Checking out the SER8 8845HS

[@matthewhilty4209]

The best part about a Wendell review is that he answers the questions I have about a product before I ask the question. The "what abouts" are addressed right away.

[@Crustenscharbap]

11:12 this is because Beelink is using a massive 110mm fan. Its moving about 2-3x more air without more noise.

[@SalvatorePellitteri]

they release a new version of SER8 with the 8745hs, same specs of 8845hs but without the NPU, that is much cheaper and offer greater value.

[@ewenchan1239]

Mini PCs are just kicking ass lately!!! Sooo many options!

[@Eric_Wolfe-Schulte]

Every time Wendell laughs like a mad scientist God makes a kitten. We need more kittens in this world.

[@CreativityNull]

As much as I want to agree with you, ecologically I can't. "House" cats (to differentiate them from the various species of wild cats) cause a huge problem for other animal populations. They're technically an invasive predator in most environments they exist in.

[@Eric_Wolfe-Schulte]

@@CreativityNull for the record, I don't actually think we need more kittens in the world. Outdoor cats decimate songbird populations and are at extremely high risk for contracting bird flu. Too many cats in shelters already.

[@CreativityNull]

@@Eric_Wolfe-Schulte but they're *so damn CUTE!*

[@nadtz]

Been noticing the Linux thing myself, lots of people out there really unhappy with Windows 11 even before the whole recall fiasco.

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

Considering the amount of Mini PCs Wendell has been doing recently, you could say he's ETA Prime without the unnecessary shilling.

[@ewenchan1239]

I would take Wendell's reviews of mini PCs over ETA Prime's any day. ETA Prime rarely talks about the cons of the systems he reviews (everything is always great, which is a statistical impossibility), whereas Wendell will call things out as it comes.

[@rexonpadre864]

ETA prime is a paid advertisement😂😂😂

[@Collin_J]

Damn, that's a solid bios

[@jonathan1991z]

right? for a grey and blue bios it is.

[@dominicconway2761]

Got a k8 plus with the same chip and 64 gigs. Im pretty impressed with the 8845hs so far.

[@jenesuispasbavard]

I wish there were more mini PCs with at least a 10Gb ethernet port, or SFP+.

[@radeksparowski7174]

you should directly compare it with a full blown desktop pc, f.e. if somebody runs a ryzen 5700 with some obsolete dedicated video card and this one, is it a upgrade worth going for? performance vs noise vs space saving vs power consumption, as we know desktop cpus as well as gracas have other power limitations than basically what we have in a laptop or nuc like device /soldered cpu+crippled gpu+ oftens soldered ram/ so compare this device on standard settings /expo set to what the ram is capable/ with the desktop - to answer are we there yet? a box sized like 3 CD/DVDs are equal or better as midrange full grown desktop from 4ish years ago

[@codeman99-dev]

Seems reasonable. I'm still not completely sold on this form-factor for heavy usage. That said, BeeLink has done an excellent job of testing the market response of their products.

[@TheHackysack]

I got the SER6 Pro last year. Unfortunately, my experience with it was pretty bad all around. I had a handful of problems that were dealbreakers for me (such as mysteriously not being able to use 2 monitors, even though it has 3 outputs?). I was going to send it back, but I gifted it to my dad for his birthday, since the things that were problems for me, weren't problems for him (he only uses a single monitor, etc.). It was my first small form factor purchase, and it will be my last one for a while. To be perfectly clear, I'm not saying it's a bad piece of hardware. I still use it from time to time, when I'm doing routine updates and whatnot for my dad (since that's beyond his knowledge). It's a fine little machine. It was just very specific problems I encountered. I'm glad others like theirs, though.

[@theglowcloud2215]

Now that Intel sold off NUC to Asus, it'd be cool if a company with some legitimacy started making mini PCs to compete with the no-name Chinese brands like Beelink. A Framework mini PC would be cool (and carry a price premium, I'm sure). The QC on these Alibaba mini PCs will never be particularly great.

[@mmstick]

I connected this model to a 4K 144 Hz display and a 4K 60 Hz display, on Linux. No issues there.

[@dansanger5340]

Looks like they pulled back a little on the IO vs. the SER7, which has a couple more USB ports in back.

[@vicheaterx]

You can run them, you just can't train them unless you hook up a 4080/4090 over Oculink, which would be a crappy move.

[@DJDocsVideos]

So like the gmktec nucbox k8 but only one 2.5 Gbit Ethernet port and a slower SSD plus Alu case. Edit: K8 comes with Win 11 Pro (no bloat, no trojans). Under Linux everything worked out of the box on KUbuntu 24.04, Debian (Bookworm) and Garuda Linux (Arch based) Gaming performance was slightly better under Garuda for everthing I tested (Total War: Warhammer III, Stellaris, Baldur's Gate III) then on Win 11. Machine runs as OpenMediaVault NAS with Jellyfin, PiHole an Nextcloud in docker Containers. A ICY BOX 4 bay JBOD USB HDD encloser (IB-3640SU3) with 4 x 20TB Toshiba Enterprise MG10ACA20TE in 3+1 SnapRAID configuration for media storage and a Samsung 980 Pro (Heatsink) 2TB SSD drive as dedicated storage for Nextcloud. Note: BIOS looks exactly like on my K8

[@MikeBob2023]

Thank you, Wendell! 👍🏼

[@abavariannormiepleb9470]

Come on dear manufacturers, release such a product with support for unbuffered ECC SO-DIMMs.

[@Cynyr]

Are there even unbuffered DRR5 SODIMMs?

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

@@Cynyr yes there are

[@abavariannormiepleb9470]

Yes, up to 48 GB per SO-DIMM as DDR5-5600 ECC (for example Kingston KSM56T46BD8KM-48HM).

[@namyun2743]

You are looking in the wrong space. If you want ECC, you really need to look into the server/workstation market and expect to pay their markup. Retail consumers products won't give you ECC.

[@phobosspoof]

@@namyun2743that’s not necessarily true anymore, at least for AMD, they’ve recently (past 4-5 months) had product launches with their OEMs like asrock and the like for their 2U ‘hyperscaler’ equivalent platforms to have support for the Ryzen series and not limiting it to the Epycs. To me that means these newer Ryzen APU’s will have the support as well since the microcode within the Ryzen CPU counterpart doesn’t need to have that capability turned off to enable it to become a more thermal power restricted integrated system.

[@KapitanMokraFaja]

Reddit says it's overheats, Basically SER7 in smaller case, tough.

[@craigd9305]

I wondered about this when I saw they don't have the vents on the 2 sides like the previous models do. This one looks nice, but not worth it to me if it runs hot.

[@user-ic6xf]

I can't wait until Mini PCs can run 70B LLMs... hopefully in less than 5 years.

[@dallasangler]

VESA mount not included? Fine by me, good cost cut.

[@brunosardine1]

it is the year of the linux desktop.

[@DJDocsVideos]

I run Linux and KDE as my desktop since 1998.

[@jub8891]

wish they came in more colors.. anodized aluminium was such a common thing but now every option looks so drab and grey

[@AgentLokVokun]

These make excellent VESA mounted eMachines for people or your media center. Much cheaper then a laptop that grandma or dad dosent take anywhere!

[@JG-nm9zk]

I think its time to upgrade my parents home theater pc. They are currently running an i7-2710Q in an industrial mini ITX motherboard. Its done its time.

[@michaeldonaghy4703]

My wifi is terrible, the 5800h sat right beside it is fine, maybe the metal case, only way i have any download speed is use a mobile hotspot on the other device but its still only four metres from the router.

[@rexonpadre864]

Use wifi adaptor like tp link the big antenna

[@murraywebster1228]

Can you test XMG laptop with 7945HX??? OR A MINI PC WITH IT IN?

[@vellorenitin]

Some people are reporting trojan software built in, I don't know if it's baked into BIOS or just in the windows . Can someone please verify if that's true?

[@rexonpadre864]

Acemagic has it. Google it.

[@TheGrizz485]

This is a fine Mini PC. but for almost half the price you can get a 7840HS "ES" one from Genmachine . its about %10 slower than this since its using an engineering sample. You can still overclock it though. paid $330 for 32gb/512gb from AE.

[@Retr0Jesus316]

I cannot access any of these options in the bios seems they locked it down since the video

[@sativagirl1885]

smart Integrators will put several pcie slots for either storage or #NPU cards.

[@KingHarkinian-yz6fh]

"The only improvement is about AI" I swear I'm just going to end up doing a meme video about AI.

[@Whalerguy]

Had pretty good luck with beelink but I had one arrive doa today.

[@Coldfirebe]

Wendell...did you lose a lot of weight ? If it's the case or not, looking great man !

[@TigonIII]

I believe I heard him saying he's been dieting for like a year now, Linus even gave him some new clothes/merch at the last LTX, because he noticed how much weight he's lost.

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

All that walking at computex must've paid off. I remember being there, the only times I walked more was during my childhood hikes with my folks.

[@aravindpallippara1577]

He had a tick bite which caused him not to be able to digest meat protein, I think he is ok now but still keeping up with the recovery diet

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

@@aravindpallippara1577 some entrepreneuring soul should look into using there them ticks as a weight loss product then. Will have to ensure they don't pass any infections, but the change in this case is very observable and looks too be for the better. Silver lining?

[@a_spire]

is this based of the asrock sbc that was released recently?

[@avalagum7957]

I'll wait until the SER5 16GB ram is < $200

[@goblinphreak2132]

I am curious the max memory supported on these.... you should try to install 96gb (48gb times 2) and see if it runs and works. ive been (ignorantly?) been running LM Studio on my 7840hs mini pc and I get about 10 tokens a second. with 32gb memory I am pretty much limited to LLMs that are about 29gb or less. And they do run! slow (1-10 tokens a second) but still. I wanted to run larger models but sadly not enough ram to do so.... I wanna try to run a 70b model and 96gb of ram would make it fit. sure answers will take a few minutes to populate.... not worried about speed. just capacity.

[@mmstick]

It works, but Kingston's 64 GB 5600 MT/s CL40 kit is a better value because it's 10% faster for almost half the cost.

[@crxtasy12]

I would like to see how Ollama runs on this?

[@trsskater]

I don't understand why it's nice that the case is metal. If you drop it the stuff inside is still going to get damaged. Otherwise it being plastic doesn't make it a worse machine. If it's that it will last longer we all know plastic is going to be around forever.

[@oscarcharliezulu]

So I’m curious why don’t they make it a bit bigger and have an internal pico psu? Like a Mac mini? Is it cost?

[@DJDocsVideos]

it's an unnecessary heat sorce plus there's more then enough laptop PSUs on the market that work just fine for this kind of machines. Crapple just does it so you can pay out your ass if there mini fries the PSU.

[@TenFoot]

Welcome back!🎉

[@ericwood3709]

That is what the Mac mini should have been in the pre-Arm era. I wish Apple would have worked with AMD, at least after Ryzen came out.

[@yellowisthemellow]

Looking at the average unboxing for a mini-pc it really isn't much of a wonder how malware ends up on them. No physical anti-tamper seals, no tear open packaging, and various marketplace re-sellers. If you think you could re-package hardware and sell it as new then you should always treat the software as if it were used.

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

You're going too deep. The malware is usually set up at the origin point with the most likely counterfeit windows install, whether it is intentional or unintentional is another question, most likely it just happens kinda by itself )

[@Mackcolak-xf5bk]

What, 3GBps ssd is nothing special, nothing bad? Sir, it's more than enough for any use case. Please remember that not long ago we had 100MBps HDDs and were somehow satisfied with them.

[@danieloberhofer9035]

True, but "somehow satisfied" is pushing it. I'd say we "made due", but the second SSDs with at least bearable capacity (in my case 60GB) became available at a price I could stomach (in my case € 300,-), I kissed the spinning rust as a boot drive goodbye. Didn't regret it for a second.

[@Mackcolak-xf5bk]

@@danieloberhofer9035 True, but there is almost no difference in load times in apps or games for 500MBps drives and 3GBps drives. One would appreciate those speeds mostly when copying from one high-speed SSD to another high-speed SSD over the highest-speed link. To be frank, how often does that happen and how often does that matter whether it is copied in 20 seconds or in the 10 seconds timeframe.

[@Stance1988]

-.- he is simply stating that its a pcie 4.0 ssd with 3.0 speeds which is absolutely not impressive for a 4.0 ssd. thats a fact not an opinion.

[@progressivenetwork3584]

When will we se😢e 1tb ram 10 tb HD and 64 cores in a mini pc

[@WhiteError37]

I think really a laptop is still the best form factor with a decent dock. Back in the day there was a true difference between a desktop and a laptop. Don’t get me wrong there still is but the computing power we can fit into a small form factor is astounding to what it used to be. The first PC I built (following a video from tech syndicate) was a huge Corsair obsidian tower and looking at what my laptop can do now compared to that machine is really impressive. Anyone know what the best way of recycling old tech is? That Tower PC is just sitting there now as I have a new build and no idea what to do with this old behemoth!

[@packetauditor]

Linux happenings are exciting! I recently moved away from Windows and am so happy with Linux.

[@boneappletee6416]

Which distro you running?

[@packetauditor]

@@boneappletee6416 EndeavourOS (Arch), Plasma 6.1 Beta, Wayland, Nvidia 555.52.04 Beta, 5900x/3080.

[@packetauditor]

​@@boneappletee6416 EndeavourOS (Arch), Plasma 6.1 Beta, Wayland, Nvidia 555.52.04 Beta, 5900x/3080.

[@packetauditor]

@@boneappletee6416 EndeavourOS

[@ryannaylor3398]

How about crucial 96 GB DDR5 48 GB dimms😊

[@kristopherleslie8343]

Almost 300 bucks

[@wwShadow7]

$650 pass. Mostly because of low ram. I have a 2yo system76 5700u system with 64GB of ram. When I need to compile laptop specific extras, it takes all of 10 minutes from a ramdisk. Or over an HOUR if done on a different 2017 laptop on a USB stick. Or needing to redo sudo passwords 3x times on a usb stick on the system76 laptop, 30-ish minutes. 30-ish minutes of monitoring it and pushing enter for the next verify. Definitely not a right before I go to work task without the ramdisk.

[@markw365]

Link in description is a 404. :)

[@plonk420]

man, i saw Beelink mini PCs on their way from my Amazon FC to another recently :O

[@TheLoki1983]

Can this play borderlands 3 at 1080?

[@hydroponicgard]

99% chance that it does not... It's too underpowered, unless you use external GPU, then, maybe?

[@TheLoki1983]

@@hydroponicgard a rx580 can at 60hz at 1080 most of the time. How does this compare to that?

[@mattrogers6646]

​@@TheLoki1983The iGP (780M) is about equivalent to GTX1650. Hope that helps.

[@aravindpallippara1577]

​@@mattrogers6646I would hazard closer to 1660 with good memory

[@DangoNetwork]

I need one 16 core with 10G NIC

[@aflury]

An 8845HX "MS-02" would be neat.

[@packetauditor]

The dream.... Planning on a BD790i with a 10G NIC for my homelab refresh.

[@packetauditor]

@@aflury I believe it will be the 9945HX, and I hope Minisforum does a BD990i with it. To be fair the BD790i is already great.

[@XeonProductions]

They copied the Geekom A7/A8, which copied the Mac Mini.

[@aflury]

Isn't the NPU in the 8845HS insufficient for Copilot+? Bummer if it's already obsolete, but I wonder what else it can do.

[@nadtz]

It's already been shown copilot+/recall work with less than 40 tops, obviously it will be slower though.

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

Some will see it as a bonus

[@RobBCactive]

The GPU TOPS should aid it, the NPU is there for battery life, quiet, cool operation.

[@TheLinkedList]

With the Snapdragon Elite just around the corner, I'd be hesitant on getting one of these hot running mini-pcs

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

Something tells me the greatness of SD is overhyped. It might well go the way of the previous windows arm tablets...

[@373323]

Linux is awesome

[@유투버2024]

Ser8 good! Me ser7 ...

[@Bareego]

already can't stand AI, not going to buy anything with that stuff in it, heaps of cheap older machines out there. I'm exploring mini PCs in the opposite direction, going for the lowest power that can be VESA mounted behind the monitor and still be enjoyable as a desktop on linux. Waiting for a 2C/2T celeron machine that cost $50 shipped.

[@Cynyr]

A dell WYSE 3040?

[@ProjectSmithTech]

Am I the only one who hates 2.5gb Ethernet? Either make it 10gb or don't charge me for 2.5gb. I'm not going to use it.

[@Bajicoy]

You are definitely the minority. Most homes and buildings are not wired for 10gb ethernet. Might be nice to have but most people don't have that much data to move in a rush. I'd rather have a USB4 port which is more versatile.

[@archidube]

I wish the stupid logo could be peeled off.

[@LouisDuran]

really this is not any better (in CPU benchmarks) than a Core Ultra 7 thin and light laptop I have. And this is in a larger form factor with presumably better cooling.

[@RobBCactive]

Not at the same power, Meteor Lake generally uses more watts for the same performance and compares poorly at low TDP. The most favourable comparison I've seen was with MTL at 65W TDP and with some tests that included quicksync and emphasized office productivity integration.

[@supabass4003]

TROGDORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[@abertj.7365]

Geekbench is not a stress test like Cinebench 23 or 2024. It's not representative of anything and not comparable to other computers. So... drop it altogether and instead of making Bla Bla Blas review run some Cinebench 23, 2024 tests!!! 👎👎

[@TerminalWorld]

Stop adding those annoying fake sounds....

[@SuperMari026]

It's too bad these units are not suited for enterprise usage. The OS license will never be in your possession on these units and Beelink can't guarantee ownership.

[@kristopherleslie8343]

What

[@SuperMari026]

@@kristopherleslie8343 as an enterprise you cannot own the windows license

[@mmstick]

Enterprises manage their own licenses.

[@SuperMari026]

@@mmstick buying your own license after purchasing a batch seems less ideal

[@mmstick]

@@SuperMari026 Enterprises aren't using random licenses on retail PCs. They use volume licensing.

[@hmurchison8123]

It's "Al You Minium " signed your friend across the pond.

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

Tomatoe - tomahto...

[@stclaws9580]

i hate to figure out is it "l" or "I" letter )

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

@@stclaws9580 new marketing opportunities! "Our notebook shells are made of AI-uminium, making it more AI than our competition!"

[@mattrogers6646]

​​@@stclaws9580Agreed, I hate Sans Serif fonts for that exact reason, but they seem to be default on so many OSes, UIs, and Apps.

[@instaworldplace5049]

what a sh y review nothing that matters

[@Somatom_Man]

Chinese 'Junk o' The Month". Next month they won't be making it anymore and there'll be something newer.

[@Bob_Smith19]

And a month after that the laptop cooler in it will fail and you can’t replace it. You now have e-waste.

[@annebokma4637]

And when you decide to source all your parts and want nothing made in china... Oh wait 😂

[@mattrogers6646]

Suit yourself. Beelink is one of the best miniPC brands in the market, second only to Minisforum. I regularly buy their SER5 5560U with 16GB DDR4 and 512GB-1TB NVMe for $230-$240 because I can't beat the value. Still haven't found anything better for individuals needing a sub-$250 desktop with USB4, HDMI, and DP outputs, with at least 2 USB-C ports.

[@kristopherleslie8343]

@@mattrogers6646just got my first one today looking forward to the boot up on Monday

[@Somatom_Man]

@@mattrogers6646 I might agree with you that these might be the best Chinese junk, but the way they create these machines every month, post the drivers and then close shop, never to be seen or updated again, is a bad idea when you need support. I don't mind these enfluencers taking their money and doing these spots, but I don't take them seriously and would never buy any of these. You take a chance every time you buy Chinese products. You have to admit to yourself that the purchase is a gamble and the odds are with you that it will work, and maybe last for a while, but if it fails, it's money completely lost.