Beelink SER9 HX-370 mini PC review

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Beelink SER9 HX-370: 30-second review

The Beelink SER9 HX-370 mini PC is 1 of a caller procreation of mini PCs that battalion larger desktop capacity into a mini shape factor. This exemplary has been designed astir AI applications, pinch an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX-370 processor astatine its bosom pinch nan processor boasting an awesome 12 cores and 24 threads. On paper, this each looks impressive, but it's only erstwhile you powerfulness up Adobe's Premiere Pro that you commencement to spot conscionable really well-equipped this caller exertion is for handling dense computing tasks. The onboard Radeon RX Vega 8 graphics provides plentifulness of graphics processing for imaginative work, but moreover pinch nan heft of nan processor, nan latest games, while smooth, deficiency immoderate of nan punch and smoothness of visuals that you expect from a larger system.

While small, nan SER9 HX-370 still offers plentifulness of options erstwhile it comes to connectivity, including Wi-Fi 6E and a bully action of USB 3.2 ports, though immoderate are a small dated. For some imaginative and agency workers, nan truth that it besides supports 3 4K displays via HDMI 2.1, DP and USB4 makes it a awesome prime if surface existent property is important.

The CPU and GPU are good specified for a mini PC and nan powerfulness that nan proviso is boosted by nan inclusion of a caller procreation AMD XDNA 2 NPU that introduces AI acceleration. This NPU spot tin beryllium utilized by applications designed for usage pinch AI arsenic good arsenic enabling  machine learning and heavy learning tasks. So if you want to delve into nan world of TensorFlow aliases a akin platform, this could beryllium a awesome starting point.

The SER9 HX-370 has galore appealing features considering its mini size; however, nan features and capacity travel astatine a premium. The value is astatine nan higher extremity for nan best mini PCs we've reviewed, and nan shape facet will, of course, limit early upgrade options. 

Beelink SER9 HX-370: Price and availability

• How overmuch does it cost?  $1249
• When is it out? Now
• Where tin you get it? Widely available

The Beelink SER9 HX-370 is priced astatine $999 and $1,249, depending connected nan prime of soul SSD (500GB aliases 1TB SSD). It’s disposable straight from Beelink’s website by clicking here and done online retailers.

• Value: 4 / 5

Beelink SER9 HX-370: Specs

Beelink SER9 HX-370: Design

The Beelink SER9 HX-370 measures conscionable 136mm x 136mm x 50mm, and contempt its premium build, high-end processor, and features, its sleek, high-quality creation is somewhat understated. A adjacent inspection of nan exterior reveals that nan main all-metal lawsuit is elegantly designed, providing an instant premium feel. The weight, astatine 819g, while not dense by immoderate standards, is simply a spot much important than your mean mini PC.

The casing — front, sides, and apical — is made from a azygous portion of metal, pinch nan guidelines and backmost constructed from grey plastic, each of which is good vanished and gives nan belief that nan instrumentality is robust capable to grip carrier without issue. The exterior not only protects nan soul components but besides integrates pinch nan soul cooling system. With ample vents crossed nan backmost and an aerated base, it's evident nan casing has been engineered to negociate nan high-performance soul processor and components.

Like galore high-performance mini PCs, location are plentifulness of connectivity options. Across nan beforehand of nan machine, there's nan mini powerfulness button, CLR CMOS, 3.5mm audio jack, USB Type-C 10Gbps, and a astonishing addition: a statement of 4 mini holes, which are portion of a dedicated microphone array. Around nan back, there’s nan DC input, USB4 40Gbps, HDMI 2.1 4K 120Hz, 3.5mm audio, USB 2.0 480Mbps, DP 1.4 4K 120Hz, LAN 2.5G, different USB 2.0 480Mbps, and a USB 3.2 10Gbps.

It’s really a spot astonishing for a exemplary that packs successful premium features to clasp backmost connected immoderate connectivity options, particularly pinch only a azygous USB4 port, which limits you to a azygous ultra-fast retention action and arsenic it stands moreover pinch this azygous USB4 larboard nan instrumentality itsefl isn't optimsed for usage pinch an eGPU.

• Design: 4 / 5

Beelink SER9 HX-370: Features

While mini PCs are, by their very nature, compact, nan number of features they tin battalion into their mini forms is often impressive. Leading nan features for nan SER9 is nan AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX370 Processor, which uses AMD’s latest Zen 5 architecture, pinch a 12-core, 24-thread setup. What distinguishes this CPU is that it has been optimized for AI-driven tasks and applications. It besides features a max boost timepiece of 5.1 GHz, making it an perfect prime for imaginative activity wherever aggravated processing of graphics, images, and video is crucial.

The AI acceleration for nan CPU comes via nan NPU, a dedicated Neural Processing Unit AMD XDNA 2 NPU, which delivers 80 AI TOPS. For applications capable to leverage AI-enhanced workloads, there’s a noticeable boost successful capacity complete much accepted processing, arsenic we've seen pinch Adobe apps and nan advancements successful video editing, 3D design, and processing.

As standard, nan instrumentality comes pinch 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM, clocked astatine 7500MHz, which should suffice for astir tasks. Unlike astir mini PCs, however, this RAM is integrated and cannot beryllium upgraded.

Regarding graphics, nan Ryzen CPU is paired pinch an AMD Radeon 890M, featuring 16 Compute Units and a timepiece velocity of 2900MHz. This GPU is much than capable for astir imaginative and high-intensity applications, but gamers whitethorn find it a small limiting. While nan SER9 does person a USB4 port, it is not optimized for usage pinch an eGPU, truthful nan soul graphics will apt beryllium nan champion action available.

In position of storage, this is an area wherever nan SER9 really stands retired compared to different mini PCs. While you tin connect ultra-fast outer SSDs, location are 2 PCIe 4.0 x4 slots for SSD storage, supporting up to 8TB of soul storage. Our reappraisal type included a 1TB Crucial PCIe SSD, which proved to beryllium highly fast.

As pinch astir high-performance mini PCs, soul cooling is simply a important consideration. Beelink has designed nan MSC2.0 cooling system, which uses a vapor chamber, a silent fan, and an SSD heatsink to negociate nan temperatures that tin emergence nether dense workloads.

When it comes to show options, nan SER9 is tin of utilizing 1 aliases each 3 different show larboard options to support up to 3 4K displays. These options are HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, and nan USB4 ports. For connectivity, speech from nan 2.5Gb wired LAN connection, nan strategy features Wi-Fi 6 (Intel AX200) and Bluetooth 5.2.

On nan audio side, location are 2 3.5mm audio ports, 1 connected nan beforehand and different connected nan backmost for headphone aliases a mic. Interestingly location are besides built-in dual speakers which is again an different action for this type of mini PC. Another interesting, and rather unsocial audio characteristic are nan front-facing microphones.  These alteration AI-powered sound interaction, providing smart audio pickup for sound bid nickname for different tasks.

• Features: 4.5 / 5

Beelink SER9 HX-370: Performance

The SER9 HX-370 is simply a high-performance mini PC, and that's evident from nan outset, pinch Microsoft Office apps and utilizing Google Docs done nan browser, each moving astatine velocity pinch nary slowdown aliases issues. This instrumentality decidedly has processing power, and arsenic you move betwixt applications, that velocity really becomes apparent.

Benchmark results show that nan Beelink SER9 HX-370 offers coagulated all-round capacity for agency tasks, imaginative work, and immoderate gaming, acknowledgment to nan AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX370 processor, 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and integrated AMD Radeon 890M graphics.

In mundane tasks, nan machine's capacity was reflected successful nan benchmarks, pinch a Geekbench CPU Single people of 14,728 and a PCMark people of 7,205. These scores bespeak good pinch nan existent world usage of applications specified arsenic Microsoft Word, Excel, and Google Docs (Through Chrome).

For imaginative applications for illustration Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, nan instrumentality easy handled aggregate RAW files from nan Sony A7 IV and Canon EOS R5 C, pinch this capacity again reflected successful nan Geekbench Compute people of 42,770. Switching to Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve for immoderate 4K video editing, nan instrumentality again impressed pinch speed, though nan 1TB SSD was a small mini and a Samsung EVO T5 was utilized to grow connected nan capacity done nan USB4 port. However, location was besides nan action to upgrade nan soul retention to an awesome 8 TB, which again is rather a unsocial characteristic for a instrumentality of this size. The easy handling of video editing was reflected successful nan Cinebench CPU Multi people of 21,718 and Cinebench CPU Single people of 2,045.

To genuinely trial nan performance, a fewer games were tried, including Hogwarts Legacy, Tekken 8, and Red Dead Redemption 2. Again, nan mini instrumentality impressed, though it's unfortunate that nan strategy hasn't been optimised for usage pinch an outer GPU. Still, pinch nan AMD Radeon RX Vega 8, capacity was impressive, pinch each games moving smoothly, though immoderate flimsy reductions successful value settings to astir mean were necessary. The 3DMark scores (Fire Strike Graphics: 10,256, Time Spy Graphics: 3,666, Fire Strike Overall: 9,384, and Wild Life: 23,206) each bespeak nan system’s coagulated gaming performance.

Another constituent to statement connected nan capacity is nan velocity of nan soul SSD. In nan benchmark trial utilizing CrystalDiskMark, nan people showed read/write speeds of 5175.50 MB/s and 4751.30 MB/s. This is highly accelerated and perfect for immoderate exertion that requires precocious velocity disk access.

Overall, nan capacity of nan Beelink SER9 HX-370 is impressive, easy handling agency applications and taking connected processor-intensive imaginative tasks. While nan instrumentality was capable to grip gaming smoothly, nan champion gameplay was achieved pinch mean schematic settings, but for a mini PC, this is highly impressive.

• Performance: 5 / 5

Beelink SER9 HX-370: Final verdict

The Beelink SER9 HX-370 is simply a powerful mini PC that combines compact size pinch desktop-level performance. Ideal for gaming, imaginative applications, and dense multitasking, it offers exceptional worth for its price. While its gamer-centric creation mightiness not entreaty to everyone, its capacity and versatility make it a standout choice.

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