Related
Introduction
Following their previous, and first, Windows Mini PC, Minix decided to release something different than other ones, a device that can be easily considered as an HTPC, considering its hardware. This is an huge upgrade from the Z64-Windows, with an entire components upgrade and much more.
This is the Minix NGC-1
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Unboxing
Packaging comes with: 1x HDMI Cable, 1x Power Supply (12V/3A), 2x Wi-Fi Antennas, 1x Multi-Language Setup Guide, 1x Products Brochure and the Mini PC (of course).
No Air Mouse/Keyboard is included, neither the device has an IR Receiver (unlike its predecessor) so it can be only powered on using the physical power button, located on the left side.
Device
As always, Minix’s design is unbeatable, and this time they decided to go even further by using a Metal Chassis (just like the Mac Mini) that allows an excellent heat dissipation, while keeping the whole design clean and stylish. Well Done Minix!
It is just 13.8x13.9x2.8cm, pretty compact and it is also lightweight enough (probably because it is made of plastic).
On the upper side only there is only Brand Logo with a dark-grey background, the whole chassis is dark-grey.
On the front side there is only Power LED, it turns Blue when the device is running and Green when the device in on Sleep/Standby state.
On the left, there are 2x Wi-Fi Antenna Connectors (even if the Wi-Fi Adapter supports maximum 1x1 RX/TX) and 1x Kensington Lock.
On the right, there are 3x Standard USB 3.0 Ports and a Power Button.
USB Ports are well designed here, you won’t have any kind of problem even with big USB Sticks. Again, Well Done Minix!
The rear features 1x Headphone/Microphone Jack (like Smartphones), 1x DisplayPort Connector, 1x HDMI port, 1x SPDIF port, 1x LAN 10/100/1000 port (Yes, Gigabit Ethernet), and 1x 5.5mm DC in.
On the lower side there isn’t anything important at all, absolutely clean. (there is a small hole, probably for Reset but I still have to investigate on it)
Testing (Windows)
First of all, it boots pretty fast (ready in ~ 15 sec) thanks to Windows 10 Fast Startup and the built-in SSD, much faster faster than conventional HDDs & eMMCs. Even if the internal SSD isn’t blazing fast, it still helps as regards performance.
Minix provides a pre-installed, and genuine, Windows 10 Home distribution on this device, and on first boot you’ll need to configure everything just like a clean installation of Windows. No Third-Party apps are installed, completely clean.
I don’t know why Minix choose to use the slower Intel Celeron N3150 instead of the Pentium N3700, it would have provided a nice performance boost, but this doesn’t mean that the device isn’t fast enough. This CPU, based on the Braswell architecture, combined with its 12 EUs GPU, provides enough performance for almost every task, only gaming performance suffers a bit. Follow my next paragraph to know more.
It comes with a decent Wi-Fi card (Intel Dual Band AC-3165) that supports 2.4/5.0GHz Networks at a maximum speed of 433 Mbps. As regards its performance, it behaves quite well, it almost reaches my LAN connection, the only limit is related to the 1x1 RX/TX configuration. Unfortunately this is a WiFi Module limit, but it should be replaceable (PCI-EX slot) without any issue so, if you want, you can replace it with a more powerful one.
Built-in RAM is made by Samsung, with a single channel configuration (1x 4GB DDR3L Module). This is replaceable, so you can increase RAM to 8GB (remember that there is only one slot) or replace it with a faster one.
The 128GB SSD (M.2 variant) seems to be made by Corsair, but others say that it is made by Toshiba, so i’m not sure about its brand. I’ll open the Mini PC as soon as possible to check it. Anyway, it isn’t extremely fast, not like other SSDs, but still pretty good.
USB 3.0 Performance is excellent, my Sandisk Ultra 64GB got maximum R/W speed, probably the only Mini PC where I managed to get this speed. Awesome!
Testing (Linux)
Linux runs perfectly on this device, I have tried OpenELEC (mainly for Video Playback capabilities) and BBQLinux (my preferred Linux Distro), and both worked without any issue at all. There are no hardware incompatibilites at all, except Bluetooth on OpenELEC. (probably just a little bug)
Unlike Cherry Trail Mini PCs, there is a Realtek Sound Card (ALC662) that works on Linux, everything is recognized as should.
As you can see, OpenELEC says that Bluetooth is disabled, but it doesn’t even provide a switch to turn it on so there is probably a little software bug.
While Wi-Fi works absolutely fine.
Benchmarks
I have used PCMark 8 (Home, Creative, Work, Storage), GeekBench 3 Pro (64-bit), CrystalDiskMark x64 (benchmark provided before) and SiSoft Sandra to stress the device in the most complete way.
PCMark 8
PCMark tests are the most complete ones, and their score is decent. All tests have been run using the OpenCL acceleration so that the whole hardware capabilities have been used.
Creative
Home
Storage
Work
GeekBench – CPU Performance is similar to the Atom x7-z8700.
https://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/6947863
SiSoft Sandra – Comparing the score with Core M-5Y10c and Pentium N3700 devices, it is clearly noticeable that the latter beats both CPUs, while the former seems to have similar performance.
Summarazing all Benchmark Results, it is clear to say that this isn’t a device made for Gaming, but every other task is handled without any single issue.
Also, I have recorded Chassis temperature while running all benchmarks. (Ambient Temperature 28°C)
Video Playback
I have tested the common Big Buck Bunny videos, that are available on every different format so that the device can be tested completely. I have used KODI (on both OS platform, Windows and Linux) to play these videos.
Stereoscopic 3D
Full HD (1920x1080 x2) 60 fps: Smooth, no issues.
Full HD (1920x1080 x2) 30 fps: Smooth, no issues.
4K, Quad-Full-HD (3840x2160 x2) 60 fps: High CPU load, nearly unplayable.
4K, Quad-Full-HD (3840x2160 x2) 30 fps: Medium-High CPU load, not smooth.
Native render size (4000x2250 x2) 60 fps: Extreme CPU load, unplayable.
Standard 2D
480p HD (854x480) 24 fps: Smooth, no issues.
720p HD (1280x720) 24 fps: Smooth, no issues.
Full HD (1920x1080) 60 fps: Smooth, no issues.
Full HD (1920x1080) 30 fps: Smooth, no issues.
Full HD (1920x1080) 24 fps: Smooth, no issues.
4K, Quad-Full-HD (3840x2160) 60 fps: Smooth, sometimes stutters but only if you use KODI menus.
4K, Quad-Full-HD (3840x2160) 30 fps: Smooth, no issues.
Native render size (4000x2250) 60 fps: Smooth, sometimes stutters but only if you use KODI menus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Conclusions
Being the first superb Mini PC by Minix, I never expected it to be so good, but I was wrong. This Mini PC, considering its ultra-small factor, is a nice beast. It has almost everything that an Home users search in a PC or, HTPC, and I find it to be ideal also for Business usage. Minix should have choosen to include the faster CPU (N3700 instead of N3150) to reach maximum performance, but they probably had to do it in order to reduce its price (that isn’t low, but if you try to build a PC using the same components you’ll reach the same price).
So….do I recommend it? If you need a small, and powerful enough, PC that is able to handle everything except Games, then this is something I can recommend. Light Gaming can be handled too, but do not expect high frame-rate. Maybe it needs some GPU Drivers improvements by Intel in order to improve Video Playback performance (for 4K 3D videos), but, in my opinion, nothing else needs to be improved.
Specs
SoC – Intel Celeron N3150 quad-core processor @ 1.6 GHz / 2.08 GHz (Turbo) with 2MB L2 cache, and Intel HD graphics with 12EU (4W SDP / 6W TDP)
System Memory – 4GB DDR3L
Storage – 128GB M.2 SSD
Video Output – HDMI 1.4 up to 4K @ 30 Hz, and mini DisplayPort
Audio I/O – HDMI, 3.5mm stereo jack (microphone + headphone), and optical S/PDIF
Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac 1x1 WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2 with two external antennas
USB – 3x USB 3.0 host ports on front panel
Misc – Kensington lock
Power Supply – 12V/3A
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rating: 8.9
Packaging and Accessories: 7.5
Design and Materials: 10
Performance and Heat Dissipation: 9
Software: 10
Price: 8 (based on Amazon price)
You can find full-res images (I know, Quality isn't excellent) here: http://imgur.com/a/adsKa
Official Website: http://minix.com.hk/en/products/ngc-1
You can buy it on many online shops.
I bought this projector last year but ended up not using it due to the following issues:
- It does not support HEVC 10-bit HW decoding and the CPU is not powerful enough to decode HEVC 720p 10-bit without dropping frames.
- Video playback is not smooth. The "FPS Test" app reports 44 fps instead of 60. This might explain the (micro)stuttering during video playback.
- Very strong/annoying DLP rainbow effect. This is my first/only DLP projector so I do not have anything to compare it with.
- Not 1080p. The DLP chip has 960x540 mirrors and uses "pixel doubling" to create a 1080p image, but when I count the pixels on my wall I only see a 960x540 image.
In case anyone has one of these and wants to restore/downgrade the firmware:
BW-VP4 (UI_V20200520.182525)
BW-VP4 (UI_V20210128.155042)
Similar projectors: AUN D9, Smartldea D29, WZATCO D2, TouYinger K3, VIVICINE T12
Hi!
It does not accept firmwares. How can i install it?
Thanks!
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
The good:
Compact design and great build quality.
Licensed Windows 11 Pro.
Dual-channel memory.
Decent performance.
Amazing power efficiency.
The bad:
No room for another SSD/HDD.
The latest generation of Intel Celeron and Pentium processors are becoming so good that, for most people’s daily computing, a budget mini PC can fully replace a large desktop PC nowadays. I tested quite a few low-power systems with the Jasper Lake Celeron and Pentium chips and were constantly amazed by the capability they had to offer. The recently released GEEKOM MiniAir 11 is an SFF PC powered by the Celeron N5095 quad-core processor, and it is in many ways the best budget mini PC I have ever tested.
Main specs of the GEEKOM MiniAir 11
Processor: Intel Jasper Lake Celeron N5095, TDP 15W
CPU: 4 Cores, 4 Threads, 2.0-2.9GHz
GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 605
Process Technique: 10nm
OS: Windows 11 Pro 64bit
RAM: 8GB DDR4 2400MHz
Storage: 256GB
Network: WiFi 5 / BT 4.2 / Ethernet Gigabit
Ports: 3x USB Type-A / 2x USB Type-C / 1x HDMI / 1x Mini DisplayPort / 1x 3.5mm Audio jack / 1x RJ45 Ethernet / 1x SDXC Card Reader
Accessories: 1x 19V-3.42A DC adapter / 1x HDMI Cable / 1x MiniDP to HDMI Converter / 1x User Manual / 1x VESA Mount Bracket
Size: 117 mm x 112 mm x 34.2 mm
Weight: 500 g
Retail Package
The GEEKOM MiniAir 11 comes with a very simple packaging box. You can find the branding and the model name on top, and the illustration of the product on the front.
Inside the box you will find a mini PC, a VESA Mount bracket, a 65-watt power adapter, two HDMI cables, a Mini DP to HDMI converter, a bag of screws, and a user manual. There’s also an envelope with a “Thank You” card inside. It’s GEEKOM showing its appreciation for the buyers.
Design and build
The well-ventilated ABS chassis of the GEEKOM MiniAir 11 measures 117 mm x 112 mm x 34.2mm, making it one of the smallest mini PCs to feature the Intel Celeron N5095 SoC. The matte black finish on top and muted blue finish on the other sides aren’t anything we haven’t seen yet, but it does give the machine a simple and professional look. You can find the “GEEKOM” branding in the center of the top panel, and an “Intel Inside” logo on the top-right corner.
The MiniAir 11 is packed with IO. The front panel sports one USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A port, a USB-C port, and a 3.5mm audio jack with mic support. The rear side plays host to two USB 3.2 Gen1 ports, a full-size ethernet jack, one HDMI port, a Mini DisplayPort and a DC-in port. Neither one of the two Type-C ports supports video output, but you can connect the MiniAir 11 to two displays with HDMI and Mini DisplayPort. To make things easier for you, GEEKOM has included a Mini DP to HDMI converter in the retail package.
There’s also an SDXC card reader on the left panel, and a Kensington lock on the right side.
After unscrewing the four screws on the bottom panel, you can get access to the internals of this mini PC. The MiniAir 11 comes with two memory slots, which mean we can have dual-channel memory to boost the performance the of iGPU. There’s a single M.2 2280 interface which supports SSDs of both SATA3 and NVMe protocols, but the fact you are not able to install another drive is somewhat disappointing.
You will be amazed by the build quality of GEEKOM products. Like the Mini IT8 I reviewed last month, the MiniAir 11 also employs a high-quality metal frame inside to protect the internal components from outside impacts. There's also a cooling pad on the inside of the bottom panel to keep the SSD from overheating. Everything on the motherboard is so well-placed that you forget how affordable this machine is.
Operating system
Most SFF PCs and laptops run on the Home Edition of Windows OS, but the GEEKOM Mini Air 11 ships with licensed Windows 11 Pro, which offers quite a number of extra features such as being able to join a domain, Hyper-V for virtualization, etc. If you are more into open-source operating systems, you can also choose to install Ubuntu, Debian, Android X86 or CentOS.
Performance
The MiniAir 11 is powered by an Intel Celeron N5095 chip, which is built on 10nm process, with typical Thermal Design Power of 15W. This SOC incorporates 4 CPU cores, 4 processing threads working at 2.0-2.9 GHz, and an Intel UHD 605 iGPU working at 650MHz. Celeron processors are often associated with low performance, but the N5095 chip is really anything but, and can be a game changer for the mini PC category.
Benchmarks
In the cross-platform Geekbench 5 test, the MiniAir 11 scored 656 in CPU single core, 2142 in multi core, and 2121 in OpenCL. Those were typical numbers for the N5095 processor, but the MiniAir 11 did a little better than the Beelink Mini S, which features the same SOC.
In the Cinebench R20 CPU-crunching test, the MiniAir 11 snatched 236 in single core, and 792 in multi-core. As you can see in the charts above, the MiniAir 11 handily beat the Core i3-8109U powered Beelink SEI8 in multi-core performance.
While the CPU performance of the N5095 chip may have caught up with older Intel Core and AMD Ryzen processors, the GPU performance obviously has not. In 3DMark, the GEEKOM MiniAir 11 scored in 2448 Sky Diver, 645 in Fire Strike, and 205 in Time Spy, falling far behind the Beelink SEI8, which employs a beefier Iris Plus 655 iGPU to take care of graphics-intensive tasks.
PCMark 10 simulates different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We often use it to assess the overall system performance of a PC. The GEEKOM MiniAir 11 scored 2287 in this test, much better than models featuring older Celeron and Pentium processors.
GEEKOM doesn’t offer a barebone version of the MiniAir 11, all units will be sold with an SSD inside. The 256GB SATA3 SSD in my review unit has decent sequential read and write speed, and you can upgrade the storage to an M.2 PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD whenever you need to. But unlike higher-end Intel Core SoCs, the Celeron N5095 processor only has a very limited number of PCIe channels, so you should not expect any significant increase in speed.
Daily computing
I had tested a handful of N5095 powered systems before the MiniAir 11, so I wasn’t really surprised by how capable this machine could be. Mainstream computing duties like web-browsing, social-networking, Microsoft Office tasks and media playback definitely put no pressure on the MiniAir 11. Thanks to the sufficient DDR4 memory inside, you can also expect the MiniAir 11 to handle a fair amount of multi-tasking. I could open a dozen image-heavy webpages in Chrome, play an 8K video clip, and edit a few documents at the same time without experiencing any hiccup or delay.
It obviously makes no sense to use the MiniAir 11, or any budget mini PC, for heavy creativity tasks such as 4K video editing or complex artwork design, but you can expect it to do well in lightweight content creation. I did not notice any lags or delays when adding filters and colorations to a couple of 1080P video footages in Power Director.
Gaming
It’s not impossible to play games on the MiniAir 11, but you should keep your expectations modest. Simpler games like Minecraft, Angry Birds 2 and Plant vs Zombies could run smoothly on this mini PC, but with heavier titles, you will need to tune down the resolution and settings to ensure a smooth run.
For example, League of Legends was playable at 1080P and medium settings. With 57 fps on average, I only experienced a few minor frameskips in those intense battle scenes. After turning the resolution down to 720P, the average frame rate of the game was improved to 77 fps.
Genshin Impact has proven to be too challenging for the MiniAir 11, even at 720P and low settings, the average frame rate was only 11 fps, and graphics generally felt sluggish and slow during the entire session, making you want to quit the game as soon as possible.
HTPC
According to DXVA checker, the Intel UHD 605 iGPU can decode most video formats to 4K and above, making the MiniAir11 an ideal HTPC or media center for your home entertainment. I played quite a number of video clips on this mini PC, and all of them were extremely smooth. Because the MiniAir 11 always utilizes hardware video decoding, the CPU usage is never too high. However, there is a drawback. Since the MiniAir 11 only supports one M.2 SSD as internal storage, you will probably need external storage devices for your local media files.
Streaming videos online was a similar story. When I was playing an 4K/60FPS YouTube video in Chrome, neither the CPU nor the GPU was stressed too much. Streaming 8K/60FPS videos could be challenging for the MiniAir 11, as I noticed frequent frameskip during the playback, since this mini PC doesn't really support 8K output, there's no point in doing that anyway.
Power consumption and noise
Power consumption of the MiniAir 11 is at only 6.8 watts idle and 22.5 watts on max load, and the machine stayed quiet most of the time. I did hear some noise from the cooling fan when running benchmark tests and games, but the sound was always so gentle that I easily ignored it.
The fan does an excellent job of keeping this mini PC cool and stable. The surface of this mini PC never gets hot, and in the 3DMark Time Spy Stress Test, the MiniAir 11 scored a decent 97.6%.
Verdict
If you’re looking for a compact system to deal with basic home or business computing tasks, this machine is an easy recommendation. The lack of another internal storage interface can be a deal-breaker for some, but with great build quality, plenty of I/O, licensed Windows 11 Pro, and a sensible price tag, the GEEKOM MiniAir 11 is still one of the best bang-for-the-buck mini PCs out there.
GEEKOM recently launches their USA summer sale. If you are interested in purchasing this mini PC, or any other products from GEEKOM, please visit their official website: www.geekompc.com
You can also find the screenshots of test results here:
Does Geekom MiniAir 11 have virtualization support in the bios?
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Beelink is one of the top manufactures of small form factor PCs, targeted at various audiences. The SER5 Pro, which comes with the AMD Ryzen5-5600H processor, is the latest addition to the company’s mini PC lineup. Though it’s a small device, it manages to offer plenty of power and a lot of ports, perfect for businesses and home offices.
The good:
Compact, VESA-mountable body.
Plenty of ports.
Impeccable performance.
Superb wireless networking.
Easy to upgrade.
Power Delivery 3.0 via USB-C.
The bad:
No SD card reader.
Specifications
OS: Windows 11 Pro
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5-5600H, 7nm process, 35W TDP
CPU: 6 cores, 12 threads @3.3-4.2GHz
GPU: Radeon RX Vega 7 @1800MHz
RAM: 16/32GB DDR4 3200MHz (dual-channel)
Storage: 1*M.2 2280 PCIe3.0*4 NVMe SSD (up to 2TB)
1* SATA3 2.5-inch HDD/SSD (up to 2TB)
Wireless: WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
Ports: USB Type-A 3.0*3, USB Type-A 2.0*1, USB-C*1, HDMI*2, 3.5mm Audio Jack*1, Gigabit Ethernet*1, DC-in*1
Dimensions: 126*113*42mm
Weight: 455g
What’s in the box
Beelink SER5 Pro Mini PC * 1
57W Power Adapter * 1
User Guide * 1
VESA Mount Bracket * 1
HDMI Cable * 2 (1m and 0.2m)
The retail packing is simple but attractive. Along with the Beelink SER5 Pro mini PC, you will find a 19V-3A power adapter, two HDMI cables, a user guide, a bunch of screws, and a VESA mount bracket that can be used to attach the mini PC to the back of a computer display.
Design and build
Like other members of the Beelink SER family, the SER5 Pro is a gorgeous piece of tech. Its aluminum chassis is well-vented and offers lots of connectivity options. This mini PC weighs only 1 pound, but it still feels surprising hefty in the hands as all the weight is concentrated in a small area.
The perforated top panel, a long with many vents on the other sides, allows efficient airflow to keep the mini PC cool and stable.
The Beelink and AMD logos, as well as a few stickers here give the SER5 Pro a very professional look.
On the front panel of the SER5, you will find the following: a power button with status LED, a 3.5mm audio jack with mic support, a Clear CMOS pinhole, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, two USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports.
The rear side plays host to two HMDI 2.0 ports, a DisplayPort, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, a Gigabit Ethernet jack, and a DC-in port. The only thing missing that you might need is an SD card reader.
The two HDMI 2.0 ports and the Type-C port all support [email protected] video output, so you can connect the SER5 Pro to three displays at the same time. The Type-C port also supports Power Delivery 3.0, which means you can use a 65W PD charger as power supply for this mini PC, the only problem is that the Type-C port is in the front, hooking to the power brick from here could look a little bit weird.
The bottom cover has four rubber feet, texts showing how to enter BIOS and boot menu, and the screws that allow you to open the SER5 and access the insides.
The hardware expansion in the SER5 Pro consists of an M.2 Type-2280 slot for PCle3.0*4 NVMe SSDs, a traditional 2.5-inch drive bay, and two laptop-style SO-DIMM slots for the RAM. The wireless card is also accessible under the pre-installed NVMe SSD.
Housing two storage drives in a system this compact is rather impressive. Beelink sells this PC as a ready-to-use system, you get either 16GB or 32GB dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory (in the form of Crucial brand memory sticks), and a 500GB Kingston NVMe SSD, onto which a licensed copy of Windows 11 Pro is installed.
To access the rest of the PC, you will have to remove more screws, but there's really no need for that since nothing else is replaceable or upgradable. The SER5 Pro also supports WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2, making it perfect for streaming games and VR content wirelessly.
The SER5 is extremely compact. It measures 126 x 113 x 42 mm in width, depth, and height, taking up less than 0.6L of total space. As a result, this mini PC can fit almost anywhere, even under a monitor stand if you have one. You can also choose to attach it to the back of a display with its available VESA mount, making it ideal for offices or homes where space is at a premium.
OS and Software
The Beelink SER5 Pro ships with a licensed copy of Windows 11 Pro, Average consumers will probably see no difference between this and the Windows 11 Home Edition, but for power users, Windows 11 Pro offers a few extra features, the most important of which is being able to join a domain, including Azure Active Directory for single sign-on to cloud services (and have group policy applied as part of that).
You also get Hyper-V for virtualization, BitLocker whole disk encryption, enterprise mode Internet Explorer, Remote Desktop, a version of the Windows Store for your own business, Enterprise Data Protection containers (a feature that comes later in the year) and assigned access (which locks a PC to running only one modern application, to use like a kiosk). Pro users can get updates from Windows Update for Business, which includes options for scheduling updates, so they don't reboot PCs at important business times.
The Windows 11 Pro here is also a completely clean version, with no pre-installed 3rd party applications or bloatware that you need to uninstall. If you are a fan of open-source software, you can also choose to install Linux-based operating systems on this mini PC.
Performance
The SER5 Pro comes with the AMD Ryzen5-5600H processor, which runs at a 3.30 GHz base frequency and can increase its speed to 4.20 GHz in turbo mode. It bundles six Zen3 CPU cores, twelve threads, 16MB L3 Cache, and has a TDP of 35 Watts. The SoC handles the graphics part too, you’ll get a very capable AMD Radeon Vega7 iGPU running at 1800MHz. There’s also 16GB/32GB dual-channel memory to deal with big applications and multi-tasking, and 500GB NVMe SSD to store all your files.
Benchmarks
In terms of performance, the SER5 Pro is a beast. It handily beat both varaints of the Intel NUC 11 Pro in Geekbench 5.4.1 and the Cinebench R23 CPU crunching tests.
PCMark 10 is a holistic performance suite developed by the PC benchmark specialists at UL (formerly Futuremark). We use it to assess overall system performance in different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows like word processing, spreadsheet jockeying, web browsing, and videoconferencing. The test generates a proprietary numeric score, and higher numbers are better. The 5797-point finish from the SER5 Pro is well above the 4,000 points we consider excellent, and it's a very respectable showing for a PC this small.
3DMark measures relative graphics muscle by rendering sequences of highly detailed, gaming-style 3D graphics that emphasize particles and lighting. I ran three different 3DMark subtests on the SER5 Pro: Sky Diver, Fire Strike, and Time Spy, which are suited to different types of systems. Time Spy is a DirectX 12 benchmark which tests how well a system can handle DirectX 12 games. The other two are both DirectX 11 benchmarks, but Sky Diver is more suited to slim laptops and midrange PCs, while Fire Strike is more demanding and made for high-end PCs to strut their stuff. The SER5 Pro scored 1417 in Time Spy, 3636 in Fire Strike, and 13327 in Sky Diver. The NUC 11 Pro i7, which features the Intel Iris Xe EU96 iGPU, achieved better results in all three subtests, but the Intel NUC 11 Pro i5, which comes with the Intel Iris Xe EU80, scored lower than the SER5 Pro in Fire Strike and Sky Diver.
The 500GB Kingston solid-state drive used by the mini PC proved to have good reading and writing data speeds, although I did have seen better. Still, the SSD allows us to boot into Windows in less than 10 seconds, and offers more than enough speed for everyday office duties, lightweight content creation, and moderate gaming.
Content Creation
With such a beefy processor and plenty of RAM inside, the SER5 Pro obviously has no problem of seeing us through common home and office tasks. This mini PC is also quite capable when dealing with relatively demanding creativity workflows.
Editing 4K videos in Power Director, the SER5 Pro stayed fast and responsive even when I was adding some complex effects and renders to the raw footages. Producing a 10 minute high-bitrate 4K video via software encoding, the SER5 took 28 minutes, 9 seconds, while the Intel NUC 11 Pro (i7-1165G7 variant) took 41 minutes, 44 seconds. After I switched to hardware encoding, the SER5 took 6 minutes, 1 second to finish the task, while the NUC spent 5 minutes, 30 seconds. Even though I used the exact same setting for both mini PCs, including the bitrate of the output video, the SER5 Pro finished the task with a much bigger video file than it was commanded to.
During the video production (hardware encoding), the CPU utilization of the NUC 11 Pro stayed above 70%, and even hit 100% sometimes. The CPU utilization of the Beelink SER5, on the other hand, stayed below 50%, allowing users to work with other applications efficiently at the same time.
Encoding the same video clip in Handbrake, the SER5 took 1 minute, 56 seconds, while the NUC 11 Pro i7 took 2 minutes, 37 seconds.
Gaming
For an integrated GPU, the AMD Radeon Vega 7 in the SER5 Pro is quite capable. Running League of Legend at 1080P and medium quality setting, the average frame rate was 117 fps, even when I switched to 4K and high settings, the game still averaged 67 fps.
Genshin Impact was also playable at 1080P and medium setting, I saw an average of 47 fps, and didn’t notice any stutters or hiccups even in those intense fighting scenes. Switching to low quality setting will improve the smoothness to 55 fps.
Conqueror’s Blade has proven to be a little too challenging for the SER5 Pro. At 1080P and medium quality setting, the average frame rate was only 28 fps, and there will be noticeable frameskip and delays in intensive battle scenes. Switching to 720P and low setting could bump up the average frame rate to 41 fps, but it was still only playable.
These results mean the SER5 Pro should be able to deal with reasonably intense graphic workloads without grinding to a halt. But if you want to game in the highest possible settings and still get a fair chance against other players, you will need to look elsewhere.
Video Playback
Video codec support is one of the few areas that AMD Radeon iGPUs lag behind their Intel counterparts. According to DXVA checker, the Iris Xe Graphics iGPU can support many more video formats of up to 4K and 8K than the Radeon Vega 7. With that said, the SER5 Pro managed to play all of the 4K videos I threw at it smoothly.
Streaming YouTube videos in Chrome was also a fun and smooth experience, including all [email protected] and most [email protected] videos.
Stability, power consumption and noise
Not only is the Beelink SER5 Pro is powerful for its size, it’s also very stable. Although the AMD Ryzen5-5600H processor inside is extremely fast and can reach high frequencies when necessary, the cooling system inside the mini PC is super effective. Besides the high-speed cooling fan, there’re also copper pipes inside to help keep temperatures at bay. In the 3DMark Time Spy stress test, the SER5 Pro scored an amazing 100%, the best result I’ve seen in any laptop or mini PC.
Fortunately, the SER5 Pro’s incredible performance doesn’t result in high power consumption. The power draw was only 3-4 watts at idle, and around 47 watts at maximum. Unlike many other small form-factor computers, the SER5 Pro is also very quiet. It made almost no noise when dealing with relatively lightweight tasks, and even in some benchmark tests, where the hardware was stressed to its limit, the fan noise was still quite tamed.
Verdict
The Beelink SER5 Pro is a well-rounded choice for a mini desktop. It has a small chassis that allows it to fit almost anywhere, plenty of ports for all kinds of external devices, superb networking, ample pep to complete all kinds of computing duties without lag, and efficient cooling to keep it running stably for a long period of time. The $469 starting price also seems decent for a model with 16GB dual-channel memory, 500GB NVMe SSD and a licensed copy of Windows 11 Pro. All told, the Beelink SER5 Pro could be an inspirational choice for anyone who wants a small computer for their everyday tasks.
What are your thoughts on the hades canyon nuc? I doubt the beelink can handle serious gaming.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
There’s a lot to like about small form factor PCs, which often deliver desktop-grade performance and connectivity in enclosures that aren’t much bigger than a TV box – and the GEEKOM AS 6, which comes with a mighty AMD 6000 series CPU, tries to push that trend even further.
The good
Compact, neat, and accessible case.
Impressive CPU and graphics performance.
A wide array of ports.
Superb networking.
Easy to upgrade.
The bad
No SD card reader.
Specifications
OS: Windows 11 Pro
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7-6800H, 6nm process, 35W TDP
CPU: 8 cores, 16 threads @3.2-4.7 GHz
GPU: Radeon 680M @2200MHz, 12 CU
RAM: 16/32GB DDR5 4800MHz (dual-channel)
Storage: 2*M.2 2280 PCIe4.0*4 NVMe SSD (up to 2TB)
1* SATA III 2.5-inch HDD/SSD (up to 2TB)
Wireless: WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
Ports: USB4*2, USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A*5, HDMI 2.1*2, DisplayPort 1.4*1, 3.5mm Audio Jack*1, 2.5Gbps Ethernet*1, DC-in*1
Dimensions: 120*130*58 mm
Weight: 0.9 kg
What’s in the box
GEEKOM AS 6 Mini PC * 1
150W Power Adapter * 1
User Guide * 1
VESA Mount Bracket * 1
HDMI Cable * 1
The AS 6 is a product of the global partnership of GEEKOM and ASUS, that’s why you will find the branding of both companies on the front of the retail packaging. The mini PC is available with two CPU options: AMD Ryzen 7 6800H or Ryzen 9 6900HX, the unit that I received comes with the former. Along with the AS 6 mini PC, you will also find a 150W (20V-7.5A) power adapter, an HDMI cable, a user guide, a bunch of screws, a VESA mount bracket for attaching the mini PC to the back of a monitor, and a greeting card from GEEKOM.
Design and build
The AS 6 is basically a clone of the ASUS PN53, in fact, you can argue it is literally a rebranded PN53. The mini PC is noticeably larger than the Intel NUC 12 Pro, it measures 120*130*58 mm, and weighs 900g. Fortunately, the larger housing also means more room for cooling, and a wider array of ports.
There are two USB4, five USB3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, two HDMI2.1, one DisplayPort 1.4, one 3.5mm audio jack, as well as a DC-input. USB4 and DisplayPort 1.4 support [email protected] video output, and HDMI2.1 supports [email protected], you can connect the AS 6 to as many as 4 monitors. Each USB4 port supports 40Gbps traffic on its own and is compatible with Thunderbolt 3 protocols, which means you can even connect the AS 6 to an external graphics card.
The hardware expansion in the AS 6 consists of two M.2 Type-2280 slots for PCle4.0*4 NVMe SSDs, a traditional 2.5-inch drive bay, and two laptop-style SO-DIMM slots for the DDR5-4800 RAM. The M.2 2230 wireless card, which supports WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, is also accessible. GEEKOM only sells the AS 6 as preconfigured units, there are no barebones versions available, at least not for now. My review unit features 32GB dual-channel DDR5-4800 RAM (in the form of Crucial brand RAM sticks), and a 1TB Kingston PCIe4.0x4 NVMe SSD, onto which a licensed copy of Windows 11 Pro is preinstalled.
The build quality of the GEEKOM AS 6 is simply amazing. It feels extremely robust in my hands, and the internal components are neatly arranged.
OS and Software
The AS 6 ships with a licensed copy of Windows 11 Pro operating system which, compared to Windows 10, brings upgrades including a more aesthetically pleasing UI, improved multiple desktops, built-in XBOX gaming, and better security features. Since this is the Pro Edition of Windows OS, you also get a few extra IT and business features such as Hyper-V for virtualization, BitLocker whole disk encryption, enterprise mode Internet Explorer, and Remote Desktop.
The Windows 11 Pro here is a completely clean version, with no pre-installed 3rd party applications or bloatware. Besides regular Windows software, you can also load the Android subsystem and Linux subsystem on the latest Windows 11 build. If open source is more of your thing, the AS 6 is compatible with numerous Linux distributions. You can even choose to triple-boot the mini PC since it supports three storage drives.
Performance
The AS 6 is a beast when it comes to performance. It is powered by the mighty AMD Ryzen7-6800H processor, which runs at a 3.20 GHz base frequency and can increase its speed to 4.70 GHz when necessary. It bundles 8 Zen3+ CPU cores, 16 threads, 16MB L3 Cache, and has a TDP of 35 Watts. This SoC also features an extremely powerful iGPU: the Radeon 680M. Based on the RDNA2 architecture, the Radeon 680M has 12 CUs (=768 shaders) clocked at 2,200 MHz, and offers performance equivalent to entry-level desktop graphics cards.
Benchmarks
As for CPU performance, Zen 3+ has proven to be only a minor upgrade from last year’s Zen3. In the Cinebench R23 CPU-crunching test, the AS 6 scored 1413 in CPU single-core, and 11795 in multi-core. While slightly edging out the 5800H powered Beelink SER5 Pro and i5-1240P version of Intel NUC 12 Wall Street Canyon, it is nowhere near the Beelink GTR7 and Lenovo Xiaoxin mini. The performance still has plenty of room for improvement, as the GEEKOM limits the cTDP of the 6800H CPU to 35W at the moment to keep the noise down, but the CPU can be configured to 45W.
PCMark 10 assesses overall system performance by simulating different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows like word processing, spreadsheet jockeying, web browsing, and video conferencing. The test generates a proprietary numeric score, and higher numbers are better. The 6743-point finish from the AS 6 is well above the 4,000 points we consider excellent, and it's a very respectable showing for a PC this small.
3DMark measures relative graphics performance of a PC by rendering sequences of highly detailed, gaming-style 3D graphics that emphasize particles and lighting. I ran two different 3DMark subtests on the AS 6: Fire Strike and Time Spy. The former is a DirectX 12 benchmark which tests how well a system can handle DirectX 12 games, while the latter is a DirectX 11 benchmark that tests the PC’s capability of running older gaming titles. The Radeon 680M iGPU proves to be a huge leap from Radeon Vega iGPU, as the AS 6 scored 2580 in Time Spy, and 6212 in Fire Strike.
The AS 6 also features dual-channel DDR5-4800MHz RAM. According to AIDA64 memory & cache benchmark, the read, write and copy speeds of the memory were more than decent. The integrated GPU also benefits from DDR5 RAM as shared VRAM, the numbers in GPGPU benchmark look quite good.
The 1TB NVMe solid-state drive used by the mini PC isn’t the fastest PCIe Gen4 SSD I’ve seen, in fact it doesn’t do much better than high-end PCIe Gen3 SSDs in CrystalDiskMark. However, it still offers decent read and write speeds. Booting into Windows 11 only took a few seconds, launching big applications and games was also quite fast.
Productivity
With such impressive hardware, the AS 6 obviously has no problem of seeing us through common home and office chores. It was also perfectly competent when dealing with relatively demanding creativity tasks.
Editing multiple layers of 4K video footages in Power Director 20, the AS 6 stayed fast and responsive the whole time. Producing a 10-minute high-bitrate 4K video via hardware encoding with GPU acceleration, The mini PC took 7 minutes, 25 seconds. Not a bad result, but it is somehow outshined by the 4 minute and 30 seconds time taken by the Beelink GTR7.
Using the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 3min video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution, the AS 6 took 96 seconds.
Gaming
The Radeon 680M is the best iGPU in the world for a reason. Running League of Legend at 1080P and medium quality setting, we saw an average of 156 fps, which looks super smooth on my 144Hz gaming monitor. Even when I switched to 4K and high quality settings, the game still averaged 91 fps.
Genshin Impact was extremely smooth. At 1080P and medium setting, the AS 6 averaged 59 fps. After switching to high quality setting, it still averaged 52 fps.
Playing Witcher 3 on the AS 6 was also a fun and smooth experience, at 1080P and medium quality settings, we saw an average of 47 fps. Even in those intense fighting scenes, there were no noticeable hiccups.
Conqueror’s Blade has proven to be too much of a challenge for Ryzen 5000 mini PCs, but not so much for the AS 6. At 1080P and medium quality setting, the mini PC averaged 43 fps, even though there were noticeable dips in intensive battle scenes, we didn’t see any real delays. Switching to low quality setting could bump up the average frame rate of the game to 49 fps.
Even though the AS 6 is still not going to compete with desktop tower PCs with top-of-the-line graphics cards, but its gaming performance is decent enough for most people.
Video Playback
Video codec support is one of the few areas that AMD Radeon iGPUs lag behind their Intel counterparts, and the new RDNA2-based iGPU still didn’t change the game. According to DXVA checker, the Radeon 680M supports way fewer video formats to 4K and 8K. But for 4K videos of common formats, the AS 6 had no problem playing all of them smoothly.
Streaming YouTube videos in Chrome was also a fun and smooth experience, including all [email protected] and [email protected] videos. Because it was using hardware decoding, the utilization rates of the CPU and GPU were both quite low. But unfortunately, the AS 6 doesn't support AV1 decoding, so streaming 8K60fps videos could result in severe frame skips.
Stability, power consumption and noise
Although the eight CPU cores and the Radeon 680M iGPU inside are extremely fast and can reach high frequencies when necessary, the cooling mechanism inside still managed to keep the mini PC running generally cool and stable. The AS 6 passed the 3DMark Time Spy stress test with a terrific score of 99.9%, one of the best I have ever seen.
The AS 6 wasn’t the greenest computer I have tested, but it is still generally more power-efficient than average desktop towers and gaming laptops. The power draw was around 10 watts at idle, but can reach 94 watts when the processor was running at load.
Fan noise behavior is tied to the power profile setting. At Idle, the system could remain quiet. Light multitasking or video streaming will bump up the noise to a more audible 38 dB(A). Graphics-intensive gaming induces the noise of around 50 dB(A), which is definitely audible against a silent background, but still gentle compared to most mini PCs I have tested.
Verdict
The GEEKOM AS 6 checked lots of boxes. It comes with a beefy processor, rich selection of I/O, and superb networking capabilities. The mini PC also offers performance that peaks above what notebook platforms typically provide with the same hardware, along with being a bit more customizable with upgradeable memory and storage. If you want enough power for all the computing you need in a very small box, the AS 6 is the one to get.
GEEKOM AS 6
Product link: https://bit.ly/GEEKOMAS6-US
$709 after use code: as640a
Test Screenshots here: