Geoff Keighley confirms Wii U won


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It's expected to be released a year before, yes. But, the WiiU has 2gb of ram, Durango has 8gb of ram...

Durango oh you mean the so called Dev kit that got sold on ebay well we dont know that is for sure what it was and if so it is a Development kit they always have more ram then the retail models because of debugging stuff so 8gb of ram is meaninglessness. The xbox 360s first Dev kits were just off the shelf Apple Dual CPU based G5s running @ 2ghz far below the real xbox 360 specs and it has a GPU with 512 ram and system ram of 4gbs i think at the time so this Durango Dev kit means nothing right now

In WHAT world did Nintendo come in third this generation?

http://en.wikipedia....sales_figures_6

They came in 3rd with the GameCube, hence, again.

true still tho the Wii is one of Nintendos most successful systems and i think the Wii U will as well. i do feel that there will be some people who may just buy it just for Nintendo TVii assuming Nintendo properly adverts it

Not even a miniscule chance that the Wii U will be as successful as the Wii. Too many Wii owners feel burned by the purchase, and too many non-Wii owners know how many Wii owners feel burned, and will likely have the same reason for not buying the Wii U as they did for not buying the Wii (gimmicky/not powerful enough). They'll be lucky to sell 60 million.

They came in 3rd with the GameCube, hence, again.

Not even a miniscule chance that the Wii U will be as successful as the Wii. Too many Wii owners feel burned by the purchase, and too many non-Wii owners know how many Wii owners feel burned, and will likely have the same reason for not buying the Wii U as they did for not buying the Wii (gimmicky/not powerful enough). They'll be lucky to sell 60 million.

Is that why Wii-U preorders are selling out?

It's kinda funny

Announcement: WiiU won't support UE4

Response: disaster

Announcement: WIinRT will support full UE3

Response: Eh, the limited mobile version of UE3 on iPad and android tablets are just as good.

While ue4 is scalable, pc and console is two different worlds, and assuming ue4 will scale down that far is an assumption. It also means you have to turn of everything that makes ue4 ue4.

Is that why Wii-U preorders are selling out?

Ouya also "sold out", it's still only 50k. Without real numbers, sold out is a useless reference. And Nintendo is well know to do the same tactic as apple. Low release volumes so it always appears to be sold out, making it seem desirable.

It was already well known that the Wii U would support UE4. In fact there was some concern over whether the next-gen consoles from Microsoft and Sony would be powerful enough, as Epic really wanted to push technology to its limits.

The Wii U will be a decent casual console but it's not designed for core gamers - many publishers and developers have stated openly they won't be developing for it (that includes the Crysis and GTA franchises). Few are interested in paying full price for a console that technologically is little better than the X360/PS3 and has a dramatically more limited catalogue, especially with Microsoft's next-gen console coming out next year. The question is whether the Wii U's asymmetric gameplay / budget tablet interface gimmick will hold up. The tablet controller is very much inferior to current tablets and that will become more pronounced 2-3yrs down the line when the console is in its prime.

Nintendo is releasing a budget console because it's profitable to do so but the next consoles from Microsoft and Sony will offer a much better experience for core gamers.

They came in 3rd with the GameCube, hence, again.

Not even a miniscule chance that the Wii U will be as successful as the Wii. Too many Wii owners feel burned by the purchase, and too many non-Wii owners know how many Wii owners feel burned, and will likely have the same reason for not buying the Wii U as they did for not buying the Wii (gimmicky/not powerful enough). They'll be lucky to sell 60 million.

That is why the Pre-orders are through the rough and reaching the far reaches of the universe and Selling out Not even life on Melmak can get one it is that good

And how many are those pre orders. Again, outsold means NOTHING.

even if they are not in stock do to supply shortage which i doubt cause no word has come across stating otherwise i just think you wanting to hope it is another Wii supply thing all over again you know . Nintendo has next generation system Now Sony and Microsoft dont they will be late in the game so by that time the Wii U will have a dominent place in the eyes of Gamers and that is already happening with the Pre-orders

They're not getting 65 million pre-orders. Almost anything like this will sell out pre-orders because of the hardcore crowd.

And im sure people like you said the same thing about the Wii as well.

Obviously they aren't getting 65 million pre-orders. That would be preposterous to think. Come back in 5-6 years time when they're ready for the next generation and see how much they've sold.

Nintendo has never followed up an incredibly successful run with one console with an equally successful run with the subsequent console.

In 5-6 years, they won't have sold anywhere near 90 million.

So you're a time traveller?

GameCube - Wii would be the exception. Although some would not classify the GameCube a success

even if they are not in stock do to supply shortage which i doubt cause no word has come across stating otherwise i just think you wanting to hope it is another Wii supply thing all over again you know . Nintendo has next generation system Now Sony and Microsoft dont they will be late in the game so by that time the Wii U will have a dominent place in the eyes of Gamers and that is already happening with the Pre-orders

Again, Nintendo has a history of low release numbers just to heighten desirability. They always do it, here doing it again. Being sold out means nothing, hard numbers of how many pre orders there are means something.

As for next gen.... Mmmmyeah well. I'll probably end up buying one, mostly for old wii Zelda and new mario games( long as they're not Mario 64 3d crap). But when compared to the true next gen. I think you'll find that Nintendo isn't early. They are in fact late with a mid generation console.

Also I think you'll find that while the WiiU will sell well, it may very well sell way below the Wii. All those millions of people who have their Wiis collecting dust somewhere is hardly likely to buy another Wii. They're not going to get the old and middle aged gamers again, or the super casuals. They'll get the ones who still play their Wii every once in a while. Casuals and nostalgic core gamers with a Nintendo fetish.

Again, Nintendo has a history of low release numbers just to heighten desirability. They always do it, here doing it again. Being sold out means nothing, hard numbers of how many pre orders there are means something.

As for next gen.... Mmmmyeah well. I'll probably end up buying one, mostly for old wii Zelda and new mario games( long as they're not Mario 64 3d crap). But when compared to the true next gen. I think you'll find that Nintendo isn't early. They are in fact late with a mid generation console.

Also I think you'll find that while the WiiU will sell well, it may very well sell way below the Wii. All those millions of people who have their Wiis collecting dust somewhere is hardly likely to buy another Wii. They're not going to get the old and middle aged gamers again, or the super casuals. They'll get the ones who still play their Wii every once in a while. Casuals and nostalgic core gamers with a Nintendo fetish.

How is it they are late.

IBM Power 7 multi-core CPU confirmed by IBM Xbox 360 uses a Power 4/5 custom chip as it was IBMs first Multi-core chip even before they had Server CPUs a with multi-core per chip

AMD R700 series GPU all rumors led to 48870 and as of right now nothing says otherwise so we will say 4870 the Xbox 360 is running a First of a kind GPU architecture if we was to compare it to a desktop version GPU If we was it be around a X1900 series card and by my count that be 4 generations and 60 GPUs older then the 4870 Developers have said this thing is a beast and far greater more powerful then what is in the 360

the system has 2gb of ram 1gb of games 1gb for everything else Xbox 360 has 512mb shared 32mb to 48mb of that for OS

has 8gb or 32gb flash storage expandable via up to 32gb SD card or any size USB drive up to 4 USB drives 4 USB ports so if someone wanted 4x 3TB storage external of course

Wii U gamepad changes thing further and Microsoft even confimred Nintendo is going the right direction at there E3 showing of Smart glass they started working on a day after E3 2011 Nintendo showing of the Wii U very similar idea using a Tablet and internet with less 2nd screen functions as the Wii U MS went to Developers who was excited with MS going that direction and told them all the stuff they could end up doing with a 2nd screen but the issue is tho it is requiring users to buy a 360 and a Tablet and possible Live premium subscription While the Wii U gamepad comes with the Wii U and all the extra features anfd services Nintendo has showed off and game developers have showed off come to the system For FREE even online stuff and Nintendo TVii stuff

http://twitter.com/I...241146213842944

http://twitter.com/I...473693843562498

So i say No to Nintendo being late in the game and i dont think with these specs really says it is a Mid generation console it is next generation

The Wii U will be a decent casual console but it's not designed for core gamers -

Eh, no, no, no, no, no. Nintendo have explicitly stated they're trying to target core gamers with this console - and it shows with their launch plans that their not including something universally appealing like they did with Wii Sports. In fact, there's nothing like that in their first party line up bar a Wii Fit sequel, and that's at some point into next year. They're going out of their way to try and cater for core gamers, even if they're not releasing a the most powerful console.

And calling the tablet controller inferior to current tablets is pretty silly given it's a dumb slave unit and not an actual tablet per s? - I can pretty much assure you there'll be far better graphics, and far better gameplay on the WiiU controller than any tablet in the market at the moment.

Wii U has a good launch window line up of 50 day Launch window from launch day to March of next year and there is plenty of M rated games on the list and FPS games Zombie U being one of them . The Wii U is not targeted solo for Casual gamers it is Targeted for core gamers and well now with Nintendo TVii the living room for media buffs

http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu/videos/#/wii-u-preview on the jump to area click on Wii TV this will show a side of Nintendo no one was expecting at all fully integrated TV services to interact with your DVR and more

Eh, no, no, no, no, no. Nintendo have explicitly stated they're trying to target core gamers with this console - and it shows with their launch plans that their not including something universally appealing like they did with Wii Sports.

They stated the same thing with the Gamecube and Wii, yet we all know that wasn't true.

In fact, there's nothing like that in their first party line up bar a Wii Fit sequel, and that's at some point into next year.

You're kidding, right? The Nintendo line up is nothing but casual/kiddie games. There's Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros. U, Lego City: Undercover, Game & Wario, Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101. In fact Nintendo isn't publishing a single mature title themselves. That's very different to Microsoft's line-up (franchises like Halo, Gears Of War) or Sony's (Killzone, Metal Gear Solid) - they weren't launch titles but they are the brands most associated with each console. It seems like every time Nintendo releases a new console there are people claiming this will be their return to core gaming and every time there is plenty of evidence to point to the contrary but people just ignore it.

And calling the tablet controller inferior to current tablets is pretty silly given it's a dumb slave unit and not an actual tablet per s? - I can pretty much assure you there'll be far better graphics, and far better gameplay on the WiiU controller than any tablet in the market at the moment.

The problem is the Wii U tablet doesn't even feature multi-touch and the pixel density is half that of the current iPad and way less than tablets like the Nexus 7 or Surface Pro. Considering that it's outdated now it's going to be looking really poor several years in, let alone the six years it will take before Nintendo releases another console (if they do).

The Wii U has slightly better third-party support (after the surprise success of the Wii) but that's current gen titles simply being ported across to play off the launch hype. Once the next-gen console cycle kicks in the difference will become very much more noticeable.

Not even a miniscule chance that the Wii U will be as successful as the Wii. Too many Wii owners feel burned by the purchase, and too many non-Wii owners know how many Wii owners feel burned, and will likely have the same reason for not buying the Wii U as they did for not buying the Wii (gimmicky/not powerful enough). They'll be lucky to sell 60 million.

WTF? You don't consider selling 60 million of something a success?? What ****ing planet are you from.

Are you feeling a little butt hurt, by chance?

WTF? You don't consider selling 60 million of something a success?? What ****ing planet are you from.

It's all relative. If Nintendo's last console sold 1bn, then obviously 60m for a sequel is a disaster. But I'm sure you knew that already, which begs the question - why are you trying to make a big deal out of that comment?

It's all relative. If Nintendo's last console sold 1bn, then obviously 60m for a sequel is a disaster. But I'm sure you knew that already, which begs the question - why are you trying to make a big deal out of that comment?

You need to work on your embellishment. You haven't quite grasped it yet.

Well, if you would quit making up bull****, people like me wouldn't have to call you on it.

The Wii-U will sell well.

They stated the same thing with the Gamecube and Wii, yet we all know that wasn't true.

You're kidding, right? The Nintendo line up is nothing but casual/kiddie games. There's Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros. U, Lego City: Undercover, Game & Wario, Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101. In fact Nintendo isn't publishing a single mature title themselves. That's very different to Microsoft's line-up (franchises like Halo, Gears Of War) or Sony's (Killzone, Metal Gear Solid) - they weren't launch titles but they are the brands most associated with each console. It seems like every time Nintendo releases a new console there are people claiming this will be their return to core gaming and every time there is plenty of evidence to point to the contrary but people just ignore it.

The problem is the Wii U tablet doesn't even feature multi-touch and the pixel density is half that of the current iPad and way less than tablets like the Nexus 7 or Surface Pro. Considering that it's outdated now it's going to be looking really poor several years in, let alone the six years it will take before Nintendo releases another console (if they do).

The Wii U has slightly better third-party support (after the surprise success of the Wii) but that's current gen titles simply being ported across to play off the launch hype. Once the next-gen console cycle kicks in the difference will become very much more noticeable.

The Wii U gamepad looks great have you seen it in action and the LCD screen quality is rather damn good also it dont need Multi-touch it has no use for it. the screen specs tho on the Wii U GP are 6.2 inch (15.7 cm) 854?480 16:9 @ 158 ppi

You're kidding, right? The Nintendo line up is nothing but casual/kiddie games. There's Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros. U, Lego City: Undercover, Game & Wario, Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101. In fact Nintendo isn't publishing a single mature title themselves. That's very different to Microsoft's line-up (franchises like Halo, Gears Of War) or Sony's (Killzone, Metal Gear Solid) - they weren't launch titles but they are the brands most associated with each console. It seems like every time Nintendo releases a new console there are people claiming this will be their return to core gaming and every time there is plenty of evidence to point to the contrary but people just ignore it.

The only explicitly casual / kiddie titles Nintendo actually make are either the "Wii [Name]" branded games, touch generation branded games and Animal Crossing. Outside of that, and few odd spin offs - their games are catered towards core gamers, especially in terms of depth. I must have missed the point when gamers decided what makes a game cater towards them is no longer the gameplay, but how realistic and violent the game is.

Calling New Super Mario Bros, Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101 casual / kiddie titles is ridiculous - and to a certain extent Lego City & Nintendo Land. Just because there's no realistic graphics, gracious violence or gun play, and that their age rating allows it doesn't means it's a kids title. And none of them are in anyway easy enough or shallow enough for a casual player to get far in. Nintendo designs their first party games to be fun games first and foremost and have good gameplay, the sort of gameplay that makes them not casual or kiddie titles. They're not explicitly mature, but they're not casual / kiddie titles. That's almost as insulting as calling Little Big Planet a casual / kiddie title. It doesn't limit it's appeal to a single market, but it can only be fully appreciated by gamers.

You might see a casual player complete the first few levels in Super Mario Bros for instance, but you'll barely ever see anyone even make it halfway by themselves, let alone touch anywhere near any of the secrets. Pikmin? I'm going to assume that because you even mentioned it as a casual title you've never actually played it, otherwise it'd be nowhere near that list.

As an FYI, the Gamecube did a lovely job of catering towards core gamers. And the Wii was always, from inception, designed to get people playing games who had never played them before, which is why the controller was designed as such, and why they included Wii Sports in the box. (Though they still made sure there were plenty of games to cater towards gamers - which were somewhat ignored not because the games were bad, but because the people wanted HD graphics / Xbox Live clone)

Regarding the controller needing multi touch - why does it need it? It's not trying to be a tablet. It's trying to be an accurate, durable, affordable gaming controller. Not your next iPad - it's designed explicitly for it's purpose. You can't install anything on it, you can't use it away from the console, you can't attempt to write your next dissertation on it. You play games with it, along side your TV, and the stylus offers better precision in that regard (as well as making the screen more durable as it doesn't need to be glass). As long as the screen is sensitive enough to also be used with a finger when needed, which everyone says it is, I don't see the problem. Or, let's put it this way. How many times have you seen multitouch being a definitive, integral part for improving gaming control, vs the precision given with a stylus. In the majority of games, all it does is zoom a view in and out, and for that you lose the proper stylus control.

Calling New Super Mario Bros, Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101 casual / kiddie titles is ridiculous - and to a certain extent Lego City & Nintendo Land. Just because there's no realistic graphics, gracious violence or gun play, and that their age rating allows it doesn't means it's a kids title.

They are all casual titles, designed to appeal to children as much as to adults. They have bright and colourful graphics, with little narrative depth, simple and easily understandable gameplay mechanics, cutesy characters and no realism. That doesn't mean a core game can't have any of those traits but they're just very much less likely to. Core games would be titles like Far Cry 3, Borderlands 2, Forza, Metal Gear Solid, Crysis 3, Halo 4, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, F1 2012, Civilization V, Skyrim, Max Payne 3, etc. Now the Wii U will have some core games but not to the same degree as consoles from Microsoft or Sony, or the PC. More importantly, Nintendo itself doesn't make core games - the only game that would class as that is Metroid Prime.

That's almost as insulting as calling Little Big Planet a casual / kiddie title.

It is a casual title! It just happens to be a very good game that also appeals to adults and core gamers. My point isn't that casual games are bad, just that Nintendo isn't catering to core games to even close to the same degree as Microsoft or Sony.

You might see a casual player complete the first few levels in Super Mario Bros for instance, but you'll barely ever see anyone even make it halfway by themselves, let alone touch anywhere near any of the secrets. Pikmin? I'm going to assume that because you even mentioned it as a casual title you've never actually played it, otherwise it'd be nowhere near that list.

That's irrelevant. The majority of people don't complete games. Core games like Call Of Duty are incredibly easy to complete but that doesn't mean they're not core games.

As an FYI, the Gamecube did a lovely job of catering towards core gamers.

:argh: The Xbox launched with Halo, Project Gotham Racing and Dead Or Alive 3; the Playstation 2 launched with Ridge Racer V, Tekken: Tag Tournament and Unreal Tournament; the Gamecube launched with Luigi's Mansion, Wave Race, Super Monkey Ball and Crazy Taxi.

Regarding the controller need multi touch - why does it need it? It's not trying to be a tablet.

Firstly, it doesn't "need" it but it's a rather noticeable omission given that Nintendo is clearly trying to head off the threat of tablet gaming.

It's trying to be an accurate, durable, affordable gaming controller. Not your next iPad - it's designed explicitly for it's purpose. You can't install anything on it, you can't use it away from the console, you can't attempt to write your next dissertation on it. You play games with it, along side your TV, and the stylus offers better precision in that regard (as well as making the screen more durable as it doesn't need to be glass). As long as the screen is sensitive enough to also be used with a finger when needed, which everyone says it is, I don't see the problem.

The point is people will be comparing it to tablets, especially when tablets will offer better functionality, better displays and better graphics (if not initially then within a year or two).

You seem to have a very different idea of what constitutes core gaming. Do you at least accept that the Wii U is more aimed at kids than consoles from Microsoft and Sony?

Microsoft and Sony will offer a much better experience for core gamers.

As long as they work for more than 1 year without breaking.

After 2 XBox 360 (RRoD and HDMI port) i simply gave up on it. Next gen i'm waiting at least 1 year to see if it's reliable enough.

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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. 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    • It's in the Insider's group so yes it's technically beta, though these days it's hard to see much of a difference unless you opt for the most extreme beta builds, which I don't. When I moved here from the Release Preview channel I did so primarily because I wanted to see how well the restored taskbar functionality (restored from Win10, and earlier) is working and whether it was time to finally abandon SAB--and it is--working fine, so far. Not as polished as SAB, but it'll do for me.
    • I've been using MWB Premium for a number of years so that along with Windows updates and updated browser should be fine. Thanks for that.
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