I love seeing what people build on these machines. Over the years, our community has turned Zima devices into media centers, ad blockers, AI assistants, game servers — and every time I think I have seen it all, someone surprises me with something new.
There is a certain feeling that comes with running your own services. The hardware is yours. The data stays with you. Nobody can take it away or change the pricing on you.
Media Server
This is where most people start. Turn your NAS into a streaming box — movies, TV, music, photos, all accessible from any screen in the house.
- Jellyfin Media Server — free and open source, runs on everything
- Plex Media Server — polished interface with companion apps for every device
- Plex GPU Transcoding — enable hardware acceleration for smooth 4K
- Emby Server — good middle ground between Jellyfin and Plex
- Immich Photo Sync — a self-hosted alternative to Google Photos
- Immich Photo Backup — deeper dive into Immich configuration
- DLNA Server — stream to older smart TVs and DLNA devices
- NVR Camera Server — connect security cameras with AI object detection
- Bulk Photo Sync — for when you have thousands of photos to move
Self-Hosted Apps
These are the apps our community runs the most. Each one replaces a subscription service with something you control.
- File Sync with Syncthing — keep folders in sync across all your computers and phones
- Pi-hole Ad Blocker — network-wide ad blocking, works on every device automatically
- Document Management — scan paper documents, make them searchable
- AI Document Processing — add auto-tagging and classification to Paperless
- Radarr Movie Manager — tell it what movies you want, it handles the rest
- Web Radio Station — run your own internet radio station
- Server Monitoring — keep an eye on your servers and network
- Torrent Downloader — download torrents directly to your NAS storage
- Syncthing Setup Guide — more detailed Syncthing configuration
AI and Machine Learning
Running AI on your own hardware means your data never leaves your house. Our community has been pushing hard in this direction lately.
- Enable AI Search — natural language search across all your files
- Deploy DeepSeek R1 — a capable LLM that runs locally on Zima hardware
- Download AI Models — grab models for offline or low-bandwidth setups
- AI Photo Description — automatically tag and describe your photo library
- OpenClaw Agent — a 24/7 AI agent you can talk to through Telegram
- Hermes Agent — an agent that learns from you and remembers over time
Creative Builds
Some projects do not fit neatly into a category. These are the ones that surprised us.
- Batocera Arcade — turn your Zima device into a retro gaming console
- Minecraft Server — host a persistent Minecraft world
- Oculus VR Streaming — stream PC VR games to your Quest headset
- PVE Cluster Migration — move services between Proxmox hosts
- Run PVE on Debian — Proxmox VE on Debian for Intel i226 NICs
- Community App Stores — third-party app stores curated by the community
- Self-Hosted Apps Overview — a broader look at self-hosting on ZimaBoard
- Jellyfin on ZimaBoard — Jellyfin specifically for ZimaBoard hardware
Next
Whatever you decide to build, take it one app at a time. The fun is in making it yours.
- Hardware specs: Hardware Overview — ZimaCube, ZimaBoard, and ZimaBlade details
- Go deeper: Dev Overview — ZFS, RAID, networking, and the ZimaOS API