Can This Tiny Board Replace Your Entire HomeLab? – Zima Board 2

About this video

The creator unboxes a ZimaBoard 2 sent by IceWhale and tests whether the tiny x86 board can run an entire home lab. He compares it to the original: an Intel N150 processor with 4 cores up to 3.6 GHz, 8 GB of faster LPDDR5X 4800 memory (a 16 GB model also exists, which he says he wishes he’d been sent), two 2.5-gigabit Ethernet ports with an Intel chip instead of Realtek, a PCIe 3.0 slot, USB 3.1, two SATA ports, and fanless or active cooling; he notes early-bird and bundle pricing shown at launch. His plan is to install Proxmox — possible because the board is x86 with VT-x/VT-d, unlike ARM boards such as Raspberry Pi — then run pfSense as a VM, an Ubuntu VM, and LXC containers. Passing both onboard NICs through to pfSense initially costs him Proxmox network access, forcing him to destroy and recreate the VM; a PCIe Ethernet card provides temporary management access, and he later removes that need by creating a virtual Linux bridge (vmbr7) so Proxmox uses pfSense itself as its gateway. After a weekend pause, a reboot mysteriously fixes the pfSense WAN DHCP problem. He installs Snort as IDS/IPS with every rule enabled, sets up the Ubuntu VM (fixing a firewall rule that blocked ICMP ping and a subnet-mask mistake), and runs iperf tests: throughput reaches roughly gigabit line speed, about 1.09–1.10 Gbps when his laptop is connected directly instead of through a gigabit switch, with and without Snort, though CPU is heavily stressed. He then adds LXC containers — Rocky Linux, then Ubuntu running Pi-hole for DNS ad-blocking — and concludes the board runs the whole stack well, with RAM as the main limitation. A sponsored segment covers Incogni data-broker removal, with the creator citing his dashboard’s removal-request figures.

Key takeaways

• ZimaBoard 2 upgrades to an Intel N150, LPDDR5X RAM, dual 2.5GbE Intel NICs, and PCIe 3.0
• Being x86 lets it run Proxmox, unlike ARM single-board computers
• PCI passthrough of both NICs to pfSense can cut off Proxmox access; a virtual bridge restores management
• iperf tests hit about 1.09–1.10 Gbps even with Snort IDS/IPS enabled, but CPU is heavily loaded
• The board ran pfSense, an Ubuntu VM, and Pi-hole containers; RAM is the main limitation

Episode details: published April 23, 2025 · 32:05 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are NetworkChuck’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

← Previous: Saying Goodbye…. · Next: 37 INSANE Linux Commands you NEED to Know in 2025 →

All NetworkChuck videos · NetworkChuck profile · NetworkChuck on YouTube