A Note from Zima
Thank you, King_Arda, for sharing what a first NAS can look like when privacy, experimentation, and hands-on learning matter as much as convenience. Your ZimaBlade became a home for Immich, Jellyfin, Duplicati, encrypted backups, and remote access through the WireGuard setup you already trusted on your network.
We especially appreciate that you documented the rough edges as openly as the parts that worked — from Docker configuration and storage-path confusion to backup behavior and power planning for a second drive. Those details give other homelab builders a more useful picture of what it is really like to grow a small DIY NAS over time.
— Zima
Meet King_Arda
King_Arda is a Reddit homelab builder who described himself in the original post as studying cybersecurity and having networking knowledge from Cisco CCNA. He was not looking only for a box that could hold files. He wanted a NAS that could also become a practical place to experiment with self-hosted services, networking, backups, and storage.
Before buying the ZimaBlade, he compared more conventional NAS options with reusing an old PC. He eventually chose the smaller x86 system because the combination of price, flexibility, appearance, and room to tinker matched what he wanted from a first homelab NAS.
You can follow King_Arda on Reddit to see the creator profile behind this user story.
Disclosure: In the original Reddit post, King_Arda said he contacted Zima support after discovering that his existing power supply was not strong enough for the storage setup he wanted. He disclosed that support provided free shipping in exchange for making the Reddit post, while also stating that he was free to share his own opinion. This user story preserves that disclosure and his criticisms of the setup experience.
From NAS Research to ZimaBlade
King_Arda considered two familiar starting points before choosing ZimaBlade: buying a Synology NAS or reusing an old PC. His research eventually pushed him toward a smaller DIY platform that could act as both storage and a general-purpose home server.
He described the choice largely in terms of value and flexibility. He also liked the broader idea of open-source software and having more control over the services running on the machine. That was important because the NAS was never meant to remain a single-purpose appliance.
The current ZimaBlade documentation describes the platform as an x86 single-board server with two SATA 3.0 connections, Gigabit Ethernet, and PCIe expansion. King_Arda's post does not identify whether his board is the 3760 or 7700 model, so this story does not assign one.
Why ZimaOS Stayed at the Center of the Build
King_Arda kept ZimaOS on the system rather than immediately replacing it with Windows, Proxmox, or another server operating system. He liked the browser-based file experience and the App Store because they made it easy to discover and deploy Docker applications without turning every experiment into a command-line project.
Three applications became central to the setup: Immich for photos, Jellyfin for media, and Duplicati for backup workflows. He also experimented with other apps along the way, which is where the machine started behaving less like a simple NAS and more like a real homelab node.
Privacy Without Giving Up Off-Site Backup
Photos were one of King_Arda's clearest reasons for self-hosting. He said he was uncomfortable leaving his picture library entirely with Google, particularly because of concerns about how cloud-hosted photos could be used in connection with AI.
His answer was not to abandon cloud storage completely. Immich gave him a photo service on hardware he controlled, while Duplicati sent an encrypted backup of his images to Google Drive. He also described bringing files from Drive back to the ZimaBlade so that neither side represented the only copy.
That made the project a hybrid rather than an all-or-nothing privacy decision: local services for day-to-day control, with encrypted off-site storage retained as another backup layer.
Using WireGuard Instead of Adding Another Remote-Access Layer
For remote access, King_Arda considered Tailscale but chose WireGuard because his router already supported it. That let him use a network path he understood instead of adding another remote-access service purely for the NAS.
Current ZimaOS versions also document remote access through ZimaClient, but King_Arda's setup illustrates a different self-hosting pattern: users who already manage their own network can choose the access layer that fits the rest of their infrastructure.
The current ZimaOS remote access guide covers the ZimaClient path; the original Reddit post documents King_Arda's separate WireGuard choice.
Where the Easy Path Stopped Being Easy
The App Store was convenient, but King_Arda did not describe every installation as completely hands-off. He said he sometimes had to change parts of a Docker file before an application behaved the way he wanted.
He also reported a more concerning storage-path issue: some data appeared to be written to the ZimaBlade's internal storage even though he believed he had selected the HDD. Backup jobs that he expected to pull automatically also did not always behave as expected.
Those issues did not make him abandon the system, but they changed the kind of user he would recommend it to. His experience was much more positive for someone willing to inspect configuration and troubleshoot than for someone expecting an appliance that never exposes its underlying container or storage model.
Current ZimaOS Guidance Makes App Data Paths More Explicit
Current ZimaOS documentation now gives app storage its own guidance. The App Storage Paths guide recommends placing app data on a main storage space rather than leaving large persistent datasets on the system drive. It specifically calls out photo libraries such as Immich as workloads that can fill a small system disk quickly.
That does not prove the exact issue King_Arda saw has been resolved on his machine. It does provide clearer current guidance for the same class of problem he encountered while learning how ZimaOS and Docker persistence fit together.
A NAS He Would Recommend to Tinkerers, Not Everyone
King_Arda's overall recommendation was deliberately conditional. He liked the device and felt it did what he wanted, but he would not hand the same experience to a complete beginner who expected every service to work without configuration or investigation.
For someone willing to edit settings, understand where data lives, and troubleshoot a container when necessary, his conclusion was much more positive. In that sense, the ZimaBlade worked not only as storage but also as a learning platform.
One Drive First, a Second Drive Next
At the time of the original post, the NAS was running with one HDD. King_Arda planned to add a second drive and use RAID, but he did not publish the intended RAID level.
With two disks, current ZimaOS documentation includes RAID 1 as the mirrored option, while RAID 5 requires at least three drives. That is useful background for readers, but it should not be turned into a claim that King_Arda personally chose RAID 1. His public update stops at the plan to add another disk.
The broader choices are documented in the current ZimaOS RAID reference.
Power Planning Became Part of the Storage Plan
The move toward a second disk exposed another practical constraint: the power supply in King_Arda's setup was not strong enough for what he wanted to run. That was the issue that led him to contact support and to the free-shipping arrangement disclosed in the Reddit post.
Current ZimaBlade NAS setup guidance also advises considering external power for long-term HDD use. The original post does not provide the drive model, spin-up current, adapter specification, or ZimaBlade model, so this story does not attempt to diagnose the exact electrical limit of his configuration.
A Small NAS That Became a Hands-On Homelab
By the time King_Arda wrote about the project, the ZimaBlade was doing much more than holding files. It had become a private photo server, a Jellyfin box, a backup node, and a place to apply the networking and cybersecurity knowledge he was already studying.
The useful part of the story is that the learning came from both the successes and the friction. He had to decide where container data should live, which remote-access layer made sense, how to keep an encrypted off-site copy, and what changed when storage expansion increased the power requirement.
The Story Is Still Being Written
King_Arda and Zima's story is still being written. The January 31, 2026 Reddit post captures a system that was already useful but still expanding: one HDD was serving real workloads, a second disk and RAID were planned, Immich and Jellyfin had become everyday services, Duplicati handled backup work, and WireGuard provided remote access.
There is no public follow-up in the material verified for this page that confirms the second-drive upgrade, the final RAID configuration, or whether the app-data and backup issues were later resolved. Those points should remain open until King_Arda documents the next stage himself.
To follow the source behind this story, read the original ZimaBlade NAS post on Reddit or visit King_Arda's Reddit profile.
