The era of the NAS as a passive file vault is ending. As local AI, self-hosted services, and edge computing move into the home, what users need is not more storage but more compute, with storage built in.IceWhale Technology Ltd. announced the ZimaCube 2 NAS, a self-hosting platform powered by Intel 12th Gen Core processors, dual open PCIe expansion, Thunderbolt 4, and ZimaOS. Three configurations are available: Standard, Pro, and Creator Pack.

“The NAS industry is splitting into two paths: closed ecosystems that sell you subscriptions, or open platforms that let you own everything. We chose open. ZimaCube 2 ships with unlocked PCIe slots, community-driven software, and enough compute to run local AI, because the next decade of NAS is about what your hardware can do, not just what it can store,” said Lauren Pan, CEO, IceWhale.

Powered by ZimaOS: Self-Hosting Without the Sysadmin Tax
ZimaCube 2 ships with ZimaOS pre-installed, a Docker-native OS refined through over 4 million downloads. Users get a visual app store with one-click deployment for Plex, Jellyfin, Immich, Nextcloud, Home Assistant, and 800+ more. ZimaOS also mounts existing NAS volumes, cloud drives, and USB disks into 1 unified file manager, so users can bring scattered data home without migrating everything at once. TrueNAS, Proxmox, Unraid, Ubuntu, and Windows are also supported on the same x86 hardware.

Open Expansion: Inside and Out
Where many NAS vendors lock down PCIe or solder in fixed accelerators, ZimaCube 2 leaves both slots open: 1xPCIe 4.0 (x16, 4-lane) and 1xPCIe 3.0 (x8, 2-lane) for a GPU, transcoder, 25GbE NIC, or NVMe expansion card. Dual Thunderbolt 4 ports provide DAS-level direct-connect to a Mac or PC with zero network setup.

Who It’s For
ZimaCube 2 is built for homelab enthusiasts consolidating single-purpose devices into one always-on system, creators who need 10GbE and GPU-ready expansion, and privacy-conscious households who want data stored on hardware they own. No cloud account, no monthly fee.

Hardware Tuned for Storage and Self-Hosting
Intel 12th Gen Core processors pair Performance cores for burst compute with Efficiency cores for always-on background services. DDR5 provides the memory bandwidth multi-service workloads demand. Dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, The 6+4 hybrid storage architecture combines 4xM.2 NVMe slots and 6×3.5″ SATA bays in 1 chassis, over 212TB of raw capacity.

Three tiers share this foundation:

• ZimaCube 2 ($799) — Intel Core i3-1215U (6 cores, 4.4GHz), 8GB DDR5 (expandable to 64GB), 256GB NVMe, dual 2.5GbE. Ready to run a full self-hosting stack out of the box
• ZimaCube 2 Pro ($1,299) — Intel Core i5-1235U (10 cores, 12 threads, 4.4GHz), 16GB DDR5 (expandable to 64GB), 4xM.2 NVMe at 3,200MB/s, onboard 10GbE. The sweet spot for self-hosting at scale
• ZimaCube 2 Creator Pack ($2,499) — Same i5 platform maxed to 64GB DDR5, 1TB NVMe, plus NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 pre-installed. A complete local AI and media workstation, ready on first boot

Availability:
ZimaCube 2 is available at the company’s webstore.