From Sparcstation to ZimaBlade: A 57-Year-Old Geek’s Self-Hosting Journey

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.

Custom built ZimaBlade NAS server with 3D printed teal PCIe retention bracket, multi-bay SATA hard drive enclosure and NVMe expansion adapter mounted on open air test bench

The most touching stories in a community are often not about buying the highest-end setup.

Julien is 57 years old and lives in France. His day job is handling administrative paperwork for freelancers and artisans — invoices, accounts, contracts, and all the things that creators often find painful to deal with.

As he puts it:

“I take care of the paperwork so they can focus on what they do best.”

He does not have a computer science background. But his story with technology goes all the way back to the late 1980s.

A Sun Sparcstation Changed Everything

In the late 1980s, Julien was studying art at university. During his second year, he “met” a Sun Sparcstation workstation.

“It was a real revelation.” — Julien

From that day on, he started teaching himself computer graphics and printing technologies. In the late 1990s, he joined a distribution company as a graphic designer and took part in the early development of e-commerce in France — right in the middle of the famous dot-com bubble era.

After the bubble burst, everything went back to zero. Julien rethought his career path and began doing the work he still does today: providing administrative support for freelancers.

And it was this work — along with the creators who needed his help — that sparked his interest in micro self-hosting.

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ZimaBlade 7700 DeskBuild NAS Kit: X86 4-Core DIY NAS with One-Click Apps

The Raspberry Pi Died. Now What?

Julien had been using a Raspberry Pi 4 as a backup server, running Debian, XFS, software RAID 1, and BorgBackup. It ran 24/7 for years.

Then it died.

He took another look at the SBC, or single-board computer, market and eventually found the ZimaBlade 7700. He bought the NAS Kit version.

“Price, specs, power consumption — everything clicked.”

The Build: Less Than an Hour, With One Small Twist

Julien’s setup plan was clear, and it also reflected his own preferences:

Operating system: Debian 13, installed on an external NVMe SSD and used as the boot drive. “I know it well, and its stability makes it the safest choice.”
File system: XFS, with two hard drives configured as a mirrored storage setup.
Backup software: BorgBackup. “For a backup server, simple and straightforward is enough.”
Backup strategy: All other servers — Nextcloud, Paperless, AFFiNE, Dolibarr, Gitea, and more — regularly push their data to this ZimaBlade. Bob, yes, he gave it a name, only needs to run quietly 24/7.

The only small twist appeared during assembly. Julien did not plan to use the NVMe SSD on the PCIe adapter, since the system drive was already external. But he had not expected that he would still need a support bracket for the PCIe adapter.

So he opened OpenSCAD, designed a bracket himself, and 3D printed it.

“Apart from that tiny bit of poor planning, the whole build took less than an hour. Even someone with no prior experience could easily reproduce it by following the steps.”

He also shared the purchase links for the PCIe cable and adapter, along with the OpenSCAD source file, free to use and modify.

OpenSCAD 3D CAD render of custom semicircle PCIe adapter mounting bracket with pre-drilled screw holes for ZimaBlade hardware modification

Side close-up shot of 3D printed teal plastic spacer bracket installed securing PCIe expansion card inside ZimaBlade mini server chassis

Why This Is an Interesting Case

Julien’s setup is unconventional in several ways:

Common Choice	Julien’s Choice
Use the pre-installed ZimaOS	Install Debian 13
Use ext4 or Btrfs	Use XFS
Use rsync or an off-the-shelf backup solution	Use BorgBackup
Use internal storage as the system drive	Boot from an external NVMe SSD

But every choice has a reason. He did not choose these tools because they were “cool,” but because they were familiar, trusted, and proven through years of production use.

That is exactly the magic of the open-source community: the same ZimaBlade can lead to completely different, yet equally valid, setups depending on who is using it.

Next Step: More Zima Devices Are on the Way

Julien is very happy with the purchase. He is already considering migrating several other servers he manages:

The same ZimaBlade setup could serve backup needs for both himself and his clients.
ZimaBoard 2 may be a fit for servers that need more performance, though the price is slightly higher and still requires careful cost-benefit calculation.

“This has definitely been a positive experience. Compared with the Raspberry Pi 4, this machine beats it in every dimension. I even feel like this setup is a bit overkill — but since ARM boards have become so expensive, I’m quite glad I found ZimaBlade.”

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One Sentence

Julien’s final message to the community was simple:

“One step at a time... Just go for it!”

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