Hardware Overview

I have the Standard model. Silver casing, not the black Pro. Here's what's inside.

CPU

• Intel i3-1215U
• 6 cores total: 6 efficiency cores + 1 performance core
• Performance core is hyperthreaded, giving 8 logical cores
• Boosts up to 4.4GHz
• Not a desktop chip, but plenty for NAS duty plus VMs

RAM

• Up to 64GB DDR5 officially supported
• Two SO-DIMM slots, easy to access
• Mine came with a single 8GB stick
• I added a 32GB stick for 40GB total

Storage

• Six 3.5" drive bays with caddies
• Four M.2 NVMe slots in the dedicated "seventh bay" area
• Those four NVMe slots are capped at ~800MB/s read/write due to CPU PCIe lane limits
• Two additional NVMe slots on the motherboard itself
• One motherboard slot came with a 256GB boot drive for ZimaOS
• Second motherboard slot is free for cache, another OS, or expansion

Networking

• Dual 2.5GbE ports on the Standard
• Pro model adds an AQC113 Aquantia 10Gb NIC (three Ethernet ports total)
• For my use case, dual 2.5GbE is plenty

PCIe Expansion

• Slot 1: PCIe Gen 4 x4 electrically, physical x16 slot
• Slot 2: PCIe Gen 3 x2 electrically, physical x8 slot
• Low-profile GPUs, quad NICs, HBAs all work fine
• No external power available — cards must run off slot power alone

Ports

Back:

• Two Thunderbolt 4 ports (support PC direct connection)
• Two USB 3.0 Type-A ports
• Dual 2.5GbE

Front:

• Two USB 3.0 Type-A ports
• One USB-C 3.0 port

Build and Thermals

• Silver aluminum casing on Standard, black on Pro
• Caddies are solid once assembled
• Fan noise at idle: present but not offensive
• Under sustained load: fans ramp up, noticeable but not screaming
• Heat management is reasonable for the form factor

The Quirks

• External power brick still bothers me — there's empty space at the top of the case
• 800MB/s cap on the four NVMe slots in the drive bay area is worth knowing before you buy
• Motherboard NVMe slots are unrestricted, so boot from there or use for cache