Upgrading the U59 to 16Gb will improve your benchmark scores by quite a bit (it did for me). The only problem was finding memory that worked with the machine - the $20 Timetec SINGLE RANK DDR4 2666 module was the one that finally worked - although it takes the machine a minute or so on the first boot to figure out what memory it is - after that everything boots normally.
I could pull out the one from the Mini S and slap it in the U59 for fun to see. I have a list of things like that to try as a follow up. Thanks for letting us know which one works.
I just found your channel today from the generic mini PC videos. Great work. Quick note, and it was probably a typo/oversight: you wrote "10 mn" for the two systems' processor node tech, but it should be nm. Again, thanks for the great content!
Welcome to the channel! I hope you find the other content not terrible too! I had no idea that I transposed those letters. From here out we will just say they both have 10 more numbers (mn).
SMW widescreen is cool. Nice video. I enjoy your mini pc reviews, but I’m interested in those devices strictly for emulation purposes. So selfishly- I’d love to see some in-depth emulation capabilities in these reviews.
Thanks! I've not really done much emulation beyond NES, SNES, and an arcade version of Killer Instinct. The next machine I'm working on I feel struggles with the Widescreen emulator, so maybe I'll at least step down to those. What one would you like to see?
@@ntgm20 I just like to see the limits of emulation for each machine. Like what’s the hardest system each PC can emulate perfectly? And I’d love to see Sega Arcade Model 2 & Model 3 games. Hardly any reviews cover those.
I recently grabbed a U59 Pro in the 16GB/500GB configuration for a steal from Amazon. Using it as an HTPC streaming from my NAS. Fantastic little machine for the price, runs fairly quiet. If anyone's considering buying these, I'd recommend the U59 just for the capability of dual channel RAM alone.
Yes Dual channel,s greater bandwidth helps a lot especially if your using integrated graphics. The U59 I seen comes with two 8gb@3200MHz "Crucial" brand name sticks already.
I've just bought a Beelink Mini S. The object of the exercise was to upgrade to Windows 11, and to cut power consumption. The Mini PC is great, and maximum power consumption is just 30 watts! I live in the UK, and I paid £159 ($191). Great value, and highly recommended for day-to-day general computing! EDIT: The CPU cooling system is mounted at the top of the case, and to service it (cleaning dust build-up, for example), you have to remove the motherboard. I saw a review that said this was difficult. One wonders WHY the top and bottom panels weren't both removable for ease of servicing?
Low power draw is one of their great benefits for sure. As for how hard it is to remove, that depends on your level of comfort in messing with these kind of things. I used to be an electronics tech and think that it wasn't bad, except for the WiFI antennas.
Do you have any issues with your Mini S? I started to have them with mine, after a few weeks of use - random freezes when the system got unresponsive for 5-10 seconds (both Windows 11 which came out of the box and Linux Ubuntu 22.04 I installed to the internal M2 SATA SSD). What is interesting is that it happens sporadically without any link to the load being processed by computer or CPU temperature. I think it's SSD to blame, but didn't have a chance to rule it out - need to boot from USB flash and give it a good long run.
Do you have the capability to test the network speed of the device? I use iperf3, ran on both of these and am not impressed. I'm seeing if others have the same issue.
Despite having dual gigabit ethernet (you know what it meant when manufacturer put dual ethernet), U59 Pro lacks NVMe support, the only PCIe capable port exposed is only the PCIe WiFi card, despite the processor having 8 PCIe lanes, quick napkin math show only 3 lane is used, one for wireless card, two for the realtek ethernet adapter. Maybe you can double check that the M.2 also support NVMe despite the writing only said "M.2 SATA"? I don't care I only have a slower SATA based SSD, but if I can tapped those M.2 Slot to PCIe x4 riser board, I can use it for many thing, including hooking up LSI SAS2008 (which use PCIe x4 3.0) Based card for high density-low power NAS. Beelink is currently (and sadly) both the cheapest and the only one who having an official presence in my country, so claiming warranty is not a big issue.
It is an interesting thought, but I just tried with a NVMe drive in the M.2 slot and it isn't recognized by the BIOS or once I'm inside Linux. I'd have to do some looking around, but I've not seen thus far any mini PC with this class of processor have NVMe support, while the more powerful and more expensive classes (Core i5, Ryzen 5/7) do.
@@ntgm20 most of them don't , but every unit from another brand that have dual ethernet function from 2020 onwards support NVMe, even some model have a dedicated slot for each protocol despite they running dual core celeron and from whitelabel brand in AliExpress
One thing to note is that BeeLink's support is horrible if something dies. I picked up a U59 to use as a little in house server and the drive in it died after about 3.5 months. It's been 2 weeks now with only getting a canned response back with no acknowledgement of my RMA request.
Ouch. That isn't good to hear. Any luck on swapping out with a spare or new drive? I see lots of complaints of failed drives but not much on if a replacement works or if it is a deeper problem.
@@ntgm20 I replaced it with another 256 GB drive that I picked up. It's been working perfectly for almost 2 weeks with it. I did finally hear back from support this morning that they're going to replace the drive. So I'm going to submit the info they needed for it today and then have it as a spare. Hopefully the two new drives last.
I got a Mini S and gotta say I'm impressed. Using it for remote desktop, projecting screen and media, day to day stuff and Its just blazing thru tasks. Never tried gaming with it and i guess its not made for it :) My first option was to get something like raspberry pi 4 and im glad i got this mini S instead.
This one is great. Pfsense or openWRT on the dual NIC board might be worth checking, perhaps including AP for wifi, too. The other one as nice small home server (backup, nextcloud, ...?) and the old ones as home automation - HomeAssistant or NodeRed.
My thoughts too, except I'd use something else as the wireless AP. I'm actually running another mini with dual NICs as my pfsense router now, and a pretty cool wireless AP, when it works.
Thanks for your comment! I was diving into using the Mini S with Debian but stopped because I'm still waiting on some items to help get my things set up here for testing.
Just came across this as i simply want a small mini pc to remote too that runs my trading apps,... could get a VPS but they are too expensive per month for what i need and i don't want to have my main pc running 24/7. Going off the bench marks, a mini s with 16GB will do me fine. Thanks for the video.
Is yours running 8 or 16 GB of RAM? I know there is another configuration for sale too, though I've run Emby on my Odroid-C4 without issues I imagine either would work.
I bought the basic model for 170 with 1 stick of 8gb, and bought another stick of 8gb for 20 bucks at the same time. I ran it in dual config since I started up. I did notice that when I first started it up and did the windows update, it took forever, I mean hours to download and install, but since is a server and won't touch it is not a big deal. I wonder if I should do a clean windows 10 install instead of using windows 11
@@konrad999999 It is a point I'm pondering now for a different machine, downgrading to Windows 10 to improve performance. That or doing a debloat type action, I've seen some videos on that and this could be a good candidate.
@@ntgm20 you could always pick up a cheap m.2 sata ssd (like 128gb) and install windows 10 on it and try it out. If you don't like it, swap the ssd back. I think 128gb ssd are like 15 bucks
Edit: Follow up: The U59 Pro USB-C is capable of providing another display out! My adapter came in and I got it to work with the U59 Pro, but no other machine I have with USB-C has this capability it seems. ------------- Whoops! Thanks to Zach Horton for pointing out the typo in the product specs around 1:58. The processors are built on the 10 nanometer process, not meternano or what ever the 10 mn typo could stand for. I say it is 10 more numbers. What would you say it represents?
it's always a good idea to replace thermal paste after taking a heatsink off, even if not dry. it would be interesting to see if fresh thermal paste improves thermals. also, on the one that supports dual channel, how adding another stick changes benchmarks
I’ve had issues with the two HDMI ports. I can’t get them to run 4k 60hz on anything, 4k 30hz is absolutely fine. I’ve changed the drivers, wiped the OS tried Linux distros and nothing helps. Using USB-C to HDMI runs at 4k 100hz though!
Thanks for the nice review. We bought two Mini S three months ago. Both have worked very well. However, one of ours died after last week. It can't find the SSD drive and keeps going to the Boot menu. Tried resetting the BIOS and pulling the CMOS battery but neither worked. I have seen similar problems on the web. I will be curious to see how long yours last. I have contacted Beelink support but have not received a reply, but it has only been a week and it is the holiday.
Thanks. Is it the drive that came with the system? What about booting to a live USB like Ubuntu or something similar if you don't have a spare drive to swap in?
What are you using for monitoring power usage? Is it a kill-a-watt or some similar device reading power at the wall? And regarding thermals, it might be good to perform before and after tests. My own experience tells me that not reapplying thermal paste (especially when it's dried/set like you noticed) will lead to poor thermal conductivity if you don't replace it. I like what I see on your channel. Subbed and looking forward to more content and seeing how you grow.
Thanks! This is an exciting time to see it growing, and it really wasn't expected but it makes me smile! For the thermals, I agree, and I messed up on that one. However, I did go back in today and cleaned it up (on the u59 Pro), applied new thermal compound, and it still reached the same temps. Good thing is it wasn't thermal throttling (not that it was before, but a point for my next video). For power draw, yes, a P3 Kill A Watt.
Muito legal este video comparativo...... realmente a muito tempo gostaria que alguem fize-se e tira-se esta dúvida. Qual a diferença entre eles no desempenho. Desculpe meu inglês ruim, estou usando o tradutor. Show de video... Obrigado .... ________________________________________________________________________ Very cool this comparison video...... really for a long time I would like someone to do this and remove this doubt. What is the difference between them in performance. Excuse my bad english ... I'm using the translator. Video show... Thank you....
I think between them there isn't difference at all. The U59 Pro allows for 16GB of memory in dual channel mode, while the Mini S I think can also have 16GB but in single channel mode.
Sounds like it. With a cable that small I wasn't sure if there was a center conductor and shielding I would need to worry about. I just pulled the card, the system is working as a pfsense machine so WiFi isn't needed.
@@ntgm20 used to work for Apple assembly in CS Col - one of the few who didn't need magnifiers to do board work, the fun was sanding down a fine soldering point to ultra fine - lol
I bought the beeline SER 5 with Basically the same as the two you have. Love it I don’t game so it doesn’t matter I find the Ryzen 5000 works best than Intel
@@ntgm20 I will tell u when its Dune, next week i try Elementary POP OS and Ubuntu and worked perfekt for more than a Year, Tuxedo OS work gerat if u neeed no Screenkeyboard, That is what itreyd so far, all of them works great for Urban-Emu and Gaming, like TuxKart
Probably, but I got a little ahead of myself. Actually, if I can find it I might have done a test beforehand, I actually was playing with the U59 around the same time as the AK34, before I got in the AK2 or Mini S
I purchased the U59Pro with 16GB of memory. I encountered two issues: 1. the screen went dark for a couple of seconds intermittently running Amazon Prime movies. This happened a couple of time during an hour's worth of watching. 2. Windows 11 pro updated itself several times and after the third update, Windows slowed noticeably, especially running RU-vid. I also installed Manjaro Linux which runs great. Any suggestions/comments will be welcome.
Uncertain what could be going on with either of those issues. I did a fresh install of Windows but didn't run it like that for long. My U59 Pro is currently running pfsense and acting as my firewall.
@@ntgm20 Thanks for your suggestion. I will download and try to install windows 11 pro and hope that MS will recognize my key. FYI. I installed a Manjaro Linux on a SSD drive and it's soo much faster proving the hardware is fine and it's definitely a Windows problem.
Thanks to this video I decided pull a trigger on Mini S for my mini docker automation. I am wondering why the U59 with n5105 which is rated at 10W consumes more energy than mini S with n5095 15W - even during load?
Thanks for your reply and I hope you Mini S works out great for you! TDP ratings aren't always relatable to real power draw, but rather the solution needed for cooling. The N5095 could also be configured to run different to achieve a TDP and power draw lower than the specified max.
Yes, and admitted in part of my pinned comment. What would you want mn to represent? Someone said Minnesota, and the what YT just changed display handles I can't find what was presented earlier.
@@ntgm20 I have windows 11 still installed and connected through ethernet. Just did a speed test, getting 650megabits down at the moment. No issues with the network so far but I've also only been connected through ethernet and not using wifi.
@@Jupiter9999 Thanks for your reply. I'm also connected through Ethernet, using iperf3 on another machine and checking between them. Everything else gets 930 Mbps or so between in Linux, it is just the Beelink ones that get 730 or so. I need to look further into it.
@@ntgm20 no problem. I've seen speeds in the 850mbps range as well. I use the plex server on my network exclusively and no out of home streaming and so far it's been doing the trick. I'm pretty new in the mini pc world and have never used Linux before except on my steam deck. Is it better to run plex from a Linux machine?
850 or so is what I get in Windows on those machines too, which again should be about 930 for my tests. For Plex, I don't have enough experience. Linux would normally have fewer resources in use to start with, so have more headroom, but there are tricks to get Windows processes down too.
Couldn't get U59 to dual boot Linux after a week of fiddling with bios, secure boot disable, partioning etc. Sorry I had to send it back. Any suggestions if I try again??
That is weird. Was that using a separate drive for Linux? What distribution? I was using a separate drive with Ubuntu and had no issues, even using secure boot. What is funny is just yesterday I took the Windows drive out and now have pfsense installed and testing to use as a router/firewall.
@NotTerribleByGoodmonkey was installing MX Linux 19.4 (precursor to running Linuxcnc) Trying to install on 50 G partition on original Windows 128G drive. Never could find boot record using MBR or PBR or ESP options during MX install.
looking for a plex server, u59pro with ubuntu is capable of streaming 1 4k video with transcoding? heard some problems with linux and plex with minipcs
I'm not certain. I've learned with my Odroid-C4 and Emby that no transcoding is needed if bitrate and device being served can natively play that codec. That would be my goal that no transcoding would be needed, but not sure how likely that would be.
How much money? For 312 Euros or $330 US you can get the Beelink with a Ryzen-5 5600U @15w 6 core-12 thread with zen3 and Radeon Vega-7' 1800 MHz graphics. 16gb dual channel ram and wifi-6 on Amazon. Vega7=Performance of a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 card.
I just gotta let you know, snappy driver installer has saved so much time driver hunting, its not perfect, especially with hp ryzen laptops, but most things install without trouble, and when there is there's more driver versions to choose from. Also not sponsored, just tired of installing Lenovo drivers on hp laptops.
Good to know. One thing I am interested in is if there is support at all behind a brand, and Beelink seems to have some things available, while some of these other ones do not.
im getting lag on my mini S with youtube videos in 4k on my 65-inch tv and youtube audio is slightly off. upgrading to 16g ram to see if there is a differance
Not off hand on the temps. The fan is barely audible for me when it is low like that, but would ramp up when putting the CPU to task at 100% or near for more than a minute. At that point I felt the fan was still quieter than my laptop.
Of the minis I've tested the Beelink ones and Trigkey (both made by AZW) are the only with RAM modules you can swap out. If you are looking for a mini PC I'd go with one that has a processor with 4 cores and generation of the N5000 or newer if going for under $200. If you have a larger budget there are more processor options that I'm not even fully knowledgeable of, but mostly more powerful.
@@rudycastillo6369 It really depends on what you need. See the link in the video description for the U59 Pro. If you like the feel of it from this video it is one that I think is a good value.
Well, to let the cat out of the bag since you asked, I do have something like that. It is a higher price range, and is to be one of the last in the series. This is ep3, it could be ep6.
It depends on what you need. Both aren't terrible, actually pretty decent machines. If you need dual channel RAM, dual networking, or USB-C then go with the U59. Otherwise the Mini S is just as good without those features.
things i was not told when buying this mini pc . first its just an m2. drive with sata speeds not an nvme which is at least 4 times faster but cost nearly the same Also if u live in a hot country DO NOT BUY THIS !! i live in Thailand and even when it was cool i kept getting an alarm and message your mainboard is to hot at 82c now it is 40c + i cannot use it . even a coolpad underneath does not work as the are no vents only the side vent for the fan inside . I now use a usb fan , a coolpad and a big 16 inch fan on this just to get the temp under 70c or i get the overheating message and it shuts down
Ouch. At 40C it is difficult to keep any PC running very cool. Most of these minis I don't think are built for that kind of environment. I wouldn't have thought of that though, thanks for sharing.
A faster way to install all the drivers is the extract downloaded zip to a folder then open an elevated cmd prompt. pnputil /add-driver D:\Drivers\*.inf /subdirs /install You can add the /reboot switch afterwards to make sure they are all loaded correctly.
@@strikesbac When I can get it to work under Linux the way I did I figure that is available under Windows, but didn't know if people would want the WOL under a desktop machine.
