My 10-inch Kallax homelab rack is finally complete!
Hey everyone, just wanted to share the final status of my 10-inch homelab rack setup. It fits right inside a standard Ikea Kallax shelf, and I finally got the ZimaCube 2 integrated at the bottom.
Here is a quick breakdown of how I configured everything:
The Hardware Stack (top to bottom):
- OPNsense Firewall: ZimaBoard 2 (8GB) handling edge routing and WireGuard VPN access.
- Compute Node (Proxmox VE): ZimaBoard 2 (16GB RAM) running core services like primary AdGuard Home, PostgreSQL database cluster, Nginx Proxy Manager, Vaultwarden, and Home Assistant.
- Compute Nodes 2 & 3 (Proxmox VE): 2x ZimaBlades (16GB RAM each). One runs Frigate NVR (hooked up to a Coral TPU) and the other is a "Game-Central" node (RomM, SMB shares, retro games).
- Secondary DNS: Raspberry Pi Zero 2W running secondary AdGuard Home (synced via adguardhome-sync for DNS failover).
- Storage & AI Node: ZimaCube 2 (Standard Edition) running ZimaOS Beta. It handles the NFS/SMB shared storage for Proxmox and runs local LLMs (mostly Gemma models) via llama.cpp + OpenClaw.
Upgrades on the ZimaCube 2: I added a 32GB DDR5 stick to get 40GB RAM total and dropped in a low-profile Intel Arc Pro B50 (16GB VRAM, AV1 encoding support). I went with the B50 because it runs entirely off PCIe slot power (no extra power cables needed) and offers an awesome VRAM-to-price ratio.
Software & Local AI: Instead of wiping ZimaOS from the ZimaCube 2 right away, I decided to keep it to test a ZimaOS Beta version provided by the IceWhale that includes native Intel Arc GPU driver support. This way, the ZimaCube 2 hosts the shared storage backend for the cluster and runs local inference with llama.cpp + OpenClaw. For the cameras, Frigate is still running on one of the ZimaBlades with a Coral TPU since I have 4 outdoor cameras and want to keep the load off the main CPU/GPU.
3D Prints & Links: Printed everything on my Elegoo Centauri Carbon. I did a couple of remixes myself to get the ZimaCube and the firewall cleanly integrated. Here are the links:
- Kallax 10" 7U Rack Frame (Top Section): Original Model on MakerWorld (Used as-is for the upper compute stack).
- Kallax 10" 2U Rack Frame (Bottom Section for ZimaCube): My Remix on MakerWorld (Modified this to handle the height and weight of the ZimaCube 2, includes the sliding tray rails).
- ZimaBoard 2 Mount (OPNsense Firewall - 2 Keystones): My Remix on MakerWorld (Added 2 keystone slots for clean WAN/LAN cable management on the front).
- ZimaBoard 2 Mount (Proxmox Brain): Original Model on MakerWorld.
- ZimaBlade Mounts: Original Model on MakerWorld.
- Vents / Blank Panels: Customizable Vents on MakerWorld.
Feel free to ask me anything! Whether you have questions about the physical assembly, the 3D printed mounts, network routing, or the local AI testing under ZimaOS Beta, I'm happy to help out and share details!
