We have sometimes told you about the benefits of having a home server, as simple as it is, to help us accomplish daily tasks. With these devices you can have your own VPN or 4K media server, to give a few examples, but the problem is that as a “server” they are usually large and high-powered. However, with ZimaBoard now you’ll be able to set up your own home server with a device that fits in the palm of your hand (it’s the size of a 2.5-inch SSD).
You also don’t think we are talking about a plug and play device, since in reality, as the name suggests, we are dealing with a “card”. Despite this, its configuration and start-up are extremely simple, as well as the integration, for example, of a SATA 3 SSD in this same server. Let’s take a closer look at it so you can see what we’re talking about.
ZimaBoard, the server the size of an SSD
ZimaBoard was born from the Kickstarter project of the company IceWhale Technologies and comes to the market in three variants: ZimaBoard 216 (2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of eMMC storage and dual-core Celeron processor), ZimaBoard 432 (4 GB of RAM, 32 GB of eMMC storage and quad-core Celeron processor) and ZimaBoard 832 (8 GB of RAM, 32 GB of eMMC storage and quad-core Celeron processor), which logically also have different price ranges: 119.90 USD, 159.90 USD and 199.90 USD respectively.
Apart from the RAM memory, its built-in storage and its processor, all models share the rest of the features. For example, they support up to 36TB of expanded storage thanks to their two built-in SATA 3 ports (each supports up to an 18TB hard drive), and because they have an RJ-45 port Built-in Gigabyte, this makes it easy to configure. as a high-performance file server or media server. In fact, it even comes with Plex Server installed out of the box.
A very curious feature that this small server the size of a 2.5″ SSD incorporates is that its x86 chipset allows it to be used as a router, so it is also ideal to configure it as a VPN server, server FTP, BitTorrent clients, efficient Traffic -Shaping or QoS, or even to act as a security server.
All models come with a dedicated operating system created by the manufacturer, called CasaOS, designed to work in the cloud. It is an open source operating system designed to be able to configure this server in the cloud easily and quickly, without the need for extensive knowledge in this regard.
If you want to buy your own ZimaBoard server, you can already do so through its website (which we’ve linked at the bottom of this article), although there are several things you should take into account, such as the fact that it only allows you than paying in dollars (which you don’t do is a problem if you pay with PayPal) and that the shipping costs are not included in the price (however, we have investigated and for some reason it is sold cheaper for Europe than for the United States, for example, where on average these servers cost $20 more).
