[Device Reviews and Information] Jupit3r:
Performance

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The SER5 Pro comes with the AMD Ryzen5-5600H processor, which runs at a 3.30 GHz base frequency and can increase its speed to 4.20 GHz in turbo mode. It bundles six Zen3 CPU cores, twelve threads, 16MB L3 Cache, and has a TDP of 35 Watts. The SoC handles the graphics part too, you’ll get a very capable AMD Radeon Vega7 iGPU running at 1800MHz. There’s also 16GB/32GB dual-channel memory to deal with big applications and multi-tasking, and 500GB NVMe SSD to store all your files.

Benchmarks

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In terms of performance, the SER5 Pro is a beast. It handily beat both varaints of the Intel NUC 11 Pro in Geekbench 5.4.1 and the Cinebench R23 CPU crunching tests.

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PCMark 10 is a holistic performance suite developed by the PC benchmark specialists at UL (formerly Futuremark). We use it to assess overall system performance in different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows like word processing, spreadsheet jockeying, web browsing, and videoconferencing. The test generates a proprietary numeric score, and higher numbers are better. The 5797-point finish from the SER5 Pro is well above the 4,000 points we consider excellent, and it's a very respectable showing for a PC this small.

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3DMark measures relative graphics muscle by rendering sequences of highly detailed, gaming-style 3D graphics that emphasize particles and lighting. I ran three different 3DMark subtests on the SER5 Pro: Sky Diver, Fire Strike, and Time Spy, which are suited to different types of systems. Time Spy is a DirectX 12 benchmark which tests how well a system can handle DirectX 12 games. The other two are both DirectX 11 benchmarks, but Sky Diver is more suited to slim laptops and midrange PCs, while Fire Strike is more demanding and made for high-end PCs to strut their stuff. The SER5 Pro scored 1417 in Time Spy, 3636 in Fire Strike, and 13327 in Sky Diver. The NUC 11 Pro i7, which features the Intel Iris Xe EU96 iGPU, achieved better results in all three subtests, but the Intel NUC 11 Pro i5, which comes with the Intel Iris Xe EU80, scored lower than the SER5 Pro in Fire Strike and Sky Diver.

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The 500GB Kingston solid-state drive used by the mini PC proved to have good reading and writing data speeds, although I did have seen better. Still, the SSD allows us to boot into Windows in less than 10 seconds, and offers more than enough speed for everyday office duties, lightweight content creation, and moderate gaming.

Content Creation

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With such a beefy processor and plenty of RAM inside, the SER5 Pro obviously has no problem of seeing us through common home and office tasks. This mini PC is also quite capable when dealing with relatively demanding creativity workflows.

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Editing 4K videos in Power Director, the SER5 Pro stayed fast and responsive even when I was adding some complex effects and renders to the raw footages. Producing a 10 minute high-bitrate 4K video via software encoding, the SER5 took 28 minutes, 9 seconds, while the Intel NUC 11 Pro (i7-1165G7 variant) took 41 minutes, 44 seconds. After I switched to hardware encoding, the SER5 took 6 minutes, 1 second to finish the task, while the NUC spent 5 minutes, 30 seconds. Even though I used the exact same setting for both mini PCs, including the bitrate of the output video, the SER5 Pro finished the task with a much bigger video file than it was commanded to.

During the video production (hardware encoding), the CPU utilization of the NUC 11 Pro stayed above 70%, and even hit 100% sometimes. The CPU utilization of the Beelink SER5, on the other hand, stayed below 50%, allowing users to work with other applications efficiently at the same time.

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Encoding the same video clip in Handbrake, the SER5 took 1 minute, 56 seconds, while the NUC 11 Pro i7 took 2 minutes, 37 seconds.

Gaming

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For an integrated GPU, the AMD Radeon Vega 7 in the SER5 Pro is quite capable. Running League of Legend at 1080P and medium quality setting, the average frame rate was 117 fps, even when I switched to 4K and high settings, the game still averaged 67 fps.

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Genshin Impact was also playable at 1080P and medium setting, I saw an average of 47 fps, and didn’t notice any stutters or hiccups even in those intense fighting scenes. Switching to low quality setting will improve the smoothness to 55 fps.

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Conqueror’s Blade has proven to be a little too challenging for the SER5 Pro. At 1080P and medium quality setting, the average frame rate was only 28 fps, and there will be noticeable frameskip and delays in intensive battle scenes. Switching to 720P and low setting could bump up the average frame rate to 41 fps, but it was still only playable.

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These results mean the SER5 Pro should be able to deal with reasonably intense graphic workloads without grinding to a halt. But if you want to game in the highest possible settings and still get a fair chance against other players, you will need to look elsewhere.

Video Playback

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Video codec support is one of the few areas that AMD Radeon iGPUs lag behind their Intel counterparts. According to DXVA checker, the Iris Xe Graphics iGPU can support many more video formats of up to 4K and 8K than the Radeon Vega 7. With that said, the SER5 Pro managed to play all of the 4K videos I threw at it smoothly.

Streaming YouTube videos in Chrome was also a fun and smooth experience, including all 4K@60fps and most 8K@30fps videos.

Stability, power consumption and noise

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Not only is the Beelink SER5 Pro is powerful for its size, it’s also very stable. Although the AMD Ryzen5-5600H processor inside is extremely fast and can reach high frequencies when necessary, the cooling system inside the mini PC is super effective. Besides the high-speed cooling fan, there’re also copper pipes inside to help keep temperatures at bay. In the 3DMark Time Spy stress test, the SER5 Pro scored an amazing 100%, the best result I’ve seen in any laptop or mini PC.

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Fortunately, the SER5 Pro’s incredible performance doesn’t result in high power consumption. The power draw was only 3-4 watts at idle, and around 47 watts at maximum. Unlike many other small form-factor computers, the SER5 Pro is also very quiet. It made almost no noise when dealing with relatively lightweight tasks, and even in some benchmark tests, where the hardware was stressed to its limit, the fan noise was still quite tamed.

Verdict

The Beelink SER5 Pro is a well-rounded choice for a mini desktop. It has a small chassis that allows it to fit almost anywhere, plenty of ports for all kinds of external devices, superb networking, ample pep to complete all kinds of computing duties without lag, and efficient cooling to keep it running stably for a long period of time. The $469 starting price also seems decent for a model with 16GB dual-channel memory, 500GB NVMe SSD and a licensed copy of Windows 11 Pro. All told, the Beelink SER5 Pro could be an inspirational choice for anyone who wants a small computer for their everyday tasks.