If you love your Raspberry Pi or other single-board computers (SBC), you certainly know that the space has opened up a lot in recent years. There are many alternatives, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, but the supportive Raspberry Pi community has long been a big selling point for the original. IceWhale Technology, a relative newcomer, entered the scene in 2021 with its ZimaBoard Kickstarter , which offered a unique look and an in-house, open-source operating system. Recently we reviewed the ZimaBlade , a Walkman-esque device that crams an Intel SBC and up to 16GB of RAM for personal cloud storage.  This company and its product may have flown under some radars, but they are back with another passion project for home servers. We do remind you, though, that this is a Kickstarter campaign, so you do assume all of the normal risks of backing the project with your own money.

CasaOS , their OS originally designed for the ZimaBoard, is based on the user-friendly Debian, a Linux OS from which the popular Ubuntu is derived. Raspberry Pi OS, previously known as Raspbian, is also based on Debian and has recently been updated to use Debian 12 "Bookworm" . IceWhale continues to update its OS with a heavy focus on the Docker ecosystem, which provides an easy way to create and manage your own personal cloud. This makes the ZimaBoard a cool product for developers and tinkers, but the recent launch of the Raspberry Pi 5 puts downward pressure on its pricing, given the inevitable hardware comparisons. Still, the ZimaBoard retains its unique look and is x86- rather than ARM-based.

The original Kickstarter campaign was quite successful, raising almost 50 times its original stated goal, but the company is not resting on its laurels. It intends to begin its next Kickstarter event later this month, around the 25th of October, for its upcoming product line: the ZimaCube . This is more ambitious than the ZimaBoard launch as it seeks to enter into the competitive network-attached storage ( NAS ) market with two models, the entry-level Cube and the more robust Cube Pro. Like the ZimaBoard, these run on Intel technology but offer significantly more power and expansion options. This includes multiple M.2 slots, plenty of USB ports, two PCIe slots, and more.

Of course, while M.2 SSDs are great, the real storage heavy lifting continues to come from capacious hard drives . Both models of the ZimaCube have six SATA ports with slots that can accommodate either 2.5” and 3.5” HDDs in addition to 2.5” SATA SSDs. The Cube, which will be priced around $300 with the Early Bird discount, is perfect for those interested in getting into and learning about personal cloud technology. The Cube Pro at ~$800, however, takes this storage to another level with dual Thunderbolt 4, dual x4 PCIe 4.0, quad 2.5GbE, and a powerful i5 CPU, although it’s using the same cubic form factor with a convenient, drop-down HDD bay access plate.

Regardless of what model you choose, you’re not tied to the beginner-friendly CasaOS. The hardware supports Linux, Windows, OpenWRT, pfsense/opnsense, Android, and more. Various forms of RAID are supported and you can also use Unraid or TrueNAS . The stock hardware is quite compatible but you can add your own, and there is also an official ZimaBoard Store for expansion accessories. This is a flexible system that can do a variety of tasks simultaneously, as shown with the live CasaOS demo on its website, with enough ports to allow for a lot of customization. We do recommend CasaOS for beginners who want to dip into this scene with the base Cube model.

The company compares the upcoming ZimaCube models favorably to Synology’s DS1621+ and QNAP’s TS-653D-4G-US, which are within the expected price range of the Cube Pro. It’s certainly worth shopping around to get the best fit for your NAS or homelab needs. If you have been waiting to jump into the fray or upgrade what you have, it’s probably worth paying attention to the upcoming Kickstarter campaign, which will have more information on the Cube and Cube Pro.