Back in June, I wrote Pocket-Sized Powerhouse: The Mini PC Revolution, knowing that I would be travelling to the UK in August and having compared the prices, it was a no-brainer – prices in Argentina are still through the roof and what I was after would have set me back around $900 in Buenos Aires. I set myself a budget of £250 ($325 +/-) and stuck with it. After all, I was replacing a high-end gaming machine in our living room, but it would simply be used for streaming services such as Netflix, YouTube, and others. But I didn’t want the most basic Celeron because I didn’t want it to struggle in higher resolutions, so I opted for a Beelink Ser 5 with the following specs:
Beelink Ser 5 Specifications
- AMD Ryzen 5 5560U
- 8GB DDR4
- NVMe 500GB
In The Beelink Box
The packaging and presentation are thoroughly professional and the box contains the following:
- Two HDMI cables – one long and one short
- Power adaptor
- VESA mounting bracket with screws
- One manual
- The mini PC
Beelink Characteristics
It’s equipped with an amazing array of ports, including:
- 4 x USB 3.0
- 1 x USB Type C
- 1 x Display Port
- 1 x HDMI
- 1 x LAN
Beelink Ser 5 Software And Performance
On reading the specs on Amazon before buying the Beelink, I was fully prepared to buy a Windows 11 license because it stated that DOS was installed. But imagine my surprise when booting it up and finding that Windows 11 Pro was preinstalled and activated! The rest was plain sailing with drivers and suchlike, so I set up the browser with all the streaming services that we use, and apart from one or two other programs, that’s all that was needed. I don’t intend to game on it and benchmarking it seems a complete waste of time because it streams everything that we require without missing a beat, including 4K videos.
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Excellent news Marc. Nice to see such positive results. Might get one if I need to replace that ancient monster unit in the bedroom, Mindblower!
It’s very worthwhile, Mindblower, and not expensive either.
I bought one of these units a month or so ago, but have had no luck connecting it to either my old dumb TV or my new Google TV. Do I need an external monitor (apart from the TV screen) to visualize Bluetooth connections? I’ve got a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse already, but they’ve not got much to do since the TV screen isn’t responding to them. Best I could manage was screencasting a tablet page via Chromecast. Obviously there’s a common fix I’m unaware of …. isn’t there??
Jonathan
Do either of those TVs have an HDMI port? If not, I don’t know how you are going to connect the mini-PC.
Both TVs have HDMI ports, even the 20-year-old dumb one. I’ve tried plugging the mini-PC into both of them on the smart TV, with no results. Which is why I’m wondering if I need a separate monitor during the process … whatever the process is! The mini works fine connected to my desktop, the Windows 11 spash screen comes up and the OS functions perfectly well. Since posting here I found a semi-complicated workaround online I’ll try next, hoping that’s a fix. Something about holding down a button on the remote, or pushing it 7 times in a row … haven’t memorized it yet!
Sometimes you have to check that you’ve selected the correct source on the TV, especially if has multiple HDMI ports.
Also, if you have a monitor with HDMI, that would work. If the monitor only has a VGA port, you can buy an HDMI/VGA adaptor.