I switched my $1000 desktop for a $300 mini PC and be apologetic about nothing
Earlier this one year, I impulse-sold a exiguous, inexpensive desktop PC for research functions. I didn’t ask it to alter my total computing setup.
But right here I am now, the usage of the $300 Beelink SER5 Mini PC as my day to day workhorse, powering an ultrawide 1440p 100Hz visual display unit and smoothly facing any productivity job I’ve thrown at it. This little computer has been so scrumptious to use that I’ve relegated my tubby-sized desktop tower PC to the basement tv, where it’s now serving completely as a gaming rig.
Rob into legend this a lesson on technological overkill. Out of doorways of some specialised use circumstances, the desired compute vitality for getting issues carried out can also simply be loads decrease than you ponder.
This yarn first regarded in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Impress in to be taught modern tech suggestions each Tuesday.
Additional studying: 5 reasons to fetch a mini PC pretty than a computer
Sizing up the mini PC
Beelink sells an array of minute computer programs, but the one I sold currently charges $359 with the following specs:
- AMD Ryzen 5 6600H processor
- 16GB of RAM (DDR4)
- 512GB of storage (M.2 NVMe)
- Windows 11 Pro
- Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
- Entrance ports: Two USB-A 3.2, one USB-C, 3.5mm audio
- Rear ports: One USB-A 3.0, one USB-A 2.0, two HDMI 2.0, gigabit ethernet
Jared Newman / Foundry
Jared Newman / Foundry
Jared Newman / Foundry
Spec-fascinating, right here is roughly on par with laptops within the $500 to $700 designate fluctuate, with the exception of obviously you’ll need to produce your individual mouse, keyboard, and screen. The 5×5-race frame is exiguous sufficient to score up with one hand, and it comes with VESA brackets for mounting the computer to the reduction of a visual display unit or tv.
Additional studying: The correct monitors we’ve examined
The Beelink SER5 also hides a neat feature on its underside: Casting off the underside plate unearths a slot for a 2.5-race storage force. I sold a 1TB solid suppose force to retailer all my OneDrive files locally, and the PC acknowledged it without conducting. (The tool’s RAM and M.2 storage force are upgradeable as neatly.)
There’s room for a 2.5-race SSD within the underside hide.
There’s room for a 2.5-race SSD within the underside hide.
Jared Newman / Foundry
There’s room for a 2.5-race SSD within the underside hide.
Jared Newman / Foundry
Jared Newman / Foundry
The draw in which it fares
Going in, my notion become to in brief mess around with the SER5’s default Windows 11 Pro installation earlier than going reduction to my regular desktop for work. Even supposing I didn’t use the mini PC on a fashioned basis, I figured it’d be in fact helpful for experimenting with other working programs corresponding to Linux or Chrome OS Flex.
Within the live, the transition to day to day work become so seamless that I by no manner went reduction to my old computer the least bit.
As a tech journalist, my work most ceaselessly involves writing in Obsidian, chatting in Slack with colleagues (and my newsletter readers), juggling a pair of dozen browser tabs in Brave, and attending video calls in Zoom or Google Meet. The Beelink SER5 dealt with all these initiatives without ever noticeably slowing down, and it’s unparalleled quieter than the tubby-sized desktop I’d been the usage of earlier than.
I threw some extra ambitious initiatives on the mini PC as neatly, corresponding to digitizing some old VHS tapes, recording streaming video sources via PlayOn House, and working a Plex media server. Even with Plex’s industrial detection and PlayOn’s recording engine working within the background, I persevered to work without any noticeable performance setbacks.
And whereas integrated Radeon graphics are no longer any match for a dedicated graphics card, the Beelink SER5 has fared neatly as a low-live gaming tool. Yakuza Kiwami runs at a soft 60 frames per 2d on high settings at 1080p, and each Fortnite and the publish-apocalyptic cat simulator Stray are playable at 1080p with framerates closer to 30 frames per 2d. I’ve also frail it to play less-demanding games corresponding to the Quake II remaster and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, whereas leaning on Nvidia’s GeForce Now for extra intensive fare.
All this resulted in a realization that my hulking desktop PC become lawful wasting space whereas also being excessively loud and vitality-intensive, and after a pair weeks I moved it out of my office for simply. I gave it a factory reset, configured it completely for gaming within the basement, and now most reasonable possible flip it on as wanted.
Lesson learned
Jared Newman / Foundry
Jared Newman / Foundry
Jared Newman / Foundry
When hunting for computer programs, it’s continuously tempting to preserve for every attainable use case, each staunch and perceived, now and in due direction.
The Beelink SER5 is a reminder that we’ve reached a point of diminishing returns for most computing use circumstances. Despite having lawful a mid-fluctuate processor (one designed for laptops, at that), I become by no manner hunting for extra vitality or wishing I’d splurged on a pricier computer.
But mostly, I’m lawful contented to beget a quieter office and a bigger residing for the gaming PC that as soon as occupied it.
This yarn first regarded in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Impress in to be taught modern tech suggestions each Tuesday.
Author: Jared Newman, Contributor
Jared has been a freelance technology journalist for extra than 15 years and is a fashioned contributor to PCWorld, Rapid Company, and TechHive, where he’s written a weekly wire-cutting back column since 2014. His Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter has extra than 30,000 subscribers, and his Advisorator tech advice newsletter is be taught by almost 10,000 of us each week. Jared has a grasp’s level in journalism from NYU and makes a speciality of establishing complex tech issues easy to esteem, from streaming and wire-cutting back to neat apps and in fact helpful tech suggestions. He is basically based completely mostly in Cincinnati, OH.
