Beelink SER8 Review: Peak Mini PC

[@jinstinky501]

I grabbed a mini pc after one of your reviews. Its been almost a year and i couldn't be happier with my purchase. Thank you for all your content!

[@okitom]

may i know what mini pc did you get? I'm also planning to buy one

[@jinstinky501]

@@okitom it was the beelink mini s series. I only use a computer for email, movies, KZbin and some retroarch. It was cheap it was super easy to get in and add a HDD. I've had zero issues. Came with win 11.

[@okitom]

@@jinstinky501 thanks for the info

[@axe666thanatos]

Hi mate, do you have any heating issues or slow wifi issues with your pc?

[@Kilakro]

Same, I bought a Beelink SER5 last year. I immediately removed Windows because I bought it to be the living room game console, so I was more interested in emulation with it.

[@panda99a]

I helped a friend buy this exact mini-PC yesterday for $550 during Amazon Prime Big Deal Days in October. I did a lot of research on mini-PCs, and decided the same thing - this was the top pick. Then today I found this video after I'd already made my purchase. I'm so glad you also think it is the top choice in the class. I would have been bummed if you had said it was a piece of crap, after I'd already ordered one. Thanks for the great video.

[@teddyloydloyd4608]

You are a lucky one. I bought mine 4 months ago and it butned out! A piece of crap!! Congrats on your purchase

[@estusflask982]

@@teddyloydloyd4608 "butned out"?

[@omegadeepblue1407]

​@@estusflask982probably tried to say "burned out"

[@juanpecan7089]

Newegg has a deal on these right nowwww

[@Dvlx1]

It's getting very close now for me being able to switch from a full PC build to one of these mini PC's. The next generation of on board graphics should do it. Would consider laptop if it weren't for the noise.

[@ledhrblaka]

I badly want to because I like the idea of downsizing and I'm at a point in life where system building isn't as fun or appealing anymore. I'm just not ready to take the graphics and performance hit. Nobody talks about the tiny L3 cache on these chips and the GPU is unfeasible for me at 4k. I think it will actually take years to get anywhere close to acceptable for me around this price range.

[@zwenkwiel816]

​@@ledhrblakaexternal gpu?

[@williamwhite2830]

i used to love working on a big tower block pc but these mini pcs are brilliant i can move them in between my 2 rooms and my big tv and gaming monitor

[@Popm3lon]

I've got a Lenovo Legion i9. The battery sucks but it plays everything and no noise unless you intentionally blast the fans.

[@familhagaudir8561]

I'm not confident about a GPU in those minis due to heat.

[@Nucleosynthese]

I love that Russ is doing PC reviews as well. The PC world is so varied and interesting.

[@LemurKrazy]

I got a SER7 recently because I wasn't patient enough to wait for this one. Good to see there isn't much performance difference.

[@arkitutoy]

russ you forgot to remind us to grab a snack! lol

[@gregtheglobal]

Gotta be at least 40 minutes to be snack reminder worthy

[@TheDraftAttack]

Facts

[@youraveragedillon5958]

Nobody actually does it

[@VSTHWRLD]

@@youraveragedillon5958speak for yourself

[@JB-tp6uj]

@@youraveragedillon5958 speak for yourself. I often order some wings and a drink for the long videos I'm interested in.

[@dad-plays-games]

I just bought one of these because of your review. Thanks Russ! I’m sure you have a few guides on your page which we’ll give me all I need to get it set up. You’re the best. Thanks for all you do for this community!

[@Heavyshadowsound]

I love the idea of doing more mini PC stuff, this is awesome

[@a.f.warrick0404]

This review is just in time for Prime Day today! $599 right now

[@dlewis9760]

No company is perfect, but Beelink is a "Name Brand" in the world of mini PCs. I've got 2 old ones that are at least 6 years old. One I put Chrome OS on. The other I still use occasionaly with windows on it. For me, everything else compares to this brand because of their brand longevity as opposed to some fly by night.

[@archaicruinx]

Agreed fully. I have been using a Beelink U57 off-and-on since August 2020 along with an 2019 Alienware R8 and I have decided to go with a SER8 to replace both.

[@Lynsyn]

what about aoostar?

[@punch_dance]

​@@Lynsynnever heard of them.

[@Lynsyn]

@@punch_dance try to look for Aoostar Gem10 or Gem12 or God88

[@Ahmad-Mounir44]

I like your comment as it's what I have been looking for. Longevity is the key for me here. I'm a full-time media music composer and I'm planning on replacing my 5 years old HP Omen 15t with Ser8 this coming black Friday. I have tons of virtual instruments (VSTs) and effect/processing plugins that consume hardware resources heavily. I'm very glad that you say Beelink is a big name brand in mini pcs.

[@e__b956]

Im liking the switch up of the mini pcs and the break from handhelds. I bought my first retro device because of you back in 2021. Now, you’ll prob convince me to purchase a mini pc haha Thanks for your dedication brother 😎.

[@Shiney103]

Hey, I hardly ever comment here. But I've watched a number of 'here's a selection of emulation handhelds to pick from based on your needs.' I was wondering if there might be a similar video for these mini PCs or light PC gaming options, for better information on picking the right PC device for you. Similar to the spreadsheet, but a video format for covering the specifics?

[@goldenretrogames]

Ordered one of these tonight and it will be arriving tomorrow. I'm using it to replace a Minisforum NUCi7 that I have running Batocera in an Arcade1Up cabinet. The NUCi7 generates more heat than I'd like inside the cabinet, which doesn't help given the system throttles super easily. The SER8 should be able to provide the same or better performance at a lower power draw and generate less heat.

[@mmstick]

I have this on Pop!_OS running the COSMIC desktop with a 4K 144 Hz display next to a 4K 60 Hz display rotated vertically. This gets 500-600K PPD in Folding@Home. Either 500K PPD doing only CPU folding, or 350K + 250K when doing CPU + iGPU folding. In World Community Grid, this can complete 16 MCM work units every 1h13m. All while remaining silent and never exceeding 75C. Very good results for a 54W cTDP.

[@energuminum]

I like your words, magic man

[@isbestlizard]

ufff it these were cheap enough it would make sense to build a cluster.... 8 nodes gets you 64 cores, 256GB at 720 GB/sec bandwidth, 8TB of storage at 40 TB/sec... maybe soon they get to like $300 each and then it's definitely worth it :D

[@dreamybull1509]

troonix users try not to mention their memeOS on any PC/windows video challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)

[@mmstick]

@@dreamybull1509 U mad?

[@song4hope288]

Banging. Very happy to have ordered one of these

[@piobandz68]

Thank you bro might just end up buying this one my first pc ever plan on using it on the road

[@sandwich1920]

Man this channel does so much for the community I love them

[@rockjianrock]

I do like the look of the SER7 over the SER8 and the former's colour options do pop a lot more than the latter's brushed metal look.

[@jasonlight1316]

I bought an ser6 I remote to my pc at work every day for 9+ hours, no issues.

[@familhagaudir8561]

Crazy how small, quiet yet powerful those PCs got. If I had an external monitor I would consider one instead of changing my laptop ( integrated graphics, plays many games ).

[@SplitSauce2289]

Beelink is nice. They use all name brand components. Their price point is on point. You really can't beat beelink if you want a mini pc.

[@KatRollo]

I tend to agree with the "more ports" conclusion. 2x USB-A ports at the front for peripherals.

[@huranku98]

I own 3 beelink mini pcs and love them, its hard to go back to standard pcs.

[@lionxray]

July 24th, 2024... you can still find them for $599. I snagged one on Amazon a couple of days ago. Put it in your cart and keep an eye on the price.

[@alpacamale2909]

imagine this minipc with a battery and an hdmi port for monitor docking. You could take it outside perfectly

[@asdf456ghj]

This Ser8 became very popular in our country's mini PC community because some sellers in here give crazy discounts that makes this decent device at about 290 usd(without Ram and storage of course). Just like your review, the Ser8 has many improvements over the previous Ser7. They are almost the 'peak mini PC' that you can get right now. But they also have some downsides. Because of the metal body, the wireless signal is so weak that it is almost unusable if you want to play competitive titles, even if you put this device next to your router. Some sellers on Taobao sell mod kits with external antennas that improve the wireless signal around 25usd. Many Korean users use these mod kits to improve the wireless signal. With this mod kit, this is really perfect mini pc that you can get Rn.

[@masashiyeo]

I do have a Ugreen wireless adapter, not sure if it'll improve the wireless connectivity as I'm using on my SER3 which I suspect I'd having some motherboard problem..

[@feelingchicago]

I'm thinking of replacing my custom built for this. Yes, I'm lose performance, but I'm gain space. The small form factor makes it for it great solution. It'll fit under my TV.

[@davefigore7843]

Thank You for a Very Thorough Review

[@Xanduur]

Dang, Russ. It happened again. I’m looking for a shorter video and yours pops up. Got to go make some tea and biscuits and sit in my comfy chair. 😂

[@thehaymaker3660]

Forgot to grab a snack and now I'm completely emanciated. Thanks Russ.

[@xiaofengwang6653]

I bought one already and a intel ax210 WiFi card because I've seen a lot complaints about the WiFi performance. It costs about €460 in China for the 32G/1T version.

[@angeloflores2488]

Pagato 600 euro e sono molto soddisfatto...potente e tascabile lo posso portare in vacanza o ovunque 🎉🎉🎉

[@11thcenturycrusader31]

I have the SER7, its fantastic and runs everything i throw at it without a single issue. Got it for 400$ cos 200$ coupon and 17% sale

[@chrismckenna6183]

Do you have any advice for someone who just got it and wants to set it up for emulation?

[@Zenmaster911]

Russ can you do a review for the SER9 please?

[@isbestlizard]

The only tiny minor complaint is it doesn't have spdif optical audio output so it's limited to stereo versus 5.1 for a home theatre box, but tbh that's only a negative of like 0.1% from it's 100% score ahhhh

[@tdmdchannel2339]

You can always use the hdmi to your AV Receiver instead. That's what I use for all my media/console box.

[@estusflask982]

You can use HDMI Audio Extractor, to get optical audio.

[@masashiyeo]

My SER3 that I've used for nearly 2 years have started freezing way too often for my liking. Just today it froze like 8 times. Then a few hours later when I turned it on, I didn't face this issues which is really baffling. This with the 10.10 sale today I got the SER8 for roughly SGD900 which is just slightly more expensive than my original choice (SER6) Hopefully I won't face the same issues I'm getting soon since it's under preorder for the next 10 days before shipping it over.

[@samusmaster64]

Would have been nice to see more FSR measurements throughout the testing. It can be a game changer for certain titles with limited GPU headroom.

[@crabbyjimmy1]

Thank you. Very in depth review I’m looking for something that has this kind of power for like a 300$ 12 TB retro hard drive. I don’t think it’ll have an issue running anything on it.

[@iamabulldozer]

The Kerry Gold unit of measurement is my favorite.

[@MDNOML]

Careful with Beelink. Had a few mini-pc's for an office that both quit working. When I went to troubleshooting I found out that each Beelink pc OS is a copied OS. A clone. Good luck getting it to work again if you have significant OS issues.

[@commenter6441]

Just do a clean windows install yourself

[@MDNOML]

@commenter6441 I was sent a link to reinstall Windows OS from Beelink, and after installing and running into numerous failures and BSOD I quit trying. The Beelink tech team didn't even have any solid info to pass on.

[@cosmicusstardust3300]

This would make for one epic Linux Mini PC

[@marcelomoura6685]

JMachen external HD 1 Terabyte, lauchbox game system. Perfect for the Windows 11. Runs without problems in the Windows 11. That's my favorite system!

[@Raphtor13]

Honestly - if I had the spare cash I would definitely consider this one!

[@barfly14]

I have the SER6 pro and its a great little machine

[@NeverStopImproving421]

Thanks for testing CS2!

[@Bravo21]

Nice. I am wondering if the power supply is compatible with both 110v and 220v outlets?

[@austintse5719]

This mini pc is a perfect use case for lossless scaling. It's much better than AMD afmf and you can also use it for any game, even emulators.

[@Snarkapotamus]

I bought one a few days ago and it's been nothing but a giant pain in the ass! Some of my external drives don't show up. I had to switch out an HDMI cable that works with everything BUT this unit. Not all that impressed at the moment...

[@Nicholas-nu9jx]

Strix point on these will be amazing. 2-3X steamdeck performance with lowest end strix point chip

[@SpaceCadet4Jesus]

Last year's Ser7 7840HS I prefer, the performance difference is not noticeable at all, but it has two USB-C 40Gbps DP-alt rear ports, not just one. The rest is matching.

[@samh5886]

Is the cooling really great? Can't see much space for airflow to go from from the SSD/ram side to the underneath cpu side And power usage seems all over the place, PS2 GoW2 at 4x take > 40W?😂 Is there some driver/bios issue affecting the power management?

[@Bob_Smith19]

Been down this road w/ a multitude, six in the past two year, of mini PCs. They are all loud and run hot. Spend a little more and build a Mini-ITX system. Not only will it have a proper cooler. It has an upgrade path. Building a system based on an 8700G was one of the best decisions I made. Takes you a little more space on the desk but it runs 20° cooler under load and doesn’t sound like a jet engine.

[@jacobporter419]

Russ! I noticed that you also have Beelink listed in the Amazon Prime deals post What's your full opinion on the company? Of course they're good for Batocera retro emulation but do you have any spyware concerns they were to be used as everyday PCs?

[@YoshiIsCool1]

What An Amazing Mini Beelink PC.

[@jajkozotkoblustackmac2277]

I have a different mini pc but with the same chipset. I decided to put batocera on it and love it. Now I'm waiting for a new generation of Mini PC's with radeon 890m (which is more or less like the mobile version of nvidia's 1070). This one has 780m which is something like 1650 or I've heard.

[@GamerImpazzito]

Not as powerful as a 1070 Mobile. Time spy scores are different. 890M = 4221 Points 1070 Mobile = 5707 Points Still a great result. It's better than a 1060 Mobile (3909 pts) and really close to a desktop 1060 (4355 pts)

[@TheLuckster]

broke my edging streak to watch this video

[@raaphalk2802]

Thank you for the review. I need to upgrade a 12 year old system and with limited space I'm actually considering a mini pc

[@SpencerTaylorOnline]

Phenomenal thanks!

[@spoenk7448]

If you're not using your PC for intensive gaming, video editing, heavy software development, CAD, 3D animation, etc (at which point you probably know what you need) you can pick up old thin clients for very cheap. If you're going to use Windows, make sure the CPU supports Windows 11, and make sure it has a wifi chip if you need it. Some companies used ethernet exclusively so never ordered wifi. They can be like less than $100 for a 8GB ram (usually upgradable) quad core i5 cpu from like 4-5 years ago and 250GB SSD which is often upgradable. This is plenty for retro gaming, basic HTPC, or just allround family PC use. Also great as experimental home servers as they really do not use a lot of power. They would be experimental servers in the sense that they do not typically have server RAM or support RAID which you would want if you really really on uptime and improved reliability for a business, but I think they are plenty if you're just using it as a Plex server or even a home nas that you backup from time to time. Also some of these do not have HDMI, but they will have DisplayPort which you can convert to HDMI with a cheap converter.

[@trelwilliams5003]

Russ you guys should come together and make your own handheld. We would support you guys!

[@The12231]

Do you think you could hook up an eGPU to the USB C back port? Or maybe the PCIe slot

[@RetroGameCorps]

Hi, yes the back port is USB4 40gbps so it will work with eGPUs capable of Thunderbolt 3/4 and USB4 connectivity.

[@joeschmidhofer2674]

Have you gotten hands on the SER9 yet? Worth the $400 jump from here?

[@dannybrown5982]

Hey! I picked this up and attempted to follow your guide, but this model does not appear to support SSD expansion in the same way. How did you accomplish dual boot on this particular machine? Thanks for the guides! This has all been incredibly helpful.

[@dannybrown5982]

I gave it a rewatch! TIL that M.2 drives are a thing. I blindly assumed it would be a 2.5" drive like the older SER model used in your older video for setting up batocera

[@WilliamAshleyOnline]

Bee link provides a pretty nice offering in a mini pc format. they'd be SOOOO much better if the price of DDR5 ram came down as it would be nice to have them ship with full 64gb of ram hopefully that happens this year, or next as whle 32gb is a lot windows and browswers are massive ram hogs if you use lots of tabs. I am hoping that access will stay stable to products coming from China. I am eagerly waiting to see if they have any offerings on black friday. The Ser7 Pro I got was enough to have a positive view of this brand as it is approaching a year now since I became interested in the minipcs. Only thing I wish I had the answer for was an easy way to get a firewire port or hub attached to it, or more PCIE slots ie easy cable way to hook up a few PCIE things. I think the second hardrive space can be used and maybe the usb4 slot but thereis only one of both so the io is rough if wanting to do stuff for music with it but with some hubs this thing is able to connect a lot to it. The other frustration is windows 11 efficiency mode which seems to engage due to microsoft trying to "save power" this is already like 40-60watt system so its sort of frustrating to have process suspended due to microsoft windows attempt to reducing energy consumption, its just a little silly on a low power system like the ser 7. The Ser 8 looks even better. I'm a little confused iwth the USB 2.0 ports though I thought all the ports were USB 3.1 or usb 4???? IMO this is one thing that makes it hard is if the usb ports are all non marked or differnetiated when you have a specific USB generation requirement it can be hard to find the port you are looking for unless you have a port diagram like at 4:20

[@michaelhenriquez1389]

Definitely looking for a really good all-around mini. For emulation purposes, will a mini PC like this run MAME, TeknoParrot along with Lightgun games? I've never seen anyone run that type of emulation on a mini. Love what you do and the channel!

[@JLa748]

Looks cool, i' be interested in such a small yet capable PC, but you got me even more curious about the...strickspoint PCs??? Never heard of those, can you share links so I may learn more? Thanks for vid!

[@RetroGameCorps]

Sure, Phawx just released a video about these CPUs today: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bIqclmp6l5ihr5Isi=BlukIYeRr3ytnaGA

[@DesignedByWil]

Wow I'm a Mac guy, but I feel like I need this

[@Gonzie6]

it might be a bit OCD but it really urks me that the USB 2.0 ports aren't together. the 3.1 port should be on its own

[@BC19572]

Good video, but the price is a bit much. Prices usually come down as newer mini's come out.

[@darklugia7]

Will you be reviewing the SER9?

[@wtechdude]

so, is it pocketable?

[@drewnewby]

Fanny pack only.

[@SplitSauce2289]

You'd have to dust off the JNCOs for this bad boy.

[@marcelomoura6685]

Lauchbox game system it's a good option? In this case?

[@davidhoffman6509]

Just picked up a SER 8, set it all up on a 27 inch monitor, everything worked great. Moved it to a 65 inch TV, and it's a MUCH different experience - GameCube, PS2, and the like all run horribly on the TV versus a computer monitor. Still new to this, and seeing what I need to tweak, but I'm really bummed because I spent a huge amount of time setting this up, only to have it be unusable when it was moved to a TV. Back to the drawing board.

[@estusflask982]

Are you running the games in the same resolution as before? If they're running in the same resolution they should have the same performance.

[@davidhoffman6509]

@@estusflask982 I found a post that said to force the display in Retrobat to 1920 x 1080 at 60 fps, that helped. While that was the same resolution I had on my computer monitor, for some reason I had to set that in Retrobat when connecting to a TV. I also found that connecting Switch Pro controllers worked fine in Windows, but would make Retrobat spin out of control with "discconnected controller" messages to the point that Retrobat was unusable. Once I switched to using an Xbox controller Retrobat behaved and was useable.

[@davidhoffman6509]

@@estusflask982 And the saga continues, since switching from Nintendo Pro controllers to Xbox controllers, Retrobat is usable, UNTIL I quite a game, then the Bluetooth disconnects, I have to quit Retrobat and go back to Windows to reconnect the controller. This only happens on the Serv 8, works fine when I just use my laptop. Grrr.

[@estusflask982]

@@davidhoffman6509 Might need to use a controller with a 2.4GHz dongle, like an 8bitdo controller. The SER8 has bad wifi/bluetooth.

[@davidhoffman6509]

@@estusflask982 I disabled the onboard bluetooth and plugged in an ASUS bluetooth adapter, and it has the same problem. Bluetooth works great while I'm in Windows, but as soon as I launch Retrobat or ES-DE the bluetooth goes crazy, connecting, disconnecting over and over and essentially locking up the software. I bought 4 new Xbox controllers, same result with all of them. I replicated this setup on my laptop and everything works perfectly. It's something with the Ser8.

[@exodous02]

Yay, another miniPC. Since getting my Steam Deck I've decided I'll take my miniPC in handheld form and just hook it up to my monitor or TV.

[@mikepotapa5773]

I have a steam deck and a Legion Go so I don’t really think I am in need a mini PC

[@iLhikiGunz]

It's a really good mini pc but I will wait for the next Ryzen 9000. The graphics part looks crazy on this future generation.

[@illustriouschin]

There's a ton of very similar Beelink nuggets, hard to know what has best performance. Also I'm interested in hooking up a Quest 2 for PC VR gaming but I don't know of this is compatible.

[@JeremyPeeples]

I love seeing the ever-evolving mini PC market - got a GEEKOM A5 and adore it and this looks great too

[@Remu-]

Instead of dropping the resolution just use FSR upscaling.

[@jcynavarro]

I'm wondering if this would run things like Teknoparrot... I'm currently trying to build an arcade racing rig, for classic games like Hydro Thunder, H2Overdrive, Mario Kart DX and so on... would it run those games at full beans?

[@nickwales4261]

Thanks again Russ! Very much not like for like and ignoring windows gaming how does emulation performance compare between this and an Odin 2? For an under tv device either could do the job with the benefit the Odin can be taken on the road.

[@ARSENALBOY7mt]

Possibly a stupid question as I’m new to this but how easy is it to add a storage hard drive ?

[@marakarthegreat]

I wonder if this can emulate sega saturn games 🤔

[@AJL713]

Love it though an Occulink would be an interesting addition.

[@famaral42]

Great videos as always. How does it compares to a Xbox Series S for emulation?

[@RetroGameCorps]

An Xbox Series S does a great job with emulation up through PS2 and GameCube, but starts to hit limitations after that just due to emulator development for the platform. So the SER8 benefits from mature emulators on Windows

[@marcothegiant9069]

Thank you very much for your videos, they are always super helpful. I am considering getting an ASUS Ally for Windows games, mostly indie or emulation. Is it just as good with a dock as this PC, or does it offer more power?

[@Phasmidable]

Would this minipc run games a bit better if you would boot in to linux and run Bazzite for Steam games? I'm considering this minipc for playing Steam games on my tv and movie streaming.

[@JesusWillSaveYou]

Just a heads up. GTA V is a 7th gen game (PS3 & Xbox 360), not an 8th gen game (PS4 & Xbox One). Yes, it's that old.

[@juanpecan7089]

what kind of gaming boosts can be expected from upgrading memory to 64 gb?

[@tdome3000]

9:05 So now you're measuring sizes in ounces. This is the best yet.

[@Loknath009]

Man I’m so used to play in 4K with my consoles that paying so much money to barely play in 1080p pc games is beyond me, I’ll do this for sure for retro games. Any advice on a mini pc that can handle all emulation at 4K? How about the Acemagic R7 8845HS? It was unfortunately not in your sheet.

[@superamario6464]

I love the theme tune to this channel :) Got my snacks...lets go!

[@kenjiurban]

I had a Beelink GT1 android box way back and it was a beast

[@APEXGuerilla]

Really appreciate if someone could answer this for me - is it advisable to run the SER8 hard overnight downloading multiple torrents or is that likely to drastically reduce its lifespan? Should I get a dirt cheap laptop for that purpose? It's a new baby and I want to take care of it 😂

[@eccentricbeliever7]

metal box on 5 sides and opening at the bottom.. where is the wifi antenna? completely shielded?

[@OliviaRosalesVlogs]

Whats your keyboard, man?

[@alpacamale2909]

Have you tried installing linux on it?

[@Sithhy]

27:00

[@stpnpl]

is there a chance you are going to review Chuwi's new Larkbox or Herobox that uses Intel N100? thanks

[@APEXGuerilla]

Got this and an Odyssey G9 😎

[@williamwhite2830]

i have an SER5 ps2 runs amazingly on it really all i wanted it to do. might upgrade to this in december.

[@deamooz9810]

This pc greatly benefits from “Lossless Scaling Frame Generation”