X86 Single Board Computer with PCIe x4, Dual SATA 6Gbps, Gigabit LAN – DIY NAS & 4K Media for Makers (ZimaBlade 7700 N3450 Without RAM)

I used this for an inexpensive DIY NAS. It's been doing the job without any issues.

It's pretty good for the price considering it's around the price of a pi5 with a case when i bought it

Got this device as a little tinkering box and it's been pretty versatile. Got this with an NVMe PCIE device and everything worked right away. I installed Linux as a little home server and has worked well since.Had some caveats due to not doing a lot of research before getting this. 16GB ram stick are expensive except the one IceWhale sells, but IceWhale RAM sticks have a pretty significant delivery lag time at the time of this review (2-4 weeks). 8GB RAM sticks are pretty quick to get though. Also, be sure to have a 12v/3amp USB-C power supply on hand as they only ship the USB-C cable without a power adapter with this unit.

I bought two of these because I needed a small form factor tinker toy. This fit the bill especially because it was on sale.Gripe: Ram doesn't come with it. Yeah, I know it says that right in the description... but this is DDR 3 ram we are talking about at this point, there should be a landfill of this stuff just like the chips used in the product (not complaining about that piece... just saying)Actual issue: The biggest one of them all. Where the heck are you all finding the exact chargers for these things besides buying them direct from IceWhale? I used 7, yes... SEVEN... different chargers in my house and none of them worked. Just a solid red light when attempting to power on.My biggest beef here is that, if the company wants to make a product that's actually going to be used, they need to not make a charger that is uncommon to the common user. It feels very bait-and-switchy to have to say "Sure, we will sell you the base model of a product at an excellent price, but to make it actually work, you have to spend more money on a specific item from us". That's like saying, I'll sell you the car, but the key is extra.I REALLY wanted to love this product. I watched so many videos reviewing this thing and it really fit the bill for what I wanted. But this power cord thing soiled it for me for the product and the company.

need a ddr3L stick 8gb is plenty unless youre doing more but it's cheap I had a pcie to m.2 adapter worked just fine. A little mad had to buy a bigger phone charger for it but that's $5 and forget about it. Had to hunt but you just type the internal ip into your fav browser and you get full access.

User friendly

I've been a long time fan of Ice Whale and their products. I loved the Zimaboard, and the flexibility it offered. I own two Zimacubes, and now that the Zimablade has also launched, I was eager to give it a try.It comes in a small box, not too much bigger than the Zimablade itself. It looks cool, and has the zimablade cushioned between foam for protection. The instructions say to power it on, and plug it into ethernet, and then go to casaos.local to get started.Since mine didn't come with any RAM, I had to first get some. It takes up to 16GB, but the only 16GB module I could find of this variety was the one sold directly by Ice Whale, which was another $50. I ended up picking up an 8 GB module on Amazon for about $15, as I figured 8GB would be sufficient for my uses.Since the Zimablade doesn't include a power adapter, I figured using one of my other USB-C power adapters would be sufficient. I tried one I had for a Samsung Chromebook, my Macbook's, and even tried one from a GL-inet router I had. After plugging it in, the red light on the Zimablade turns on, so I figured the device was active. Unfortunately, after plugging it into a switch, my router still didn't indicate a new device had connected. Trying to go to casaos.local resulted in nothing as well.I ended up going to Ice Whale's community forum, and reading some things, and ended up reaching our to their support. They directed me to a troubleshooting page they had on their site, which basically went into more details about the power adapter that is required. I figured I might be able to find one amidst all the USB-C power adapters, but, alas, I was unsuccessful with finding one that was 12V and 3A. I ended up just biting the bullet and buying the $17 one on Amazon that Ice Whale sells.Once I finally got the adapter, everything was smooth sailing from there. After powering it on, and plugging it into my router, casaos.local pulled up just fine, and I setup the Zimablade. I'm pretty familiar with CasaOS, due to using their other products, but it is pretty slick in how easily it allows you to install a slew of apps.If you wanted Adguard, Pi-Hole, Wireguard, and more, it's a simple as clicking the install button, and then doing a bit of setup, depending on the app. It's way slick, and I love what IceWhale has done. Still some functionality is missing, but this does offer the flexibility to install a bunch of other OS's on it too, if you prefer.I"m personally going to probably use mine as a Pi-hole, for now, which is a bit overkill to have something of his power running it, but why not? I know these a pricey, especially compared to a Raspberry or Orange Pi, but they work nicely. I highly recommend them, and love the additional flexibility the PCIe slot also provides.I do wish they sold a version with a power adapter, and RAM included, but that would certainly push the price up more. Just make sure you have the right adapter, and RAM, and you will be good go to on this!