Beelink Mini PC, Mini S12 Pro Intel 12th Gen 4-Core N100(up to 3.4GHz), Mini Computer 16GB DDR4 RAM 500GB SSD, Desktop PC Dual HDMI 4K UHD/Gigabit Ethernet/WiFi6/BT5.2/W-11/HTPC/W-11 Pro

Price was terrific!
I needed a Windows 11 computer because Amazon would no longer show movies or play audible books on my old Windows 7 computer, which always did just what I wanted it to do. I hate change, so I don’t like Win 11, but the computer is working just fine, especially for one in such a small package and a great price.

So Far So Good- Running the beelink as a media server with Mint 22
I picked this up to use as a low power consumption media server running plex, radarr, and sonarr.Before I booted it I took out the ssd out and replaced it with a 2tb ssd.Powered it up with mint cinnamon 22 on a bootable usb and had zero issues installing. I saw some reports of folks having issues getting wifi to work with linux. I had none at all with mint 22, worked right out of the box.No issues getting any of the softwares installed and running. Im running it without a monitor using x11vnc server. I havent done any transcoding with it yet.I have 2, 6tb sata hard drives plugged in via a docking station, originally had them plugged into the router, however (and this was 100% plex not the beelink) it was a pain getting that set up and working, so path of least resistance. Everything is running on the beelink and transfers without issue directly to the storage.So Far Im really pleased, longevity, remains to be seen… its currently doing a few days of burn in.

GREAT for running Jellyfish (or plex and Kodi) media servers
Once it sets up it runs fine. Streams video like a champ,Getting it set up? Crime, it took over 2 hours on windows updates , which is highly sketchy.If you are going to be doing anything with this to login to sites like banks, social media …. or really anything that matters? Wipe the drive and install windows clean. A pre-installed windows 11 on hardware that originated in China….bad juju. Make time to do a clean install.

Cheap alternative to Intel NUC with drawbacks
Beelink is a step up from all the Chinese no-name mini PCs. They at least have a website with things like BIOS updates. The N100 is a surprisingly powerful low power CPU/SoC based on 12th generation Intel technology. This PC is suitable for most tasks short of gaming, video editing, heavy photo editing, content creation, and other CPU/graphics heavy applications.PLUSES: It’s rather inexpensive considering the spec with 16GB DDR5, 512GB SSD, and Win11 Pro. It’s usually relative quiet despite having dual fans. The BIOS is fairly full featured and you can even control the CPU power consumption in a variety of ways as well as the operation of the fans. It’s the same size as a “short” Intel NUC but manages to squeeze in a 2.5 inch drive bay (that’s empty). Dual 2.5G ethernet is a rare feature and I can verify it connects at 2.5G and identifies as Intel (even though the chips appear to be some no-name brand). It comes in fancy almost Apple-like packaging if that’s your thing.NEGATIVES: The Windows 11 license is highly suspect. I would not use or trust the pre-installed Windows. It’s almost entirely plastic including, laughably, the M.2 SSD “heatsink” which is entirely fake. I would worry about the longevity of the tiny proprietary case and CPU fans especially in 24×7 operation. You also have to pull the motherboard to gain access to the CPU fan (also true of Intel NUCs). I haven’t removed the motherboard. Many N100 mini PCs are fanless and even many of the Intel i3 NUCs don’t need to run their fan when idle. But, due to the all plastic enclosure, the EQ12 needs its fans even at idle even and even with the most power efficient settings in BIOS. Unlike a 12th gen or later NUC, there’s no Thunderbolt. They arguably spent too much money on the packaging and not enough on the hardware.I bought this for use as a pfSense firewall/router due to the dual 2.5G ethernet ports. I can verify it does seem to run pfSense but the dual fans likely won’t last long in any 24/7 application.For light occasional use as a desktop PC the EQ12 should work fine if you put your own operating system on it or don’t mind a sketchy version of Windows 11 with potential licensing problems, unwanted software, potential malware, etc.

Estoy feliz, inmediatamente le instale Debian Linux 12 y CasaOS (no puedo reseñar su windows de fabrica)Debian linux detecto todo, incluso el Plex detecta la “aceleradora de video” para transcodificar.Le agrege un ssd interno de 2.5 y un disco externo para mas capacidad.ocupa poco espacio y solo necesita un cable de red y la energia.

Automatic Repair Loop and Incorrect Password when Trying to Access Anything in Advanced Options.I have been using this for very few time for over a year, and I have experienced an issue that many people also had too. I was updating some of my drivers from a third-party software that was reliable and restarted my system like usual when it began to send me into an automatic repair loop. I kept restarting it several times to see whether it will change anything and nothing. I tried to go through “Advanced Options” to see whether I could try to go to “Command Prompt” or some of the other options to get around the issue. Every time that I click on these options, it prompts to a message that I need to type in the password for my account to access the option. Essentially, I would always get an incorrect password error every time I typed my password in. I know that I typed the password correctly because I had my password saved in a password manager, looked at the password several times, and the keyboard layout was “US”. I even changed my password for my account and signed in into the Microsoft website with the new password and typed it all correctly. However, when I tried to type in the new password on my laptop, it gave me the incorrect password message again. I restarted once more and got the same results. There’s no way that I kept typing it incorrectly because I looked at it several times and even checked to make sure “caps lock” isn’t on and also “num lock”. Nothing changed from there. I looked on YouTube to find solutions and go through BIOS or whatever to diagnose the issue and either nothing came up, or it failed to detect the issue. I had essentially tried everything and there was an option for “Startup Setting” where I could try to disable something to see whether that was the problem. That option initially wouldn’t require me to use my password to sign in because I had to restart my device to disable a setting, but it would always send me to a black screen for essentially hours. Nothing happened and I had to physically hold down the power button to force shut down the thing again. I really need to find out what could possibly be the issue here.