Can you run SDR on low-end Mini-PC? Yes, you can, but benchmarks are deceptive. Let’s dig into the details.

Recently, I began exploring a Windows 11 Mini-PC alternative for my radio room computer. To get started, I bought a cheap Beelink Mini S for CDN$205. According to several benchmark sites, the Intel N100 on the Mini-PC performed about the same as the i5-4670 on my existing desktop.

But a CPU rating is not the same as overall system performance, as I confirmed.

You can see the results of my initial testing above. Running SDRconnect on the Desktop saw 15-20% CPU utilization, but 55-60% on the Mini-PC. Results for SmartSDR were similar, with 40-50% CPU utilization on the Mini-PC versus 12-15% on the i5.

Now, to be fair, both SDRconnect and SmartSDR ran just fine on the N100 Mini-PC, but with a lot more computer effort. Given the performance similarities of each CPU, why the difference?

Partly because the Desktop had dual channel RAM versus single channel RAM on the Mini-PC. And, even though the turbo CPU speed on the Mini-PC was similar to the i5 (3.8 GHZ), the effective speed on the Beelink was slower. Another factor, I think, was the Radeon graphics card on the old Desktop, versus the integrated Intel UHD graphics on the Mini-PC which slows things down by sharing RAM and not offloading DSP calculations.

SDR on Low-End Mini-PC Food for Thought

So, I do not recommend running your SDR software on a low-end Mini-PC. Consider moving upscale with a Ryzen 7 CPU and integrated Radeon Vega 8 graphics. A Mini-PC in this range will have 3-4X CPU power and 5X GPU power as my current desktop, and cost maybe twice as much as the low-end Beelink I was trying.

By the way, unboxing and setting up the Beelink Mini S went just fine. Windows 11 Pro needed updating, but the little PC works just fine in the office for business applications, browsing and video streaming. I am satisfied.