Beelink Mini S12 Pro Mini PC, Intel 12th Gen N100 (4C/4T, up to 3.4GHz), 16GB DDR4, 500GB SSD, Desktop Computer Support Dual HDMI 4K@60Hz, WiFi 6, BT5.2, NAS, Low Power

My old plex server died and I needed a replacement. The beelink showed up and had zero issues setting up windows, even connected to a network. I installed Avast antivirus and threw Plex server on there. In about an hour I was streaming test content via plex. This little guy has zero issues with 480p DVD quality streaming. I also tested up to 1080p and that was fine (although sometimes a noticeable few seconds, <5, to buffer). Most of my collection is ripped DVDs so that's fine. It totally choked on a 4K stream attempt. Don't buy this if you want to stream 4K. A single 480 plex stream uses about 25% of the CPU. I usually stream to a single TV so that's perfect. It should work ok for ~3 streams but I haven't maxed it out yet. All my data is going in an external drive caddy that connects via USB. I have not yet configured it to also work as a file server using windows 11 but see no major roadblocks. Its a standard windows 11 install. For my use case this little device was cheap, easy to setup and seems to work perfectly. We'll see how it holds up in the long run.

Bought the 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD version. Good quality and design, very quiet and reliable. Surprisingly it shipped with Windows 11 Pro, nice to be able to use Microsoft Remote Desktop to manage it. I added a 2TB SATA SSD and upgraded the RAM to 32GB. Installed Plex Media Server, it's a perfect media center computer without spending much. Almost pure Intel in terms of internal components, so it'll be easy to maintain. It's easy to open the case and work on. Not screaming fast but it's not slow either. Perfect for basic desktop productivity too. I highly recommend this Beelink mini PC, it has a lot of bang for the buck.

I found out Plex requires you to be fully online to work. Had it running on my Nvidia Shield. I bought this to be a server for my home multimedia library using Jellyfin and it exceeded expectations. It's small and lightweight, quiet, runs really well, and has so far handled everything I've thrown at it (1080p and 4K video streams). It even has a generous SDD. I was also pleasantly surprised that Windows 11 was preinstalled on this $150 machine. I'm running Ubuntu on it, but the fact that I can dual boot Windows if I need to is a plus. I would recommend this completely to anyone wanting to run a Jellyfin server for their media.

This PC works well for non-compute intensive tasks such as web browsing, spreadsheets, text writing, 2D image editing. It does not do well with high CPU requirements like online 3D gaming (the max framerate is way too slow) or high-end computation like 3D image rendering. There is what I'd call weak tech support available from a public message website, but not all postings get answered. The ones that do seem to be about 90% effective, but it's not unusual for people to have to resolve their own problems. Overall I'm glad I switched from my former desktop PC (with an i5 CPU) because this unit is really very small, quiet, and uses far less power. I didn't realize how annoying the fan noise from my old PC actually was - the Mini is totally silent and that is a much greater benefit than I expected. I do a fair amount of 3D computation, and I do miss the CPU power my old machine had - but you get what you pay for. The fact that it's made in China and not in the US does bug me a bit - but we all live in the real world.

I got it to handle many webcams with OBS for Twitch/Youtube. It is replacing a Raspberry Pi. More powerful than I thought it would be. - Handles 2x 1440p monitors well - Handles many OBS webcams well. ---- Due to bandwidth limits, you'll have trouble plugging many cameras into one USB -> Hub -<> Cameras chain. ---- you'll probably need a USB Hub per USB Port - Startup is faster than me - Browsing is snappy - Discord works well - I managed to run Docker Desktop on it. - I managed to do node development with VSCode. All of these things are complete garbage on a Raspberry Pi, despite the Raspberry Pi's claims otherwise. The cost compares reasonably to a Raspberry Pi kit. Despite this, you get more in every respect. - "Real" processor - "Real" USB - Standard HDMI - Can *actually* handle the monitor sizes it says it can - Plenty of fast storage space - Runs Windows if you want - Doesn't give you a swirly if you look at it wrong The enclosure is not even much larger than a Raspberry Pi's enclosure. It can't run Rocket League, but I wasn't really expecting it to.

Bought this to use as a hobby pc - maybe virtual machines, plex, etc. Out of the box, setup is easy. Nice small unit and runs fast. I upgraded the 500 ssd to a 2T ssd, which seems to be working fine. the ssd runs at x1, instead of of the current x4 due to limitations of the pc. But, for the price, it can't be beat. I have setup features like WOL and completed updates. The only downside I've seen is I can hear the fan occasionally, which surprised me. This won't matter since I plan to run headless in a network closet. Opening the unit for upgrades only requires four screws and easy access to the ram, ssd and 2.5 inch hard drive slot. Definitely a fun, affordable little unit capable of most home chores. I don't play games, so I can't comment on any heavy lifting, but look forward to running some virtual machines on the unit.

Fantastic mini PC for a home server. I’m really happy with the speed, overall performance, and size of it. It’s a little louder than my old mini PC, but isn’t noticeable and the increase in efficiency and performance is worth it.

I had high expectations for this product which were later made perfect with reinstalling the unit with TrueNAS. Since I was able to install something which made this product work well, I'm giving it a 3 star. If you lack the ability to install a better OS, you may want to rethink your purchase. My hardware configuration is the 2gb boot drive which this comes with plus 4 x 4tb crucial M2 drives. I will be using this in a RAID5 configuration (~12gb usable space). It comes with Windows 10 HOME. This OS is already obsolete out of the box and is not meant for this kind of product. I had all kinds of issues attempting to even get this installed. The screen which sets a windows PIN was blank and seems that it's a fairly common Windows 10 issue. I was able to get around this by turning on the audio assistance and using tab to navigate around using a picture I found in google on another computer to show me what I was looking at virtually. Since this is Windows 10 HOME, there is no way to remote into it once set up. If you want to manage it, you'll need to have it connected to a keyboard, mouse and a monitor. This is something important to remember! In addition, you are using windows to pool the drives then share them out as a SMB device. Windows file shares are definitely not the best performing option out there. When I was performing 4 copies at the same time, the unit dropped all connections. I had it plugged into my 1gig office switch and the best throughput I could achieve was around 40mb. Windows 10 is end of life. There are no security patches available any more for it. And the HOME version of any windows really shouldn't be used for a product like this. However, I really liked the hardware design on this; I believe it's well thought out. I was considering sending it back until another tech friend of mine said he read people were installing TrueNAS on them. I created a USB boot drive with TrueNAS, set up BIOS to boot to USB and installed it. Once I got everything configured and running in TrueNAS I am now recognizing true gb performance and am satisfied with the unit. The unit itself extremely quiet. I can say that it seems to kick out a lot of heat. I guess time will tell if I blow any drives with it. But I think the tower cooling style was well thought out. I wish I had the suggestion of installing TrueNAS on it out of the gate, I would have saved a lot of time screwing around with it. Knowing this, I would by it again. Before purchasing this unit, I would either know how to install and configure TrueNAS or know someone that can help you out. It's a nice little box but just needs a little work to get it running well.