KVR Audio

dellboy · Post by **dellboy** » Mon Jun 12, 2023 12:22 pm

Anyone have any experience of using one of the new tiny mini PCs that you can hold in your hand?

I am thinking of the Beelink SER5 PRO Mini PC, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H Mini Desktop 4k Video (2x HDMI), £399 on ebay and currently 15% off in the UK. But there are other makes with very decent CPUs and are upgrade-able.

Pros and Cons?

donkey tugger · Post by **donkey tugger** » Mon Jun 12, 2023 12:37 pm

I've been looking at these as well recently.

Minisforum seem to be the other major brand, and their newest one with the Ryzen 7 7735HS is just out;

https://store.minisforum.uk/collections ... 7602714902

About £80 more but with newer, faster CPU and DDR5 ram;

This was a comparison I did on Passmark between the Ryzen mobile CPUs which are in these mini PCs;

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/51 ... n-9-6900HX

dellboy · Post by **dellboy** » Mon Jun 12, 2023 1:14 pm

donkey tugger wrote: Mon Jun 12, 2023 12:37 pm I've been looking at these as well recently.

Minisforum seem to be the other major brand, and their newest one with the Ryzen 7 7735HS is just out;

https://store.minisforum.uk/collections ... 7602714902

About £80 more but with newer, faster CPU and DDR5 ram;

This was a comparison I did on Passmark between the Ryzen mobile CPUs which are in these mini PCs;

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/51 ... n-9-6900HX

Thanks for the link. Either of them would be more than fast enough for my needs. I am trying to think what the catch would be. These things are tiny, even smaller than a Mac Mini. It would be nice to know how quiet they run.

donkey tugger · Post by **donkey tugger** » Mon Jun 12, 2023 1:22 pm

dellboy wrote: Mon Jun 12, 2023 1:14 pm

Thanks for the link. Either of them would be more than fast enough for my needs. I am trying to think what the catch would be. These things are tiny, even smaller than a Mac Mini. It would be nice to know how quiet they run.

Also this one for £358 (with the £90 voucher);

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0B ... 1JVN&psc=1

The price I suppose is low as there's no keyboard/screen etc. You can get an ASUS 5800H laptop now new for £550 on Amazon, so it makes sense that these little PCs with the same chips cost a bit less. Not seen any horrendous reviews for any of them to be honest so far in terms of noise etc.

DNnX · Post by **DNnX** » Mon Jun 12, 2023 1:33 pm

Don't forget checking AVX capability, some of the mobile CPU are still missing it and some plugins won't work.
It took some time to find my Celeron N5105 (purchased 1.5 years ago) doesn't have AVX when I had problem.
Ryzen 5800H should be OK.

VitaminD · Post by **VitaminD** » Mon Jun 12, 2023 2:15 pm

These devices are handy if you have a large screen and want to dock the PC to the back of the monitor
or
If you want to run the device without a monitor.

I've been using a cheap Beelink as a sound module periodically. I have the synth software set to auto load upon bootup of the OS with the midi set to the keyboard. So it is always ready to go.

My primary concerns would be that it is made by a Chinese company (support) and also it is so tiny I wonder about longevity over time (due to heat). I wouldn't trust it as my primary computer though. It's a throwaway device.

A laptop with a dock might be another option to consider.

Mini PC for music making