How TrashBench Turned ZimaCube 2 Into an RTX 5060 Gaming PC

Eva Wong

IceWhale author

Eva Wong is the Technical Writer and resident tinkerer at ZimaSpace. A lifelong geek with a passion for homelabs and open-source software, she specializes in translating complex technical concepts into accessible, hands-on guides. Eva believes that self-hosting should be fun, not intimidating. Through her tutorials, she empowers the community to demystify hardware setups, from building their first NAS to mastering Docker containers.

How TrashBench Turned ZimaCube 2 Into an RTX 5060 Gaming PC

TrashBench turned a ZimaCube 2 into a working gaming PC by installing Windows, testing two dedicated graphics cards, mounting an RTX 5060 outside the chassis, and fitting its power supply inside the unused drive bays. The experiment produced a dramatic increase in frame rates, but it also revealed a hard limit: once the graphics card became fast enough, the NAS processor—not cooling—determined performance.

Thank you to TrashBench for designing, testing, and documenting this unconventional build. Watch the original video for the complete modification process, gameplay footage, benchmark runs, and extreme-cooling experiment.

Collaboration disclosure: IceWhale supplied the ZimaCube 2 used in the video and challenged TrashBench to make the system game. The modifications, component choices, benchmark methodology, and conclusions shown here belong to the creator. This build requires nonstandard hardware installation and should be treated as an experiment rather than an official gaming configuration.

The result: ZimaCube 2 can run modern games after adding a suitable graphics card, but the final system is still governed by the balance between its low-power processor, PCIe expansion, GPU, power delivery, cooling, and physical layout.

Why Try to Turn a NAS Into a Gaming PC?

A personal cloud NAS and a gaming desktop are designed around different priorities. A NAS emphasizes storage capacity, network access, data protection, continuous operation, and manageable power use. A gaming PC normally gives more space and electrical headroom to a high-performance processor and graphics card.

TrashBench begins with that mismatch. The ZimaCube 2 Personal Cloud Home NAS was never presented as a gaming tower, yet its x86 architecture, accessible chassis, and PCIe expansion create room for experiments that would be impossible on a sealed appliance.

The question is therefore not whether a NAS is the most economical way to buy a gaming PC. It is whether the open hardware can be pushed into a completely different role—and what becomes the limiting component when it is.

Starting With Windows and Integrated Graphics

TrashBench first replaces the normal server environment with Windows. This establishes a familiar platform for game launchers, drivers, benchmarking tools, and the graphics hardware he plans to add. It also immediately introduces a complication: the system firmware was designed for a server, not for switching cleanly between integrated and dedicated graphics.

The tested model uses an Intel Core i5-1235U. According to Intel's processor specifications, this mobile-class chip combines two performance cores with eight efficient cores and supports PCIe Gen 4. That design makes sense for compact multitasking and server duties, but its integrated graphics were not intended to drive demanding modern games.

The baseline results make the gap visible. In the video, Hitman 3 averages about 18 FPS at 1080p low settings, Cyberpunk 2077 reaches roughly 13 FPS, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider performs best at approximately 31 FPS. The games can launch, but two of the three results are well below a comfortable target.

Game	Integrated Graphics Result	Practical Reading
Hitman 3	About 18 FPS	Runs, but motion and input response are not comfortably playable.
Cyberpunk 2077	About 13 FPS	The integrated GPU is the immediate bottleneck.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	About 31 FPS	Closer to playable, but still limited at the tested settings.

The First GPU Upgrade: Radeon Pro WX5100

ZimaCube 2 includes a full-size PCIe slot, so TrashBench first tests a compact workstation graphics card. He considers a Radeon Pro WX3200 that would allow the lid to close, but chooses the more capable WX5100 and leaves the chassis open.

The card does not require the elaborate external power arrangement needed later, making it a useful first test of the expansion path. Getting a display signal is less straightforward. TrashBench finds that the integrated GPU must remain connected to a monitor before the dedicated card will provide output. The BIOS does not offer the kind of primary-display selection normally expected on a gaming motherboard.

Once detected, the WX5100 improves performance by roughly 40% on average. That proves the PCIe concept, but the older workstation GPU is still not strong enough to make every tested game comfortably playable. Its most important contribution is diagnostic: a dedicated GPU helps, and a faster one could transform the experience.

ZimaCube 2 internal PCIe x16 slot operating with an x4 electrical connection — TrashBench highlights the physical PCIe x16 slot and its x4 electrical connection before testing dedicated graphics cards in ZimaCube 2.

Mounting an RTX 5060 Outside the Chassis

The next step removes the graphics bottleneck much more aggressively. TrashBench connects an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 through a PCIe riser cable. The card cannot fit inside the NAS, so it must sit beside the chassis.

Rather than leave the GPU hanging from the cable, he designs and prints a frame that supports it against the side of the ZimaCube 2. A cable tie secures the assembly where it remains hidden from normal viewing angles. The result is unconventional, but it protects the PCIe connection and keeps the graphics card in a repeatable position for testing.

The RTX 5060 brings a very different level of graphics capability. NVIDIA lists the desktop card with 3,840 CUDA cores and 8GB of GDDR7 memory in its RTX 5060 family specifications. The NAS processor now has enough GPU performance available that the experiment can shift from “Will the game run?” to “How much can the CPU feed the card?”

Hiding the GPU Power Supply in the Drive Bays

A PCIe riser does not solve power delivery. Unlike the slot-powered workstation card, the RTX 5060 requires an independent connection from a suitable power supply. Leaving a desktop PSU behind the NAS would work electrically, but it would turn the build into a loose collection of parts.

TrashBench notices that the drive area is unused during this gaming experiment. He removes the drive caddies and installs a 750W SFX power supply inside the bay space, then routes an extension cable to the external graphics card. The magnetic front panel hides the PSU and preserves the recognizable front profile of the ZimaCube 2.

This is a clever use of the modular chassis, but it changes the purpose of the machine. Filling the storage bays with a power supply sacrifices the very drive capacity that normally defines the system as a NAS. Anyone considering a similar project would also need to verify cable clearance, airflow, grounding, strain relief, and component temperatures instead of copying the physical layout blindly.

Cooler Master 750W SFX power supply selected to power the RTX 5060 in ZimaCube 2 — TrashBench uses a compact 750W SFX power supply for the RTX 5060, later fitting it inside the unused ZimaCube 2 drive-bay area.

How Much Faster Did the RTX 5060 Make It?

The RTX 5060 changes all three benchmark results. Hitman 3 rises from approximately 18 FPS on the integrated GPU to 167 FPS, an improvement of about 828%. Cyberpunk 2077 increases from roughly 13 FPS to 90 FPS, while Shadow of the Tomb Raider moves from about 31 FPS to 124 FPS.

Game	Integrated Graphics	RTX 5060	Observed Change
Hitman 3	18 FPS	167 FPS	About 828% higher
Cyberpunk 2077	13 FPS	90 FPS	Nearly seven times the original result
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	31 FPS	124 FPS	Four times the original result

These are results from TrashBench's specific hardware, drivers, settings, and test conditions; they should not be treated as guaranteed performance for every ZimaCube 2 configuration. Their value lies in showing the scale of the original GPU limitation. Once that limitation is removed, the platform can deliver playable—and in some tests very high—frame rates.

Hitman 3 benchmark comparing ZimaCube 2 integrated graphics with an RTX 5060 and showing an 828 percent performance increase — In TrashBench's Hitman 3 test, average performance rises from 18 FPS on the integrated GPU to about 168 FPS with the RTX 5060—an approximately 828% increase.

Why a Faster GPU Did Not Keep Improving Performance

TrashBench also tries an RTX 4080 Super, expecting a higher-end card to push the results further. Instead, the system becomes so CPU-limited that the much larger GPU performs similarly to—or sometimes worse than—the RTX 5060.

This is the central lesson of the build. A game frame passes through multiple stages. The CPU handles simulation, draw-call preparation, background work, and other logic before the GPU renders the scene. When the graphics card finishes faster than the processor can prepare new work, additional GPU capacity sits unused.

The system even reaches the top position in the video creator's comparable 3DMark Time Spy records for the Core i5-1235U, ahead of runs paired with RTX 4080 and RTX 3090 cards. That does not mean the NAS processor is faster than a desktop gaming CPU. It means the RTX 5060 is already beyond the useful graphics threshold for this particular processor and workload.

Freezing the CPU Made the Build Slower

TrashBench could have stopped after identifying the CPU bottleneck. Instead, he builds an extreme low-temperature cooling loop to test whether colder silicon can sustain higher clocks for longer.

The result is a useful negative finding: freezing the processor makes performance worse. The CPU was not thermally throttling before the modification, the firmware offered no useful tuning controls, and software-level changes did not unlock more performance. Lower temperature could not remove architectural, power-management, or platform limits.

This separates cooling problems from CPU bottlenecks. Cooling can help when heat forces a processor below its expected clock behavior. It cannot automatically create more cores, increase instructions per cycle, change firmware controls, or supply more work to an already underused GPU.

What This Build Proves—and What It Does Not

The Experiment Demonstrates	It Does Not Mean
ZimaCube 2 can run Windows and use a dedicated PCIe graphics card.	Windows gaming is the default or officially optimized NAS configuration.
An RTX 5060 can raise frame rates dramatically over the integrated GPU.	Every game, driver, or ZimaCube 2 model will reproduce the same results.
The chassis provides unusual freedom for PCIe and power-supply modifications.	A large GPU and power supply fit without custom mounting or storage compromises.
The system can become CPU-limited after the graphics bottleneck is removed.	A larger GPU will continue scaling performance indefinitely.
Extreme cooling can test whether temperature is the limiting variable.	Lower temperatures improve performance when the processor is not throttling.

Who Is This Experiment For?

This build is for experienced hardware enthusiasts who enjoy solving unusual physical, electrical, firmware, and software problems. It is a compelling demonstration of open expansion and modular design, not the shortest route to a conventional gaming desktop.

Users who primarily need backups, personal cloud storage, media libraries, containers, or high-speed file access should preserve the drive bays and operate ZimaCube 2 as a NAS. Users who primarily want a gaming PC will usually benefit from a purpose-built case, gaming-focused firmware, a desktop-class processor, and standard GPU mounting.

The experiment becomes valuable between those two routes: it shows that an open personal server can be repurposed far beyond its default role. Similar creativity also appears in SjslTech's ZimaBoard 2 game-streaming project, where server hardware supports gaming through a different architecture rather than becoming the gaming PC itself.

An Open NAS Can Become More Than Its Original Role

TrashBench ultimately answers the challenge: yes, ZimaCube 2 can become a gaming PC. The RTX 5060 turns uncomfortably low baseline frame rates into playable results, while the chassis makes room for a riser cable, custom GPU support, and an internally hidden SFX power supply.

The more important result is the boundary it exposes. Once the GPU is sufficiently powerful, the low-power CPU becomes the ceiling; replacing the RTX 5060 with an RTX 4080 Super does not solve it, and freezing the processor makes matters worse. Balanced hardware matters more than maximizing any single component.

Watch TrashBench's complete experiment to see the physical modification, gameplay and benchmark runs, and frozen-CPU test. To follow more unconventional home-server builds and exchange ideas with other users, join the ZimaSpace Discord community.