Raspberry Pi is a name that dominates the single-board computer (SBC) market but there's a new company looking to force its way into the market with well-built products and interesting marketing. IceWhale has launched the ZimaBlade, an Intel-powered SBC with DDR3L RAM support, countless ports, and the ability to run anything. Unlike a traditional desktop PC, an SBC has the CPU, RAM, I/O, and all other components on a single board. The ZimaBlade takes this further by offering a single SODIMM slot atop the PCB for swapping memory modules.

Where the ZimaBlade (and IceWhale as a whole) falls short of the competition is a well-established ecosystem and software support. The OS that's available with the ZimaBlade isn't terrible. It's easy to set up and use, even if this is the first SBC you're playing around with. But unless you install another operating system such as TrueNAS, some Linux distro, or even Windows, you may find the device slightly lacking, at least compared to an SBC such as the Raspberry Pi 5.

After messing with the ZimaBlade for approximately two weeks, I'm ready to share my thoughts on the hardware, software, and how easy it is to create anything your home or office requires. It's a fantastic little SBC with a gorgeous industrial design, good enough performance, transcoding capabilities, and a good price. So long as the Zima team continues to work on the software side of things, this could turn into a great product and I would be excited to see a refresh with slightly beefier internals.

About this review: XDA was provided a sample by IceWhale but the company had no input to its contents.

Price, specs, and availability

The ZimaBlade has some beefy specifications, especially compared to some rivals. Depending on the model purchased, an Intel N3450, J3455, or E3950 processor powers the SBC. The SODIMM slot is empty, which is great for using memory modules of your own, but the CPUs used by IceWhale are limited to DDR3. You can install up to 16 GB of DDR3L on the ZimaBlade, though I do plan on getting my hands on a 32 GB module to see if the system kicks up a fuss. Our review sample came with an IceWhale branded 16 GB kit.

A 32 GB eMMC 5.1 module is soldiered to the SBC and is what the company uses to load the CasaOS/ZimaOS. This can be used to sideload another operating system or you can use one of the available ports. The ZimaBlade has numerous connectivity options, including two SATA III, a single 1GbE link, two USB-A 3.0, a single PCIe 2.0 x4, and one Mini-DisplayPort 1.2 port. It's possible to drive a 4K screen with a refresh rate of 60Hz and the integrated graphics on all three Intel chips could handle some transcoding without sucking all available resources.

Starting from $64, you can't grumble at what's on offer. It's a great price to pick up a small device to have some fun with and create something useful for the home or office.

Design and features

A stunning compact SBC

The ZimaBlade looks like any other small-board computer and that's not a negative, it's simply how the form factor has developed. The device comes enclosed in a black metal and clear plastic chassis, the latter providing a view of all the inner workings of the ZimaBlade. It's great for showing off to friends and family who cannot believe a computer or server can run on such a small system. The rear of the ZimaBlade is a large metal heatsink for the Intel Celeron processor with some fins that protrude to aid with heat dissipation.

The ZimaBlade has everything you need to build a compact home server.

The ZimaBlade arrived with a USB-C power adapter and some converters to support most regions. The casing can be easily removed by removing the black plastic cover surrounding the entire ZimaBlade I/O. Two screws secure the transparent plastic panel to the PCB. The DDR3L SODIMM RAM module can be installed after removing this panel. I would only recommend removing the other two screws for the black metal panel if you need to apply fresh thermal paste for the processor.

The left side of the ZimaBlade hosts two SATA ports. The single PCIe 2.0 x4 slot is up front and the right side has the USB-C power port, a USB-A 3.0 port, a Mini-DisplayPort, and one 1GbE network link. That's all you need for a small home labs system with power and LAN the two requirements. Having additional connections expands what you can use the ZimaBlade for, especially the PCI slot. The ZimaBlade has everything you need to build a compact home server.

Software and performance

Setting up the ZimaBlade is a breeze

Setting up the ZimaBlade is a painless process. Simply connect the USB cable to the external brick and ZimaBlade, hook up the LAN port to your network and you're good to go. Locate the IP assigned by your network (or load up one of the Zima location apps) and you'll be greeted by the CasaOS welcome screen with the means to create a primary account. No additional questions are asked. You create an account and you're at the desktop. From here, you can see all the necessary details on the SBC, including RAM and CPU usage.

Setting up the ZimaBlade is a painless process.

The dashboard provides this information at a glance, as well as storage drives, and quick access to installed apps. Speaking of which, an App Store is present, which is the case on many of these devices. It's an easy way to load some of the more popular options for an SBC but you'll not find everything here. The rest of the OS UI is rather basic. It looks nice, but there's form over function in some areas. System status is slightly strange where clicking on the widget will provide two options: RAM and CPU. Clicking either does nothing.

There's no settings app. Everything is configured through a small drop-down menu on the top bar, which allows you to edit the search bar, change language, alter the access port, show news from the CasaOS blog, show recommended apps, automount USB drives, and update the OS. Finally, you can reboot or shut down the system from here. A third taskbar icon can load a terminal and show the latest system logs. Interestingly the default username and password for terminal access is casaos for the username and password, which isn't made clear.

CasaOS can be used as a foundation for your SBC adventure. Plex is already on the App Store with many other offerings, but the joys of an SBC such as this is the ability to create your own experience. It's easy to load another OS and create a completely different system in minutes. Performance is as expected from a 10W Intel CPU. It's adequate for many tasks, including running a media server, surveillance system, game server, and much more. 16 GB of DDR3L RAM is ample and I never found any of the system resources lacking, though it would be nice to see more recent hardware.

Competition

There are many big players in the SBC Scene

Deciding on which small-board computer to buy comes down to how much you're willing to spend and what you plan on using the device for. If it's for messing around with various apps and deployments, I would go for a more affordable system. If you seek one of the best ecosystems in terms of hardware and software, you still cannot beat the Raspberry Pi and we gave the Raspberry Pi 5 a glowing review. The ZimaBlade is an interesting proposition as it's Intel-powered, has upgradable RAM, and has decent specifications at a reasonable price.

Should you buy the ZimaBlade?

You should buy the ZimaBlade if:

• You want to play around with a well-priced SBC.
• You need more performance than a Raspberry Pi.
• You want to create a NAS, home server, game server, or other platform.

You shouldn't buy the ZimaBlade if:

• You don't need the power of a 10W Intel processor.
• You'd prefer a SBC with newer chips and memory.
• You want wireless capabilities built onto the SBC.

I can recommend buying the ZimaBlade as a solid SBC. The Intel processors are strong enough to muscle through more demanding tasks, including 4K transcoding. The ability to install a DDR3L module of your choosing is also a nice touch, though I would have liked to see more recent Intel chips. DDR4 or DDR5 would have set the ZimaBlade apart from other small form factor systems with similar specifications. When it all comes together, the ZimaBlade is a great system with a friendly OS UI that can leave you wanting more.

The ZimaBlade is just as capable as other SBCs, if not more so with its impressive performance.

And that's what makes an SBC such as the ZimaBlade so enticing. If you don't like CasaOS, install any supported OS and build a system capable of doing almost anything your imagination can conjure up. Run an Unreal Tournament 2004 server? No problem. Help you learn some new programming languages and skills? You got it. Save money and build a NAS with Plex running for streaming media? That's also possible. The ZimaBlade is just as capable as other SBCs, if not more so with its impressive performance.