the NAS with relative ease. As it is not a retail mannequin, I received the ZimaCube in a nondescript field, and apart from the enclosure itself and its energy adapter, I did not get any equipment. Once the ZimaCube begins going out to backers, it should embrace customized packaging and all of the equipment.(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)The design of the ZimaCube has lots going for it; the chassis is made solely out of steel, and the commercial aesthetic permits it to face out. I although the NAS had an inside PSU once I took it out of the field, however the heft is all right down to the steel chassis. That means you get good sturdiness, and actually, I’ve zero points with the construct high quality of this factor.Image 1 of 3(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)The drive bays are positioned behind a entrance panel that attaches magnetically, and it’s the solely space the place IceWhale may have completed higher. You’ll have to wedge a fingernail contained in the panel to pry it open, and the magnets have a tendency to come back off the panel and connect to the chassis. I do not know if a revision is deliberate or if that is the model that may exit to clients, however the panel wants a rethink. The panel additionally attracts quite a lot of mud, and it is onerous to wash.Image 1 of 4(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)Another quibble is that the drive set up is not tool-less; even the 3.5-inch HDDs want screws, and that is not the norm as of late with most NAS servers.(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)Outside of that, there aren’t any issues with the design of the ZimaCube — it is a NAS that is constructed to final, and IceWhale did a good job with the chassis. You get a singular 6+1 configuration that sees six drive bays for putting in 3.5-inch and a couple of.5-inch drives, and a slot that homes two M.2 bays. Also, I just like the accessibility of the ports, and it’s simple to entry the DRAM module and the M.2 drive that is put in out of the field.ZimaCube NAS: Features and ports(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)One of the most important promoting factors of the ZimaCube is the in depth feature-set. IceWhale is basically delivering one of the crucial feature-packed NAS on this phase, so let’s begin off with the fundamentals. The base mannequin ZimaCube that I’m utilizing comes with an Intel N100 that has 4 cores going as much as 3.4GHz.(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)My unit had 16GB of RAM put in, however the usual mannequin often comes with 8GB out of the field, and it may possibly go as much as 32GB; the draw back is that there is only a single SO-DIMM slot on the NAS. (Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)Interestingly, the ZimaCube comes with a 256GB M.2 SSD put in out of the field, and this principally serves because the boot drive. My unit got here with the Samsung 980 Pro, however I doubt IceWhale will likely be wherever as beneficiant with consumer-facing fashions — these are possible to make use of a white-label SSD as an alternative. Even then, the truth that you get a drive in any respect is a nifty addition.Image 1 of 4(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)Continuing with the positives, the ZimaCube has a very good assortment of ports: you get two USB 3.0 ports on the entrance alongside a USB-C port, and a 3.5mm jack. Round the again, you get two 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 4 USB ports — two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 — and an HDMI in addition to a DisplayPort 1.4 port. There’s additionally a PCIe Gen3 x4 slot, and that offers you the choice of including a networking card down the road.If you need one thing that has extra energy, there is a ZimaCube Pro that comes with an Intel Core i5-1235U, and this mannequin has 10 cores and has 16GB DDR5 RAM out of the field, two SO-DIMM slots, and the identical 256GB M.2 drive out of the field. You get the identical six bays, however you may add an extra 4 M.2 drives, and also you get 4 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, six USB 3.0 ports, and twin Thunderbolt 4 ports.The Pro mannequin additionally will get a PCIe Gen4 x16 slot along with a Gen4 x4 slot, so you’re getting a substantial improve should you go together with the Pro variant — way more so than the likes of the DiskStation DS1621+.ZimaCube NAS: Performance(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)This part goes to be comparatively quick as I could not do a lot testing with the ZimaCube. It’s nice that the NAS comes with a NAS preinstalled, and this serves because the boot drive for the web-based ZimaOS. ZimaOS is a light-weight OS that is designed for single-board servers, so it runs nice on the ZimaCube. You get a dashboard with widgets outlining system standing, storage, and community exercise. The built-in app retailer has all of the utilities you want in a NAS server; there is a native Plex shopper, Emby, Home Assistant, Portainer, Jellyfin, and so forth. You also can set up Pi-hole or AdGuard on the server should you’re trying to arrange network-wide advert blocking, and all these utilities are straightforward to put in and configure.(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)What I like is the seamless Docker integration; you may simply add containers straight from the dashboard, and it’s considerably simpler to do that than within the likes of DiskStation Manager 7.2 and TerraMaster’s TOS 5. There’s no Roon integration proper now, however you may set up the Docker picture with out an excessive amount of of a problem.That’s the place the positives finish; I could not use the ZimaCube to any measurable diploma because it would not acknowledge the HDDs I slotted in. I attempted with six completely different drives, and so they simply would not present up within the ZimaOS interface. I confirmed that the drives have been working in one other NAS, however strive as I would, they weren’t acknowledged within the ZimaCube. The SATA controller was related to the motherboard, and I reseated the cables simply to make certain — however to no avail.(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)This meant that I may solely do restricted testing by utilizing the M.2 drive slots. These labored hassle-free, however not with the ability to use the SATA HDDs in the end prevented me from writing a full-fledged assessment. On that word, there are some things to notice on the software program entrance as properly. While it’s light-weight, it misses out on configurability, and also you simply do not get the standard settings to configure port forwarding, utilization entry, safety and privateness choices, and so forth.You do not get any fan management both, and this has been some extent of frustration with the ZimaCube. The built-in fan will get very loud even when the NAS is idling, and there isn’t any strategy to change its default habits. Anyway, IceWhale is sending me a brand new mainboard and backplane, and I’ll slot them in as quickly as they present up and take a look at testing the NAS at a later level.ZimaCube: The competitors(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)As all the time, my go-to alternative on this class is the DiskStation DS1621+. It could also be a couple of years outdated at this level, however it continues to ship excellent efficiency in every day use, and also you get all of the options you want. There’s no 2.5GbE connectivity right here, and since the unit runs a Ryzen V1500B, you miss out on the power to make use of {hardware} transcoding in Plex. That stated, you get rock-solid reliability, and whereas the DS1621+ is costlier, you get the most effective software program within the enterprise.ZimaCube NAS: Should you purchase it?(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)You can buy this if:You desire a 6-bay NAS with excellent {hardware}You want light-weight software program that has all of the utilities you will useYou desire a highly effective Plex media serverYou want multi-Gigabit networkingYou should not purchase this if:You need secure software programYou want hassle-free reliabilityThe ZimaCube clearly excels on the {hardware} facet of issues, and this is without doubt one of the strongest sub-$1,000 NAS servers I used. The software program has lots to supply as properly, and whereas it’s presently not secure, that ought to change by the point the ZimaCube begins going out to backers — finish of Q1 2024, by the most recent estimates.IceWhale has all of the substances with the ZimaCube to problem established NAS manufacturers, and whereas there are many bugs that must be ironed, it appears attractive. So should you want a NAS with highly effective {hardware} and are prepared to take a danger with a brand new entrant, the ZimaCube has a lot to supply. You’ll simply need to cross your fingers that you just get a unit that works out of the field.