Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning game discussion


Recommended Posts

Ya, im wondering about the interactions I'm having right now. I haven't said no to any factions, just doing the quest asked of me lol. But some are requiring me to kill people who I am unsure if I will need later... On the other hand, found out that pick pocketing on my mage is pretty interesting... Seems to easily go unnoticed if I steal and then instantly blink away :p

I've reached lvl 16 and the 2nd area of the game, but haven't ventured off into it yet. I am still running around the first area doing all the side quest. But things are still tough. Ran into a cave that threw about 8 big ogres at me, and that was really exciting. Then ran into another cave that I don't think I am up for yet, as the brownies were all diseased, and I would catch it by just looking at them, which would constantly drain my health.

Im only level 3 still, but I've been doing the same where I just accept every quest I can, most of them out in the woods outside of the starter area are too tough though for me at this point, I get like 2 shotted, prolly head back into town and do the quests that are in there.

Im only level 3 still, but I've been doing the same where I just accept every quest I can, most of them out in the woods outside of the starter area are too tough though for me at this point, I get like 2 shotted, prolly head back into town and do the quests that are in there.

Oh ya, first few levels until around 9 are just a pain in the ass, while still fun. You just don't have the arsenal yet. I'm about 16 hours in, and haven't seen 1/4th of what the game has to offer I'm sure. There are still areas in the first part I haven't explored as well, which is why I haven't moved on in the main quest that takes me to the next area. And at lvl 16, those areas of the first part are still very rough.

I'd recommend putting as many points into blacksmithing when you level up. That so far seems like the most important skill to have. You can make better weapons than you can find for the good first 14 levels. But I am just now starting to find items that I can't beat with my own makes.

Oh ya, first few levels until around 9 are just a pain in the ass, while still fun. You just don't have the arsenal yet. I'm about 16 hours in, and haven't seen 1/4th of what the game has to offer I'm sure. There are still areas in the first part I haven't explored as well, which is why I haven't moved on in the main quest that takes me to the next area. And at lvl 16, those areas of the first part are still very rough.

I'd recommend putting as many points into blacksmithing when you level up. That so far seems like the most important skill to have. You can make better weapons than you can find for the good first 14 levels. But I am just now starting to find items that I can't beat with my own makes.

Even as a mage though? I've been putting what points I get into potions, but I still don't really know how the whole proffessions work. I did the first part of the main story, where you go to the guys house and he is dead. After that I warped back to the main town.

Even as a mage though? I've been putting what points I get into potions, but I still don't really know how the whole proffessions work. I did the first part of the main story, where you go to the guys house and he is dead. After that I warped back to the main town.

especially as a mage... that is my main character as well :)

Alchemy I'm sure is good, but I haven't needed many potions past level 6. Put like 1 or 2 points into alchemy, to where you can make potions that are unknown if you fail, because most of the time they will be used as minor health regen. But other than that, black smithing will allow you to make staffs and chakrams that are far superior to what you will find. My mage has maxed blacksmithing and sagecraft, so that I can make the best weapons and armor, and give them good boost with the gems. Sagecraft is very lacking, but it does help out more than the other professions I think. Lockpicking isn't really needed, because it is easy enough to pick locks. I find with disarming the chest that are cursed, if it is easy, go for it. Anything above easy, I just use auto attempt (10%) way, and it seems to do it better than what I would do myself :p

But with a mage, Put most of your points into lightning, fire, and ice. Also put points into making the dead Fea that will help you, because it is a great distraction for you to get more spells off, or you can use it as a barrier. But I don't use the spell shield or healing spell, because I haven't had any need for those, as you will get a blink teleport to replace your dodge roll around level 8, and I don't let anything else get close to me with the other spells and chakrams/staff. But make sure to put 1 point into the staff and chakram extra move skills, the ones that give you the charge up and knock back moves.

<snip>

I guess I figured blacksmithing was purely metal based, will definitely go for that.

I picked no-god when I made my character for the Exp Bonus but I have been focussing on getting magic up over the other two options (the melee/stealth) right now I only have the lightning ball thing, and the barrier. I have both the wand and the staff bonus that if you hold the attack button it like floats infront of you and essentially does the knockback, I think that's what you were saying to get.

I find the time it takes me to roll away only gives me an extra blast if that, so looking forward to getting the blink.

I guess I figured blacksmithing was purely metal based, will definitely go for that.

I picked no-god when I made my character for the Exp Bonus but I have been focussing on getting magic up over the other two options (the melee/stealth) right now I only have the lightning ball thing, and the barrier. I have both the wand and the staff bonus that if you hold the attack button it like floats infront of you and essentially does the knockback, I think that's what you were saying to get.

I find the time it takes me to roll away only gives me an extra blast if that, so looking forward to getting the blink.

Ya, the first skill attack is the charge up, which honestly, I don't ever use. It takes too long, and most enemies seem to get to me before I can fully charge it up to get any damage on them.

The 2nd attack skill you get with them, is an attack pause attack gesture, which with a staff sends a wave of energy that lifts up and knocks back the enemy, and with chakrams, makes you throw both of them at the ground in an explosion while making your character jump back a good distance, both which are very powerful and needed.

I don't really use scepters, as spells seemed to work just as well, and chakrams are great for getting groups down.

Best strategy is to roll around and try and get the enemies clumped together, while at a lower level. That way you can easily hit them, and don't have to worry about attacks from behind or beside.

No god doesn't really help much as well. You get a slight exp bonus, but it is maybe adding 10 exp to at most to kills, which isn't much once you hit around level 8 and it starts taking a couple thousand exp to level. You will get more bonus from the sorcerer god , as it will keep you from running out of mana, so you can just start spamming spells.

But in my opinion, staff and chakram seems to be a great combo for helping to deal with enemies. Just have to get used to how chakrams can leave you open to being hit, and not letting enemies get that close :p

I don't think I have an chakrams, I thought they were like staffs too, not secondary weapons, I've got a lot to learn I guess. It's fun, it feels like it would be a great MMO, even though it's designed for single player, it could pull of a GW-esque MMO quite easily I think.

I don't think I have an chakrams, I thought they were like staffs too, not secondary weapons, I've got a lot to learn I guess. It's fun, it feels like it would be a great MMO, even though it's designed for single player, it could pull of a GW-esque MMO quite easily I think.

If they are mains, I like them as my secondary :p

I will go in with staff attacks, knock them back, then go into chakrams which reach them while they are thrown back. I haven't ran into many arrow shooters or long range attackers that have started shooting me before I was in attacking distance, so I haven't seen the need for a bow or scepter. And scepter damage is just so lacking compared to the chakrams. Was easily able to get the juggling trophy with that combo once I got the knock back attack with the staff.

I think this game is open for you to play it basically how you want though. It's great in that aspect.

There is also a lot of good loot to steal and you get off of people in towns if you kill them... which I'm wondering how everything would play out if you just went full on evil and murdered everyone you see on the spot besides the main quest line characters... Maybe I'll try that out after I finish with this character.

I managed to get Valve to give me a refund and then I bought the game again elsewhere for $32. Origin version instead of Steam, but I saved a lot of money so I won't complain too much. I think it's definitely worth the $60 price tag, but if you can get it for $32 get it for $32.

This game kind of caught me by surprise. I wouldn't have even known it existed if one of my friends hadn't mentioned it to me the day before it was released. It feels very Fable meets Zelda meets God of War to me and I'm greatly enjoying it. Which is good because until SFxT comes out next month I don't really have any newish games to keep me busy. (never been a Mass Effect fan)

If they are mains, I like them as my secondary :p

I will go in with staff attacks, knock them back, then go into chakrams which reach them while they are thrown back. I haven't ran into many arrow shooters or long range attackers that have started shooting me before I was in attacking distance, so I haven't seen the need for a bow or scepter. And scepter damage is just so lacking compared to the chakrams. Was easily able to get the juggling trophy with that combo once I got the knock back attack with the staff.

I think this game is open for you to play it basically how you want though. It's great in that aspect.

There is also a lot of good loot to steal and you get off of people in towns if you kill them... which I'm wondering how everything would play out if you just went full on evil and murdered everyone you see on the spot besides the main quest line characters... Maybe I'll try that out after I finish with this character.

Yea, I'll give it a shot, the wands I just like for the quick bit of damage, I can fire off like 7 shots on the time it takes to get a full attack off. I guess It is weird for me to mix the melee in, I am used to magic being what you attack with, stand back, cast, cast, cast, collect loot, but this game seems very much mixing the magic with the physical attacking.

Yea, I'll give it a shot, the wands I just like for the quick bit of damage, I can fire off like 7 shots on the time it takes to get a full attack off. I guess It is weird for me to mix the melee in, I am used to magic being what you attack with, stand back, cast, cast, cast, collect loot, but this game seems very much mixing the magic with the physical attacking.

correct, at least for low level. You will want to maybe start off with lightning bolt if you can get it off, but most of the time, the monsters are already on you, and you want to just regular attack, and then finish off with lightning or flame mark, then combo and release flame mark.

Once I hit around level 13, I was able to just use magic on most creatures. Lightning bolt will start to stun and jump to others, increasing crowd control. And Ice Blast becomes very powerful once you get the second part of it. I normally now go Lightning, Flame mark, Ice blast, and if they aren't dead, I release flame mark for the bonus damage. But when there is a crowd of monsters, Staff and chakram are still very needed.

I managed to get Valve to give me a refund and then I bought the game again elsewhere for $32. Origin version instead of Steam, but I saved a lot of money so I won't complain too much. I think it's definitely worth the $60 price tag, but if you can get it for $32 get it for $32.

This game kind of caught me by surprise. I wouldn't have even known it existed if one of my friends hadn't mentioned it to me the day before it was released. It feels very Fable meets Zelda meets God of War to me and I'm greatly enjoying it. Which is good because until SFxT comes out next month I don't really have any newish games to keep me busy. (never been a Mass Effect fan)

I'm trying to get in as much game play of this before twisted metal comes out tomorrow... because that game is going to be amazing and will surely suck me away from this. But this is still great, and I can always come back to it. It doesn't seem like one of those games that if you leave for a long time, you will be lost in what you were doing.

correct, at least for low level. You will want to maybe start off with lightning bolt if you can get it off, but most of the time, the monsters are already on you, and you want to just regular attack, and then finish off with lightning or flame mark, then combo and release flame mark.

Once I hit around level 13, I was able to just use magic on most creatures. Lightning bolt will start to stun and jump to others, increasing crowd control. And Ice Blast becomes very powerful once you get the second part of it. I normally now go Lightning, Flame mark, Ice blast, and if they aren't dead, I release flame mark for the bonus damage. But when there is a crowd of monsters, Staff and chakram are still very needed.

Yea I don't have the flame thing yet. I just have the shield and lightning. But I usually do lightning, attack the target with staff, roll away lightning again, and repeat till out of mana, then once out of mana I pull out the wand and replace the lightning with the wand blasts till the mana is high enough for another lightning.

Just grabbed this today for PC.

First impression was that this is definitely a console port, for sure. I was sad to see the graphics lacking a bit, but it's OK, cause the game is pure fun.

One thing I really love is the colors in the world. I love the vibrant look of everything, the look of a mystical fantasy world. Rift, Skyrim, (somehow SWToR, somewhat, in a different sense) etc, etc, have bored me to death on the dark, droll, flat look. Don't get me wrong, they are great games, and were made to look that way, but it does get lame after awhile.

Anyway, the game is beautiful looking (color wise.) I tried to play it with keyboard/mouse at first, and it wasn't happening. This game was purely designed for consoles, and kb/m was a bitch, so I had to dig out the wired 360 controller. It plays really well with a controller though, so no complaints there.

I'm level 5 at the moment. I've been playing melee characters in games a lot lately, so I went with Sorcery. I really enjoy the way it is designed so far. I went with primary staff/secondary chakrams. I thought about a hybrid Finesse/Sorcery build, but I decided not to, and stick with full "caster" type.

My biggest complaint, if you can call it that, is "quest overload." I'll be on my jolly way, to do one quest, and bam here is another. Ok, cool, I'll get around to that, tralala now where was....BAM, another 2 quests....Alright...Well this one is closer, so I guess I'll go do this one first, then get back to my other....BAM, 3 MORE OVER HERE! AWW, COME ON!! REALLY?! DAMNIT! :p

I am a completionist, so this drives me batsh*t crazy when I have 20 quests in my book, and I'm spinning circles trying to get one done, to pick up 3 more along the way. It drives me absolutely insane.

Other than that, the game is great, and I predict I'll shovel a lot of time into it, over time. If someone were on the fence about getting it, I'd suggest it. Maybe wait until it is cheaper, but 50-60$ isn't bad for what feels is going to be like a 50+ hour game.

I'm level 5 at the moment. I've been playing melee characters in games a lot lately, so I went with Sorcery. I really enjoy the way it is designed so far. I went with primary staff/secondary chakrams. I thought about a hybrid Finesse/Sorcery build, but I decided not to, and stick with full "caster" type.

My biggest complaint, if you can call it that, is "quest overload." I'll be on my jolly way, to do one quest, and bam here is another. Ok, cool, I'll get around to that, tralala now where was....BAM, another 2 quests....Alright...Well this one is closer, so I guess I'll go do this one first, then get back to my other....BAM, 3 MORE OVER HERE! AWW, COME ON!! REALLY?! DAMNIT! :p

I am a completionist, so this drives me batsh*t crazy when I have 20 quests in my book, and I'm spinning circles trying to get one done, to pick up 3 more along the way. It drives me absolutely insane.

I noticed that too, I had 3 quests to do from start town in the woods. Go out into the woods, did 4 quests, none of which were the 3 I set out to do.

Casters are strong. I kept thinking while playing mine... damn I bet warriors have it easier since they can take more hits... but I was wrong. It is a pain to sometimes catch a enemy as a warrior lol. At least with the mage, the enemy runs, they get blasted :p

Casters are strong. I kept thinking while playing mine... damn I bet warriors have it easier since they can take more hits... but I was wrong. It is a pain to sometimes catch a enemy as a warrior lol. At least with the mage, the enemy runs, they get blasted :p

yea some times its rough to get close with a warrior but when you its payback time for running lol

Casters are strong. I kept thinking while playing mine... damn I bet warriors have it easier since they can take more hits... but I was wrong. It is a pain to sometimes catch a enemy as a warrior lol. At least with the mage, the enemy runs, they get blasted :p

yea some times its rough to get close with a warrior but when you its payback time for running lol

They run O_O?

Lol, I guess I blast them so quick I've never seen this. At Level 20 at the moment. I noticed items that have +1 to sorcery abilities, are the greatest thing ever. I have +5 from items right now and it is awesome. They boost your abilities stats in the 'talent tree', if you will.

  • 1 month later...

At level 34 now. Finished the first mainland completely, and have now crossed the river to Mel Shensir. Still having a blast, and money is no longer an issue.

One thing that is really aggravating me is the lack of caster (sorcery) gear. I have gotten blades, hammers, full Might and Finesse yellow gear sets, amazing other gear.... But not a single piece of caster gear through a quest, at all. My gear is so far behind because there is such a lack of magic gear it is ridiculous. I've searched far and wide for vendors for the gear, for blacksmith pieces to make my own, through sagecraft epic gems, everything you could imagine. And there isn't any caster gear at all that I can craft, or find. It didn't matter up until recently, now that I have crossed into the next part of the game (38 hours in) because enemies of course are not outleveling me, but my gear is making it difficult to get anything done. I basically have to spam Meteor in between Chakram combos to be relevant at this point.

Still crossing my fingers for something.

Derp, forgot I also came here to post that the first DLC is available, The Legend of Dead Kel.

Going to have to check that out!

At level 34 now. Finished the first mainland completely, and have now crossed the river to Mel Shensir. Still having a blast, and money is no longer an issue.

One thing that is really aggravating me is the lack of caster (sorcery) gear. I have gotten blades, hammers, full Might and Finesse yellow gear sets, amazing other gear.... But not a single piece of caster gear through a quest, at all. My gear is so far behind because there is such a lack of magic gear it is ridiculous. I've searched far and wide for vendors for the gear, for blacksmith pieces to make my own, through sagecraft epic gems, everything you could imagine. And there isn't any caster gear at all that I can craft, or find. It didn't matter up until recently, now that I have crossed into the next part of the game (38 hours in) because enemies of course are not outleveling me, but my gear is making it difficult to get anything done. I basically have to spam Meteor in between Chakram combos to be relevant at this point.

Still crossing my fingers for something.

Derp, forgot I also came here to post that the first DLC is available, The Legend of Dead Kel.

Going to have to check that out!

I have to get back into this. Twisted Metal stole me away :p.

But as far as mage gear goes, I wasn't finding much either. Best option is to just put points into blacksmithing and the Gem making talents. That way, you just destroy everything you find, and build better versions of staffs and whatnot.

At level 34 now. Finished the first mainland completely, and have now crossed the river to Mel Shensir. Still having a blast, and money is no longer an issue.

One thing that is really aggravating me is the lack of caster (sorcery) gear. I have gotten blades, hammers, full Might and Finesse yellow gear sets, amazing other gear.... But not a single piece of caster gear through a quest, at all. My gear is so far behind because there is such a lack of magic gear it is ridiculous. I've searched far and wide for vendors for the gear, for blacksmith pieces to make my own, through sagecraft epic gems, everything you could imagine. And there isn't any caster gear at all that I can craft, or find. It didn't matter up until recently, now that I have crossed into the next part of the game (38 hours in) because enemies of course are not outleveling me, but my gear is making it difficult to get anything done. I basically have to spam Meteor in between Chakram combos to be relevant at this point.

Still crossing my fingers for something.

Derp, forgot I also came here to post that the first DLC is available, The Legend of Dead Kel.

Going to have to check that out!

Yeah, you have you make your own, just salvage all the good armour and weapons you get so that you can use the components to make ridiculously powerful stuff. I made a pair of shoes with +47% health lol.

Yeah, you have you make your own, just salvage all the good armour and weapons you get so that you can use the components to make ridiculously powerful stuff. I made a pair of shoes with +47% health lol.

Same. I made a pair of cloth boots that have some kind of 300 armor on them. The rest of the stats are ****, but the armor rating is through the roof, and I can't replace them. Those shoes alone let me tank damage like nothing lol.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Neowin is saying these are good prices? Thats crazy. As others have said they are just ######. Time for big tech to bring down the prices for real not this fake crap.
    • The iFlyTek AINote 2 is among the thinnest E-Ink tablets. It has an EMR stylus, a built-in fingerprint reader, and plenty of built-in AI features. You had me until "and plenty of built-in AI features." That and any company that still does the iProduct naming trope is an immediate pass. It suggests the company isn't very imaginative or creative and is trying to piggyback off another company's success. Extremely lame. Also kind of expensive. Better choices at lower prices out there.
    • These are not "great" prices... just "less awful". Apparently "Those who forget the past are doomed to pay higher prices and think they've won."
    • Russia was able to invade Crimea because of those people. But my point is that I've personally heard how great it was to be "back in Russia" right afterwards - look how great it is now. I've asked you a question in another comment which you haven't answered, so I'll ask it again: is it better now without "Europrats"?
    • ZimaBoard 2 1664 Starter Kit review: it's a cool and affordable DIY NAS by Steven Parker IceWhale Technology reached out to me asking if I was interested in testing the ZimaBoard 2, and after convincing them to send me the Starter Kit, it arrived at my doorstep in May. A bit of background: it is a Shanghai-based Chinese company founded in 2020, which specializes in single-board servers and personal cloud solutions. From searching around online, user feedback on the company and ZimaOS is mostly positive, so we're off to a good start. In addition, I should probably point out that although they do not have a large portfolio of NAS devices, with just four of what they do offer, they seem to have covered everything from a relatively low-priced entry point with the ZimaBoard 2, right up to the high end, with the ZimaCube 2 Creator Pack that even includes an NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000. Anyway, as already mentioned, what we have today is the ZimaBoard 2 Starter Kit, and here are the full specifications: ZimaBoard 2 Model 832, 1664 CPU Intel Core N150 (4x E Cores/Threads, Max burst up to 3.6 GHz) TDP: 6W (Base) 10W (Max) Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 24 EUs (1.00 GHz) Memory 8 GB, 16 GB DDR5 4800MT/s non ECC SODIMM (soldered) Disk Capacity 60 TB (30 TB x 2) Supported RAID Types TRAID, TRAID +, RAID0, RAID1, RAID5, RAID 6, RAID 10 Storage 2 x SATA 3.0 6Gb/s Ports with Power Bootloader 32 GB, 64 GB eMMC Network 2x RJ-45 2.5 GbE PCIe 1 x PCIe 3.0 (via LPC) USB Ports 2 x USB-A 3.1 (5 Gbps) Display Mini-DisplayPort 1.4 (4K@60Hz) Hardware Transcoding Engine H.264, H.265, MPEG-4, VC-1 Maximum resolution: 4K (4096 x 2160); Maximum FPS: 60 Virtualization Intel® AES New Instructions Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x) Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) Size (H/W/D) 140mm x 83mm x 31mm Weight 0.4 kg (only ZimaBoard 2 device) Power 12v 5A Power Supply Warranty 1 year (Global) 2 Years (EU) OS ZimaOS v1.6.1 MSRP $339, $399 ($548.60) As you can see above, there are two variants of the ZimaBoard 2. The lesser variant has half the eMMC storage and 8 GB less RAM, although it also costs $60 less than the top variant we are testing today. The above pricing is only for the ZimaBoard 2. I put the MSRP of the Starter Kit next to it in brackets, although as of publishing, it is discounted to $534.50. The ZimaBoard 2 started life on Kickstarter and shipped to backers in August last year. It became available via the official website in late 2025 and Q1 2026. This hobbyist NAS contains the still relatively new N150 Intel CPU released in the first quarter of 2025, with support for DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1, although in this case, the memory is integrated into the board itself, so it will not be possible to upgrade or expand the amount. It also supports AV1 decoding, as well as H.264, VP8, VP9, H.265 (8 bit), and H.265 (10 bit). The different capabilities in the Alder Lake-N (and Twin Lake) series are listed below. Processor E-cores L3-cache Turbo clock GPU GPU-clock TDP Intel N355 8 6 MB 3.9 GHz 32 EUs 1.35 GHz 9 W Intel Core 3 N350 3.9 GHz 1.35 GHz 7 W Intel Core i3-N305 3.8 GHz 1.25 GHz 9 W Intel Core i3-N300 3.8 GHz 1.25 GHz Intel N250 4 3.8 GHz 1.25 GHz 6 W Intel Processor N200 3.7 GHz 0.75 GHz Intel N150 3.6 GHz 24 EUs 1 GHz Intel N97 1.2 GHz 12 W Intel Processor N100 3.4 GHz 0.75 GHz 6 W The CPU is part of the Twin Lake series that sits near the bottom of the N-series, designed for low- powered systems and entry-level laptops, and as such has a base level TDP of just 6W. As I have noted before, we are seeing another NAS with a great amount of RAM. It's important to mention that the ZimaBoard 2's memory is integrated into the base board (which is why they have two variants of it). As a reminder, up until a couple of years ago, it was commonplace to only get 2 or 4GB max on a flagship Synology or QNAP home NAS. Ever since the likes of TerraMaster and more have entered the market with ample RAM sizes included in their NAS offerings, it has gone a long way in forcing the hands of the traditional makers to up their game a bit. First impressions The Starter Kit came in one outer box with several packages inside it (shown above). I forgot to take pics of it because when it arrived, it wasn't clear what was inside, and I had to confirm with my contact that I received the entire Starter Kit. In the box ZimaBoard 2 ZimaBoard 2 HDD Expansion Bracket + PCIe card frame Zimaboard Mini DisplayPort Male to HDMI Female Cable 4K 60Hz Zimaboard PCIe 3.0 x4 to Dual NVMe M.2 SSD Adapter Card Quick guide [full online guide] Limited warranty notice Screws Design Where to start? You'd be forgiven for mistaking it as an SSD enclosure if not for all the ports on it. It is completely made out of metal, and the top is an entire heatsink. It has a premium feel about it, but it definitely looks like a hobby device. As you will see, the completed build looks like it belongs in a server or meter closet rather than as a showpiece on someone's desk. On what I am calling the rear, there's a Mini DisplayPort (1.4), two 2.5 GbE ports, with Type A 3.1 USB ports, and then the barrel connector port. Around the front, there are two SATA6 ports with a power connector in the middle. Left side Right side One side is completely free of ports. On the other there's a slit that allows for the feed of a CPU fan cable, and a PCIe 3.0 X4 slot. Top Bottom The top is entirely made up of a heatsink except for the extended height for the I/O on the rear. Around the other side, you can find the ZIMA branding and some regulatory information stamped near the bottom. As you may see from the bottom of the ZimaBoard 2, it scratches quite easily from just moving it around on my Ikea island. Teardown Before we get started, let's have a look at this thing on the inside. The steps to get to the board are as follows: Remove the four smaller Torx screws on the bottom of the ZimaBoard 2; Remove the four larger Torx screws on the sides of the device; Carefully unstick the CMOS battery from the PCB; Remove two Phillips screws on the PCB; Lift out the PCB. Yes, as you can tell from the instructions, you need three different tools to remove Torx and Phillips screws (10 in total), and unhelpfully, one of the screws is located under the CMOS battery, which is stuck onto the PCB. Building Now comes the fun part. Because the ZimaSpace website does not provide any guidance on how to put the Starter Kit together. They only have guidance for connecting the CPU fan. However, they did upload a video to their YouTube channel that shows the entire process. To install the fan, first remove the four screws on the bottom of the ZimaBoard 2, then on the inside, there is a CPU FAN connector where you can attach the fan, reattach the ZimaBoard 2 frame, and feed the fan cable through the provided slit. Then remove the nearest screw on the side and attach the fan frame to the side of the device using the same screw. ZimaBard 2 screws Aligning the screws Bottom view Remember those four screws we removed to access the CPU FAN? Longer screws are provided in the box with the HDD Expansion Bracket, which is what you will now need to attach the ZimaBoard 2 to it. Helpfully, the orientation on how to attach it is made obvious when the frame can only be screwed on at the same overall length as the ZimaBoard 2. If you do it the wrong way around (which is what I did initially) one side hangs off the frame, and it becomes difficult to attach the PCIe Adapter Card cable. PCIe card frame Other side PCIe slot connector Next, it's time to attach the PCIe card frame, which is fastened with the help of 3.5-inch SATA HDD (3 screws). These are toolless screws that you can just use your fingers to fasten them with. Then it is time to connect the provided PCIe cable with the slot connector on one side of the ZimaBoard 2, feed it through the bottom of the HDD frame, and fasten it with two standoffs. Both bracket options 2280 standoffs with 2x 4TB MP44Q The PCIe 3.0 X4 card comes with a short bracket option, handy if you decide to place it inside a different NAS or rack server, but here we need the long bracket. Oddly enough, the M.2 standoffs were preinstalled into the 22110 position, but extra standoffs are included in the box, which I installed at the 2280 position for our use. I added a couple of MP44Q M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSDs (2 x 4TB) that can be availed on Amazon for $478.99 (the lowest price for 3 months) that TEAMGROUP supplied us with Then we have the almost completed build, you just need to push the card into the PCIe slot. Unfortunately, IceWhale Technologies did not provide a screw for the PCIe card frame (this is also apparent in their own video). Here it is at several different angles, with the last pic showing the SATA Y-Cable connected to the two WD Red Plus 4TB drives. Setup and Usage Next, you connect your cables to the I/O, and the ZimaBoard 2 powers on automatically, as there is no power button on the device. Power is controlled through the Settings in ZimaOS. BIOS The ZimaBoard 2 includes an Aptio BIOS from American Megatrends [1, 2, 3], and you can setup pretty much everything here including the boot order, which is locked to the UEFI OS, however above that choice you can enable or disable booting to a SATA/USB bootloader so this would still allow you to switch to an alternative bootloader and boot from it, or disable it to instead always start from the first disk with an OS installed on it. Initial Setup Upon connecting to the LAN and booting up, the ZimaBoard 2 can be reached by navigating to the IP address (shown if you have a monitor connected), or you can find it using the ZIMA Client desktop application, which is essentially a Zima device finder. Initializing the ZimaBoard 2 The ZimaOS setup process is pretty straightforward, through a wizard, and in full above, it basically consists of setting up an account and some handy tips, and that's that! Post Setup (ZimaOS update) Upon first boot, you are alerted that there is a ZimaOS update from 1.5.0 to 1.6.1, which I applied; the full process is shown above with the changelog. ZimaBoard 2 Storage Setup Next, it is time to set up the storage. ZimaOS actually throws everything onto the eMMC flash drive; it is also the default location of AppData, which is definitely something to be wary about, as the 45GB available storage could fill up quickly. HDDs I first attempted to create a Storage Pool using the two 4TB WD Red Plus NAS drives, and got an error message: After several attempts and then looking online, I discovered it was a bug with ZimaOS where the fix was simply to reboot ZimaOS and then try again, this time I was able to create a RAID mirror using the two drives. SSDs I did the same for the SSDs, as you will see in the above gallery, when I created the second Storage Pool, it only allowed me to select available drives. ZimaBoard 2 AppData ZimaOS comes with an App Store that includes a repository of almost 400 apps, so you will be able to find most of what you'll need for a NAS (although after a quick search, I wasn't able to find a Surveillance Manager), and now comes the important part: moving the default AppData location off the 45GB eMMC and onto a larger volume: Open Settings Then Apps Then, in the Select a new location field, click on the new Storage volume you want to move it to (in my case, the Apps Storage Pool), which is the SSD RAID mirror. Confirm the Migration warning Be praised! You can also do this for Docker (which by default installs onto the 45GB eMMC flash drive) and the User database. Plex Setup Next, I tested the configuration by installing the Plex Server app from the App Store. The library folders must already exist (which I placed into the Storage Pool). Plex Server setup is straightforward and requires very little configuration. In my case, all I had to do was add the media path I just created, which you can also browse to using the folder icon in the path field. In addition, you can now map the new Media library in Windows Explorer using the Zima Client. Oddly enough, it is not possible to access the ZimaBoard 2 over the Network Neighborhood; you must map drives using the client, which is shown in the last image in the above gallery. I watched one of my Blu-Ray rips, which is Dolby Vision with Dolby Atmos, and the content played fine with no stuttering or buffering, which is what anyone needs in this scenario. ZimaBoard 2 Zima Client mobile app There's also a client for mobile. It is pretty barebones, as shown in the above gallery, for example, the Apps screen launches the WebUI for that app, and the Backup must be done manually. On opening Backup, you can select internal storage folders on your phone to backup to the ZimaBoard 2's storage, and although this is constantly scanned, the backup action itself must be manually triggered. There is an option to allow foreground backup (last image in the above gallery), but this basically means the queued backup gets triggered when you manually open the app. Benchmarking SATA PCIe 3.0 X4 A CrystalDiskMark test on a mapped network drive from within a Windows 11 25H2 PC (image above) connected over a 2.5 GbE was well within acceptable ranges. Writes were generally better on the SSD RAID mirror. SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 I also ran the NAS Performance tester, which tests the link speed performance. As you can see, it pretty much maxes out the 2.5GbE connection. Of course, you can also opt to bond the two 2.5 GbE connections for a bit more umph, but I didn't do that. Thermals Top PCIe card SATA HDDs Next, I measured some hotspots while playing content on Plex. It's fair to say this will perform better than a NAS that is enclosed in a metal or plastic case, as almost everything storage-wise is exposed! Anyway, the ZimaBoard 2 did not break a sweat with Plex streaming or disk benchmarks. ZimaOS Factory Reset ZimaOS does not include a factory reset option. Instead, you have to download the ZimaOS image and flash it to the eMMC manually. The flashing process is shown in the above gallery. The steps to do so are listed below: Download the ZimaOS image here; Open BalenaEtcher (Run as Administrator) and select the image; Select your inserted USB drive (min 8 GB) Flash to it; Connect your USB drive, monitor, keyboard, USB hub (optional), mouse (optional), and network cable (recommended) to the ZimaBoard 2; Connect power and press F11 continuously; Select your USB drive starting with UEFI in the boot device menu; Press Enter on the Install ZimaOS option; Select /dev/mmcblk0 (MMC) flash drive as target; Confirm with (three times) to wipe the target disk; Wait a couple of minutes while ZimaOS installs; Remove the USB drive and confirm with a reboot; Your ZimaBoard 2 has been factory reset. However, you don't have to stick with ZimaOS, in fact the company also offers official CasaOS images, that are based on Debian; or as they say themselves, put anything you want on this "hackable single board server" it's up to you. Conclusion I had a lot of fun putting this together. I've custom-built all my own PCs and servers since the 90s, and this is the first time I have had to put a NAS together. Even if the actual base ZimaBoard 2 was already a completed build, it still feels pretty custom. I just wish that IceWhale Technology included a getting-started guide in the box for the Start Kit, which would have really completed this kit. Instead, I had to search for the official video on the YouTube channel to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong. So who is this for? Definitely the hobbyist who is comfortable building their own PC and servers. It also has a much smaller footprint than its nearest equivalent (in terms of specs), like the Beelink Me Pro, which is another NAS I will be testing soon. Although the Beelink does not come with the PCIe 3.0 X4 expansion, the ZimaBoard 2 Starter Kit suddenly looks to be a great bargain, even if it only offers the two 3.5-inch bays over the four in the other example. It makes a lot of sense to use Intel's N150 chip inside a NAS; it is more than capable of doing what the ZimaBoard 2 is intended for, media streaming and backup. It also looks like the IceWhale Technology staff are quite active in the official forums helping people with issues they come across with ZimaOS and the devices, peer support seems to be good as well, I was quickly able to find why I was not able to create a new Storage Pool in ZimaOS v1.6.1 even though that is quite a serious bug, hopefully it will be fixed in the next update. If you are comfortable with the command line and Docker, you'll be fine. You can do great things with this hardware. This was my first time with ZimaOS. It seems a bit barebones in comparison to the likes of Synology DSM, TOS, and UGOS, but it has a ton of apps to get you started with your home or small business NAS. Where to buy As of publishing, IceWhale Technology is running a discount of up to 5% for the Starter Kit. If you opt to get just the ZimaBoard 2 itself, it does come with a SATA Y-Cable, so you will be able to connect up to two 3.5-inch HDDs to it. ZimaBoard 2 1668 Starter Kit for $534.50 on Amazon US (was $548.60) ZimaBoard 2 832 Starter Kit for $372.88 on Amazon US (was $390.60) Zimaboard 2 1668 (16GB+64GB) for $419.90 on Amazon US Zimaboard 2 832 (8GB+32GB) for $359.90 on Amazon Disclosure: IceWhale Technology provided a free sample without any editorial input or review pre-approval. Good to know The Amazon link is U.S. specific, and not available in other regions unless specified. We only use first-party seller links (at the time of article publishing); ensure that you purchase from a first-party seller link only. Check out Today's Deals on Amazon | or our recent tech deals. Become a Prime member (for Students or SNAP) via Neowin Get Prime Access - Prime for half price (for qualifying Medicaid, EBT, SNAP) Subscribe to Prime Video, Audible Plus, Music Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited via Neowin As an Amazon Associate, when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Woland13 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Woland13 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      bernmeister earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Week One Done
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      488
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      220
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      147
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      74
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      70
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!