Two months ago, I purchased my first mini-pc, a Beelink S12. So, how well does it perform in my home office?

Pretty well, as it turns out for a low-end CDN$200 computer with an Intel N100, 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD. I had two objectives when buying this tiny box. First, was to experiment with Windows 11 and Microsoft 365, for which I had no experience. Second, to see how well it could run a few SDR applications.

If you want some details on the Beelink, check this short video. One of the reasons I selected this first mini-pc is that the CPU had similar characteristics to my four core Radio computer, and slightly below my Main PC. I ran Cinebench on all three machines and here are the results:

As you can see, the Beelink should have similar performance to my existing Radios PC. But, as noted earlier, when I ran some SDR software on the Beelink, it experienced much higher CPU load. While the programs worked fine, I think this low-end mini-pc would struggle with multiple radio applications running at the same time.

However, for typical home office uses, it’s great. Performance is snappy for web browsing, downloading, streaming and running Microsoft 365 Office suite. If that’s your primary use case, the Beelink S12 really performs well. It will also do moderately complex CAD and simulation.

My First Mini-PC – How It’s Made

One of my concerns about buying such a cheap PC is about reliability and durability. So far, so good. But I really need to give it a year or so.

I found a great video online showing the entire production process for how Beelink manufactures its computers. This 22 minute video is a fascinating eye-opener into Chinese electronics manufacturing. Watch the Video

For $CDN200, this might be a great deal for your home office. Plus, there are many more choices online.