I examined an early variant of the ZimaCube NAS on the finish of 2023, and whereas I famous on the time that it had loads of potential, there have been too many points — each {hardware} and software program — to advocate it broadly. Fortunately, IceWhale (the model behind ZimaCube) has been fairly busy over the course of the final yr, ironing out quite a lot of the preliminary points and doing a greater job with the software program.
The result’s that the ZimaCube Professional is a really totally different beast to the common mannequin I examined 15 months in the past. The NAS has extra highly effective {hardware}, and it consists of 10GbE connectivity along with the twin 2.5GbE ports. It’s extremely extensible, and there is even Thunderbolt 4. With the power to fit 10 drives in complete, the ZimaCube Professional handles heavy storage wants with relative ease.
There hasn’t been a greater time to choose up a NAS system, with new entrants like UGREEN delivering thrilling fashions with terrific {hardware} and the power to run TrueNAS. Whereas the ZimaCube Professional is on the dearer finish of the size, the caliber of the {hardware} makes it a fantastic alternative if you would like a strong house server to stream content material wherever.
IceWhale debuted the ZimaCube and ZimaCube on the finish of 2023, and each fashions at the moment are out there globally. The ZimaCube Professional prices $1,099 on the model’s web site, and also you get a NAS that is powered by the twelfth Gen Intel Core i5-1235U, 16GB of RAM, 256GB SSD put in as customary, Thunderbolt 4, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and HDMI connectivity.
The usual ZimaCube can be out there, and you’ll decide it up for $519 as of writing. You do not get 10GbE connectivity, the NAS is powered by the N100 and 8GB of RAM, and you do not get as a lot bandwidth for the M/2 SSDs. Exterior of that, it’s equivalent to the Professional mannequin, and if you wish to avoid wasting money, I might counsel getting the common variant.
The ZimaCube Professional seems to be equivalent to the usual mannequin, so I am not going to speak an excessive amount of in regards to the design. The steel building is clearly constructed to final, and I did not have any points with the NAS after two months of testing. The common ZimaCube can be going robust after 15 months of use, so the construct high quality is not one thing that is worrisome.
The NAS has a mesh door that is magnetically connected to the entrance, and the drive bays are housed behind it. It continues to be annoying to fit in drives as you do not get a tool-less design, however they’re securely housed, and also you get 4 M.2 slots along with the six common drive bays. The extensibility provides the ZimaCube Professional a bonus, and you’ll add a complete of ten drives within the NAS as customary.
Whereas I just like the design, it would not have a lot in the best way of air flow. Most manufacturers have vented sides that permit air contained in the chassis, however that is not the case on the ZimaCube Professional. One other draw back is that the built-in fan is the loudest of any NAS I examined; regardless that IceWhale is utilizing a brand new cooling resolution, the fan will get loud even when the NAS is not below loud, and it has an audible whine more often than not. Actually, I might counsel switching out the built-in fan when you’re on this NAS.
Switching over to the {hardware}, the ZimaCube Professional makes use of a twelfth Gen 10-core Intel Core i5-1235U, and it’s terrific. It comes with 16GB of RAM put in — as two 8GB modules — and also you even get a 256GB SSD. The actual star of the present is the connectivity; with twin 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports and a ten Gigabit port, the ZimaCube Professional is designed for multi-Gigabit networks.
There’s additionally twin Thunderbolt 4 ports on the again alongside two USB-A and USB-C ports, and HDMI. Clearly, the principle motive to choose up the ZimaCube Professional is the sturdy connectivity, and it wins out in opposition to its fast rivals on this regard. That mentioned, the software program is not fairly as polished, and organising the NAS is a bit convoluted.
I slotted in HDDs I examined on one other NAS, and it simply booted up that OS — which was simply weird. ZimaOS would not embody the power to format drives whereas putting in, so you will must manually erase information on HDDs earlier than slotting them contained in the NAS. It’s annoying as each different NAS I examined till now has an choice to erase information throughout preliminary configuration, and that is an oversight by IceWhale.
The Zima OS software program itself is usable; it provides you entry to Docker containerization, an honest set of utilities within the retailer, and system monitoring dashboards. Whereas it is gotten higher over the past yr and a half, it simply would not have the identical stage of polish as different NAS manufacturers. I did not see any points with shifting information to and from the NAS, however you miss out on a number of extras which might be customary on mainstream fashions, corresponding to backing up pictures and movies robotically.
Nonetheless, you’ll be able to simply set up any OS of your selecting, and that in itself is an enormous attract — the very best use case for the NAS is to arrange an occasion of TrueNAS Scale. In case you do not thoughts tinkering to arrange an alternate OS, the ZimaCube Professional is a superb alternative; it has among the best general {hardware} packages on this class. However when you want one thing that is able to exit of the field, I might counsel having a look on the UGREEN DXP6800 Professional as a substitute.
