ZimaBoard Tiny Server for Home Assistant

🎁Giveaway. The luckiest subscriber will get a ZimaBoard for free🎁
I've been searching for a small, energy-efficient server which will be installed in a family member's apartment - in Europe, power consumption really matters now. I avoided a Pi because it doesn't have a SATA port, and I don't really trust SD cards. Luckily, Icewhale sent me this unit for review. It's funny - I’m developing IoT devices for Home Assistant but haven't shown the installation process yet. This is my first review, so please be kind!
Disclosures:
- I was not paid
- I was sent a ZimaBoard for free to evaluate
----------------------- My Affiliate Link ----------------------------
ZimaBoard on Amazon: amzn.to/3vt5QCs
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ZimaBoard Official Shop: bit.ly/49bouOs
ZimaBoard Official Site: bit.ly/3tREO7a
🎬 My IoT Projects Playlist: • IoT Mailbox Guard for ...
1️⃣My IoT Shop: www.pricelesst...
2️⃣ Github: github.com/Pri...
#homeassistant #smarthome #homeserver

[@Flos_tech_lounge]

I said it already in your last video the quality is outstanding and there are a lot of bigger creators which could take you as an example. The Zimaboard looks fantastic as a replacement for my Pi4. I want to step up my selfhosting game and this could be a perfect piece of tech helping me there.

[@PricelessToolkit]

Thank you very much for the kind words, and best of luck!

[@mholiencik]

This is my new favourite channel. So straightforward and simple. Really like your informative videos 😌

[@PricelessToolkit]

Wow, thank you!

[@0x0081]

Awesome review man. Big fan of your projects. I spin tiny pc’s for home servers but the Zima has that cool factor and, as you said, passive cooling is nice. Doesn’t beat the pi5 in price but definitely in performance and build … they just need to make some magic on the price to attract more people.

[@PricelessToolkit]

Thank YOU!!!!!!!!!! I totally agree with you, and maybe instead of a normal PCIe slot mini PCIe, to install Coral TPUs directly

[@garygilbreath2218]

Thanks, this was well done. I've been looking at standalone hardware for running Home Assistant and this looks like a possibility. Showing the complete installation process was great, thanks for that.

[@PricelessToolkit]

Glad it was helpful!

[@raszevsky]

Zimaboard is an interesting alternative to all RPis used to host services. The presence of sata ports and a PCIE port and the fact that the system is on x86 architecture makes the ease of deployment better than at least the RPI 5, where, although we have pcie, but we would have to use expansion cards to plug anything into this pcie. I must admit that I like your productions very much. You surpass quite a few bigger channels than yours in quality and presentation. It's clear that you have a lot of knowledge, and all of your original IoT and automation projects are just very interesting and cool!

[@PricelessToolkit]

Thank you very much, I am using RPI when i need GPIOs

[@buzga1987]

This is a homelab gold standard :)

[@PricelessToolkit]

Every homelabs are different, So no gold standard :)

[@squelchstuff]

That compact form-factor and passive cooling appears to have the perfect WAF

[@PricelessToolkit]

Yes I like the design too

[@jvgorkum]

ZimaBoard looks like a nice alternative for RPi boards and CasaOS looks nice

[@PricelessToolkit]

it's not alternative to RPI, advantage of RPI is GPIOs

[@jvgorkum]

@@PricelessToolkit If I want GPIO i will use ESP32 or ESP8266 with ESPHome connected to HomeAssistant :) I use a RPi4 for backup/test server with HomeAssistant

[@jamescollier2049]

Very well made video! This kind of work deserves more subs!

[@PricelessToolkit]

Glad you liked it!

[@jonirish323]

I would love to have one of these! I travel a lot for work, and this would be VERY useful!

[@PricelessToolkit]

👍

[@Mitakskia]

This looks interesting. Now im considering replacing my raspberries for HA, plex and othres projects. THank you for pointing it out!

[@PricelessToolkit]

I'm glad you liked it

[@michaelthompson657]

Id love to enter the giveaway please, best of luck everyone! With this I’ll finally be able to move from my pi 4 with 2GB ram with only home assistant and finally be able to install some more stuff! Maybe this could be my journey into homelanb, very exciting! Great quality videos btw! Keep it up!

[@PricelessToolkit]

Thank you and best of luck!

[@michaelthompson657]

@@PricelessToolkit thanks for the reply!

[@thngzys]

Good detailed review!!! Makes me wanna save up for one!

[@PricelessToolkit]

Thank you!

[@laura.855]

Thank you for review, its a great little server and i dont need PCIe but i will love to have restart and power buttons not just soldering pads

[@PricelessToolkit]

I can understand that but in the server use case, you don't need those buttons.

[@xxs9752]

Love passing cooling!

[@PricelessToolkit]

👍

[@mzaifkhan]

Definitely a good alternate to ARM based SBCs and Casa OS simplifies a lot of things related to deployment. While researching I liked how they have a demo available on the website. But I wonder if the power consumption of Zimaboard is comparable to something like HA Green.

[@PricelessToolkit]

HA Green will use less power but, X86 and SSD....

[@WillTaylorBTV]

Looks like a really nice mini server and a great upgrade compared to my ODROID M1

[@PricelessToolkit]

Yes not bad for it size and power consumption.

[@Emerald13]

Pretty cool little sbc, they're just getting more and more capable 👍

[@PricelessToolkit]

yes it is

[@PetervanHofwegen]

The 2 lan ports make it very nice to use as a firewall and such as well. Would love to get my hands on this hardware

[@PricelessToolkit]

best of luck!

[@Bizty]

Great video, ZimaBoard looks interesting.

[@PricelessToolkit]

Thank you!

[@marcelvanlieshout3508]

Looks good! Dual SATA for raid-1 :)

[@PricelessToolkit]

Fingers crossed!

[@x86cowboy]

Always wanted to get one for my home.

[@PricelessToolkit]

Good Luck

[@lucaluke744]

I think this is one of the best server possible found. Great video! Can I entry into the giveaway? I will try to create a several project

[@PricelessToolkit]

Entered!

[@ErnestBeinrohr]

This looks much better then the pcie that raspi5 has

[@PricelessToolkit]

Yep Rasp need a PCIe HAT

[@francescoatria1086]

X86 sbc are always best for versatility Great video 👍

[@PricelessToolkit]

Sure is, Thank you

[@alfadex50]

That is grea piece of hardware!

[@PricelessToolkit]

es, but the price is a little higher than I would like

[@alfadex50]

@@PricelessToolkit indeed!

[@kloosterboe2]

Nice! Great to get some ideas

[@PricelessToolkit]

Thanks

[@RolfSzimnau]

I enjoy your videos, thank you.

[@PricelessToolkit]

Thank you.

[@Ferdy2003]

With the two network ports I imagine you can use it as a small NAS. Maybe I can get my hands on such a device to try it out ;)

[@PricelessToolkit]

for nas you need SATA ports and one LAN :) best of luck!

[@MarcGundlack]

Funny, I'm just searching for such a Mini PC and researched on YT, would be great to have it as home (lab) server :)

[@PricelessToolkit]

Good luck!

[@inghongkong9015]

I hope I win. Could use one of this for docker containers

[@PricelessToolkit]

Good luck!!

[@mohn5150]

Great video good work👍

[@PricelessToolkit]

Thanks 👍

[@nunomcosta]

Nice! I hope tor win it!

[@PricelessToolkit]

Good luck!

[@-iIIiiiiiIiiiiIIIiiIi-]

I'd wait for them to update to the Intel N100s.

[@PricelessToolkit]

The N100 CPU is good!, but I think you will have to wait a long time.

[@nikos0937]

See ya RPi!

[@PricelessToolkit]

RPI has its own niche, I use it when I need GPIOs.

[@nikos0937]

@@PricelessToolkit I agree

[@GiulioBerti]

What is the idle power consumption? And how does this compare to a miniPC in your opinion? Thanks!

[@PricelessToolkit]

6w idle. if you will use just a couple of containers the Zimaboard is okay. I use 2x Lenovo m720q for the main and backup server because I have lots of virtualization, idle is 2x22w. if you search little bit more power than Zimaboard can offer, check the processor Intel N100

[@michaeltodd17]

Wonder how it'd handle opnsense to reduce some watts from current setup

[@PricelessToolkit]

It is capable of routing 1Gb/s easily

[@synco1985]

This is really cool, do you know if Proxmox offers access to the hardware for the machines running under it? like the Google Coral TPU? also, has anybody else configured the Plex server add-on inside Home Assistant with media from an USB storage device? I can't get that to work. thanks.

[@PricelessToolkit]

Yes you can pass Google Coral TPU to VM easaly, proxmox is the best!. sorry but i dont use PLEX.

[@laraschmitt7920]

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@PricelessToolkit]

Thanks!

[@AndriusNera]

Nice ;)

[@PricelessToolkit]

Thanks for the visit

[@s1ocky]

Everytime I see the Zimaboard I'm irritated about the blocked port. It isn't even a port I'd use after installing proxmox, but it still irritates me.

[@PricelessToolkit]

Yes, it is annoying.

[@ricardostocker2012]

saludos uno para chile

[@PricelessToolkit]

Hola desde Francia, bienvenido.

[@mjkl9658]

👍🏻

[@PricelessToolkit]

thanks

[@anlpereira]

Great video. Can we install Homeassistant in this board? Thank you very much

[@PricelessToolkit]

It's obvious that you haven't watched the video, but I'll answer, yes of course.

[@anlpereira]

@@PricelessToolkit I'm sorry. After I watch the video till the end a I found that homeassistant can be installed.