Beelink EQ14 Mini PC, Intel 12th Processor N150 (4C/4T, up to 3.6Ghz), 16GB DDR4 1TB SSD Mini Computer Windows 11 Home, Dual 2.5G LAN/25W TDP/WiFi 6/BT5.2/4K Dual Display

The media could not be loaded. Why a Mini PC?Advances in processor design have enabled some remarkable leaps in computing power with lower energy use. A Mini PC takes full advantage of this, putting a powerful, everyday desktop computer in an amazingly small package. A Mini PC makes a perfect home office computer as it takes up almost no space and will plug into a home TV via HDMI. The BeeLink U57 thoughtfully comes with a mounting bracket you could use to put the device behind a screen or under a desk. With a nice wireless mouse and keyboard set up, you can make the computer "disappear" at the end of the day and reclaim the desk space. (I like the Logitech input device range for the unified receiver which connects mouse and keyboard with one unified USB transceiver, e.g. https://amzn.to/3cGgQxg) With an increase in home working, a dedicated secure computing device to connect to work makes a lot of sense. The less software added to a computer, the more secure it is likely to be.The BeeLink U57 has a great spec for that home office use case. With an Intel i5 processor combined with a healthy 8GB of RAM and a 256GB solid state hard drive, performance on office tasks is perky with no discernible lag starting or using applications. The supplied operating system is Windows 10 Pro - the Pro moniker adds support for Bitlocker drive encryption - something that might be useful if you work on sensitive documents locally. This provides "encryption at rest" for your data so in the event of your device being stolen, the data on it will not be readable without a digital key. Pro also brings features like Hyper V virtualisation - something the home user may not use, but a useful application this enables is the Windows Sandbox - a safe place to open suspicious attachments you may receive. While we are talking about security, Windows 10 has Defender antivirus built in but also ransomware protection and a decent firewall. I've used this for over 10 years with no issues. The one addition I would suggest is a lightweight personal firewall like GlassWire set to "ask to connect". Often the first thing malware needs to do is to connect out to download additional code, so this will makes sure this activity is spotted and blocked. Another useful set up activity is to Google for the "Intel Driver and Support Assistant". With an integrated Intel chipset in the BeeLink U57, the support assistant will help you get the latest drivers for your hardware and make sure performance is optimal.As well as dual HDMI powered by onboard Intel Iris 6100 graphics, the device has two high speed USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports. The ones at the front are the high speed ones, so this would be the place to plug in any back up drives, leaving the rear ports for a USB transceiver. There is built in WiFi supporting b/g/n/ac 2.4 & 5Ghz - this will ensure fast connections with all major routers. If you have an ethernet connection near by, there is also a Gigabit ethernet port. A front mounted audio connector will handle wired headphones for video conferencing, and next to this is a USB C connector which you could use for a card reader. Not mentioned on the specs on the box is Bluetooth support - useful for connecting headphones.PerformanceThe tech specs for this Mini PC are impressive for such a tiny unit. An i5 processor running at a max 3.1Ghz, combined with 8GB RAM running at an impressive 1600Mhz mean that tasks zip along. Thanks to the solid state drive boot time for a fresh system is around 10 seconds. With the devices extremely low power use, you could also just put the computer to sleep and it would wake up instantly like a tablet. Applications launch in a similarly snappy way and web browsing is seamless. Even webGL 3D animations run smoothly - see video. What you can't expect from such a small form factor is sufficient cooling to support gaming. While the Iris graphics support Direct X 11 visual effects, frame rates won't be high enough to run modern 3D games.Video editing was smooth and quick, particularly if your gaphics editing program supports Intel hardware acceleration. I tested this using the inbuilt Windows editor and a short clip at 1080 HD resolution took about a second per second of footage to render, even with 3D effects applied.When doing intensive tasks, the internal fan will spin up but the noise is hardly noticeable. Using Intel's Extreme Tuning utility I suspect you could actually under volt / under clock the processor and achieve practically silent running.SummaryThis Mini PC hits a bit of a sweet spot. For a home / office PC you may use 5 days a week you need to be sure it will perform in a fast, lag free way doing your day to day tasks seamlessly. Many cheap Mini PCs are under powered and therefore slow and frustrating to use. This is not the case here. The BeeLink U57 zips along with memory and processor cycles to spare at a great price point.

I have been using this Beelink Mini PC for one month now, and it's been running 24/7. It is reliable, powerful enough, and very, very quiet. I am using it as a home media server and have made no upgrades from the delivered spec. It is capable enough for transcoding multiple 4K streams in testing. Build quality seems very good, and the packaging is excellent.Setup was standard Windows 11 affair, with no surprises. It stalled once or twice on the inevitable updates which are always required with a fresh install. Once updated, it has been completely reliable. Having Windows 11 Professional is a huge plus for remote desktop etc.I cannot comment on gaming performance, as I have not made use of the onboard integrated GPU. However, I have been playing using Xbox cloud gaming, and streaming from my desktop using Sunshine and Moonlight. It performs brilliantly in this area, and handles HDR streams without even a hiccup.I'm genuinely impressed with this PC, especially at this price point. It has saved me a lot of hassle in it's role as a replacement for a problematic nVidia Shield Pro.

I have been using this model now for a few days and my first impressions are favorable. IT RUNS WINDOWS 11 with no problems what so ever. The fan has the faintest of noise coming from it. Others have reported that the noise is loud, but mine is very low indeed. I have swapped over from a Dell i3 machine and I believe that the Beelink U59 is much faster in every department. The foot print is extremely small, which, I have to say takes a little getting used to. With the two monitors I have and a number of extra USB devices my machine only takes about 15 to 20 seconds to boot up, which is a vast improvement on my Dell machine. I don't seem to have the noise issue that other people have mentioned and for the price it is a good machine and I would recommend it to others. As always, I would advise that you read the reviews before buying. For a mini PC it does all that my Dell desktop did and runs windows 11 which my Dell couldn't, I hope this is helpful to others.