Beelink SER5 Pro Mini PC Review - Initial thoughts

I recently decided to purchase a new PC to replace my Lenovo desktop tower that was about 9 years old. I still liked the Lenovo but it was starting to get sluggish and freeze up under normal use. The current mini PC's are much faster and they are very affordable so I figured it was about time for a replacement. 

After doing research I decided to go with a Beelink SER5 Pro mini PC. It has a Ryzen 7 processor, 500GB storage, and 32GB of RAM. Overall cost about $300.

When it arrived, I was surprised how small the box was. It is amazing that a computer replacing a big desktop tower can be so small and it still has plenty of ports for connections. 

Setup and updates did not go as smooth as I would have liked. It had trouble updating to the newest version of Windows 11 so I had to go directly to the Microsoft site and download an installer to help and that worked. Then it said the Radeon drivers did not match so I had to update those.  

Upon using it for a while, I noticed that even though the PC was pretty quiet at idle, the fan would rev high whenever I would open a program or perform a simple action. It felt like the computer was stressing more than it should be for simple applications.

I did a bunch of research on adjusting the fan settings as many other people had mentioned the same issue. Finally I found the solution which was to go into the processor power management settings and move the "Maximum processor state" down from 100% to 99%. This made a huge difference and now the PC is much quieter and the fan does not rev up and down like before.

Overall the performance seems to be pretty good. It starts up and shuts down pretty fast and runs programs pretty well.  

One thing I don't really like is Windows 11. It is new to me, but so far I have found it not very easy to use or at least, it has quirks or limitations that make it not user friendly. For example the scroll wheels on everything are too thin and seem to want to hide all the time. I have adjusted settings and looked for ways to fix this but so far, none have helped without going deep into modifying registry settings which I don't want to do. 

Simple actions such as viewing programs installed seem to require more clicks that necessary and it is not intuitive to get to them. Reaching simple buttons such as a power button requires several clicks and mouse pans to get to it. 

There seem to be several different ways to get to similar settings such as power settings, and when adjusting one, it will modify and limit the other and since they are in different places, this makes it confusing. 

Some security settings are turned off by default and it is not clear as to why or what effect they have on the system. I found myself having to do tons of research online just to figure out what all these setting are for. 

Despite the initial struggle of getting started and the learning curve of Windows 11, overall I am pleased with the system. I will update this review later with more details over time to see how it performs in the long run.

Amazon is Pretty Amazing

I don't order stuff online that often, but recently I placed a couple orders on Amazon and was extremely impressed. First I was searching for a new computer. After doing a bunch of research I decided to place an order. It was about 8pm. I didn't have a Prime membership, but they offered a 30 day trial for free so I decided to go with that to get the free shipping. 

Literally the next day, mid day the computer arrives at my door! It's amazing that you can pick out a specific product, place and order and in less than 24 hours it arrives. And that is with free shipping!

A few days later I decided to order a few accessories for the computer. I ordered 3 separate things. Again placed the order late in the evening. Before noon the next day they all arrived! That is pretty incredible.

It's like they have a warehouse with every product near by and have people working overnight to pick out the orders and then more people ready to deliver next day. Maybe that is actually what they have, I don't know, but whatever they are doing it is working very well.

Where I work we get a lot of deliveries from Amazon and in my experience they are not always the most reliable. For example they often don't put the packages where they are supposed to go, and often they don't speak English so that may pose additional challenges for them. But maybe it is what is necessary to fulfill these orders so fast. Yes some orders may get lost, but if most of them arrive next day instead of having to wait a week, maybe it is worth it. 

In terms of shopping on their website, I have mixed feelings. On one side, it is very easy to navigate and research products. On the other side, it seems like the website can be a little fishy when it comes to pricing. 

For example, I noticed for a lot of the items, it had a lower price listed that was only available if you have an Amazon Prime account. 

Another example, I found a mouse pad that was about $7. I decided to do a quick Google search to see if anywhere else had it cheaper. Low and behold I found a 6 pack of the same mouse pads on sale for $5, but not at another store, on Amazon itself. 

I did an exact title search on Amazon to find that listing, and nothing showed up even though it was sold by Amazon. I looked through all the results and it was not there. So somehow Google was able to find the lower price on Amazon, but Amazon could not find it on their own site. 

Despite these little quirks, I still think Amazon is amazing with how well they nailed down this online shopping and delivery experience. What a time we live in where you can order exactly what you want and have it arrive at your door the next day with free shipping!