Right? I was waiting for hx370 mini pcs but now they've arrived I'm unimpressed so bought a ser8 from amazon for $629.. not paying double the price for +25% (max) performance bump and soldered ram. This new baby is gonna be stuffed full with 96GB ram and 4TB nvme ^^
Great timing with this video, I was just thinking of buying one, you answered basically all my questions. The price is high but it's a good overall package (for a 1000 dollar entry price, for 1250 there are better options).
6:55 Great review, and thanks for these side-by-side games! It really shows the GPU uplift!. My biggest complaint about the SER9 is that Beelink didn't go for LPCAMM2 memory and instead chose for soldered. Hopefully by the next iteration (LP)CAMM2 will be an option.
I had a segment about CAMM2 in the video and cut it out since I didn't think it added anything. But yes, CAMM2 or CUDIMM are future options. Problem with CAMM2 is it's quite large and expensive. So only going in the flagship desktop motherboards for now. Also, thanks a lot for the Super Thanks!
@@Robtech CAMM2 and especially LPCAMM2 are not that large compared to their respective counterparts. SODIMM is 75x47 mm and LPCAMM2 is 78x34 mm. With SODIMM there's different sockets (flat, perpendicular, slanted) which allow SODIMMs to be mounted in various positions for different housings, but I can't imagine a dual socket SODIMM (needed for dual channel) being significantly smaller than a single LPCAMM2 (which doesn't need 2 modules) I imagine at this point it's more a matter of cost and availability for a small volume manufacturer like Beelink. I hope we get to see this in the (near) future. My hopes are for the Tuxedo Nano Pro Gen 14.
Oh I was including the slot with pins and heatsink (depth) since it gets too hot being exposed at 10,000MT/s. I suppose they might be able to get away with just a fan. Fun times ahead 🤔
I think that microphone is for AI features,,, you know, always listening to you so that it can,, ahem.. help you , translation, so Microsoft can use your data against you in the form of advertising et-al. The good news is that you can disable to microphone. The speakers....That one baffles me.. maybe Big Brother AKA Microsoft as a future "benefit" of AI is that not only will it listen to you but it will communicate with you too. Anyone that suggests that he speakers are for listening to the soothing sounds of Pink Floyd is trying to stretch the limits of plausability. Personally if I buy this the microphone and speakers will be disabled on Day One. I have absolutely 0 need for anything AI related and tbh I am getting awfully close to taking the Linux plunge because Microsoft is parked in a van outside my house and is maneuvering to move into the spare bedroom..I think it's about time I move far far away. But I digress.. Totally agree with you about "rubbish speakers and microphone" cheers.
@@rexonpadre864 I already have a desktop, and a few mini-PCs. If I am interested in a mini-PC, why would I want another giant desktop? It isn't what I am looking for.
@@rexonpadre864 SER9 is not happening for me, but I'm more interested in seeing what upcoming Intel offerings are like. Have enough AMD machines already!
Earlier this year, based on your review I bought the Alloy 9 (from your affiliate link on Amz). I am pleased with its performance and it is a great machine for my purposes. While I am happy to see the improved benchmarks of the new 300hx APUs, the increased price is a show stopper. For productivity improvements it is a hard sell for the large increase in price and for gaming there are simply better options to get a discrete GPU for $700-750 (hx99g). Have you had a chance to test the Minisforum 760 Slim? It looks like it might be a cheap way to get good gaming performance in a minipc
lol It was only two to three months ago people were saying AMD would sell these Strix Point APUs cheap enough for mini PC manufacturers to compete with gaming consoles.
Thanks a lot Rob! Great test as usual and I was really waiting for this one. For a next review with a comparison between different iGPU generations, could you perhaps add a few more test where you add frame generation (even if it isn't required). Curious how different generations handle it and whether it improves the game play experience, even if you get decent FPS without frame generation Regarding this unit. At this price point one could also buy a Aoostar GEM10 6800H + Occulink Dock + 4060RTX. (Of course at much higher power consumption) (Unfortunately AMD it no better than Intel regarding their pricing strategy when they have the performance crown: In the K8-K10 era they priced the FX-60 at "performance" level, same for 3rd gen TR's and now their laptops SOC's )
As more Strix Point minis come in I'll do different tests with each one to keep it from going stale. Different resolutions, different quality settings and yeah, FSR and frame gen too.
The only one I've tried before is the M.2 adapter that came with the Minisforum UM890, which refused to detect my Oculink dock. I've seen other reports of M.2 adapters having low success compared to actual Oculink ports. Maybe my M.2 adapter is faulty.
@@Robtech So I've tried my R3G M.2 to PCIe and it works fine with an Avermedia PCIe capture card. I'm not into gaming, so no need for eGPU, but this will let me use it to truly replace desktop. Do you have any experience or knowledge about using standoffs to raise the bottom? Or 3D printing a new bottom?
Hi there! I’m currently using After Effects for video editing and am looking to get a mini PC. I’m stuck between choosing the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 or the Intel Ultra 9 185H processor. Which one do you think would provide a smoother experience when working on the timeline? Also, which processor would give faster render times? I’m particularly concerned about avoiding any timeline lag. I’d really appreciate your advice-thanks!
Intel's media engine (QuickSync) can't be beat for video editing. Export times are in the H264 and AV1 section. Also be aware the new generation Intel Lunar Lake mini PCs are soon to be released. Hoping to review the first one early next month.
@@Robtech Thank you so much for your response! I'll definitely take your advice into consideration when making my decision. Thanks again for helping me out!
Sorry forgot to clarify, QuickSync is Intel's hardware video decoder which drastically speeds up scrubbing across the timeline. I won't edit without it.
It will be interesting to see if Beelink, Minisforum and Geekom wake up and smell the roses when they realize the mainstream buyer is just going to buy a brand new Mac mini for a fraction of the price.
Two questions: Is this the only Beelink mini PC with built-in speakers? Does the HX 370 890m perform better than, let's say, a laptop's (max-p) rtx 2060 (in an actual game not on paper)?
GTi14 Ultra has speakers but is a bigger mini. I'd put my bet on the 2060, but I'd have to compare against my Phantom Canyon footage since I don't have one to test against.
the reason why the gains are so minimal is the fact that the 890m is just a 780m + 4 cus , so it's realitically a " 790m" built on rdna 3 and not a "890m" should actually be on rdna 4 . the 890 is a biffed up 780m
Good review as always. Good system, impressed with temps. I don't want to think how hard it is going to be to replace the paste on this one. The price is...too high IMO. If it had at least oculink then maybe. The soldered RAM...If it came with 64GB of RAM and larger SSD, maybe. As is, as impressive as it is, I would pass if I had the money. Thanks Steve.
Very thorough review. I just checked out your Minisforum UM890 Pro review. I like the fact that they sell a barebones unit. I don’t think Beelink offers a barebones option. The only risk with a barebones unit with these no name brands is if there is malware on the motherboard. I suppose malware could be introduced with a BIOS update. Assuming these units get BIOS updates. For those of you who have these mini PC’s, were you or are you concerned about malware on these units? Thanks.
@@TrusteftTechI don’t believe there have been any issues with Beelink minis. I believe some Acemagic minis shipped with malware but not Beelink or Minisforum. I don’t mean to impugn these companies but these minis offer a lot for the price so I just want to make sure I am not missing something.
Mine arrived yesterday. Had a corrupted windows install out of the box requiring me to create a windows 11 bootable usb from my other pc. Other than that, I’m quite happy with it so far.
@@goldenretrogames coming out? it's been out for several months. i have had my eye on it for a while waiting for a sale...matter of fact, robtech reviewed it about 2 months ago now...i'm hoping it will be around $450-500 on prime day or black friday.
Got my SER9 yesterday. Dont get me wrong, the performance is great, but there is something that gives me the ick about it: secure boot is DISABLED by default, leaving the door wide open for spyware. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks for the review and giveaway link! But careful with showing Nintendo gameplay benchmarks. Nintendo seems to be more aggressive towards emulation as of late.
sucks about the soldered ram but it is faster. Me, I'd take upgradability and more RAM any day over a speed increase and remain stuck with 32gb (and the prices they are charging for the Ser9 unit and only 32gb of RAM is staggering). I bought a Gmktek K8 Plus while it was on sale, for about 250 bucks. It's a 8845HS with no ram, no ssd (and no os). Even with 96gb 5600mhz dual-channel memory and a top-end gen 4 ssd, it would still come up to half of what Beelink's Ser9 are selling for right now. Well, I'm still to get my Gmktek unit, fingers crossed. Beelink are great, I'd give them that. Bought an EQ12 a few months ago and very happy with it (amazing quality, solid build) and with customer support. But their mini pcs seem expensive right now considering the competition.
Rob, I hope you can help me with this. I bought the SER9 and have only fiddled with it a little. Today, while running a game, I checked CoreTemp, which tells me the running temps of each core, the system tells me that I have only 6 Cores/12 Threads. I then checked taksmanager/performance and that says the same thing 6C/12T. My understanding is this is supposed to be 12C/24T. IS this just a matter of my ignorance or is something wrong here? Thanks in advance.
I don't think they compare well and for two different markets. If you want actual gaming performance it's a mini with discrete graphics. If you want something small and quiet and don't mind the integrated graphics, these are the minis to look. But I can include it in a future Strix Point review. The performance and power consumption gap is large.
Think 1k is the early adopter tax coming through. Nice PC, but one of the joys of the mini pc is their low entry price. At this price, the Asus 14" laptop with the same chip actually looks good value. Amazed there hasn't been a Snapdragon X mini yet apart from the Dev unit. Doesn't tick the gaming box but it's a nerdy itch I need to scratch!
Hi Rob, I enjoyed your videos and I have learned a lot. I would like to support you by using some of you affiliate links. I have seen a couple of you affiliate links but I can't find the one I'm interested in... Windows licensing. I would recommend you have a place where all of the links are saved. Thanks, John from Florida.
the most powerful mobile gaming device has to be the #AIpowered trouser snakes coming to America!
หลายเดือนก่อน +1
Amazing review. Unfortunately for me AMD since Ryzen 6800u / HS does nothing differente, just increase the power draw for better results. I guess is time to AMD to reduce wattage usage to start showing againg something amazing. BTW wondering if you are going to review the Beelink EQR6 with built-in psu. Cheers!
A question: this thing has built in speakers that are screwed to the dust filterscreen and attached to the mobo with a ribbon cable. Could I just detach the ribbon cable, unscrew the speaker component from the screen and then reattach the screen? The only true purpose for this speaker is for AI communication and I have 0 need for AI functionality.. Thanks in advance
AI has become such a shameless marketing buzzword. I especially liked the "perfect for AI enthusiasts" in the Beelink reddit post. Does such a thing even exist? 🤣 Not keen on the soldered ram obviously, but nice review nonetheless. I like how you test all the games with FSR/Frame generation and all the other nonsense disabled, unlike a lot of other reviewers, makes for a much more accurate benchmark.
Alright, lets see if I can get this question out without getting censored. If I follow your address to the Canadian place and then in the search I request this model which will get me to the right place, will you receive your stipend?
@@Robtech Well , after a lot vacillation I finally took the plunge. I hope that your cut of the $1600 CAD well be enough to buy a pizza and a beer. Cheers.
Ofcourse.... But on the other hand these taxes help people not to go bankrupt when they need medical assistance. One visit to the ER and you can buy 1 or more SER9's with the money that you didn't pay to the hospital
@@rj7855 Do you mean it`s for FREE? Because we must pay (I mean it`s mandatory) for sickness insurance. The prices are high because of commies in EU, their expenditures and Green Deal. Our overall taxation is somewhere around 63% of income.
I'm hoping some of the techies can answer a couple of questions for me. This has 32 G of 7800 RAM. In what real-life situation would 32 Gig be insufficiant except as a talking point. Why would I need 64 Gig of Ram? It seems to me, in my ignorance, that unless you are doing extreme graphic editing that you would never ever exceed 32Gig of RAM, especially 7800 speed. I admit that I am not that knowledgable but to me it seems like this RAM question is kind of like in the old days of audiophiles who raved about an amplifier with .0001 PicoHertz of harmonic distortion. Sure if you have an occilicope you can measure that but you can't hear anything outside of the threshold of human hearing of 20-20k Hz. I'd be curious to be educated about this. The price, It's going to be about $1500 CAD but to get the computing power that this little machine has would cost me about double that to build my own from scratch. My only small issue is the lack of a Thunderbolt port but for all other concerns this seems like a terrific machine for all but the very heavily intensive graphic/video editing situations. If anyone can enlighten me I'd be grateful before I take the plunge. Cheers.
That 32gb of ram gets shared between CPU and GPU. So if you want to use 16gb as vram, you would "only" have 16 gb left for system ram. 64 gb is more future proof and specially for video editing it is nice to have a lot of VRAM USB 4 is compatible with TB 3 and 4. So you can use a lot of your Thunderbolt devices.
@@annebokma4637 Such great information Anne. I had wondered how RAM was allocated if you want to bump up the VRAM. I have a dedicated card now but did not know the specifics that when increasing (I believe that this SER9 is configured for 4 Gb Vram) so as you said to boost that to 16 would mean a 1-1 exchange from your total RAM. That makes a great deal of sense now that having 64 G would be preferable when no dedicated Vram card is present. Likewise thank you for the clarification about USB 4. In my feeble understanding of things I thought that Only USB-C Thunderbolt had 40Gbit transfer speeds. Now and then I do a mass emigration to new drives and this feature makes a differance to me. So, all of that said maybe I'll just hang back a few Weeks and see if the Asus Nuc Pro AI (Lunar Canyon) goes on the market. I really appreciate your helping me to understand Anne. Thank you..
@@Rabid-Pinocchio waiting always gives you more options while the prices get lower. At the moment there is a thing about Asus predatory service handling. Also Intel processors are going dead. Myself I am looking at an AMD mini pc but I am waiting for strix halo. 16 zen5 cores. And I am looking at cheaper brands with better service than Asus.
@@annebokma4637 Witing is always better no doubt but a part of me is saying, just get it over with man and there will always be something coming down the pipe to make you snap your fingers and go well dang I should have waited another 2 Weeks or 2 Months or 2 Years. I guess that's the age-old problem when you don't actually "need' a new computer. It's more a matter of that old brainstem reaction that says, 'ooooooooh Shiny!' That Asus Nuc Pro AI (Lunar Canyon) seems shiny as heck but they said that it would be available in September and that would be Today at the latest so I'm thinking that if they release it in the next couple of Weeks I will wait for Rob's review and then make a concrete decision on which shiny toy to buy. Cheers.
@@Rabid-Pinocchio absolutely, that is why I just bought a laptop with the gen before strix point. 32gb ram is enough for what I want to use it for. And it did give me the space to wait with buying a mini pc. Besides OLED screen 😍 And my old laptop died after 6+ years. It had 32 gb ram too.. kinda says it all.
I liked it a lot... until you mentioned WiFi 6. That is a massive let down. WiFi 6E would have made it a must buy for someone looking to buy a new mini-PC. The port locations seem odd too, but that is a personal pet peeve of mine after getting used to a nice layout from Intel NUCs and Geekom models.
In the BIOS section I talk about how it can be overclocked to 8000MT/s. The iGPU gained around 3.5%. Mine was stable, but I'm not sure if every SER9 will be which might be why they opted for 7500.
Am I seeing the downfall of Beelink on this one? 1. Too expensive compared to previous gens 2. Non upgradable memory In case of memory, LDDR5 does not equate faster process, I have a SER 7 with 32gb (2x16gb) user replacable and Ideapad 5 Pro with soldered 32gb, the same 7840HS, SER 7 stock SSD while Ideapad with replaced (faster) Crucial SSD, both at balance mode Guess what, SER 7 outperform the ldeapad by around 5 to 8 percent running computational task, I observed power is the primary reason for this and memory being soldered does not affect much Bring back those memory slots 😡
Faster memory speed is for integrated graphics, not CPU performance since there's no dedicated Vram. There's marginal benefit for CPU tasks. By going up to 8000MT/s from 7500 in the BIOS there was a 3.5% GPU performance uplift. 5600 would be a big downgrade.
@@Robtech 3.5% uplift for inconvenience of not being able to upgrade memory down the road. No thanks. And the price is at OLED laptop territory. Many don't want another Apple in mini PC space.
3.5% was from 7500 to 8000 on this mini. SODIMM replaceable RAM stops at 5600. It would be a double digit drop with SODIMM. Until there's a faster memory format for integrated graphics, soldered memory will continue. Maybe CUDIMM or CAMM2 will solve the issue.
@@Robtech just for sake of discussion, there is no available benchmark (none I know of) that say soldered RAM translate to noticeable FPS boost, but from what I experienced and actual testing in YT videos sustained CPU frequency (power to CPU) affects overall performance significantly Also most buyers of mini PC are aficionados who like to fiddle with PC parts, non replaceable memory will discourage these people, I'll bet my 2 cents this move of Beelink will not fly I hope someone in Beelink is reading these comments, I was very excited in the release of Ryzen AI in a mini PC but the price and setup killed my enthusiasm faster than I can say "Apple copycat" 🤣
It will be interesting to see if Beelink, Minisforum and Geekom wake up and smell the roses when they realize the mainstream buyer is just going to buy a brand new Mac mini for a fraction of the price.
Win one of five Beelink SER9 mini PCs:
► tinyurl.com/3rk9p7y4
Can you upgrade the internal wifi to improve range and performance for beelink ser7?
$1249 and no 64GB or greater option? Hard pass. HARD pass.
You can get a Atomman G7PT (which has a Ryzen 7xxx series 16 core / 32 thread CPU and 7600 XTm) for $999.
Exactly! You can build your own tower desktop PC for QHD gaming at those prices.
Right? I was waiting for hx370 mini pcs but now they've arrived I'm unimpressed so bought a ser8 from amazon for $629.. not paying double the price for +25% (max) performance bump and soldered ram. This new baby is gonna be stuffed full with 96GB ram and 4TB nvme ^^
Thanks Rob and Steeeve. Hard to believe it's been 5 years.
Great timing with this video, I was just thinking of buying one, you answered basically all my questions. The price is high but it's a good overall package (for a 1000 dollar entry price, for 1250 there are better options).
Great review, Rob! Thank you very much! All I needed to learn about the new SER model.
You're very welcome
Amazing machine but-sticker shock.
I got a Beelink SER7 in early July and have no regrets. AI is just a way to pump up Exec bonuses and stock prices.
6:55 Great review, and thanks for these side-by-side games! It really shows the GPU uplift!.
My biggest complaint about the SER9 is that Beelink didn't go for LPCAMM2 memory and instead chose for soldered. Hopefully by the next iteration (LP)CAMM2 will be an option.
I had a segment about CAMM2 in the video and cut it out since I didn't think it added anything. But yes, CAMM2 or CUDIMM are future options. Problem with CAMM2 is it's quite large and expensive. So only going in the flagship desktop motherboards for now. Also, thanks a lot for the Super Thanks!
@@Robtech CAMM2 and especially LPCAMM2 are not that large compared to their respective counterparts. SODIMM is 75x47 mm and LPCAMM2 is 78x34 mm. With SODIMM there's different sockets (flat, perpendicular, slanted) which allow SODIMMs to be mounted in various positions for different housings, but I can't imagine a dual socket SODIMM (needed for dual channel) being significantly smaller than a single LPCAMM2 (which doesn't need 2 modules)
I imagine at this point it's more a matter of cost and availability for a small volume manufacturer like Beelink. I hope we get to see this in the (near) future. My hopes are for the Tuxedo Nano Pro Gen 14.
Wait! So I did hear right! The ram IS soldered on! 32GB is ample - but not having the ability to replace it is a deal breaker.
Oh I was including the slot with pins and heatsink (depth) since it gets too hot being exposed at 10,000MT/s. I suppose they might be able to get away with just a fan. Fun times ahead 🤔
It's soldered mainly for the mac mini fan boys
It's already expensive, so why add rubbish speakers and microphone array?
I think that microphone is for AI features,,, you know, always listening to you so that it can,, ahem.. help you , translation, so Microsoft can use your data against you in the form of advertising et-al. The good news is that you can disable to microphone. The speakers....That one baffles me.. maybe Big Brother AKA Microsoft as a future "benefit" of AI is that not only will it listen to you but it will communicate with you too. Anyone that suggests that he speakers are for listening to the soothing sounds of Pink Floyd is trying to stretch the limits of plausability. Personally if I buy this the microphone and speakers will be disabled on Day One. I have absolutely 0 need for anything AI related and tbh I am getting awfully close to taking the Linux plunge because Microsoft is parked in a van outside my house and is maneuvering to move into the spare bedroom..I think it's about time I move far far away. But I digress.. Totally agree with you about "rubbish speakers and microphone" cheers.
It’s Chinese. They want to listen in on everything you do 😂
Great test, thanks for all the power and noise tests!
Really looking forward to Lunar Lake mini-PCs coming out. The SER9 seems pretty great, but I’m not sold on that price.
@@rexonpadre864 I already have a desktop, and a few mini-PCs. If I am interested in a mini-PC, why would I want another giant desktop? It isn't what I am looking for.
@@rexonpadre864 SER9 is not happening for me, but I'm more interested in seeing what upcoming Intel offerings are like.
Have enough AMD machines already!
Earlier this year, based on your review I bought the Alloy 9 (from your affiliate link on Amz). I am pleased with its performance and it is a great machine for my purposes.
While I am happy to see the improved benchmarks of the new 300hx APUs, the increased price is a show stopper. For productivity improvements it is a hard sell for the large increase in price and for gaming there are simply better options to get a discrete GPU for $700-750 (hx99g).
Have you had a chance to test the Minisforum 760 Slim? It looks like it might be a cheap way to get good gaming performance in a minipc
Yep, I received it yesterday. On the todo list.
@@Robtech Cool. Looking forward to it and appreciate your reviews.
That's impressive amd chip
lol It was only two to three months ago people were saying AMD would sell these Strix Point APUs cheap enough for mini PC manufacturers to compete with gaming consoles.
Thanks a lot Rob! Great test as usual and I was really waiting for this one.
For a next review with a comparison between different iGPU generations, could you perhaps add a few more test where you add frame generation (even if it isn't required). Curious how different generations handle it and whether it improves the game play experience, even if you get decent FPS without frame generation
Regarding this unit. At this price point one could also buy a Aoostar GEM10 6800H + Occulink Dock + 4060RTX. (Of course at much higher power consumption)
(Unfortunately AMD it no better than Intel regarding their pricing strategy when they have the performance crown: In the K8-K10 era they priced the FX-60 at "performance" level, same for 3rd gen TR's and now their laptops SOC's )
As more Strix Point minis come in I'll do different tests with each one to keep it from going stale. Different resolutions, different quality settings and yeah, FSR and frame gen too.
Love the port selection and pretty much everything about it. I hope the price comes down a little with time.
Habe you had a chance to check out M.2 to PCIe or Oculink adapters? This one has two M.2 slots, perfext for this. Any 3D prints for this one?
The only one I've tried before is the M.2 adapter that came with the Minisforum UM890, which refused to detect my Oculink dock. I've seen other reports of M.2 adapters having low success compared to actual Oculink ports. Maybe my M.2 adapter is faulty.
@@Robtech I hope you can figure it out 🙂
@@Robtech So I've tried my R3G M.2 to PCIe and it works fine with an Avermedia PCIe capture card. I'm not into gaming, so no need for eGPU, but this will let me use it to truly replace desktop. Do you have any experience or knowledge about using standoffs to raise the bottom? Or 3D printing a new bottom?
Good to hear. Should work well if you've got standoffs with the same screw gauge.
Hi there! I’m currently using After Effects for video editing and am looking to get a mini PC.
I’m stuck between choosing the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 or the Intel Ultra 9 185H processor. Which one do you think would provide a smoother experience when working on the timeline? Also, which processor would give faster render times?
I’m particularly concerned about avoiding any timeline lag. I’d really appreciate your advice-thanks!
Intel's media engine (QuickSync) can't be beat for video editing. Export times are in the H264 and AV1 section. Also be aware the new generation Intel Lunar Lake mini PCs are soon to be released. Hoping to review the first one early next month.
@@Robtech Thank you so much for your response! I'll definitely take your advice into consideration when making my decision. Thanks again for helping me out!
Sorry forgot to clarify, QuickSync is Intel's hardware video decoder which drastically speeds up scrubbing across the timeline. I won't edit without it.
@@Robtech Thank you for the clarification! I’ll definitely keep that in mind as I finalize my choice. Thanks again for all the great advice!
Price for this CPU is a bit rich for my blood, can't wait to see it in the next gen handhelds especially the legion go.
Thanks for the good review Steve.
SER9 mini PC w/32GB 1TB = $1,249 + tax
Wawawiwa de price is aaa like a big bear with a good health...in Borat's voice of course.
$1K USD. Yikes.
What's next strix halo at 2k?😢
@@ibelieveinjesusinmyspareti2861yes, actually... At least for the 16 core versions
It will be interesting to see if Beelink, Minisforum and Geekom wake up and smell the roses when they realize the mainstream buyer is just going to buy a brand new Mac mini for a fraction of the price.
Two questions:
Is this the only Beelink mini PC with built-in speakers?
Does the HX 370 890m perform better than, let's say, a laptop's (max-p) rtx 2060 (in an actual game not on paper)?
GTi14 Ultra has speakers but is a bigger mini. I'd put my bet on the 2060, but I'd have to compare against my Phantom Canyon footage since I don't have one to test against.
the reason why the gains are so minimal is the fact that the 890m is just a 780m + 4 cus , so it's realitically a " 790m" built on rdna 3 and not a "890m" should actually be on rdna 4 .
the 890 is a biffed up 780m
Unfortunately no 64gb option, hopefully minisforum's upcoming Elitemini AI370 does give me that option
When is it releasing?
I will wait for Black Friday for this one!
Wonder when they’ll hold 96G, maybe an LLM version? Cheers.
Good review as always.
Good system, impressed with temps.
I don't want to think how hard it is going to be to replace the paste on this one.
The price is...too high IMO. If it had at least oculink then maybe. The soldered RAM...If it came with 64GB of RAM and larger SSD, maybe.
As is, as impressive as it is, I would pass if I had the money.
Thanks Steve.
Very thorough review. I just checked out your Minisforum UM890 Pro review. I like the fact that they sell a barebones unit. I don’t think Beelink offers a barebones option. The only risk with a barebones unit with these no name brands is if there is malware on the motherboard. I suppose malware could be introduced with a BIOS update. Assuming these units get BIOS updates. For those of you who have these mini PC’s, were you or are you concerned about malware on these units? Thanks.
Beelink minis don't come with malware. Every mini is tested.
@@Robtech Isn’t malware on the motherboard harder to detect for anti virus/malware engines?
@neutron-5 is there any history of Beelink including malware? I don't remember any.
Malwarebytes includes a Rootkit scanner which I use for each scan.
@@TrusteftTechI don’t believe there have been any issues with Beelink minis. I believe some Acemagic minis shipped with malware but not Beelink or Minisforum. I don’t mean to impugn these companies but these minis offer a lot for the price so I just want to make sure I am not missing something.
I'd like to see Linux gaming on this PC.
No tests of the "Ai" features?
Still the best reviewer in the game, thanks mate!
Mine arrived yesterday. Had a corrupted windows install out of the box requiring me to create a windows 11 bootable usb from my other pc. Other than that, I’m quite happy with it so far.
Thanks for this insightful video.
Nice review!
Thanks Steve!
I....am STEEEEEVE!
Soldered RAM. I don't like that, personally.
I really hope the Minisforum HX370 system has an Oculink port on it
Possibly. Depends on how they allocate the PCIe lanes. They might do what they did with the UM890 Pro and sacrifice a Gen4 M.2 drive.
@@Robtech Aoostar has one coming out with 2 x m.2 slots plus an Oculink port, so it's possible to do with 2 drives.
Interesting. Looking forward to seeing the IO on that one.
@@goldenretrogames coming out? it's been out for several months. i have had my eye on it for a while waiting for a sale...matter of fact, robtech reviewed it about 2 months ago now...i'm hoping it will be around $450-500 on prime day or black friday.
Got my SER9 yesterday. Dont get me wrong, the performance is great, but there is something that gives me the ick about it: secure boot is DISABLED by default, leaving the door wide open for spyware. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks Steve
For $999 that purple bar better be near the top!
Thanks for the review and giveaway link! But careful with showing Nintendo gameplay benchmarks. Nintendo seems to be more aggressive towards emulation as of late.
sucks about the soldered ram but it is faster. Me, I'd take upgradability and more RAM any day over a speed increase and remain stuck with 32gb (and the prices they are charging for the Ser9 unit and only 32gb of RAM is staggering). I bought a Gmktek K8 Plus while it was on sale, for about 250 bucks. It's a 8845HS with no ram, no ssd (and no os). Even with 96gb 5600mhz dual-channel memory and a top-end gen 4 ssd, it would still come up to half of what Beelink's Ser9 are selling for right now. Well, I'm still to get my Gmktek unit, fingers crossed. Beelink are great, I'd give them that. Bought an EQ12 a few months ago and very happy with it (amazing quality, solid build) and with customer support. But their mini pcs seem expensive right now considering the competition.
also the Gmktek comes with Oculink so you can plug in an external graphics card. Or you can go down the USB 4 route, it has 2 x 40ghz ports.
And can run 4 displays
nice mini pc. can you test so Lenovo ThinkCentre neo Ultra?
fun fact: in finnish abbreviation ser means e-waste
Probably does in Chinese too 🤣
Rob, I hope you can help me with this. I bought the SER9 and have only fiddled with it a little. Today, while running a game, I checked CoreTemp, which tells me the running temps of each core, the system tells me that I have only 6 Cores/12 Threads. I then checked taksmanager/performance and that says the same thing 6C/12T. My understanding is this is supposed to be 12C/24T. IS this just a matter of my ignorance or is something wrong here? Thanks in advance.
Hmm doesn't sound right. What CPU is listed in Task Manager or Device Manager? Or you can use Hardware Info and get a summary.
3:46 i think this rubber thingy is actually useful so buyers can tell if its damaged , that means its rigged 😂
Do you have a recommended egpu to pair with the ser9?
I've only had one, the Razer Core X, which I don't recommend (died yesterday).
Why don't the charts include the AtomMan G7 PT from the previous video?
I don't think they compare well and for two different markets. If you want actual gaming performance it's a mini with discrete graphics. If you want something small and quiet and don't mind the integrated graphics, these are the minis to look. But I can include it in a future Strix Point review. The performance and power consumption gap is large.
A 2.5 SATA bay would've been a preferable use of space over the horrible speakers. 😂
Hilarious delivery.
Now repeat after me Rob, "I am legend"
I.......am STEEEEEEEEEVE!
Think 1k is the early adopter tax coming through. Nice PC, but one of the joys of the mini pc is their low entry price. At this price, the Asus 14" laptop with the same chip actually looks good value.
Amazed there hasn't been a Snapdragon X mini yet apart from the Dev unit. Doesn't tick the gaming box but it's a nerdy itch I need to scratch!
Hi Rob,
I enjoyed your videos and I have learned a lot. I would like to support you by using some of you affiliate links.
I have seen a couple of you affiliate links but I can't find the one I'm interested in... Windows licensing. I would recommend you have a place where all of the links are saved.
Thanks,
John from Florida.
Hey, any item purchased from the links will count, even if you run a search after clicking through and buy something else. Cheers.
These mini pc got soundcards or not? (Sorry new to this)
The motherboard has an integrated audio chip.
the most powerful mobile gaming device has to be the #AIpowered trouser snakes coming to America!
Amazing review. Unfortunately for me AMD since Ryzen 6800u / HS does nothing differente, just increase the power draw for better results. I guess is time to AMD to reduce wattage usage to start showing againg something amazing. BTW wondering if you are going to review the Beelink EQR6 with built-in psu. Cheers!
Yes indeed. Got the EQR6 in the review pile.
A question: this thing has built in speakers that are screwed to the dust filterscreen and attached to the mobo with a ribbon cable. Could I just detach the ribbon cable, unscrew the speaker component from the screen and then reattach the screen? The only true purpose for this speaker is for AI communication and I have 0 need for AI functionality.. Thanks in advance
You could. Or just disable the inbuilt speakers in Windows device manager.
AI has become such a shameless marketing buzzword. I especially liked the "perfect for AI enthusiasts" in the Beelink reddit post. Does such a thing even exist? 🤣
Not keen on the soldered ram obviously, but nice review nonetheless. I like how you test all the games with FSR/Frame generation and all the other nonsense disabled, unlike a lot of other reviewers, makes for a much more accurate benchmark.
Haha yeah we do but we want to run local models and despise OpenAI/Microsoft and 32GB just won't cut it XD
Put Steve on the payroll! 😂
NPU просто для украшения диспетчера задач или уже можно где-то использовать?
Софт как обычно запаздывает за железками. К llama.cpp сейчас пытаются прикрутить эти новые AMD NPU, но пока с переменным успехом
Ждем полезного программного обеспечения для тестирования и сравнения производительности ИИ. Я пока ничего не нашел...
I AM STEVE!
Is it made from aluminium or plastic?
Aluminium
Wish they added something else instead of the speakers
Alright, lets see if I can get this question out without getting censored. If I follow your address to the Canadian place and then in the search I request this model which will get me to the right place, will you receive your stipend?
Yep, buying any items through the Amazon Canada links in my video description will give me a small percentage.
@@RobtechCheers!
@@Robtech Well , after a lot vacillation I finally took the plunge. I hope that your cut of the $1600 CAD well be enough to buy a pizza and a beer. Cheers.
Appreciate it. Depends on category, but computers give 2% of the final price paid.
for that price it should come with 2 oculink ports instead of none.😄
Its requirement from amd for strix point, no more sodimm, maybe needed for Ai so they use lpddr5
needs more usb ports and an extra ethernet port otherwise it looks good
R23 multicore only 23k?? 13900hx chas 28k, and 32k undervolted.
Damn! Of course the highest price in Europe. ☹
Ofcourse.... But on the other hand these taxes help people not to go bankrupt when they need medical assistance.
One visit to the ER and you can buy 1 or more SER9's with the money that you didn't pay to the hospital
@@rj7855 Do you mean it`s for FREE? Because we must pay (I mean it`s mandatory) for sickness insurance. The prices are high because of commies in EU, their expenditures and Green Deal. Our overall taxation is somewhere around 63% of income.
What about league of legends 4K frames? I wish it would stay at 120hz even on the low option.
Yes, no problem
Ur the best youtuber
no x8 slot ? why
Not enough PCIe lanes with Strix Point.
I keep laughing at 2:45
price is insane.
also, 32 Gb only? good bye, lol)
It’s about $800 in China for 32+1TB
Global market getting shafted😂
AliExpress?
I'm hoping some of the techies can answer a couple of questions for me. This has 32 G of 7800 RAM. In what real-life situation would 32 Gig be insufficiant except as a talking point. Why would I need 64 Gig of Ram? It seems to me, in my ignorance, that unless you are doing extreme graphic editing that you would never ever exceed 32Gig of RAM, especially 7800 speed. I admit that I am not that knowledgable but to me it seems like this RAM question is kind of like in the old days of audiophiles who raved about an amplifier with .0001 PicoHertz of harmonic distortion. Sure if you have an occilicope you can measure that but you can't hear anything outside of the threshold of human hearing of 20-20k Hz. I'd be curious to be educated about this. The price, It's going to be about $1500 CAD but to get the computing power that this little machine has would cost me about double that to build my own from scratch. My only small issue is the lack of a Thunderbolt port but for all other concerns this seems like a terrific machine for all but the very heavily intensive graphic/video editing situations. If anyone can enlighten me I'd be grateful before I take the plunge. Cheers.
That 32gb of ram gets shared between CPU and GPU. So if you want to use 16gb as vram, you would "only" have 16 gb left for system ram. 64 gb is more future proof and specially for video editing it is nice to have a lot of VRAM
USB 4 is compatible with TB 3 and 4. So you can use a lot of your Thunderbolt devices.
@@annebokma4637 Such great information Anne. I had wondered how RAM was allocated if you want to bump up the VRAM. I have a dedicated card now but did not know the specifics that when increasing (I believe that this SER9 is configured for 4 Gb Vram) so as you said to boost that to 16 would mean a 1-1 exchange from your total RAM. That makes a great deal of sense now that having 64 G would be preferable when no dedicated Vram card is present. Likewise thank you for the clarification about USB 4. In my feeble understanding of things I thought that Only USB-C Thunderbolt had 40Gbit transfer speeds. Now and then I do a mass emigration to new drives and this feature makes a differance to me. So, all of that said maybe I'll just hang back a few Weeks and see if the Asus Nuc Pro AI (Lunar Canyon) goes on the market. I really appreciate your helping me to understand Anne. Thank you..
@@Rabid-Pinocchio waiting always gives you more options while the prices get lower.
At the moment there is a thing about Asus predatory service handling. Also Intel processors are going dead.
Myself I am looking at an AMD mini pc but I am waiting for strix halo. 16 zen5 cores. And I am looking at cheaper brands with better service than Asus.
@@annebokma4637 Witing is always better no doubt but a part of me is saying, just get it over with man and there will always be something coming down the pipe to make you snap your fingers and go well dang I should have waited another 2 Weeks or 2 Months or 2 Years. I guess that's the age-old problem when you don't actually "need' a new computer. It's more a matter of that old brainstem reaction that says, 'ooooooooh Shiny!' That Asus Nuc Pro AI (Lunar Canyon) seems shiny as heck but they said that it would be available in September and that would be Today at the latest so I'm thinking that if they release it in the next couple of Weeks I will wait for Rob's review and then make a concrete decision on which shiny toy to buy. Cheers.
@@Rabid-Pinocchio absolutely, that is why I just bought a laptop with the gen before strix point. 32gb ram is enough for what I want to use it for. And it did give me the space to wait with buying a mini pc. Besides OLED screen 😍
And my old laptop died after 6+ years. It had 32 gb ram too.. kinda says it all.
The price is ridiculous.
I liked it a lot... until you mentioned WiFi 6. That is a massive let down. WiFi 6E would have made it a must buy for someone looking to buy a new mini-PC.
The port locations seem odd too, but that is a personal pet peeve of mine after getting used to a nice layout from Intel NUCs and Geekom models.
Intel ax200 doesnt support lc3 codec!!
1 - overpriced, 2 - why speakers lol, 3 - 7500MHz why not 8000MHz, 4 - 64gb option? thx Steveeeeee.
In the BIOS section I talk about how it can be overclocked to 8000MT/s. The iGPU gained around 3.5%. Mine was stable, but I'm not sure if every SER9 will be which might be why they opted for 7500.
wrong comp link
Thanks for letting me know
Can't wait to see how a Lunarlake mini PC performs against this.
Am I seeing the downfall of Beelink on this one?
1. Too expensive compared to previous gens
2. Non upgradable memory
In case of memory, LDDR5 does not equate faster process, I have a SER 7 with 32gb (2x16gb) user replacable and Ideapad 5 Pro with soldered 32gb, the same 7840HS, SER 7 stock SSD while Ideapad with replaced (faster) Crucial SSD, both at balance mode
Guess what, SER 7 outperform the ldeapad by around 5 to 8 percent running computational task, I observed power is the primary reason for this and memory being soldered does not affect much
Bring back those memory slots 😡
Faster memory speed is for integrated graphics, not CPU performance since there's no dedicated Vram. There's marginal benefit for CPU tasks. By going up to 8000MT/s from 7500 in the BIOS there was a 3.5% GPU performance uplift. 5600 would be a big downgrade.
@@Robtech 3.5% uplift for inconvenience of not being able to upgrade memory down the road. No thanks.
And the price is at OLED laptop territory. Many don't want another Apple in mini PC space.
3.5% was from 7500 to 8000 on this mini. SODIMM replaceable RAM stops at 5600. It would be a double digit drop with SODIMM. Until there's a faster memory format for integrated graphics, soldered memory will continue. Maybe CUDIMM or CAMM2 will solve the issue.
@@Robtech just for sake of discussion, there is no available benchmark (none I know of) that say soldered RAM translate to noticeable FPS boost, but from what I experienced and actual testing in YT videos sustained CPU frequency (power to CPU) affects overall performance significantly
Also most buyers of mini PC are aficionados who like to fiddle with PC parts, non replaceable memory will discourage these people, I'll bet my 2 cents this move of Beelink will not fly
I hope someone in Beelink is reading these comments, I was very excited in the release of Ryzen AI in a mini PC but the price and setup killed my enthusiasm faster than I can say "Apple copycat" 🤣
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
spyware.
Gta 5
Just about anything will run that these days
650.00USD max. not worth more.
1st!
1k is ok for such a computer imo
Knock off Mac mini looks horrendous
Can you please donate me a mini pc? I'm doing self study in programming and can't afford a device, I'm stuck only in theory.
Caught you using Home Edition. Giggity.
It will be interesting to see if Beelink, Minisforum and Geekom wake up and smell the roses when they realize the mainstream buyer is just going to buy a brand new Mac mini for a fraction of the price.