The BETTER Raspberry Pi? // ZimaBlade Review

In this video, I take a deep dive into the ZimaBlade, a compact single-board computer from IceWhale, the creators of the ZimaBoard. We'll explore its potential for various HomeLab projects, including building a small and efficient Home Server or NAS device. I'll also compare its CPU performance and power consumption to similar devices like the Raspberry Pi 5, and discuss whether it could be a good replacement for my old ZimaBoard or useful for future projects like a Kubernetes cluster. Join me as I share my honest and humble opinion on this intriguing piece of tech.
References
- ZimaBlade Official Shop: bit.ly/3WT3Wa7
- ZimaBlade Personal NAS: bit.ly/4byz6Yq
- ZimaBlade on Amazon: amzn.to/3wNc7Kq
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Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:55 Tech Specs
04:38 Project Ideas
06:34 What about the OS?
08:44 Performance and Efficiency
12:30 Final thoughts
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Links can include affiliate links.

[@user-eh8oo4uh8h]

There are many SBCs that are technically better than the Pi, but the problem is always the long term support, and software offerings.

[@dkryptonut]

This. The Pi's draw isn't the hardware, it's the ecosystem.

[@christianlempa]

That's a good point! I probably mention it in my Kubernetes Cluster video, using RPIs, as it was part of my decision making about support, number of accessories, etc.

[@XtianApi]

Yes so many comparisons get it wrong. Yes you can buy $150 n100 mini PC and put a gpio board on it, but can you imagine dealing with that and Windows rather than just flashing an image to an SD and being done? " but it has more power" So does every other computer in my house so what

[@justbob8294]

i wish the zimablade used a newer n100 cpu.

[@christianlempa]

that would be cool, yeah

[@ronm6585]

Thanks Christian.

[@christianlempa]

you're welcome ;)

[@BeNtOoOoOo]

And i found my J4105 outdated, on an ASROCK board with 2x SODIM DDR4. That's not even an option on these days really... Any 2nd hand used PC does better for less.

[@octoberbleak8184]

Could this be a good option for a local seed box? or is it too much for something like that?

[@christianlempa]

I don't have any experience with that unfortunately

[@VincentGroenewold]

The looks reminded me of my walkman back in the day. :) Kinda cool, but like you mention, not very interesting compared to the previous version and looking cool doesn't really matter anyway. I'd rather pick the old one or A Raspberry with way more support behind it.

[@christianlempa]

Haha yeah that walkman style is nice :D

[@alvcm7208]

Why do you claim that mdadm is oudated? I know there are newer solutions like ZFS for hosts dedicated specifically for storage, or file systems like btrfs that have their partial RAID implementation. But are there better solutions for RAID on general purpose hosts/servers that are not memory-intensive? Just because mdadm is old doesn't mean it is deprecated, rather it makes it a mature technology ready for production.

[@christianlempa]

Outdated is probably not the right word, call it "old" :)

[@alvcm7208]

@@christianlempa we can all agree on that haha

[@FelipeBudinich]

Have they fixed the processor lottery? (Basically they have two different quad core configurations, but sell it as one SKU and you get one at random)

[@theTrigant]

What is your Keyboard ?

[@MrPirreE]

I think OpenMediaVault would be great replace for most that think about use CasaOS as a NAS software

[@makerbymistake]

I've been using mine as a backup NAS. I had similar thoughts to yours: It's cool but it's not as good as a Pi 5

[@deuyanon]

I think in this price range the Odroid boards are a good alternative to the zimaboard/blade.

[@christianlempa]

Good point! Thanks for sharing

[@cycycool]

hi what's the name of the alternative Terminal app on MacOS thanks

[@GR3YS0RG4N1CS]

Wezterm

[@pandashangout]

He mentions two in the last video. Wave and Warp.

[@cycycool]

@@pandashangout thanks ;)

[@HiltonT69]

They need one with a modern CPU...

[@christianlempa]

That would be amazing! Like others said, Intel N100 would be cool

[@XtianApi]

Zimaboard 2 coming!

[@christianlempa]

🥰

[@werecynicalwhywolf8700]

I had one of these, I used on my robot to clean the swimming pool but I added a few upgrades to make AI art...

[@miecz8316]

5w is quite high, i get 4w on a minipc with n100

[@christianlempa]

It's still low compared to a regular Desktop PC

[@GustavoMsTrashCan]

9:00 Me, a orange pi zero 3 enjoyer: "Cheez, 5 watts on idle? That is 2 times as much as my little chap uses while running on full load!"

[@kritikusi-666]

"Honest and humble opinion" Got it. You forgot to wink. Great review though. I still do not understand why Raspberry pi does not come with better options. Such as dual ethernet port, or modular ram and so on.

[@makerbymistake]

Raspberry Pi CM5 will be out soon and there will be plenty of carrier boards for it that will compete with systems like this one

[@Dragonshader]

@@makerbymistakeand how many of those can you attach at the same time?

[@royborgen]

I would love to see a raspberry pi or similar that come with an m.2 slot. I've had a few raspberry pi's, but I feel the SD-cards are such a crappy and unstable medium. I've had several crashes because of it. I know that pi can boot from USB as well, but this mean that I will need to have an external device. I want it all in one nice case. If anyone know of such an option, let me know.

[@pdx2240]

I know its not perfect, but I use the "Samsung FIT Plus" as my node-discs in my raspberry pi cluster. The performance is good enough compared to how simple the solution is, and way better than sd-cards.

[@Zedris]

Pi5 has cases that include the hat within it for m.2 look at a pi 5 with the argon neo m.2 case

[@Andy-fd5fg]

@@Zedris there are a number of "HATs" out here now with m.2 slots on... so you can put it in your own case. There are also a few HATs with a PCIe switch chip and two m.2 slots. @JeffGeerling has some videos on these. Hopefully when the Pi6 comes along (Probably in 2 or 3 years time) it will have a few more PCIe lanes to play with... 4 sounds good, on an oclink connector.

[@HiltonT69]

There are numerous M.2 adapters for the RPi, and many similar devices with an M.2 slot.

[@Dragonshader]

Das ist doch ein Walkman aus den späten 80ern xD

[@telosxian]

Thanks! Saved me some wasted coinage.

[@christianlempa]

Glad I could help!

[@Jonniiism]

gg

[@venompire]

no arm = big "no no" for single board pc imho

[@TheChadXperience909]

It's a huge "naw...", and I don't know why you agree to do these Sponsored videos when they're not even paying you. Well, that's not actually true though, because you ARE getting paid through those affiliate links, and so you're not being completely honest with us. However, if you don't personally have a use case for this product, and are going to produce a tutorial and how you set yours up, then I would tell them, "No thanks. I'm not your puppet". Otherwise, you're just a sellout, and a part of the toxic mess that KZbin is becoming.

[@christianlempa]

Many people value unbiased reviews to see what the product is like, that's what I do

[@markus965]

Hi, hab gerade versucht dich auf discord anzuschreiben aber das ging nicht durch. Ich wollte dir zur Unterstützung was zuschicken falls du sowas annimmst.