Beelink BT3-X Windows 10 Mini PC
More Info and Purchase: https://tinyurl.com/y3fvmqkk
Blog: https://tinyurl.com/y6px9mbw
At one-time budget priced mini-PC's, in general, were underpowered, under specified and suitable mainly for use as TV streaming boxes, often with no legal operating system installed. Beelink mini-PC's have proved the exception with all the ones I have tried having proved to be perfectly usable desktop PC's. This one is no exception and rather than the usual low-end processor, runs an Intel Apollo Lake Celeron J3355 Processor with 4 GB of RAM, 64GB of onboard SSD storage, dual-band wifi, Gigabit Ethernet, and has fully legal 64bit Windows 10 Home pre-installed. Whilst this no i7, it is much more than just a TV Box and is fully capable of most desktop computing tasks with support for two displays.
In the attractive mid-market product box was the 0,51 lb, 4.53 x 4.01x 1.77" mini PC itself, a power supply with UK plug, 80mm HDMI cable, 20mm HDMI cable, VESA mounting bracket kit, and a nicely printed and well-written if rather a basic User Guide. I include a scan of the User Guide at the end of my unboxing video. Switch to full screen and pause as needed to read it.
There is no more setup required than with any other new computer. Connect the power supply and the monitor cable to your monitor and switch on. The device has twin HDMI outputs which can be used together or separately. Sadly, there is no Displayport or VGA socket. You will then be presented with the standard Windows 10 setup screen which walks you through getting the computer up and running. You will need to connect either a normal keyboard and mouse or a wireless mini keyboard with USB dongle as I did. Windows recognised the dongle at once and so all setup could be done wirelessly. Once configured you can then activate and update Windows 10 to the latest build and security version. A fully legal licensed version of Window 10 Home is pre-installed and no licence needs to be purchased.
The computer has a good range of ports and connectivity for the size and price: four USB 3.0, two HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, audio in/out, micro SD card, 5Ghz/2.4Ghz wifi, Bluetooth 4.2. There are no USB-C, or legacy micro-USB or VGA ports and no Bluetooth 5. The 64GB SSD can be expanded with the addition of an internal 2.5" SATA HDD/ SSD up to 2TB for with the included internal interface.
Many people will wish to use this as a home theatre media player and there are a host of applications to support this. The PC is silent in operation as it needs no fan and is easily small enough to blend in with other set-top box devices behind the TV and even comes with a VESA mounting bracket for this purpose. However, it is able to do much more than that and is perfectly suitable for use as a general purpose desktop computer capable of handling all but the most demanding tasks. Don’t try and use it for rendering 4K video files or high-end gaming, but for word processing, YouTube and general web browsing it is first rate. Some users may wish to replace Windows with Linux for even faster operation. Beelink produces other higher priced small footprint PCs for those that need a more powerful machine with more expansion options and indeed there is a high-end version of this machine with an Intel Core i3-5005U Processor, 8GB of RAM< and a256GB SSD available for double the price of this one.
This is an excellent mini PC and is fine for use as a dedicated single purpose device or as a powerful general-purpose PC suitable for all but the most high-end tasks.
The Good
Good price
Gigabit LAN
Dual HDMI Ports
Dual band wifi
Intel Apollo Lake Celeron Processor
Fanless
Expandable SSD/HD internal Drives
The Bad
No Displayport or VGA output
No USB-C
No Bluetooth 5
More info and purchase
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Music: YouTube Audio Library: Quincas Moreira: Selfie Stick
