I Didn't Expect This... Beelink S12 Mini PC Review

In this video we check out the Beelink S12 Mini PC featuring Intel's N95 CPU. The S12 Mini is prebuilt with 256GB of storage and 8GB RAM for $199 USD. It performs better than expected BUT...
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00:00 Intro
00:23 Specs
00:58 In the Box
01:34 Ports
01:57 Look Inside
02:40 Linux & ChromeOS Flox
03:32 Benchmarks
06:24 Game & Emulators
08:14 BIOS
08:57 Power, Temps & Noise
10:06 Conclusion

[@WindowsX-Lite]

Another AWESOME Review. The info you provide, and the way you deliver it is remarkable! Thank you ❤

[@queendriver1]

I got the mini S12 Pro, N100. I am delighted with my product it's suitable for what I need. Being on a fixed income the cost is very affordable, it's fast, and the video card is a lot better than what I had on my last PC (which was a refurbished one and did not fare well and died only after 6 months). I can play games. Just regular small games. It's simple to use and has Bluetooth and WiFi 6 built-in my speeds are good, but I am on WiFi, and my box is in another room that I share with my kids (4 bedroom House), so my WiFi has to travel and fight through walls but I don't get disconnected UN like my other PC that had a USB WiFi (awful). Overall, I'm very impressed with this unit. I recommend it only if you don't need to do anything fast-paced or editing. In general, it's great for simple everyday use.

[@Annoye]

I saw many people having issue with them they suddenly die

[@KingDae19]

@@AnnoyeI’ve seen this verbatim review on multiple videos and on Amazon

[@sphinxFortnite]

Thanks for this comment!

[@MolGaeilge]

I love my Beelink, it has replaced my 1000 dollar gaming rig from 2017. It's about the same power, old pc had a 980ti and intel 3

[@wocket42]

Danke! Excellent review!

[@heyguyslolGAMING]

That shirt is legit AF.

[@unnes]

Nice review and thanks for the benchmarks. I picked up one of these and put Ubuntu on it with a bunch of containers for various homelab services including Plex. I ended up choosing this over a Ryzen mini PC because the Intel has Quicksync, and being able to offload transcoding tasks to hardware makes Plex a lot happier on such an otherwise weak CPU.

[@MGL83]

Looks like just the right thing to run Dockers, like Plex, pihole, or home assistant.

[@dave_r]

I'm stunned that whatever nvme drive they're using has temp sensors for the controller too, as usually that takes a Samsung drive, and the controller being only 57C (compared to the 46C) of the memory chips themselves, is pretty good. It's nothing to see the controllers reach 70+ on minis without 'under the board' cooling. Of course, given the speeds (I didn't notice the single someone mentioned earlier), the drive isn't being worked all that hard either. Nice review.

[@Robtech]

I would say to manufacturers for budget minis that if you're skimping on cooling for storage, definitely go SATA SSD, they have lower temps.

[@familyden4640]

Pcie 3.0 but just x1 isn't that hot

[@ctascmercdoc]

I contacted BeeLink concerning the NVME slot and per their response it is a pcie 3x1.... that is why it seems so slow, only 1 lane is being used.

[@CarlosTorresCali]

Muy Bueno 😀 Muchas gracias!!!!

[@Robtech]

Gracias 👍

[@petemarfatia8725]

This is like the Holden Sunbird of mini PC's!

[@neilquinn]

From my understanding these N series chips with only efficiency cores are equivalent to about 6th gen intel cpus. I think the sweet spot is more like the i3-1215u/i5-1235u that have at least 2 performance cores and 4 or 8 efficiency cores. (or even that weird pentium gold one with 1 performance core). These efficiency cores are like 1/3 the speed of modern performance cores. The nice thing about these newer cpus though is that they have modern igpus with hevc/av1 decode, usb4, etc. For $200 probably makes more sense than buying a 7 year old machine running an i5-6xxx - i5-8xxx machine. BTW you can run nand inspection software to see what kind of SSD it is to see if it's TLC/QLC/etc.

[@Tiamorg]

At 0:36 we can see at the bottom of the screen that the ssd is conected via only one pcie lane, and for a pcie gen3, one lane is 1gbps, so about 800mbps on real use maximum. Seems like this mini has a lot of cut off points, single channel ram, only one slot, x1 line pcie ssd, default bios settings, etc.

[@lif2211]

Correct, my Intenso Premium PCI 3.0 makes 850 MB/s.

[@CarlosDaMuf]

Will it be a good fit for my grandpa who only wants to browse?

[@kamolhengkiatisak1527]

I got last year Beelink MiniS CPU 5095 with 16 gb ram. I don't play game. It replaces my 3rd gen i3 laptop which still works fine with 8 gb ram for surfing the net. After I installed Win10 Superlite, it was useable. Since it was more than 10 years old, I decided to upgrade and I also installed Win10 Superlite instead of stock win10 preinstalled. I allocate 2gb ram to be ramdisk and sets temp/tmp and browser cache to this ram disk. Now I am in heavy surfing the net. Everything is rendered fast and furious.

[@feahnorl]

It’s easier just to upgrade the ram to 16 gb. Is only around 30$

[@kamolhengkiatisak1527]

@@feahnorl But i3 3rd gen is much slower and the ram slots could be installed at most 8 gb. In fact, it came with 4gb but I immediately upgraded to 8gb more than 10 years ago. The laptop was twice expensive than Beelink MiniS n5095 with 16gb ram. You paid more for old tech, which was the case with PC and smartphone.

[@Jeff79z]

The nvme ssd slow speed is due to the m.2 slot is only pcie 3.0X1, Yes one lane only. Theoretical max 8 GT/s (985MB/s). Morefine N100 M.2 slot is pcie3.0X2

[@Robtech]

Gimped in more ways than one

[@neilquinn]

What's the easiest way to check this? In the bios somewhere?

[@marcusracerracer]

One thing I noticed is that it appears like you’re using the default OpenGL for dolphin, if you change it to vulkan the performance would go considerably higher.

[@Robtech]

Well spotted. My bad. I will retest it in the next N95 mini PC review with Vulkan to see how it holds up.

[@mydogsbutler]

Just picked up 3 Beelink 16GB/500GB N95's for 150 c$ each. Plan to use it as part of a small kubernetes home lab. Fingers crossed.

[@danielc5647]

how it went?

[@mydogsbutler]

@@danielc5647 Great little units for the price. I got exactly what I thought I would get. No nasty surprises. It would be nice to have a 2.5g nic or even stp+ but it wasn't a requirement in my case. Comes with a bios level license for Windows so if you ever need to reinstall Windows you don't have to worry about the key. The main con is the limited cores and slower processor obviously don't give you as much headroom for as many containers as full-blown server (which I also have so no big deal). A small tip... there is a bios setting where you can up the max tdp to get a bit more performance at the expense of power efficiency. I wish it came with x2 m.2 slots rather than x1 M.2 and 1 sata SSD slot it comes with but I was still able to get Proxomox setup in a HA cluster using raidz1 zfs by matching m.2. and sata drive size. It's a hit in IO performance (since zfs mirroring of mismatched performance of drives) but the reliability of zfs meant more to me. I'm, using them as mini dev test network. My main server is where I have most of my critical containers. I wanted a second test network where I didn't have to risk messing up my server. For less than $500 all-in for a 3 machine x86 cluster a really great deal. The n95 smokes my pi5. The energy consumption is more but still trivial compared to full-blown servers. At that price highly recommended for my use case but it really depends your own whether it makes sense for you.

[@CareyHolzman]

Why do you compare machines that sell at different prices without mentioning that consideration to explain the differences in performance?

[@phamvuanh]

this is an amazing video! well done. I have the N100, is 30w ok vs 25w?

[@Robtech]

Yeah it just uses as much power as it can handle.

[@SteadVex]

Just wanted to add, got the N100 Mini S12 Pro, takes a 32gb ram dimm and just works!

[@SteadVex]

@SlidR Gaming yes, the N100 is 12th gen the U59 is 11th gen, quite a big leap in performance in these

[@Robtech]

The U59 Pro uses the N5105, which is listed in the benchmarks. This one has a lot more processing power, but the graphics performance is pretty similar. The N100 (Beelink EQ12) improves both further.

[@jesusdavila1014]

I know nothing just want to play ps2 and older and fallout new Vegas. Any chance you can give a recommendation on mini pc? Preferably under $200

[@slidelltowne183]

Got this two days ago, $150 with the $50 off coupon. This is my new media server with two 8T attached drives. This mini, like my previous Intel’s will pass HD audio to my Denon 988 where all my game Ryzens will crash the HD audio codec. Very ugly. Wifey will NOT buy new receiver with pre-outs! The mini plays my high bit rate DJI Air 2s 5.4K/30p, 4K/60p, and 1080p/120p video H.264 and H.265 recording at 150 Mbps smooth with no micro stutter using VLC as a player. Anyway, applied your PL 30 watt tweaks which sealed the deal. Off to master Doom 64, very smooth at 1080p. Thanks for the review!

[@Robtech]

Nice $150 is a great deal for this latest gen processor. Well done

[@tauntonlad]

How does it hold up as i have seen other people say it dies within a few days, some a week and others a few months

[@uncontented7433]

i might need to offer this soon but i think maybe the 36watts (12V3A) wall plug is a bit "light" if i have to compare with my intelnuc n5105 with 65W (19V3,4A), specialy for people like me who will add a 2nd ssd inside , wired keyboard & mouse , usb sound card , and sometimes plug an external ssd for saves, Maybe those who had problems whith it not working anymore , mainly came from this but i don't know and if yes i'm not even sure having a better ac plug will be enough or good if the pcb can't handle that.

[@user-zy1uo1mu7j]

Hey man you are good very knowledgeable that's why I'm coming to you bought a mini s 12 loaded batercera on it but stuck on black screen any ideas on how to fix this

[@manmachine83]

I'm wondering how the U59 Pro (16gb) compares to the S12Pro (16gb) and the EQ12 (16gb) in terms of emulator gaming? Does the updated chip, or the ddr5 in the eq12 outperform the dual channel u59pro, even with the single channel ram on the newer models? IS the u59pro capable or should I look at the others instead?

[@Robtech]

EQ12 is my next mini review. Will be compared against DDR4

[@gregglowery3452]

I see Beelink is offering the EQ12 Pro mini PC with Intel Core i3-N305 8-core processor. Any plans to review this unit?

[@Robtech]

I've asked them if they can send that too (they're sending the non-pro model with the N100). If not, might just have to bite the bullet and fork out the cash for it

[@marcse7en]

"Mash the delete key" ... I can honestly say in 27 years of computing, I've never heard that expression before! 🤣 EDIT: I love my Beelink Mini S, which is a great general purpose (non-gaming) PC, however my 2TB 2.5" SATA HDD overheats very easily when reading or writing intensively! The AZW M.2 SATA SSD is a great drive (so far).

[@user-cf5el2cs3y]

A used Lenovo i5 6500 ThinkCentre for $65 will do almost as much and idles at 12W

[@wheres_bears1378]

Can you run revit on this?

[@jabonorte]

The Beelink website says that this device is limited to NVME gen 3 x1 -which would explain the rubbish ssd speeds. Morefine say that their N100 is capable of x2, so it should be zippier. I really like Beelink stuff - on my second - but I've ordered the Morefine out of protest at that dodgy soldered-on WiFi card.

[@Robtech]

Yeah if you're okay with a barbones unit, that one has the upper hand

[@amdrebataglia]

alder lake N has 9 pci lanes in total. they usually take 1lane for ethernet, 2-4 to usb (it depends), 1 to wifi, 1 to sata... so there should be at least 2 for nvme, but yeah, they cut cost in really silly parts

[@musalande4712]

Thank you so much for testing Valorant bro. Hello from Indonesia btw

[@Robtech]

Terima kasih 👍

[@musalande4712]

@@Robtech Woah nice, you speak bahasa.. I don't play Valorant tho, i just need you to test that so i can estimate how good it will be for playing Rise of Kingdoms PC version 🤭. About the storage, can we get better speed? (if we want to upgrade the NVMe SSD)

[@Robtech]

Nah just a word or two in multiple languages 🤪 The NVME slot is limited to 1x speed, so the improvement will be minimal.

[@musalande4712]

@@Robtech Thanks Steve Rob : Who's Steve 🤣🤣

[@Tomulus53]

Hello 😊 have a question my usb is already active even if my mini pc is off. Do you have an idea to shutdown usb when pc is off ? In bios ? Or win 11? Thanks 🙏

[@Robtech]

It's usually in power or USB options in the BIOS

[@symbiote]

Do you have an update video? I just watched another one and the video creator and many in the comments were reporting that this unit died after just a few days. Some got refunds and some got replacements. Mixed reviews on the replacements. Some commentators had the same issue of the unit dying and some said replacement worked fine. I’m torn about this. How did it fair for you over time?

[@Robtech]

Works fine. But there are alternatives. My top 5 budget minis video is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZmtYaGefMmCobM

[@symbiote]

@@Robtech THANKS! I’m was just kinda looking for something reliable enough for work related tasks and light video editing. This is a big help.

[@victormedrano2316]

Nice shirt

[@crowsbridge]

I'm not sure if I should get the U59 Pro or the Mini S12 N100... It would just be for browsing and watching youtubes, not gaming.

[@Robtech]

EQ12 N100 review coming up next

[@MrDark21knight]

I prefer plastic. Less weight behind TV

[@sharimsmusicvideos]

my keyboard is not being recognized, ive already updated windows , it worked but not the numpad.. I've also done some troubleshooting, hope someone can advise me what to do

[@camberwellcarrot420]

I just set up my Mini S12 (typing on it now), but my wireless module is slightly better, an intel AC 7265D2W. My S12 came with a 512GB NVME and 16GB, so maybe that's why it's slightly better, or perhaps it's just luck of the draw. Anyway, it works OK, but in 2022/23/24, they really shouldn't be putting in anything but WIFI 6 modules at worst. I'd have paid the extra couple of bones. A PCIE slot would have been even better. I guess USB wifi is an option, but it's annoying to have to have another piece of equiment to deal with externally.

[@gabedoumak2970]

Yo. Unrelated to this video but my computer has audio problems. I know you made videos of this before but there's something that's been really bugging me about how these "how to fix" videos all over the internet have been framing things. A lot of (aka. Every video) I have ever found was about an audio problem after an update. But every audio problem I have ever experienced was before an update, consecutive, every single time without fail. Aux doesn't work and an update was immediately there ready for me to press the button. I can count at least 20 in a row where the audio fails the moment an update was avaliable but all the KZbin videos never discuss it. It's always a video about after an update but nobody talks about why it stops working befor hand, on the dot every time. It's happened too many times for it to just be that specifically exclusive to just the aux. What are you're thoughts

[@Robtech]

Likely the audio driver is disappearing for whatever reason and Windows update finds the driver and installs it again in a loop. Can't troubleshoot it over comments. Try a Windows Reset or fresh installation.

[@gabedoumak2970]

@@Robtech update to the issue i talked about, if you have a computer that has a usb-C port, get an AUX adapter and the problem is fixed. just figured it out. it works. thoughts?

[@ashneel]

They're another similarly price beelink with dual channel ram

[@feahnorl]

Not with alder lake cpu

[@howchie123]

So we can just set Pl1 to 30W safely and it will draw just what it needs?

[@Robtech]

Yep

[@Alex-ze7xo]

Can Intel N95 run youtube video 4k 60fps in AV1 video codec smoothly?

[@Robtech]

AV1 runs better yes. I only got a drop of a few frames at the start, when I hit play. Then it didn't drop a frame.

[@neovincibeats]

You think this could work for digital audio

[@Robtech]

Should be fine

[@al404]

Hi are you going to test the S12 Pro N100? thanks

[@Robtech]

Unlikely. But I will be reviewing the Beelink EQ12 which comes with the N100 and DDR5 memory.

[@ashtonwoodturnings225]

@@Robtech Subscribed just for that review as i'd like one, though i may wait for the Beelink EQ12 Pro

[@annix493]

I’m cooking while watching/listening so apologies if I missed this like a big dumb idiot, but after you upped the power limits in the BIOS I was expecting to see a re-run of the preceding gaming benchmarks to illustrate the effects of the change….or were the benchmarks with the power limit already raised? If not, then you should absolutely include that next time ‘cause frankly I am absolutely blueballed right now. You can’t just show me a CPU Bottleneck making Dolphin run 20% shy of 60fps, then REMOVE that bottleneck and not tell me if it gets it there! It’s so close! And so am I! 😩

[@Robtech]

Emulator and gaming tests were at 30W for the N95

[@pweddy1]

Is that $200 w/Ram and storage?!?! That seems pretty good even if it’s not a gaming monster?

[@Robtech]

Yep

[@arf99992]

@@Robtech I just ordered one from Amazon (on Prime day) for $175 inc 16GB RAM and 500GB SDD.

[@i_dont_want_a_handle]

it's $130 where I live, I know, insane prices

[@amdrebataglia]

It would be great if tou could compare against core i5 6400 /7400. Afaik, those alder lake N using the E cores are pretty much on par with Skylake IPC. Does your unit came with ddr4 2666mhz or 3200mhz? The results are great considering performance per watt, a nobreak can handle this mini PC for hours.

[@PCartCast]

An i5 6500 gets around 3000 points on Geekbench, this will do around 2300.

[@amdrebataglia]

@@PCartCast So it's slight above haswell, thats good tbh I got one but is still it transport so I'm really excited to see how this mini pc handles 'cursed' pdfs (editing, coverting, split).

[@wocket42]

You could then also compare 4k KZbin with AV1 performance. ADL-N does it in Hardware.

[@Robtech]

All 3200MHz on the Alder Lake-N units so far. I'll specify in the future. Always forget something like the lack of 4x speed on the NVME slot

[@altpath]

I don't do video editing, but i do audio recording using a couple DAWs like Reaper. Would this work well enough?

[@Robtech]

It would depend on the project, how many effects and tracks etc. But, I think it should be okay.

[@altpath]

@@Robtech thank you. I wouldn't go too nuts, a few tracks for guitars, bass, and midi drum tracks. I'll know soon enough, I bought this model today on sale ($122) and it arrives tomorrow :)

[@Robtech]

Nice, if you don't mind, please let me know as I get this question every now and then. Also, please write it as a new comment so it goes to the top of my comments feed. Replies, don't get bumped.

[@altpath]

@@Robtech no problem

[@jobytsaju6186]

How's the wifi connectivity performance of this mini pc? I already have one Beelink J45 with Intel J4205 Processor but it's wifi is very weak.

[@Robtech]

I tested it at a 10 meter distance and it was okay.

[@jobytsaju6186]

@@Robtech ok thank you for the quick response

[@randymarsh9101]

Would this be able to run ps2 games like The Punisher, Shadows of Rome, Scarface the world is yours at 1080p or at least 720p?

[@Robtech]

Most PS2 games will run okay at 720P.

[@randymarsh9101]

​​​​@@Robtech Only okay? Can you recommend a Mini pc that can run ps2 games smoothly at 720p for under $300 Canadian? I would be using it for my portable projector when traveling. Your input is greatly appreciated.

[@Robtech]

I should have said fine sorry. Some of the harder to emulate stuff like Gran Turismo 4 will not run at full speed. I'd recommend the 5500U though. You'll get a lot more out of it as it's the graphics chip holding the N95 back. If you're in the US, the Trigkey 5500U can be had for under $250 and should play a lot of the library at 1080P.

[@randymarsh9101]

​@Robtech Right on, thanks 👍

[@randymarsh9101]

​@Robtech Just ordered this one for $375 Beelink SER5 Mini PC, AMD Ryzen 5 5500U(7nm, 6C/12T) up to 4.0GHz, Mini Computer 16GB DDR4 RAM 500GB NVME SSD It should do the trick, right? Was also wondering regarding these mini pc's. Do you have to change the power usage or something? Should I just crank it up to the highest power for emulation?

[@helmanfrow]

How would this do as a dedicated OBS box?

[@Robtech]

It depends on what you're planning to do with it. Resolution, bitrate. A lot of variables.

[@helmanfrow]

@@Robtech Right, good point. 1080P, medium-to-low bitrate.

[@bamban_garcia5562]

Should I go with this one or pay about $100 more for the ser5 pro

[@Robtech]

SER5 Pro

[@bamban_garcia5562]

@@Robtech Supposed to come in within a couple of days, in the meantime what upgrades can be done to improve general usage for it

[@djashjones]

This would make a cracking kodi box. Rob, you missed the opportunity to wear a gimp mask.😇

[@Robtech]

I was contemplating whether to throw in some Pulp Fiction, but with KZbin's touchy copyright system, it's risky

[@brunomendes7453]

When putting pl1 in 30000 is it safer to put pl2 in 0 or 30000? Is 35000 possible?

[@Robtech]

You can put more. It just doesn't do anything. It goes as far as it can handle

[@brunomendes7453]

@@Robtech with pl1 and pl2 stock I have lags and freezes with the mouse running windows 11. I am noticing improvement by changing this.

[@Robtech]

Good to hear

[@CarinoGamingStudio]

so you can under clocked it?

[@Robtech]

You can change the power limit

[@CarinoGamingStudio]

@@Robtech i saw it to your video so thanks.

[@angryhornet91]

Does it run windows or android?

[@Robtech]

Windows

[@angryhornet91]

@@Robtech what is a better choice for home multimedia,this or gt king pro?

[@Robtech]

Depends what you want to do with it. I don't like Android for a desktop experience.

[@angryhornet91]

@@Robtech movies,youtube thats pretty much it...which one of the two is consuming less power and is less noisy?

[@bulldogboy100]

Been a while Rob, have you been looking for a new joke writer. This one seems to be far below what we've become to expect from Beelink

[@Robtech]

Sure have. Looking forward to the Beelink EQ12 instead, although no word on pricing yet

[@user-bv4ht1kv5w]

Is it good in Fortnite ?

[@Robtech]

No. You'll need to look at something like a 5500U mini PC.

[@user-bv4ht1kv5w]

@@Robtech ok what About beelink Ser5 16GB ram 5500U

[@Robtech]

Yep good choice.

[@stephanblack4558]

good.