*UPDATE* - ZimaCube on is LIVE Kickstarter here -zimacube-boosters-15.kckb.st/bf3b716a . As mentioned in the video, Power consumption, noise tests, temperature tests and performance tests are all on the "to-do list". I am just waiting for IceWhale to drop the specific/featured release of Casa OS for this device first, as that will play an enormous part in getting realistic operational data. Any test I perform on this now, whilst it is running the general version of CasaOS, will be immediately invalid when the version that is intended for this device if/when it starts fulfilment is released. Hoep that makes sense and I will be factoring this into a few other direct comparison videos soon too! Have a fantastic weekend!
Dont limit yourself to ZimaOS as that is just a basic OS. Go deep (Truenas, PRoxmox, Debian with Samba shares). Fan control is nothing to do with ZimaOS, fans will be controlled by the bios. Whilst your at it, show us the bios settings. :) :) Caw we connect a custom HBA to the backplane ? And what is the max throughput of the cable that connectes the drive bay to the motherboard (1.62 Gbps, 2.7 Gbps, and 5.4 Gbps) ??
My main issue I am finding for NAS units like this is basically you can't really upgrade them later down the road via new motherboard, for example. Not to mention the absurd price premium that tends to be charged for the CPU and ram. I would absolutely love something like Qnap's TVS-h1688X-W1250-32G but 3 grand for basically a small server grade motherboard, a low end Xeon that isn't all that expensive at all even at launch is absurd. The price premium for the hardware that I cannot upgrade later without buying an entirely new device annoys me to no end.
Nice one, I have few comments: 1- how are the case fans controlled? on/off or PWM? 2- the PSU is 220W (around) - I was thinking twice putting 450W in my N3 but here is 220W only - that should be plenty but still 3- it is super nice to have 5x M2 - super nice comparing to my Topton (here only 2 and both went as OS disks in mirror) - one can have extra 2+1 pool 4- how about HDD and LAN LEDs in front? Overall super nice basis for something excellent - of course I would not stick to their OS but the hardware seems OK. All depends on final price. EDIT: I had to: @27:22 - "celeron PSU" - nice one ;-)
Thanks as ever Robbie / NASCompares for the brilliant videos (great choice to get this out ASAP as an almost 1-take 👍). I'm already looking forward to the further power/noise/performance tests when you are able to get hold of ZimaOS 👌 I'm watching with interest, as I still can't decide whether to back the ZC std or the LincStation N1 (as relatively cheap as the N1 is, I can't really justify both that and the ZC 😉I'm up for an all-SSD NAS and my gut says back the smaller/cheaper N1, but the more expensive ZC would give more flexibility for different drives in the future 🤷I think I'm going to wait to the end of the campaign, as much info still seems to be 'changeable' 🤔) (1) Worth noting that your review unit seems to be an earlier (prototype?) motherboard revision! ZC Update2 on the KS page, shows a photo of "N100 Model Phase Two prototype" motherboard, with several differences, inc: - The Large pin header above SODIMM connector is now discrete connectors (inc 2x SATA ??) - MB USB socket to right of SODIMM (Good for UnRAID ✅🙂) - 2x PCIe connectors (1 x8, 1 x16 - Surely the N100 won't have both??) (2) The ZC N100 pledges have the text "Note: This reward does not include disks or the quad M.2 SSD adapter"... which I'm reading as them wanting to show it's different from the ZC Pro (but that the 'Dual' M.2 via U.2 slot is included 🤞) (3) I'm hoping the N100 includes a stretch goal of 16GB of memory for a small up-charge (32GB would be better, but I know that is officially not supported, despite working fine by all accounts). I'm factoring in +£70 for a 32GB DDR SODIMM + £50 for an UnRAID licence, for my own preferences (I'd hate to have that 8GB memory go to waste!) (4) The "Your questions answered" email from Allen Shen of IceWhale (on 09 Nov 2023) actually stated that the Early Bird Backers would also get "$100 Cashback to your PayPal account" (or a $100 voucher for use against add-ons)... This seems surprising, but changes the overall price to even more good-value! Cheers again, D 🤓
Thank you for the very good review. Probably going to back the I5 version. Casa OS might also be interesting as it is more consumer friendly. Good for the rest of the family. Nice Casio watch! had the same in 1987 in highschool. Looks new??? would love to get one again. Better fans and dust filters would be welcome.
Don't forget that this is a prototype that represents a crowdfunding project (Spirit of fairness and all that!). Also, re my watch, as you can imagine..I'm a BLAST at parties! *quietly mutters NAS model numbers in the corner whilst all the bigger boys get phone numbers*
It would be nice if you explore the HW a little more. Is main M.2 full x4 PCIe? Is second M.2 on the board fully x4 PCIe? Is the exposed sata port on the board functional? How many lines effective has the x16 PCIe slot? Is the x16 PCIe slot support of bifurcation? If yes, in which configurations? What is the number of PCIe lines dedicated for M.2 expansion? All of this can tell much about the expandibility of the system.
Agreed, but that would require deep diving the system os a bit and might be for nothing when the full zimaOS arrives. So I'm being time efficient and waiting till it arrives, as they could downgrade the PCIe speeds or something
@@nascompares downgrade the speeds is doubtful. Also I was rather asking for lines than speed. For this you don't need to go into the OS details, any linux live CD can get you there or windows. I count on follow up.
I'm coming from a Drobo environment. Been in it for decade. My Drobo 5n is no longer functioning. This seems to be a product that operates simularly, or am I incorrect? I'm looking for a replacement for my 5n.
I bought a zimablade and now i regret not buying this. Would have to put it in my bedroom though (i still live with my parents) so noise would probably be an issue anyway Someone covince me not to
That.....is a bloody good point. To be fair it slots in nice and smooth and it's a decent thickness. But yeah, an angled plug or lockable one would not take up room that's needed elsewhere on the backplane
Is the aluminum finish closer to a raw aluminum or does it have an anodization? The KS campaign makes it look darker gray, kind of like Apple’s Space Gray. On this video it looks more silver. I would also like to know more about the TB4 capabilities when you find out more. That is the big pull for me but still not sure what it can/can’t do yet. Thanks for these videos!
That's a really good question and I wish I had made some close ups for the vid now (will add this in the next one). I'd recommend going through my article in the description (there are A LOT more pics). Otherwise, if you email me on Robbie (at) NC next week, I can send you HQ photos or short vids of needed bud. Apologies in advance for my slow replies
Would like to know what those drive cooling fans are as they look non-standard (i.e., hard to source if they fail) to me. I've been bitten by that problem before (looking at you, Drobo). Would have been nice to have an internal USB socket (like LincStation) for us UnRAID fans too! PS - Congrats on the play button. Hadn't noticed that before.
I'll check again next week about the fans, but I think they are standard. There are better photos in the article. Also, thank you for the kind words on the button!
OMG! You gotta stick some GPUs on that bad boy for some benchmarks. This is the ONLY n100 board that comes with a PCIe x16 slot. I honestly would just by the board from them and call it a day.
Looks like a great system, and it is nice to see other manufacturers entering the market. My main concern and one I was hoping woul[d be addressed is the lack if memory over 32GB. I run TrueNAS Scale, and memory is key to performance in that configuration. I was hoping this system would support at keast 64GB of Memory(Maybe it can??) so I could literally purchase and migrate my system, by slotting in my existing drives. Overall though looks like a good rig.
It would be nice to test out 32GB RAM with this. I know N100s only officially support 16GB but most boards have no problem with more. It would be interesting to see if Casa OS would play okay with that.
I can try and add this (got some Kingston 32GB sticks around) but even if it seems them...tough to gauge that all 32 are usable without maximizing things out...which on the N100 is going to be tricksy and take time. I've added it to my to do list, but will wait and see.
@@nascompares the card is not available in 12gb where I live, it's only interesting as long as the other PCIe slot would be available after the a2000 install
2 question: 1. Can the iris graphics be used if both RAM slots are used for the i5 2. Can I add an external HBA card and add more drives that way into the system easily.
The hardware is really intriguing, but CasaOS really offers next to nothing out of the box in terms of storage and network management. Certainly, it can be extended by using the underlying OS and/or suitable Docker containers, but it's not at all comperable to a tyical NAS solution as shipped. I think if i got one, it would take me about 10 minute before i started installing TrueNAS or unRAID.
You speak for everyone, yeah! This has got truenas written all over it...BUT...I will say that the ZimaOS (new casa OS that's designed for this) does sound promising. Hoping to get beta access or something soon
They mentioned sd card support for that 6+1 bay design, that one slot is multifunctional with sd card support. I didnt see anything related to that here
That's true. I forgot that. No sign of an SD card slot on this N100 model. Maybe raise in backer comments, as there might be a small% I missed it, but I doubt it. Oll be back in the studio where this device is sitting on Wednesday morning
would like to see icewhale create a separate option for customer on a budget. maybe implement a system like the brand Framework. Some NAS diyer would like to make a custom NAS where the motherboard has the required ports to connect to 6HDD and not buy a seperate adapter that will take alot of space. Like your Jonsbo video. maybe icewhale can create a barebone Zima Cube.
I see where you are coming from, but I think they would struggle to maintain a reasonable pricepoint. If they sold the case on it's own, or the case/mobo combo, the profit margin would be painful. Additionally, if they run too many SKUs (different configs at a fundamental spec level), then that is alot of different configs to maintain at once - which for a kickstarter campaign, can be operationally difficult commercially (see Storaxa and its wide variety of configs... CPUs... RAM...media... etc). If the ZimaCube IS a success though, I think this will be the brands first REAL move into the mainstream after the hackable board servers... they have a reasonable OS to grow from, a positive market reputation and hardware connnections... hell... 20 years ago... this would have described Synology and QNAP.. and now they dominate this tier of the industry. This kind of disruption is GOOD.. .but they have to walk before they can run and the N100 / i5 Pro options are a decent start (IMHO etc etc etc).
Yep, that's another m.2. I noticed this significantly more in my follow up images for the article linked in the description. Gonna test a wireless adapter or even a smaller m.2 drive to see if it's live!
If this is the ZimaCube, the fact it comes with the 4xNVME board is strange as KS specs for this unit does not include this. Have they changed spec or did they send a hybrid unit. Its important as teh price point vs what was shown could be different.
That's my fault for being unclear. This N100 unit has 2x M.2 NVMe on the removable module and 2x M.2 NVMe on the motherboard (so, x4). Whereas the Pro has 4x M.2 NVMe on the removable module, plus the same 2x on the mobo (so, technically x6). If you look at the specs from the brand, this is all correct. I did say this during the vid, but I also did say it poorly as "6 SATA and 4 NVMe" without the clarification later on..my bad
The explanation was clear, bur I was confused as on the KS page the Cube Spec is 2 x NVME on board whilst the Pro was 2x NVME on board and 4 x NVME extend so I was surprised the cube you had came with a board with an additional 2 NVME slots.
Eh. The price for the Pro version is too high even with the early bird discount, I think I'm about to get financially kicked in the ass and likely can't afford it next month anyway, and I think I want more than 6 bays anyway, so that kind of rules this one out for me.
Makes sense man. I'm holding off what I think of the pro till I have it here...the deal breaker is gonna be the m.2 lane speeds, what that TB4 supports and cooling. At around £800-900, compared to the rest of the market, it's still lower (if you factor the OS inc). But I know most users will immediately switch to TrueNAS on it
@@nascompares I’m torn between UnRAID and TrueNAS Scale. I don’t like that UnRAID requires a USB to run, and I don’t like that TrueNAS Scale forces k3s or k8s instead of Docker Engine. Plus, putting in 2 or 3 20 odd TB drives and expanding later with UnRAID has some appeal over having to buy about 8 of them at once for ZFS, especially when you’re supposed to buy drives in different batches anyway.
Really? It's a prototype box and shows that the product they backed is not just scribbles on a notepad...plenty of crowdfunding is built on indirect photos and images of a product that has no 3rd party verification. An unfortunate example of real backer angry can be found over on the storaxa campaign. That one is still in development and a consistent complaint of those backers is to do with a lack of a physical unit being shown and videos. As I said at the begining of this vid, I'm kinda impressed that they sent this so early in their campaign.
The design does baffle me,: The front panel is totally useless and hard to remove, it could be a dust filter mesh board. They could fit a 1U PSU or a DC-ATX power board there but choose to go with an external PSU.
I agree the front panel is a pain and hopefully gets improved upon for removal, but I kinda disagree about the PSU..you would need to drop some storage bays... Or lose the m.2 board, or block the airflow in the mobo cavity. That's why the jobsno n2 has just 5 drives (yet is the same size chassis). There really is no space in there for one.
@@nascomparesI totally agree about the external PSU. I like it and prefer it to the other option, apart from the reasons already listed, also because it can be replaced very easily and hassle free if necessary. The only thing I'd like to see though is some kind of protection against accidentally pulling the cable out of the server.
@@nascompares They can switch around the m2 board to fit in a PSU, if not I wouldn't mind if they enlarge the case a bit, considering it still needs a big 200W brick. Speaking of the front panel, if they really want it, they could make a door hinge design.
Or buy a dell r630 with 2 Zeons, 256GB of Ram, more pcie lanes you can throw a stick at, 10 drive slots. SAS and SATA, an idrac..... The list goes on. I think an N100 only has 9 pcie lanes? More on the i5 but still
Horses for courses and all that... and if BIG power hungry rack-mount kit is your thing, then more power to you, But you're comparing it to a small low-power desktop NAS. I'd luv to have the floorspace for a full-rack and the money to not care about running enterprise-grade kit 24x7 at home!! If you live in the UK or a lot of Europe, electricity is stupid expensive right now (c. 29p /kWh + 39p /day). At the above prices, running 24x7, a 15W avg load NAS would be around £38 /year, a 200W NAS would be £508 /year 🤑😁 (plus a second hand R630 seems to be around £800-1000, so double/triple the initial cost!)
$1500AUD, 780GBP, 7500HKD, 950USD. So about the same price as the pro when it launches for retail. I bought mine from a company in AU called ACT Networks they currently have an R730xd (same as an R630 but 2RU and more disk space) with 256GB of ECC Ram that you can raid/mirror if you want, 14.5tb of 10K SAS stoage (expandable as it has 24 drive slots), 2xE5-2678w v4 (48 threads total), remote access and BMC via an idrac, you can add an SD card to keep images on for install options, it has an internal USB port for booting, you can add a card to run NVME drives in 2 of the drive bays, you can bifurcate the PCIe slots so if you want to run multiple sets of 4x NVME drives on a 20quid (nicker :-) ) PCIe card you can and you can run each individual NVME at Gen3x4. (you cant boot from them though), You can add an OC3 or PCIe card for as many 10G/25G/40G/100G NICs as you want (mine had a 2x10G + 2x1G OC3 card and a dual 10GB PCIe card) you get the picture. My R630 runs at 126W with 5 VM's running on it for 10-14 hrs a day and others going on and off during that time. So less than an average gaming PC. Not sure what the server above from ACT Networks would run at, it has more drives than mine, so probably more than 126 but still less than a gaming PC. Oh and it has SR-IOV, PCIe off loading and a bunch other technologies that you don't usually get on consumer kit. Want to dedicate a GPU to Plex/Jellyfin and have a separate GPU dedicated to your gaming VM that runs steam? You can do that. Now your laptop running remote play on steam has all the power of that GPU and if its Linux it can run Windows games (if your VM is windows)@@nascompares
I don't disagree but what I would say is this. You can run a server on it side against a wall, it only needs air flow front and rear, that way it doesn't take up much space (mine are in my garage on top of a fridge). The 13th Gen servers are very quiet and sip power unless you really stress them - which is unlikely at home. My R630 (which now has 128GB of ram, 4 x 10GB + 2 x 1GB Nics, 8 x 10k drives, 4 x Gen3x4 NVME drives, 1 SATA SSD, and 2 Xeon E5-2683 v4's) draws 126W on average which is less than an average gaming PC. I have a combination of VCenter and Home Assistant working to turn the server off when its not in use and when I am in bed. The box is therefore averaging 10-14 hours a day. Here in Australia our power isn't cheap either (c40AUD kw/h), so that works out at roughly c71AUD a day or $260AUD a year (135GBP or 165USD) i guess the second hand enterprise kit here is cheaper. Maybe more poeople=more demand=more expensive? A mob called ACT Networks here in AU sell ex gov stuff and they currently have an R730xd which has 256Gb of ECC RAM, 14.5TB of 10k SAS storage (leaving 16 drive bays free), 4x1GB Nics and 2x XeonE5-2678w v4's for $1490AUD (774GBP, 947USD, 7400HKD) which is about the same price as the zima cube when it goes to retail. The server offers a lot of storage and a lot of RAM already installed. The really big thing with enterprise kit though is that its so freakin versatile, see my post responding to NASCompares for some of the things you can do with an r730xd. @@DerekGreen123
@@nascompares - Front panel - Not lockable - Big question mark about ventilation - Big question mark about ECC - They tested TrueNAS but need more info because technically working and working well 24/7 are two different things. Also, if Unraid will also work well - AI and GPT nonsense is the biggest dealbreaker for me. I have no desire to have this garbage on my NAS devices, even if it's not being used. They have that showy video on their KS page but it would have been nice to have seen narrated videos doing a walkthrough going into detail. Every piece of useful information needs to be on their KS page.
Awesome video. When you get the proper unit, I would like to see the power consumption of it. It will be interesting to see wattage when idle and running.
@@nascompares If it's not too much trouble*... any chance, when you come to do power tests, that you can also give the Idle / Some-Load power-draw in Watts, for the LincStation N1 vs the ZimaCube (with say a couple of 2.5" SSD's and a couple of NVMe drives installed in each) #ElectricityInTheUKisExpensiveTheseDays #EveryPennyOrWattCounts 😛 (* I appreciate I am asking a lot in terms of your setup time, so no worries if your busy recording/editing schedule doesn't have time for this 🥰)
i would be interested in seeing power consumption comparisons with this model. it would be cool to have that compared with the zima edge to see how they are different and also in comparison to your jonsbo budget diy nas to get things into perspective.
Power consumption, noise tests, temperature tests and performance tests are all on the "to-do list". I am just waiting for IceWhale to drop the specific/featured release of Casa OS for this device first, as that will play an enourmous part in getting realistic operational data. Any test I perform on this now, whilst is is running the general version of CasaOS, will be immediately invalid when the version that is intended for this device if/when it starts fulfilment is released. Hoep that makes sense and I will be factoring this into a few other direct comparison videos soon too! Have a fantastic week!
*UPDATE* - ZimaCube on is LIVE Kickstarter here -zimacube-boosters-15.kckb.st/bf3b716a . As mentioned in the video, Power consumption, noise tests, temperature tests and performance tests are all on the "to-do list". I am just waiting for IceWhale to drop the specific/featured release of Casa OS for this device first, as that will play an enormous part in getting realistic operational data. Any test I perform on this now, whilst it is running the general version of CasaOS, will be immediately invalid when the version that is intended for this device if/when it starts fulfilment is released. Hoep that makes sense and I will be factoring this into a few other direct comparison videos soon too! Have a fantastic weekend!
Dont limit yourself to ZimaOS as that is just a basic OS. Go deep (Truenas, PRoxmox, Debian with Samba shares). Fan control is nothing to do with ZimaOS, fans will be controlled by the bios. Whilst your at it, show us the bios settings. :) :) Caw we connect a custom HBA to the backplane ? And what is the max throughput of the cable that connectes the drive bay to the motherboard (1.62 Gbps, 2.7 Gbps, and 5.4 Gbps) ??
My main issue I am finding for NAS units like this is basically you can't really upgrade them later down the road via new motherboard, for example. Not to mention the absurd price premium that tends to be charged for the CPU and ram.
I would absolutely love something like Qnap's TVS-h1688X-W1250-32G but 3 grand for basically a small server grade motherboard, a low end Xeon that isn't all that expensive at all even at launch is absurd.
The price premium for the hardware that I cannot upgrade later without buying an entirely new device annoys me to no end.
Nice one, I have few comments:
1- how are the case fans controlled? on/off or PWM?
2- the PSU is 220W (around) - I was thinking twice putting 450W in my N3 but here is 220W only - that should be plenty but still
3- it is super nice to have 5x M2 - super nice comparing to my Topton (here only 2 and both went as OS disks in mirror) - one can have extra 2+1 pool
4- how about HDD and LAN LEDs in front?
Overall super nice basis for something excellent - of course I would not stick to their OS but the hardware seems OK. All depends on final price.
EDIT: I had to: @27:22 - "celeron PSU" - nice one ;-)
Thanks as ever Robbie / NASCompares for the brilliant videos (great choice to get this out ASAP as an almost 1-take 👍).
I'm already looking forward to the further power/noise/performance tests when you are able to get hold of ZimaOS 👌
I'm watching with interest, as I still can't decide whether to back the ZC std or the LincStation N1
(as relatively cheap as the N1 is, I can't really justify both that and the ZC 😉I'm up for an all-SSD NAS and my gut says back the smaller/cheaper N1, but the more expensive ZC would give more flexibility for different drives in the future 🤷I think I'm going to wait to the end of the campaign, as much info still seems to be 'changeable' 🤔)
(1) Worth noting that your review unit seems to be an earlier (prototype?) motherboard revision!
ZC Update2 on the KS page, shows a photo of "N100 Model Phase Two prototype" motherboard, with several differences, inc:
- The Large pin header above SODIMM connector is now discrete connectors (inc 2x SATA ??)
- MB USB socket to right of SODIMM (Good for UnRAID ✅🙂)
- 2x PCIe connectors (1 x8, 1 x16 - Surely the N100 won't have both??)
(2) The ZC N100 pledges have the text "Note: This reward does not include disks or the quad M.2 SSD adapter"... which I'm reading as them wanting to show it's different from the ZC Pro (but that the 'Dual' M.2 via U.2 slot is included 🤞)
(3) I'm hoping the N100 includes a stretch goal of 16GB of memory for a small up-charge (32GB would be better, but I know that is officially not supported, despite working fine by all accounts). I'm factoring in +£70 for a 32GB DDR SODIMM + £50 for an UnRAID licence, for my own preferences (I'd hate to have that 8GB memory go to waste!)
(4) The "Your questions answered" email from Allen Shen of IceWhale (on 09 Nov 2023) actually stated that the Early Bird Backers would also get "$100 Cashback to your PayPal account" (or a $100 voucher for use against add-ons)... This seems surprising, but changes the overall price to even more good-value!
Cheers again, D 🤓
Thanks for the detailed message man. Also, good spot on the PayPal thing!
The PSU is a very trustworthy brand and has been in the market for a very long time.
Thank you for the very good review.
Probably going to back the I5 version. Casa OS might also be interesting as it is more consumer friendly. Good for the rest of the family.
Nice Casio watch! had the same in 1987 in highschool.
Looks new??? would love to get one again.
Better fans and dust filters would be welcome.
Don't forget that this is a prototype that represents a crowdfunding project (Spirit of fairness and all that!).
Also, re my watch, as you can imagine..I'm a BLAST at parties! *quietly mutters NAS model numbers in the corner whilst all the bigger boys get phone numbers*
@@nascompares still happy with the dust filters in my big tower. My wife was also considering a 19'rack solution to get rid of more of our clutter.
It would be nice if you explore the HW a little more. Is main M.2 full x4 PCIe? Is second M.2 on the board fully x4 PCIe? Is the exposed sata port on the board functional? How many lines effective has the x16 PCIe slot? Is the x16 PCIe slot support of bifurcation? If yes, in which configurations? What is the number of PCIe lines dedicated for M.2 expansion?
All of this can tell much about the expandibility of the system.
Agreed, but that would require deep diving the system os a bit and might be for nothing when the full zimaOS arrives. So I'm being time efficient and waiting till it arrives, as they could downgrade the PCIe speeds or something
@@nascompares downgrade the speeds is doubtful. Also I was rather asking for lines than speed. For this you don't need to go into the OS details, any linux live CD can get you there or windows. I count on follow up.
I'm coming from a Drobo environment. Been in it for decade. My Drobo 5n is no longer functioning. This seems to be a product that operates simularly, or am I incorrect? I'm looking for a replacement for my 5n.
I bought a zimablade and now i regret not buying this. Would have to put it in my bedroom though (i still live with my parents) so noise would probably be an issue anyway
Someone covince me not to
This case is screaming out for a power cord hook. Just to take some strain off the port, if nothing else.
That.....is a bloody good point. To be fair it slots in nice and smooth and it's a decent thickness. But yeah, an angled plug or lockable one would not take up room that's needed elsewhere on the backplane
Is the aluminum finish closer to a raw aluminum or does it have an anodization? The KS campaign makes it look darker gray, kind of like Apple’s Space Gray. On this video it looks more silver. I would also like to know more about the TB4 capabilities when you find out more. That is the big pull for me but still not sure what it can/can’t do yet. Thanks for these videos!
That's a really good question and I wish I had made some close ups for the vid now (will add this in the next one). I'd recommend going through my article in the description (there are A LOT more pics). Otherwise, if you email me on Robbie (at) NC next week, I can send you HQ photos or short vids of needed bud. Apologies in advance for my slow replies
Would like to know what those drive cooling fans are as they look non-standard (i.e., hard to source if they fail) to me. I've been bitten by that problem before (looking at you, Drobo). Would have been nice to have an internal USB socket (like LincStation) for us UnRAID fans too!
PS - Congrats on the play button. Hadn't noticed that before.
I'll check again next week about the fans, but I think they are standard. There are better photos in the article. Also, thank you for the kind words on the button!
Any suggestions for a board with i3 N305?
OMG! You gotta stick some GPUs on that bad boy for some benchmarks. This is the ONLY n100 board that comes with a PCIe x16 slot. I honestly would just by the board from them and call it a day.
That x16 is not x16 electrical, just physically
This is what I’ve been waiting for.
Hope it lives up to it mate! Have a great weekend!
@@nascompares likewise :)
Front panel is fuuuuuugly. So much better without it. Should be a mesh fabric.
I quote like it...(also, it's likely a cost thing)..but I'm less impressed about how tricksy it is to remove
HuntKey! Haven't heard that name in a while. I bought one of their computer cases ~2006 in Zhongguancun. Nice case.
Looking forward to real world file transfer bandwidth tests over 10 gigabit and how effective SSD caching is.
Added the caching to my list!
@@nascomparesyes would be interesting
Looks like a great system, and it is nice to see other manufacturers entering the market. My main concern and one I was hoping woul[d be addressed is the lack if memory over 32GB. I run TrueNAS Scale, and memory is key to performance in that configuration.
I was hoping this system would support at keast 64GB of Memory(Maybe it can??) so I could literally purchase and migrate my system, by slotting in my existing drives.
Overall though looks like a good rig.
Would like to see how well pretty ITX motherboards fit too... Seems like if the motherboard and company die, it'd just be throwaway?
It would be nice to test out 32GB RAM with this. I know N100s only officially support 16GB but most boards have no problem with more. It would be interesting to see if Casa OS would play okay with that.
I can try and add this (got some Kingston 32GB sticks around) but even if it seems them...tough to gauge that all 32 are usable without maximizing things out...which on the N100 is going to be tricksy and take time. I've added it to my to do list, but will wait and see.
Hey John are you the same Shuback from the unifi community asking about phone roll over?
The creator pack is looking really juicy, i hope they will be able to create more space for add-in cards
The GPU model interests/confuses me a bit and I might ask them directly about this, as just how much utility can be made of that card interests me
@@nascompares the card is not available in 12gb where I live, it's only interesting as long as the other PCIe slot would be available after the a2000 install
Here is my like only for teach me how to open this front panel. Thank you!
SERIOUSLY... THAT PANEL DROVE ME INSANE AT FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 question:
1. Can the iris graphics be used if both RAM slots are used for the i5
2. Can I add an external HBA card and add more drives that way into the system easily.
Thanks for the Qs. If I get my hands on an i5 model, I'll try and cover this with everything else
The hardware is really intriguing, but CasaOS really offers next to nothing out of the box in terms of storage and network management. Certainly, it can be extended by using the underlying OS and/or suitable Docker containers, but it's not at all comperable to a tyical NAS solution as shipped.
I think if i got one, it would take me about 10 minute before i started installing TrueNAS or unRAID.
You speak for everyone, yeah! This has got truenas written all over it...BUT...I will say that the ZimaOS (new casa OS that's designed for this) does sound promising. Hoping to get beta access or something soon
They mentioned sd card support for that 6+1 bay design, that one slot is multifunctional with sd card support.
I didnt see anything related to that here
That's true. I forgot that. No sign of an SD card slot on this N100 model. Maybe raise in backer comments, as there might be a small% I missed it, but I doubt it. Oll be back in the studio where this device is sitting on Wednesday morning
would like to see icewhale create a separate option for customer on a budget. maybe implement a system like the brand Framework. Some NAS diyer would like to make a custom NAS where the motherboard has the required ports to connect to 6HDD and not buy a seperate adapter that will take alot of space. Like your Jonsbo video. maybe icewhale can create a barebone Zima Cube.
I see where you are coming from, but I think they would struggle to maintain a reasonable pricepoint. If they sold the case on it's own, or the case/mobo combo, the profit margin would be painful. Additionally, if they run too many SKUs (different configs at a fundamental spec level), then that is alot of different configs to maintain at once - which for a kickstarter campaign, can be operationally difficult commercially (see Storaxa and its wide variety of configs... CPUs... RAM...media... etc). If the ZimaCube IS a success though, I think this will be the brands first REAL move into the mainstream after the hackable board servers... they have a reasonable OS to grow from, a positive market reputation and hardware connnections... hell... 20 years ago... this would have described Synology and QNAP.. and now they dominate this tier of the industry. This kind of disruption is GOOD.. .but they have to walk before they can run and the N100 / i5 Pro options are a decent start (IMHO etc etc etc).
By the 2nd NVME, their appears to be another connector right below it, looks like another small nvme, can you confirm what it is.
Yep, that's another m.2. I noticed this significantly more in my follow up images for the article linked in the description. Gonna test a wireless adapter or even a smaller m.2 drive to see if it's live!
Would you be able to add more pics or do another review with that extra slot. that would be really interesting. @@nascompares
I was thinking about investing but delivery may 24 is too long to wait.
That's the OTHER pain or crowdfunding...
If this is the ZimaCube, the fact it comes with the 4xNVME board is strange as KS specs for this unit does not include this. Have they changed spec or did they send a hybrid unit. Its important as teh price point vs what was shown could be different.
That's my fault for being unclear. This N100 unit has 2x M.2 NVMe on the removable module and 2x M.2 NVMe on the motherboard (so, x4). Whereas the Pro has 4x M.2 NVMe on the removable module, plus the same 2x on the mobo (so, technically x6). If you look at the specs from the brand, this is all correct. I did say this during the vid, but I also did say it poorly as "6 SATA and 4 NVMe" without the clarification later on..my bad
The explanation was clear, bur I was confused as on the KS page the Cube Spec is 2 x NVME on board whilst the Pro was 2x NVME on board and 4 x NVME extend so I was surprised the cube you had came with a board with an additional 2 NVME slots.
I'd like to know how those 9 gen3 lanes are distributed, would love to see diagram released
I think they released one of the official KS page, but will need to check. If yes, I'll add it to the article in the description.
I believe it's not SATA but SAS connectors for specific hdd
They are dual SAS/SATA interfaces yes, but they are running into SATA handling at the back
Eh. The price for the Pro version is too high even with the early bird discount, I think I'm about to get financially kicked in the ass and likely can't afford it next month anyway, and I think I want more than 6 bays anyway, so that kind of rules this one out for me.
Makes sense man. I'm holding off what I think of the pro till I have it here...the deal breaker is gonna be the m.2 lane speeds, what that TB4 supports and cooling. At around £800-900, compared to the rest of the market, it's still lower (if you factor the OS inc). But I know most users will immediately switch to TrueNAS on it
@@nascompares I’m torn between UnRAID and TrueNAS Scale. I don’t like that UnRAID requires a USB to run, and I don’t like that TrueNAS Scale forces k3s or k8s instead of Docker Engine. Plus, putting in 2 or 3 20 odd TB drives and expanding later with UnRAID has some appeal over having to buy about 8 of them at once for ZFS, especially when you’re supposed to buy drives in different batches anyway.
A few backers will be disappointed that they did not get theirs yet after seeing this
Really? It's a prototype box and shows that the product they backed is not just scribbles on a notepad...plenty of crowdfunding is built on indirect photos and images of a product that has no 3rd party verification. An unfortunate example of real backer angry can be found over on the storaxa campaign. That one is still in development and a consistent complaint of those backers is to do with a lack of a physical unit being shown and videos. As I said at the begining of this vid, I'm kinda impressed that they sent this so early in their campaign.
The design does baffle me,:
The front panel is totally useless and hard to remove, it could be a dust filter mesh board.
They could fit a 1U PSU or a DC-ATX power board there but choose to go with an external PSU.
I agree the front panel is a pain and hopefully gets improved upon for removal, but I kinda disagree about the PSU..you would need to drop some storage bays... Or lose the m.2 board, or block the airflow in the mobo cavity. That's why the jobsno n2 has just 5 drives (yet is the same size chassis). There really is no space in there for one.
@@nascomparesI totally agree about the external PSU. I like it and prefer it to the other option, apart from the reasons already listed, also because it can be replaced very easily and hassle free if necessary. The only thing I'd like to see though is some kind of protection against accidentally pulling the cable out of the server.
@@nascompares They can switch around the m2 board to fit in a PSU, if not I wouldn't mind if they enlarge the case a bit, considering it still needs a big 200W brick.
Speaking of the front panel, if they really want it, they could make a door hinge design.
Or buy a dell r630 with 2 Zeons, 256GB of Ram, more pcie lanes you can throw a stick at, 10 drive slots. SAS and SATA, an idrac..... The list goes on.
I think an N100 only has 9 pcie lanes? More on the i5 but still
How much for that?
Horses for courses and all that... and if BIG power hungry rack-mount kit is your thing, then more power to you, But you're comparing it to a small low-power desktop NAS.
I'd luv to have the floorspace for a full-rack and the money to not care about running enterprise-grade kit 24x7 at home!! If you live in the UK or a lot of Europe, electricity is stupid expensive right now (c. 29p /kWh + 39p /day).
At the above prices, running 24x7, a 15W avg load NAS would be around £38 /year, a 200W NAS would be £508 /year 🤑😁 (plus a second hand R630 seems to be around £800-1000, so double/triple the initial cost!)
$1500AUD, 780GBP, 7500HKD, 950USD. So about the same price as the pro when it launches for retail. I bought mine from a company in AU called ACT Networks they currently have an R730xd (same as an R630 but 2RU and more disk space) with 256GB of ECC Ram that you can raid/mirror if you want, 14.5tb of 10K SAS stoage (expandable as it has 24 drive slots), 2xE5-2678w v4 (48 threads total), remote access and BMC via an idrac, you can add an SD card to keep images on for install options, it has an internal USB port for booting, you can add a card to run NVME drives in 2 of the drive bays, you can bifurcate the PCIe slots so if you want to run multiple sets of 4x NVME drives on a 20quid (nicker :-) ) PCIe card you can and you can run each individual NVME at Gen3x4. (you cant boot from them though), You can add an OC3 or PCIe card for as many 10G/25G/40G/100G NICs as you want (mine had a 2x10G + 2x1G OC3 card and a dual 10GB PCIe card) you get the picture. My R630 runs at 126W with 5 VM's running on it for 10-14 hrs a day and others going on and off during that time. So less than an average gaming PC. Not sure what the server above from ACT Networks would run at, it has more drives than mine, so probably more than 126 but still less than a gaming PC. Oh and it has SR-IOV, PCIe off loading and a bunch other technologies that you don't usually get on consumer kit. Want to dedicate a GPU to Plex/Jellyfin and have a separate GPU dedicated to your gaming VM that runs steam? You can do that. Now your laptop running remote play on steam has all the power of that GPU and if its Linux it can run Windows games (if your VM is windows)@@nascompares
I don't disagree but what I would say is this.
You can run a server on it side against a wall, it only needs air flow front and rear, that way it doesn't take up much space (mine are in my garage on top of a fridge). The 13th Gen servers are very quiet and sip power unless you really stress them - which is unlikely at home.
My R630 (which now has 128GB of ram, 4 x 10GB + 2 x 1GB Nics, 8 x 10k drives, 4 x Gen3x4 NVME drives, 1 SATA SSD, and 2 Xeon E5-2683 v4's) draws 126W on average which is less than an average gaming PC. I have a combination of VCenter and Home Assistant working to turn the server off when its not in use and when I am in bed. The box is therefore averaging 10-14 hours a day. Here in Australia our power isn't cheap either (c40AUD kw/h), so that works out at roughly c71AUD a day or $260AUD a year (135GBP or 165USD)
i guess the second hand enterprise kit here is cheaper. Maybe more poeople=more demand=more expensive? A mob called ACT Networks here in AU sell ex gov stuff and they currently have an R730xd which has 256Gb of ECC RAM, 14.5TB of 10k SAS storage (leaving 16 drive bays free), 4x1GB Nics and 2x XeonE5-2678w v4's for $1490AUD (774GBP, 947USD, 7400HKD) which is about the same price as the zima cube when it goes to retail. The server offers a lot of storage and a lot of RAM already installed.
The really big thing with enterprise kit though is that its so freakin versatile, see my post responding to NASCompares for some of the things you can do with an r730xd. @@DerekGreen123
Thanks
No worries!
Enough little things that add up to a dealbreaker for me. Maybe a 2.0 version might be better.
What are the deal breakers? Genuinely interested, as it's important to highlight the negatives as much as the positives - product in development etc
@@nascompares
- Front panel
- Not lockable
- Big question mark about ventilation
- Big question mark about ECC
- They tested TrueNAS but need more info because technically working and working well 24/7 are two different things. Also, if Unraid will also work well
- AI and GPT nonsense is the biggest dealbreaker for me. I have no desire to have this garbage on my NAS devices, even if it's not being used.
They have that showy video on their KS page but it would have been nice to have seen narrated videos doing a walkthrough going into detail. Every piece of useful information needs to be on their KS page.
Awesome video. When you get the proper unit, I would like to see the power consumption of it. It will be interesting to see wattage when idle and running.
I will 100% do this!
@@nascompares If it's not too much trouble*... any chance, when you come to do power tests, that you can also give the Idle / Some-Load power-draw in Watts, for the LincStation N1 vs the ZimaCube (with say a couple of 2.5" SSD's and a couple of NVMe drives installed in each)
#ElectricityInTheUKisExpensiveTheseDays #EveryPennyOrWattCounts 😛
(* I appreciate I am asking a lot in terms of your setup time, so no worries if your busy recording/editing schedule doesn't have time for this 🥰)
looking forward the power draw test later
I'll try and get this out ASAP bud
"Star" being a technical term for Torx?
I KNEW someone would give me S for that....
@@nascompares The risk of live and unscripted I guess. :)
This vs synogy 1821+?
Tbh it's an unfair comparison, as this is still a prototype and is a product that subject to crowdfunding. But yeah, at launch, I'll 100% compare them
i would be interested in seeing power consumption comparisons with this model. it would be cool to have that compared with the zima edge to see how they are different and also in comparison to your jonsbo budget diy nas to get things into perspective.
Power consumption, noise tests, temperature tests and performance tests are all on the "to-do list". I am just waiting for IceWhale to drop the specific/featured release of Casa OS for this device first, as that will play an enourmous part in getting realistic operational data. Any test I perform on this now, whilst is is running the general version of CasaOS, will be immediately invalid when the version that is intended for this device if/when it starts fulfilment is released. Hoep that makes sense and I will be factoring this into a few other direct comparison videos soon too! Have a fantastic week!