The PERFECT low power Mini PC
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- Опубликовано: 9 сен 2024
- The Intel N200 is a low power workhorse for general computing tasks and running your own small server. In this video we check out the Beelink EQ13, run benchmarks, and test it for hardware transcoding. Beelink EQ13: amzn.to/4cjNiFo
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Differences between the N100 EQ12 and the N200 EQ13
EQ12 - N100; DDR5 (takes up to 32 GB single stick ), Dual 2.5G I225 NIC, 24 EU graphics; 1 NVME + 1 2.5inch SSD ; external power brick; about $209. Air intake on the sides, exhaust on the back.
EQ13- N200; DDR4 (supposedly limited to 16G ); Dual 1.0 GB NIC; 32 EU graphics; 2 NVME ( one is PCIE 4x 3 lane; one is PCIE 4x 1 lane ) internal power brick; about $259 when on sale or $300 when not. The EQ13 also has a taller heatsink to facilitate heat dissipation; it also has a dust filter, and heatsink for the NVME slots.
To a degree, the EQ12 is still a better machine if you want to run it as a virtualization platform or as a firewall for modern speed internet ( 2.5G vs 1.0G ethernet ) The EQ12 Pro has not been available for quite some time ( The N305 model with 8 cores )
The documentation on Amazon SUCKS; there are some listings that show the EQ13 as having DDR5 ( it does not ). Some listings also show that it has dual 2.4G ethernet but it is only dual 1 Gb ethernet.
EQ12 largely sounds better tbh
2.4G ethernet doesn't exist, the x in pcie stands for lanes, not generation. So supposedly it's Pcie 4 x1 and Pcie 4 x3?
8:09 I own the BeeLink EQ12. Wonderful little box. Saw the announcement for this EQ13 and was disappointed they downgraded the networking.
I really appreciate the N200. I really appreciate the internal power supply. The lack of 2.5 Gbit network is the deal breaker.
It really is a shame. I have an N100 and it serves my needs, but the next time I buy one of these 2.5 Gb is a must have. Beelink has a 'Pro' model with dual 2.5 Gb ports, but that's on an N95 if I remember correctly.
The N100 is pretty decent, so 30% faster or so with N200 would be nice.
Bought a n305 and happy with that
Been using my N100 as a desktop mounted to my monitor at the local library when the days are hot and the library aircon is free. I find impressive how snappy it is for general stuff. I still think the N100 is just a lot more commonly available on mini PCs and for a cheaper price. I hope more mini PCs come out with the N200 and N300 though as they do give you a bit more oomph for 3D and games. I also have a Beelink Ryzen 5560U which is great, really like their solid build quality. The power brick built into the system is great, no more extra chunk to lug around or hide away. Eventually I hope though that mini PCs can just be powered by USB-C with the monitor supplying the power. That way you only end up with 1 power cable for the whole setup.
1 machine to run as the media server and a nas to house the files is the way to go. You get the best of both worlds. On the server you can upgrade it as much as the board supports, and can usually repair it if something goes wrong. On the NAS you get the redundancy and all the features like snapshots, etc. I am a firm believer in getting devices that are designed for what you need.
You're right this processor is great for a desktop machine or a server. I've actually been eyeing the i3-N300 8C/8T 7 w TDP in a similar price range.
Which one?
I've been looking at a CWWK (?) machine, considerably larger, with an N300 and 2.5 GbE x4 for about $300.
I really would prefer the atom/celeron N300/305 but for some reason many of the N300 variants drop down to 8GB of embedded RAM as opposed to the same model with N100/N200 having 16GB, and the boards that use SODIMM often will double or even triple the cost of a full machine with 8GB and a case, but you're only getting a board and a CPU.
I think every Ryzen mini PC is still a better value when it comes to price / performance.
i got n100 mini pc and i have to agree
yeah with this price I may get a Ryzen
Depends on your use case. Video encoding on Intel is arguably superior to all.
@@kurtwinter4422 Nobody in their right mind uses a mini PC primarily for video encoding.
I prefer to run everything on a single device like a NAS, mainly for not spending a lot for the same purpose, being able to run longer when using an UPS backup and to maintain less both physical and logical things.
N97 is the new sauce. I have a mini pc with it, great stuff
Does it have hw transcoding and 10 Gbe?
I had to google because I thought that was a typo meant to be the N95.
As exciting as it is to see Intel aggressively pursue this price/performance class, it's disappointing that they're still being so Intel about it.
But what would my life be as a consumer of computing hardware without inscrutable product names.
Thanks, Intel. ;)
@@majorgear1021 Any Intel Processor with an iGpu has transcoding ability ie QSV.
Great video. I wonder what are the noise levels during transcoding.
He tried to record it but it blew the microphone out. lol!
The N200 is 1/4 the price of the cheapest Qualcomm X Elite with a Co-Pilot out on disability.
Functional notes about the EQ13 ( and this may also be true for the EQ12 ). The EQ12 ships with a SSD and not an NVME drive; the drive cannot run in the second NVME slot. The SSD drive is apparently SATA and is limited to about 500 MBps, which is the same speeds as you'd see out of a 2.5 inch SSD. The slots in the EQ13 both support NVME, but one is 3 lane ( the slot that the SSD is in ) and 1 lane for the other slot. With a decent quality NVME drive in each ( Gen 4 ), you do get a decent speed bump and will attain about Gen 3 speeds ( 3500 MBps ) and the 1 lane will push somewhere around 900 MBps or about twice as fast as the included SSD drive. The SSD drive will NOT apparently function in the second slot, or at least I could not get it to function in my sample. Note that many N100's and N305 designs have similar configurations regarding the PCIE lanes ( one being 3 lane and one being 1 lane ) and may not be a Beelink design limitation, but maybe a design limitation from Intel .
Video playback for RUclips has improved over the N100 and N305, at least in my samples. I also tried this with Linux Mint and Linux Mint Edge ( 6.x kernel ) and it functioned well in both kernels.
So, if you want to improve performance - to a degree - replacing the included drive is a good starting place. Although Beelink says that the unit won't support 32G DDR4, I plan on eventually getting a stick to test it; but I have no 32G DDR4 SODIMM lying around.
The internal power supply is a huge advantage.
No, it’s actually pretty small as far as power supplies go. My 1000 Watt PSU however, is huge.
@@majorgear1021 😂
Wonder why they went back to DDR4 from the DDR5 in the EQ12
Or why drop dual Intel 2.5G for dual Realtek 1Gb ethernet ? I'm guessing cost cutting on the manufacturing side.
As someone who now has to buy DDR5, I'm going to say price.
DDR5 is laptop memory above the 16 GB size is spectacularly, knees weakeningly expensive still.
It's hard to fill like you got a great value on the computer when you're paying 1/3 to 1/2 the price of the computer to put as much RAM in it as you want.
And really, I don't think you're going to notice that much of a performance bump for the kinds of tasks this machine is targeted at doing. OPNSense, for instance, runs just fine with DDR3 RAM when handling a 1 Gbps fiber connection, as long as it has enough of it.
I like the idea of the N200, but the Beelink N100 I have is also stuck with 1 Gb networking. I believe that's a choice by Beelink, as I see other N100 minis out there with 2.5 Gb networking on them. For my setup I run Jellyfin on my storage NAS along with Synchthing, but neither of those services are exposed outside my home network. I use a Beelink N100 for cloud services, primarily through a Nextcloud instance. There are also a few other services I run on the N100, and as long as you don't need heavy IO it has plenty of power for most home lab tasks IMO.
Are the two 1G NIC's Realtek or Intel? Would love to use something like this for a pfSense box even though it doesn't have 2.5G or 10G!
From Amazon's listing for the EQ13 ( which is flawed enough ) Dual Realte 8111H 1000Mbps ... So - Realtek.
The EQ12 has dual Intels- 2.5G . In many aspects, the EQ12 is a better soft router than the EQ13 .
Personally though, I'd go with a fanless N100/N200/N305 option for a router. You really should only need two 2.5G ports.
Just a note, the N100's base frequency is 0.8GHz (depending on BIOS and OS) not 1.8GHz
I've been considering getting one of the Minisforum mini PCs for a similar project. The UM890 Pro is being shipped at the end of July and it is a perfect competitor (If you don't care about power settings) to the NUC offerings at its current early bird price of $479. My primary interest is to run it as a media box with a Plex container passing through the iGPU.
Have you considered making a video on GPU passthrough to containers? I found your TrueNAS VM HDD passthrough video very useful in getting my current setup running!
They missed a trick by not having an N97 model.
In this instance it is initially positive not to see the N200 being priced way above the N100 for the little performance increases that it offers. However the cost cutting elsewhere illustrates why and not to Beelink's benefit.
The dedicated internal PSU is likely not necessary and must have an option for replacement to maintain attraction.
The audio port on the front is unusual but not restrictive.
These rubber feet again? Are Beelink incapable for learning the simplest of lessons?
DDR4? Does this really need further comment?
I do like the SSD heatsink that covers both slots and is easily removable.
Providing MSATA M.2 is cheap and may well be quite off putting.
The EQ12 was desirable and although it was not the cheapest, it still sat in a place where for the right daily deal, it would have felt worthwhile spending that extra money.
Not enough thought has gone into the EQ13 and although it is still in the right pricing areas, where I expect to see regular deals on the jungle site to something more competitive.
However, after watching initial reviews for the EQ12 I felt expected, after this I feel very little and already look forward to others providing options that are missing here.
The sole advancement of interest is the quiet fan and seeming decent heat management but it just isn't enough.
Not even close but no cigar. Like the Marvels movie, I watched it once but have no desire to do so again.
The cost cutting to make the N200 attractive just hasn't worked and I am sure that other reviewers, even those with rather too close relationships with Beelink will find it hard to spin things and avoid the obvious multiple downsides.
It is leaving my memory already.
They should fix the obvious issues and slap in the N97, which is eminently good all on it's own merits.
You mentioned that you had to set up Jellyfin (I would assume the same thing if using Plex) to get the Intel chip to transcode properly. Where can I find out exactly how to do that with this PC using Win11? Will this PC play directly a 4K video to a 4K TV without any problem?
Hey, there! Watching this as I type. I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to not only review all of these low-end CPUs, but also put them in the context of the N5xxx series and each other, as well. I'm really glad Intel is going so aggressively at maximizing options for performance per watt at the low end (I hesitate to call it that, since if you're using it for the right job, it's exactly the correct CPU).
This one caught my attention because it's got 2x NVME and 2x 2.5 GbE NICs for $299.
Would you consider this (or the N200 generally) an sufficient box for a small office/home office OPNSense firewall install? My network has a 10 GbE component, but I'm going out of my way to keep the firewall itself from ever having to route at 10 GbE by avoiding inter-VLAN routing.
That said, my Optiplex 5040 SFF uses almost 40w with a near-default OPNSense install, without any firewall rules or IDS/IPS.
I've got 1 Gbps fiber, so the NICs are sufficient, and I suppose I have to be honest and admit that I've never come close to actually saturating it. I suppose I need to host more minecraft servers and rickroll traps. :P
Is there something similar with 2.5 GbE NICs?
Is there good AMD choices in comparison?
Are there any low-ish power PC’s with 10 Gbe ? I tend to consolidate my server apps to a single box, and I have several apps that work with large files.
10 Gbe has been great ever since I got it, so any new server I buy has to support it.
I said “low-ish power” earlier because from my research, 10 Gbe nics pull 10 Watts all by themselves.
Great to see your "Go ahead" count is down significantly compared to older videos. Your commentary s far more listenable now
I probably get as much done on 2012 mac mini. The TDP consumption is a bit higher though.
I was planning to get one of these, but installing linux is not straight forward.
OMG that shirt.........
Can you try it with remote desktop software? Such as TeamViewer or Parsec?
I'm actually interested in running Windows 10 and Remote Desktop (mtsc) on it for remote work, but a Linux+TeamViewer might be compareble enough
What do you mean? You would use an n200/n100 device as the client ? Or the server? Also you know win 10 is being phased out quickly (I still haven't switched to 11 and don't want to .. and would be full on Linux if it weren't for the software compatibility issues with the things I'm addicted to)
If I had my life in order I was thinking that having one or two main headless servers at home , with something cheap, small and very low noise for anywhere I want to use a computer would be ideal ..
Just throw a keyboard, mouse & monitor (or whatever) wherever you want and have your servers for compute...
ssh is your friend!
Or home firewall (opnsense)
$300, though... that's the problem for me because I need ten of them for my project.
260 usd is cheap ? You can get much better mini pc for about the same money (mostly AMD variants). Excluding quicksync intel has no other advantage.
well intel qsv and openvino is a dealbreaker for me so… no thank you
Can you give examples of better mini pcs for that price?
@@nassimguelbi There was beelink ser5 5560u couple of weeks ago for around 290 usd.
Currently on stock is NiPoGi AM16 Mini PC Α-MD Ryzen 5 PRO 5675U for 290 usd...
What about PCIe lanes?
That matters rather a lot if you want something to plug a bunch of disks into for use as a NAS/VM host.
If mainstream 2.5G network , assign pcie x1 lanes to each m2 slot = 1GB/s and a single disk already quick enought to saturated the network ,even a 10G one
N100 have 9 nvme lanes to using 4 of them for quad m2 and 1 for network you still got some left
Or 2 per m2 slot and 1 for network maybe ?
The included drive is SSD ( or about 500 MBps max ). It is in a 3 LANE PCIE 4.0 slot. The other slot is a PCIE 4.0 x 1 lane slot.. With a decent gen 4 NVME in each, you should be able to get about 3500 MBps in the first slot and about 900 MBps in the second. This is similar to what I've seen on other N100's and N305's including from other manufacturers.
The speeds from the included SSD were "OK" but not impressive; switching out to a couple new NVME drives yielded the results I stated above.
I had no luck getting the included SSD drive to work in the "other" slot; ymmv. It wasn't much of a loss either.
Note that in almost every instance, in general, Gen 3 NVME drives were just as expensive as Gen 4 NVME drives, but far less selection to choose from. So, I chose Gen4 NVME drives.
@@MrPir84free Oh dear - so combined they are equivalent to one properly provisioned 4-lane NVMe. I guess that wipes out using anything like it as the basis for a storage solution then.
@@frankwong9486 You aren't going to saturate squat if it is a lot of small files (or badly fragmented large ones). Nor are you going to install a 100TiB or even 50TiB disk system for a real NAS.
Does this mini pc draw a lot of heat when gaming? And also, roughly, what RTX card would you compare the graphics card to? Something in the 20 series perhaps?
A RTX2080 at least obviously.
Trust me you really do not want this for gaming, this isn't 1050ti tier.
@@600rrwheelieopjemoeder3 Thanks. Is there even such thing as a mini PC for gaming, or are they simply too compact?
@@MrDonCoyote Depends on your requirements.
What games would you like to play, at what resolution, at what graphic settings, which framerate do you want?
There are some mini-pc’s that have a relatively decent AMD APU, those will be able to reasonably play some games if you are willing to make compromises on graphic settings.
These mini-pc’s often lack a dedicated GPU, so it is ‘make due’ in the best of situations.
I would recommend to build your own pc from parts I you want to play recent or somewhat demanding games, if budget is problematic you could just opt for used parts.
Let me know if you need any help.
@@600rrwheelieopjemoeder3 Games on Steam, GOG as well as Swtch, PSX,2,3,4 and other emulation. Mostly 10+ year old games. A few newer games here and there.
No matter how you paint this, no matter how hard the shill since they sent it to you for free….this is not worth the asking price. N97 mini PCs are $140 on Amazon with dual NICs and all these same options, and the N97 outperforms the N200 by a healthy margin.
N97 is the only one I have not tried. N200 is still slightly better, but the price to performance lean is up to the end user. Also, N97 has a 12w TDP (double the 6w of the N200) so it consumes a little more power.
N97; Single: 1237 Multi: 3051 (data from cpu-monkey)
N200: Single: 1301 Multi: 3378 (my testing data)
@@TechHut set the TDP for the full 12w and I get 1396 single core, and 3417 multi core. The GPU also has a much higher clock speed on the N97. N97 has 24 execution units at 1.2Ghz where the N200 has 32 execution units at 750mhz. The overall experience on the N97 is smoother, video playback is faster and Plex transcoding is considerably better on the N97. Considering mini PCs with the N97 are $140 on Amazon? There is absolutely no reason to go for anything else right now.
WTF is the crabs thing lol
It's called "crab rave" look it up 😎
Avoid: Another Chinese miniPC with no BIOS support.
They don't have anything uploaded for this one yet, but the previous model has BIOS files here dr.bee-link.cn/?dir=uploads%2FEQ%2FEQ12
Seriously allergic to simply using the word "sponsored"
It's not sponsored. They sent the product for free and I mentioned that in the beginning.
Sponsored isn't the same friend. He wasn't paid to promote this product.
@@saintcosmic4378 Money doesnt need to be involved for a sponsorship, dont be so naive please.
@@TechHut Yeah yeah i know all your excuses already. Its clear you just want to skirt the rules and become more and more clickbait, fine go ahead. Shame, i really used to like your content (still do, just not these issues).
@@PPPH1L1PPP obviously just a hate watcher. How naive