Beelink S12 Review - This Mini PC is AMAZING Value at only $155!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ส.ค. 2024
- The Beelink S12 Mini PC has the Intel N95 chip, and it is REALLY good, at a budget price. Can be found for cheap on both AliExpress AND Amazon (links are below)
Windows 11 Pro is installed, and in our review, we test Windows games, and also many emulated systems from within Batocera.
► Purchase links
Beelink S12 S95: go.teampandory...
Amazon: amzn.to/3M75zLU
Amazon: amzn.to/3JS1FED
►Alternatives:
Larkbox X: go.teampandory...
►Timestamps:
@0:00- Introduction: Budget Mini PCs
@0:16- Unboxing the Beelink N95 Mini PC
@1:18- The Beelink N95 Mini PC up close
@2:03- How Big is the Beelink N95?
@2:25- Beelink N95 Mini PC Specs
@2:46- Windows 11 Pro, Initial checks, Updating Windows
@3:11- Installing Free Windows Apps
@3:33- Things to do Online, TH-cam in 4K, Netflix, AliExpress shopping
@3:50- HWInfo, Temperatures, Benchmarks
@4:10- Game Tests: BroForce, Streets of Rage 4, Return to Monkey Island
@5:15- Game Tests: Retro Kart Rush, GTA V, Rocket League
@6:04- CSGO, Apex Legends, Fortnite
@6:43- Installing an internal HDD or SSD to Beelink N95
@7:03- Beelink N95 Memory, NVME, Fan
@7:24- Beelink Bios
@7:40- Batocera and a Bluetooth Solution
@8:15- Amstrad CPC, C64, Amiga, MS-DOS
@8:30- ScummVM, OpenBOR, MUGEN
@9:05- Atari Jaguar, 3DO
@9:20- Megadrive, Saturn, Dreamcast
@10:18- Naomi, Atomiswave
@10:48- Sega Model 2, Sega Model 3
@11:12- SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii
@13:57- Playstation 1, PSP Gameplay
@14:55- Playstation 2 Gameplay
@16:51- XBOX Gameplay
@17:05- Beelink N95 Pros and Cons
@17:22- Conclusion
@17:28- Thanks, NDS, 3DS, and MAME Gameplay
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►Credits
'A Day at the Beach' and 'Halcyon Dance' by Chris Huelsbeck, used under a royalty-free license, please visit www.patreon.com/chris_huelsbeck for more info!
Pandory Intro Music by Disfunktional
surroundsoundr...
breakingsaints...
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#minipc #review #emulation #retrogaming #windows11 - เกม
"There is a warning, but I'm not going to read it." Well, the man knows his audience .
Love these little emulation boxes - what a time to be alive!
It's insane. 10 years ago we'd only be able to get a motherboard for this price!
@@TeamPandory Exactly... a motherboard -OR- memory -OR- hard drive -OR- video card... choose one... now we get 'em all.
@@markdawson25 ☝THIS ☝
I just got a beelink s 12, and I absolutely love it! It meets all my emulation needs and them some. I'm quite surprised at how well it handled the PS 2 and xbox Emulation, which was a real bonus.
Which one did you get?
Can you play with 4players
This thing is legit,especially for the price and form factor. This would be a great choice for a mame cabinet
Damn 3DO and Jaguar looked phenomenal on here
I picked up the n100 for $160 on lightning deal. It’s been great so far
Thank you yet again for this video, I'm going to be ordering one tomorrow evening and plan on running batocera now that I've become a bit more comfortable with it. I'm pretty excited to say the least. Thank you for always be so incredibly accurate and authentic in your reviews
Would you recommend it for gaming older games
Beelink is a value for money brand. I bought Beelink Mini S with Intel 5095 Jasper with 16gb RAM and 256 GB SSD for $160 last year to replace my 12 years old laptop with 3rd gen I3 8GB ram which I paid $500. The laptop still worked fine but about 3 times slower than Mini S due to less RAM and only DDR2 RAM while Beelink has DDR 4. 3rd gen i3 is also slower in computing and rendering graphic. It's a fact that PC, smartphone is getting cheaper while performance is getting better. However, you buy when you need at the time.
Hey can you give an update on the mini pc? How’s it working 3 months in? I want to buy one for reliability. Thanks
Nice review Tim enjoyed the show 😉👍
Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Yes, running your PL1 at 30 watts adds extra byte on CPU limited apps. Another sited shows the before and after game benches with temps. This $150 sleeper nipping at the N100, not seen if those can be bumped up.
I use mine as a simple music/movie server with attached drives in the cave. The Intel HD audio codec’s still have best legacy HDMI audio support over my Ryzen gaming hardware. DJI Air 2S high bitrate video, NO issues at 30 fps in 5.4K, 60 fps in 4K and 120 fps in HD. Its maximum video bitrate is 150 Mbps in H.264 and H.265 codecs.
This little box is quite and cool running at 30 watts, you can bang 90C with no complaints from mine so back off to 25 watts if your nervous. I love the extra zip in normal non game stuff!
How to run on 25 watts?
Cool, Tim! Gonna Check it out!
Thanks man 😊👍
I'm not used to seeing gamecube run so smoothly when emulating lately..
Not for the price! Things have definitely improved in the last couple of years. Thanks for the comment
Using it to stream hd-4k movies to my 86” tv. Doing well so far
😲
There is a timecode error in description with amstrad CPC, do's, etc at 5:15. It should be at 8:15.
Thanks for letting us know. Well spotted 😉 - it's now fixed
I bought the s12 "pro" for $165. The price is weirdly low for coming with N100 CPU, 16gb DDR4, and 500gb SSD. I did not expect much but i'm shocked by how capable this little thing is. I've been using it as my main computer that last two weeks just seeing how much I can do on it.
Strongly recommend the N100 model. Only issue I've encountered is an unwillingness to boot from USB, which seems to be an issue others had as well. I haven't looked into it yet but thought I'd throw it out there.
Hey there, glad you're enjoying it. It's amazing to think that so little money can get such a system. I think the price of windows 11 alone in some places equals the best part of 100$, too.
You may need to turn off secure boot in the bios. It definitely does boot from bios as we've been managing it, but we will need to wait for an update to have those new intel WiFi / Bluetooth drivers included.
Where did you buy? The price has raised to $219 on amazon now...ugh
This is a bit more like it from Intel. Finally they incorporate AV1 hardware decoding way later than they should have and for the first time in a long time, the price is good and easily makes it competitive with ARM based SBC's. $160 allows it to be a relatively easy purchase. The lower pricing is likely due to Intel facing a very bleak future, bought about by their own greed. Single channel RAM is a veritable crime though and Beelink should know better.
In the bios, it apparently supports dual channel so I'm guessing that the next model up with more memory is dual channel.
I linked a mini pc in the description that also whips the crap out of a pi4, also single channel but maaaan, it ain't far off this one in the review
Single channel won't matter much for DDR5, same which applied for ddr3, only ddr4 it suffered so much in single!
Si es que le pongo mas memoria ram crees que se pueda solucionar en algo que solo sea single ram, o por mas que le ponga 32gb de ram igual va a afectar que no sea dual Channel, estoy indeciso por esa situación, no se si comprar la beelink s12 o la u59 que creo que esa si es dual channel
The single channel limitation is from the N95 chip... so it's Intel's crime, not Beelink's. Intel purposefully hobbled all Alder Lake N series processors to differentiate between the more expensive parts (so even the N305, which has double the number of E cores (8) as the N95/N100 (4) is hobbled by single channel RAM). If you want dual-channel RAM in a 12th gen Intel mini-pc, you have to go up to the i5-1240P (or i7-1260P). As @nokialumia6267 pointed out, the older (11th Gen) N5095/N5105 in the Beelilnk U59 do support dual-channel memory. However, that is dual-channel DDR4, where the newer 12th gen chips we are talking about actually support DDR5 RAM (there are Beelink products, like the EQ12 using DDR5), so there is a trade off... do you want the newer, faster processor with PCIe3 NVME drives, and single-channel DDR5, or the older 11th gen processor with slower SATA SSDs and dual-channel DDR4?
today i test with my Nipogi N5105 12Go for GTAV, just for compare because i am surprised by GTAV turn 720P. Thank you for your test.
I quite like the n5105, great for emulation.
Just grabbed this pc on amazon for £169. £120 off normal price.
Going to use this as a batocera gun build using sinden light gun.
Oh yea.
Thanks mate.
Just what I need for living room.
Bboy.
if a n95 can run ps2 then N100 can slighly better. i bought one with n100 that it is supposed to arrive in 2 weeks. emulation, espicially ps2 games, is something i definetly something id like to enjoy on that mini pc. thnak you for the review
Yep. We've had a few n100 mini PCs on the channel and they do handle PS2 better than the n95.
Oh man, I really kinda want one, but I don't really /need/ one, and I don't want to spend $150-$200 for something I'd play with for a while, grow bored, and then let collect dust on my counter or something. Or if some of the reports are accurate see it die within a few months. I just don't have a purpose for it that would see it being used regularly enough to justify., even if it is cheap.
100% got my subscription with naughty Jean-Luc!
Just wish there a huge hole on top for the fan can be easily colder since the hot air gets stuck inside
Do u think changing the power limit in bios from 20000 watts to 30000 would improve gameplay for the later systems
I've only just seen that you can do this yesterday.. Impressive you can do that, but it looks like many of the games are more dependant on the GPU, which doesn't get altered at all when you give the CPU more power.
Yeah looks good. Model 3 and GameCube ran very nicely. Starfox Assault is one of my favourites.
I planning on buying this mini pc but im lazy af in configuring the emulators and roms. Does anyone know where I can download a compatible batocera image that already contains everything and I just need to burn it on an sd card?
Look up Arcade Punks Batocera
This was a nice little unit..for the 2 months it functioned. It's now hung on the bios screen entry when booting. f7 or delete, too bad neither of those do anything. Pull power hold cmos reset in? check..zip...Unplug ssd reseat..check..nothin. Remove ram, reinstall ram, 1 stick at a time? Check..nothing. What we have here...Is a brick...Just an FYI , you can buy a reconditioned HP 800 g4 mini with a hexacore i5 for about the same...One of them works after 2 months...
Ram, one stick at a time? Must be another unit because the intel n95 / n100 boards only support a single RAM chip.
Saying that, it sounds like your SSD needs replacing/ reinstalling. Reach out to beelink perhaps?
Looks pretty cool. All the games and systems you showcased, are they already installed on the PC when you buy it or do you have to put them on yourself? Thanks
No. Had to install them ourself.
@@TeamPandory Ah OK, thanks
How did you get ps2 to run that smoothly ?
What's the best, cheapest, mini PC, for emulation up to Nintendo 3ds and maybe PS3?
PS3 isn't going to be cheap. That's when you go to @retrogamecorps with a higher budget 🤠
@@TeamPandory ah. Thank you
@@magvs_mæstro216 Tell you what, this one can just about run 3DS. 80% speed. Perhaps the N100 will run it full speed? Grab one of those, and a USED PS3 for $30. SORTED!
@@TeamPandory oh hell yeah. Damn. Woah. Just made my year
would you recommend replacing the SSD or just buying a 1tb external to make it bootable from batocera?
I wouldn't bother replacing the SSD. Keep that in so you can boot up Windows when you need to. Add an internal 2.5" SSD or HDD, or even use a USB drive for the least messy solution.
Can I use this for light programming?
Sure, no problem.
It might enough for my download machine.
What's the track called starting at 0:17? It's brilliant! Thought it was one of Chris Huelsbeck's stuff from the description, but it's not 😢
We usually go with Huelsbeck's work, but when it's not, we pull it from the TH-cam audio library
@@TeamPandory Thanks! Unforunate, as I was hoping to download and add it to my batocera build. Oh well! But Chris also has some decent stuff on his patreon. Thankfully your channel pushed me in the right direction here 👍🏻
@@robvanwanst4262 okay, so I'd recommend d4xx. He does Amiga remixes and they're TIGHT!
Another recommendation would be F777. Very bouncy fun electro tracks that make you wanna dance.
Both artists can be found on bandcamp.
One more track: check out "Sidology"
@@TeamPandory Thanks for the recommendations ✌🏻 And maybe one day I'll even stumble upon that ONE track from your video, too (it's "only" clicking through 100s of tracks after all 😂)
@@robvanwanst4262 I'll check if I have the davinci file when I'm at the computer. Will be able to tell you exactly what it is... Wasn't there a music app that listened to the track and told you what it was?? Shazam?
Is the 3ds emulation good on the n100? No sound crackles and such?
Unsure, I have a few days still free, so maybe a head to head might be in order when it comes to emulation... Saying that, it took two days to get the last gameplay benchmark video finished.
@@TeamPandory i can't decide if i should buy an old thin client with AMD GX 420 and r7 or this new Intel n100 mini PC, what do You think?
@ Looking at specs, the N100 is the better choice by a large margin.
@@TeamPandory thanks buddy
@ No worries 🙂
can this output 120 hz at low resolutions?
My experience: I did not try emulating but the graphics in Win 11 left much to be desired. I sent it back and bought a rysen 5 with much better graphics. The Intel version has poor graphics. The AMD has vastly better graphics.
This is true - I have a Ryzen mini pc with a 7735hs/680m in it, and it kicks ass, and can run modern windows games at high fps. On the other hand, that box cost $600, and this costs $130. Even the beelink mini PCs with a 5500u/Vega 7 costs about twice what this thing does. In short, if 3d graphics performance matters, yeah, you need to spend a bit more for an AMD. But if you’re mostly wanting to emulate MAME and consoles older than PS1, or just need a basic “browse and email” PC, you can save some pennies and get this.
@@jmcminn1076hi do you know if this mini pc is good enough to run the sims 4 with mods?
@@valeria-wi7zw based on the listed requirements, it should work… if barely. If Sims 4 is your use case I think I’d spend a little more and try to get a slightly better cpu (and more importantly a better graphics chip). A ryzen 5 with Vega won’t cost that much more but will play something like sims a lot better.
Does this have thunderbolt tor external graphics?
So dumb question, does this come preloaded with all of the emulators and roms?
No, you need to make your own Batocera thumbstick, full of all your legally acquired roms 🙂
@@TeamPandory many thanks for the info.
@@jasoncdublin no worries 🤠
I found batocera a breeze to set up. It's much easier than retropie I find.
Hola. ¿Sabrán si corre bien el videojuego Dragon Ball FighterZ?
Las especificaciones mínimas de hardware requieren al menos una Geforce GTX 650 Ti, por lo que no creo que funcione muy bien. Si necesitas una mini PC para juegos, consulta los modelos Ryzen.
Hi, I would like to know which model of joystick do you use in this video for Batocera. Thanks
Maybe the 8bitdo pro2 with brown dongle.
I think it would be helpful if you told us what resolution you where running the 3d games in such as the ps2.
Ah, sorry. Native resolution outputting at 1080p. Basically batocera default.
@TeamPandory Can this mini pc run team fortress 2?
whats your opinion for microsoft office and fast internet??
If you only need it for Office and internet, this or an N100 variant will work well
@@TeamPandory thanks
Bought the N100, does you know if batocera supports the teknoparrot emulator for arcade games?
Pretty sure you will need to run teknoparrot in windows, but batocera has surprised me in the past
Hi did you get wii game running ?
how did you connect your wireless mouse and keyboard during 1st boot?
It's a Logitech wireless keyboard / mouse. Plug in the dongle that's it
N100 vs N95 = N100 win for 6watts power processor and cache etc is similare. limited mini for 16Go max single chanel
can this play wwe2k23 on low settings 60 fps
are those free games that i can download somewhere?
Is this the best one for the price?
@@Ccodebits it's a good choice for mini pc. We've made a more recent video that explains them much better though (check the Amazon one on our channel)
It won't have the Amazon prime day prices but will give you a nice list to check out.
please test, the 2,5 zoll maximum 2tb or 4tb, and test the m2 maximum 2tb or 4tb, please maked break the mythos.
Could you game on this with an M.2 EGPu??
Maybe... But speed may be bottlenecked, as it only has PCIe x1 (one lane)
Thanks for the reply.
Hi there I bought the mini s but when I run batecera I'm getting a black screen any ideas on how to fix this
Try turning off secure boot in the bios.
Did that still nothing the logo screen appears then black screen
is it good when im using photoshop
Unsure with all the new Photoshop add-ons. Usual 2d it should work fine. How hard are you hitting Photoshop exactly ?
Question has anyone tested shadow of the colossus!?
For the ps2 or PS3? I think for the ps2 version you'll need at least an n100, and for the PS3 one of the ryzen minipc units
So need to run Minecraft on it
Looking for a dedicated mini pc to stream to twitch my PS4 content via capture card would this work?
Should be okay. Unsure what kind of power you'd need to do that though. Are you streaming in 4k?
@@TeamPandory no I'll be streaming to twitch at 720p 30FPS using OBS.
@@jerryrivera6328 wow. That should be no problem 🤠
Is this good for a newbie that wants to record gameplay of retro games for TH-cam?
Tbh it should be fine. The CPU is as good as an older i5, the only place where you may have issues is with the later 3d games.
I'd probably have a look at a mini pc with the slightly quicker n100 processor. There's a chance that they're on the market for cheaper.
@@TeamPandory I'll definitely look it up with Amazon day coming up, subscribed for life! ❤️
How much better is the S100 and the S95?
It's 5 better. 😅
On a serious note, the S100 is a bit better when it comes to games. If you're looking for a PC for Windows / office use, then they're very similar.
@@TeamPandory lol that’s very good answer. What system do you think 100 will play up to?
@@johnhanes3450 for emulation ? PS2 and weaker wiiu titles.
You may want to check the n97 computer we reviews a couple of weeks ago- and we have another one in the works for budget Ryzen computers, if you want to push your emulation that bit further.
$100 price point is what has my attention 😅 I will check out that N 97 as well
@@johnhanes3450might want to look at the used market / eBay for something with a graphics board inside. 100$ is a push 😂
How do you use batocera on windows 11?
Batocera is a Linux distro. If you want to use a similar frontend in windows, look for "retrobat".
@@TeamPandory thx ill looking for that
Whats a good mini pc to emulate up to ps4 and switch?
Unsure about PS4 emulators, but for switch you'd be good with a 7840hs.
These cheaper ones won't handle switch or PS3.
@TeamPandory thank you, so I'll probably be better off buying a steamdeck or something like that I can hook up to my TV huh?
@TeamPandory I have an Nvidia shield right now, for streaming TV and I can emulate up to wii, just want something a little more powerful
@@josesanchez-ph9md definitely go for a 7000 or 8000 series Ryzen then. You can use them as a full computer to edit videos on too 🐱
@@TeamPandory thanks for the replies! Really appreciate the help!
Will there be any difference from the n100?
The n100 has a stronger GPU - I think twice the EU units. Unsure how much of a difference it'd make to speeds, but the n100 also have more memory and hard drive space.
Is the windows operating system licensed
Yeah. All legit.
can do geforce now?
If you plug in an egpu then maybe 🤔
Что я хочу сказать, автор - вот это НАДЕЖНО вас снабжают электричеством!!! У нас бы уже несколько раз отключили свет. Например, из-за непогоды... :)))))
Do you think this thing can run Roblox?
Is this uhd630?
No, it's the Intel UHD Graphics Xe 16EUs (Tiger Lake-H) ( - 1200 MHz)
@@TeamPandory i see. Is this higher than uhd 630?
@@ourdailymeat It's very close. UHD630 wins in synthetic benchmarks as it has more cores, but XE with 16 CUs is close. Would be more concerned about the CPU clocks.
@@TeamPandory i see. So it's the best budget mini pc for batocera that can run ps2
@@ourdailymeat for the PS2, id definitely recommend the n100 over this. Similar price tier, we've reviewed many of them like the Chuwi Larkbox x, or the gmktec G2 or g3
god of war 2 still play with ps2 native right?
Yes, this is using native resolution
@@TeamPandory So their performance is same same N5105 right
@@thaigamecenter1530 It's quite similar, I'll be running some benchmarks to compare the systems pretty soon I think
@@TeamPandory So can you advice me which model is good enough for batocera+cemu runing wii u 720p at 60fps such as zelda the breath of the wild
@@thaigamecenter1530 probably a mini pc with something like a 5800u ryzen, or a used i5
I never bought anything from Ali express don't they have a lot of fake stuff on there and you order one thing and get something else?
They're pretty much the Chinese Amazon. I've had things turn out to be wrong items on Amazon before- the main thing you need to do is order from a shop that looks legit, check the date the shop was made, the reviews, and record a video of you opening the package as evidence if you get a wrong item or it's faulty. - it you have that you can get a refund.
In regards to mini pc units, I've bought around 5 from Ali and to this date haven't had a problem.
Eitch
From your accent guessing your from UK. How get stuff from AliExpress? Always says can't ship to UK. PS the voice over humour is so irritating. Won't watch again
This pc has Intel N100 chip 🤔
Yes. There's a choice between n95 and n100. I'm currently testing an n100. Should have a review out in the next few days
Intel iGPU suxx, take a ryzen with you want perf and even run switch games
not the same price dude
for cons why didnt you mention only one ram slot thats obviously single channel.......how did you miss that as a con?......do you even know anything about computers?
We could add that it doesn't have a geforce video card, 8 cores, and can't run (enter AAA game), but for the price and the market it's going for, the absence of dual channel can be overlooked.
is this worth upgrading from a j4125 with 12gb ram with 256gb ssd? I can buy it for around 180euros on sale, thanks!
Depends what you want to do with it really. What do you intend to do on it Vs the j4125?
@@TeamPandory Its connected to my tv, mainly for emulation,downloading,browsing. And in some aspects i feel the J4125 is pushing its very limit. I dont know about the N95 if that would be a good jump boost and if its worth upgrading it for 180 euros
@@Lemmelleni Well I can tell you for certain that it's definitely a good jump from the j4125. I got this for 150, but saying that, the N100 is at 195 with more memory and double SSD space... Total deal.
@@TeamPandory Probably gonna get it, do you think its wise to move my windows installation to my 2.5inch ssd instead of the onboard one? Will that see any performance improvement?