Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)


Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, President Devil said:

I won't spoil too much for everyone.

I have to say, I was wrong about Ben Affleck, he actually makes a killer Batman and played the part perfectly. I actually want to see more of that.

Jesse Eisenberg's acting sucked, he would have made a better Joker.

The action in this movie is truly top notch, but the story falls apart. It tried to put too much into one film and it sacrified the coherence IMO.
I also don't know how they want to continue with the Justice League after how it ended.

Oh well, at least we got to see Amy Adams' wet boobies. Wonder Woman...meh.

 

I have a few ideas of how they'll continue it, even with that ending, i don't want to go into spoilers yet either though.

  • Like 1
1 hour ago, LOC said:
  Hide contents

I think they are doing Injustice. If they are, ugh.

 

Spoiler

 That's what some think but i don't believe so, not fully. First off for injustice to work Louis has to die, but she didn't, superman "died". If you've ever seen the animated superman doomsday movie, it covers this type of event pretty well, it's worth seeing.  Instead of messing with parallel worlds like injustice i think we're just going to get your typical flash time travel at work, that's what i believe they did, flash showing up this way just changed a possible injustice type future that batman sees.

 

Also people talk about Lex and why he does this whole thing, they don't go into detail but i think the last scene with batman and him flipping the painting around might be hinting that he somehow knows about darkseid and the perademons, killing superman might have been part of some deal made?  It's a bit of a stretch but the hints are there and he has all this info about metahumans etc. I think the JL movie will tie back to this quite a bit and fill in the gaps, we just have to wait for it now.

 

Saw it today. For me it was better than Man of Steel. I mean, it's big, loud, and dumb, but at least the action doesn't leave you wanting to kill yourself just so you can make it stop. It's better in that regard, but yeah, not much else to write home about. I did feel sorry for the kids in the cinema, Jesus, they don't have Batman and Superman anymore, they have utterly violent psychopaths instead.  There were also some parents with really small kids (and I mean really small, like three year old), who deserve to be sterilized. The couple near me spent the first half of the movie actively trying to distract their kid from watching the screen, because of the content on it: deaths, murders, point blank executions, jump scares. They moved to some empty seats luckily so they weren't that annoying, and the kid must have fallen asleep after a while, so it probably won't be traumatized, but that was some grade A parenting right there.

Scary is always what batman has went for, using fear etc. Past movies never got there though, this one does it better, and the character always hurt the bad guys, a lot, if a few arms don't get broken in a batman fight then it's not close.

After seeing it a 2nd time over the weekend, I think it's better than my initial reaction.  With that said, it could have been epic and only ended up being good.  

 

It's good, but it's not The Dark Knight/Batman '89 great.

 

I look forward to seeing it one more time, though.

Saw it last night, think it's so-so, was too long at 2h31.  Preferred Man Of Steel and the Bale trilogy of Batman.

 

And Wonder Woman, just to "plug her in" the DC world for a next movie?  She added nothing to the story.  Lois was just running around in this one.  And I never imagined that Lex Luthor would be that young and that "crazy".  A vilain yes, but more of a serious one.  This Lex had a "joker" undertone.  The surprise in this movie is Ben Affleck, he did a good job as Batman.

 

I give it a 6/10...  And I'm feeling generous.

 

 Doomsday was a lot better than I expected.  Enjoyed it!  While I agree  it didn't pickup a good rhythm until the party scene or so and was disjointed at times, I was never bored.  I think it may have worked better if he would have stayed in one backstory for B/S at a time instead of flopping back and forth to subplots for each.

 

I think the only thing I truly disliked was they way they setup the title match and Lex in general.    Loved WW's unveiling.  Snyder once again nails the visual presentation.  You also can't put a price on how many iconic images Snyder was able to integrate.  Many may not like Snyder, but Miller clearly sees something in him and I think that trust has been rewarded for the third time.  I don't think there is anyone better at moving the comic format to the big screen. 

 

Still not sure about the Flash and I think Momoa's appearance was easily the cheesiest part of the film.

I gave the film 7/10.

 

Jesse Eisenberg and Lex Luther sucked. Why anyone believe his role was brilliant is beyond me. He's trying to be a joker knockoff and it came off as very inauthentic. The script for his character sucked and he as an actor sucked.

 

That being said, batman was great. The best person in this move.  I never liked Ben Affleck as a person (because I hate liberal/socialist who worship government power), but he was very impressive. The move wasn't nearly as bad as the critics claimed on Rottentomato. They rated it in the 20s, while fans have it in the 70s. I wouldn't be surprised that if the fans weren't allowed to see critic ratings, they would have voted it closer to 80%.

6 hours ago, George P said:

Scary is always what batman has went for, using fear etc. Past movies never got there though, this one does it better, and the character always hurt the bad guys, a lot, if a few arms don't get broken in a batman fight then it's not close.

I get what you're trying to say, Batman should be intimidating. This Batman wasn't scary in that way, he was a violent lunatic through and through. I used to play Batman and other heroes when I was a kid, because they were inspiring. I don't see many kids taking much inspiration from this one, other than to torture animals, possibly.

 

1 hour ago, Above The Gods said:

The move wasn't nearly as bad as the critics claimed on Rottentomato. They rated it in the 20s, while fans have it in the 70s. I wouldn't be surprised that if the fans weren't allowed to see critic ratings, they would have voted it closer to 80%.

That's not how RT ratings work. They're not rating the movie 20/100, it just means that 20-30% or whatever of the critics rated the movie positively, while the rest rated it negatively. The true rating is around 5/10, which sounds about right. I'd give it a 6.

  • Like 1
On 3/24/2016 at 10:12 AM, Syanide said:

but one thing that completely turns me off from seeing it, is that Batman kills people. It kind of ruins the character, both in his relationship with Superman, but more importantly, it ruins his dynamic with the Joker. Batman's rule is the one thing that prevents him from being a complete lunatic, it's basically what separates him from the Joker.

 

 

I think that is exactly the point.   I will go into detail, these are minor spoilers.  They were shown in the trailers but a lot of people didn't make the connection or notice them, but just in case I will spoiler tag it anyway.

 

Spoiler

Robin is (most likely) dead, killed by the Joker.  His suit is seen (on display in the bat cave) with the words "haha joke's on you Batman" spray painted on it.  A Wayne Financial tower is also shown destroyed by Superman.  Bruce already has lost it.  He was pushed over the edge by these events.  Batman is even now branding people with the Bat logo, further showing how far he has lost it.

 

Now, having seen the movie there are other examples shown that further support this conclusion, flash backs, dreams, ect.. I do however believe they could have done a better job setting this up.

 

For those that have seen the movie or don't care about spoilers, here is my spoiler ridden semi-short Monday morning thoughts about the movie:


 

Spoiler

 

-The entire time spent setting up Batman against Superman could have been cut out and the movie would have been much better.  The opening scene with the Wayne tower being destroyed and Bruce witnessing the battle from the ground was more then enough to establish Bruce absolutely despises Superman.  

 

-The trailers gave away far too much, imagine the mystery and surprise we could have had if we had no idea Wonder Woman would be in the movie.

 

-In addition, the trailers even gave away Doomsday. There was no mystery as to what Lex was doing in the ship. 

 

-In fact, the entire movie was predictable from the trailers alone.  Batman and Superman fight because Superman destroyed a Wayne tower, but Doomsday shows up so they team up with Wonder Woman to fight it.   That's what we knew from the trailers and that's exactly what we got.  Like so many movies before it, if you have seen the trailer, you've seen the (best parts of the) movie. No sense in paying to see it anymore.

 

-Speaking the the ship... My biggest gripe about the entire movie... The ship just lets Lex become it's new commander, just like that.  Just because he is able to open the door?  The only security the entire Kryptonian ship has is a finger print scanner at the door?  One that can't even tell when you're using dead skin cells to fool it?  I guess the answer to this is "well the movie needed Lex to control the ship, so, why not?"

 

-The vision/dream of the future would make an awesome movie and looking back, I would have preferred that movie in place of this one.

 

-Martha Wayne, Martha Kent.  It just feels like a cop out to me...

 

 

 

 

 

Of course the biggest spoiler of all that you must not ever read unless you have seen the movie is this:

 

Spoiler

 

-Batman does indeed make Superman bleed and I am glad there was an answer to that question.

 

 

 

All that being said, I actually did enjoy the movie and I hope the extended cut addresses at least some of the more obvious problems and plot holes.

Also...

 

Spoiler

Batman is at rage against Superman, thinking he's the reason for the death of many...  And then they fight, fight and fight until Superman tells him about Martha, he's here to kill Batman or else Lex will kill Martha, and then we see Batman/Bruce thinking about the grave of his own mother, Martha and BAM!  They are "friends".  Batman's gonna save Superman mother while he's going to fight Lex.  Wow, that did not take much for Batman to forget everything else....

 

1 hour ago, Syanide said:

That's not how RT ratings work. They're not rating the movie 20/100, it just means that 20-30% or whatever of the critics rated the movie positively, while the rest rated it negatively. The true rating is around 5/10, which sounds about right. I'd give it a 6.

I honestly did not know that, and neither did many of my friends. If this is the case, they should change the rating system as it is misleading.

2 hours ago, Syanide said:

I get what you're trying to say, Batman should be intimidating. This Batman wasn't scary in that way, he was a violent lunatic through and through. I used to play Batman and other heroes when I was a kid, because they were inspiring. I don't see many kids taking much inspiration from this one, other than to torture animals, possibly.

 

That's not how RT ratings work. They're not rating the movie 20/100, it just means that 20-30% or whatever of the critics rated the movie positively, while the rest rated it negatively. The true rating is around 5/10, which sounds about right. I'd give it a 6.

I'm sure there's a whole movie about why this batman is so far into the dark that the solo movie will answer i'm sure. But i believe bvs has all the hints in it that we need to figure out why. Also, the batman we're goimg to get after the events in bvs will be more of the traditional batman, the movie hints at this even more with the final few scenes. 

1 hour ago, TruckWEB said:

Also...

 

  Hide contents

Batman is at rage against Superman, thinking he's the reason for the death of many...  And then they fight, fight and fight until Superman tells him about Martha, he's here to kill Batman or else Lex will kill Martha, and then we see Batman/Bruce thinking about the grave of his own mother, Martha and BAM!  They are "friends".  Batman's gonna save Superman mother while he's going to fight Lex.  Wow, that did not take much for Batman to forget everything else....

Spoiler

Agreed, I didn't understand how they became "friends" so quickly.  I could understand Batman begrudgingly helping Superman given the circumstances, but if Batman truly blamed Superman for 1000s of deaths for all of the destruction he caused, I don't see Batman just brushing it all under the rug and calling them friends.

 

1 hour ago, TruckWEB said:

Also...

 

  Hide contents

Batman is at rage against Superman, thinking he's the reason for the death of many...  And then they fight, fight and fight until Superman tells him about Martha, he's here to kill Batman or else Lex will kill Martha, and then we see Batman/Bruce thinking about the grave of his own mother, Martha and BAM!  They are "friends".  Batman's gonna save Superman mother while he's going to fight Lex.  Wow, that did not take much for Batman to forget everything else....

 

Spoiler

Superman didn't go there planning to kill, or wanting to kill batman, he wants to talk, but this superman is also more human and not the perfect boyscout from before, he gets angry and starts to get physical with batman.  The whole mom bit was a great touch actually, it snapped batman back from where he was and was willing to go in this movie, he remembered why and what he's really suppose to do, it also shows him that superman is just another guy with a mom, not a "god", a dude from Kansas, 

 

The things Bruce says to Diana at the end and the fact he doesn't brand Lex shows he's snapped out of this rage/cruel mode he's in, probably after the events with Robin.

 

^

Spoiler

Agreed.  At some point during the "Martha" thing, he realizes that Lex is just playing both of them as pawns.  It may not be explicitly stated out to the viewer, but it's clear that's part of what happens and why they all of a sudden are buddy buddy.

Had there been better direction in this movie, they could have cut out some of the other junk and focused on that a bit so it didn't seem so "all of a sudden"

 

Neowin exclusive!

Leaked original script has the following lines*

 

Batman:  Tell me, do you bleed?

Superman:  You mean, like your parents?

Batman: No, like your planet

gallery_47744_396_191338.thumb.png.6379d

 

*Not actually true

 

  • Like 2
2 hours ago, Above The Gods said:

I honestly did not know that, and neither did many of my friends. If this is the case, they should change the rating system as it is misleading.

Yeah, it's somewhat misleading. RT should only be used as an indicator of how many critics liked a movie, but not how much they like it.

 

1 hour ago, George P said:

I'm sure there's a whole movie about why this batman is so far into the dark that the solo movie will answer i'm sure. But i believe bvs has all the hints in it that we need to figure out why. Also, the batman we're goimg to get after the events in bvs will be more of the traditional batman, the movie hints at this even more with the final few scenes. 

Tbh, despite not being a fan of the tone of the movie, on purely action basis, this Batman was the best one we got on screen, and Affleck did a pretty great job as Bruce. A solo movie is the way to go, I just hope they let him direct it, and aim for a script that is focused on telling just one story.

10 minutes ago, Syanide said:

Yeah, it's somewhat misleading. RT should only be used as an indicator of how many critics liked a movie, but not how much they like it.

 

Tbh, despite not being a fan of the tone of the movie, on purely action basis, this Batman was the best one we got on screen, and Affleck did a pretty great job as Bruce. A solo movie is the way to go, I just hope they let him direct it, and aim for a script that is focused on telling just one story.

The talk is that he's going to direct it, and as for script, i saw a post saying he's going to work with one of the writers behind some JL comics and other DC stuff, i'll have to look for the name again.

 

*edit*  I looked it up, it's Geoff Johns, he's worked on some great stuff.

Just got back from the movie and I loved it. Not sure why everyone has to be so hyper critical and can't just enjoy a movie. Only issue I had was that Batman was ready to kill Superman with a spear until he finds out his mom has the same name then they are friends?

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • 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.
    • 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.
  • 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!