Beelink EQI13 13420H Mini PC

I bought the i5-1235U model. I wanted a low power, compact, yet powerful mini-PC so I could run Proxmox and multiple virtual machines and LXC containers. I was able to easily load Proxmox 7.4 and upgrade to the Linux 6.2.6 kernel without issue. All hardware was recognized, and no hassle or driver issues. I did replace the NVMe SSD (which BTW, they use Kingston which is a very good brand, so kudos!) with a larger 1TB Samsung 980 Pro. Disassembling the case was not terribly hard, but a little tedious to get the fan and heatsink assembly out.Internally the PC is very premium. They put a thermal pad on the m.2 SSD, and the fan assembly has a large heat spreader that presses against the SSD. This should really help with SSD longevity. There is space and a connector for a SATA 2.5" SSD, in case you need extra storage. The WiFi card uses the m.2 A+E key, so you could in theory remove the WiFi card and install a Google Coral TPU. Those have a massive lead time, so I can't vouch that those cards work in this mini-PC but it should.I have a few minor nitpicks:1) Lack of 2.5Gbps NIC. Intel 2.5Gbps NICs have a history of problems, so maybe use Realtek or something.2) Needs more USB-C ports that are 10Gbps or faster3) The fabric top is baffling. Makes for cleaning and removing dust extremely hard. It needs to be solid plastic like every other mini-PC out there.I contacted tech support to get the auto-power on instructions, which they promptly sent. Took all of 1 minute in the BIOS to change the setting. I verified auto power on works as expected.With a Home Assistant OS VM, and 5 LXC containers, the steady state power draw is 8w. This is excellent! The CPU is very powerful, so even with all these services running steady-state CPU usage is literally less than 2%.I highly recommend this mini-PC! Since the CPU is so powerful, unless you need all the horsepower you could get away with a less expensive model if you want to run Proxmox and a few VMs or containers.

I have now ordered at least a dozen of these computers over the last year and they have all worked flawlessly. They are fast with solid state drives and can support 2 4K monitors. They also have excellentcustomer service. I used to order the Intel NUC series mini computers but had several of them fail. I would recommend the Beelink brand to anyone needing a small form factor computer at a great price!

This machine has been an absolute workhorse since the day that it got dropped off. it has ran almost non-stop, barring a few "rack rebuild" and a handful of restarts.I cant speak to the performance of this device when running windows, as i wiped it almost right off the bat, but have have a very pleasant experience running both ubuntu, and Proxmox. For the past year or so, this machine has hosted my jellyfin server, a windows server 2025 vm running as a small file server, and running a low population FiveM Server, as well as my "arr" Stack (if you know) flawlessly. I also run a Debian vm with Docker/Portainer for many home lab containers, as well as Cloudflared to connect my services securely to the wider web.This machine very quickly became my main go-to server in my home lab setup. The IO is pretty good, with dual nics and HDMI, as well as pleanty of usb3. I do agree with other reviewers that this machine would be even better with 2 2.5G RJ45's as well as some more usb type C, but i still give 5 starts overall.Right now i just have a hodgepodge of computers on a shelf, and this machines size made it very easy to fit right into my existing build out, while also planning on using one of the many available 3D Print STL Files that the community has already made to print an adapter to mount this machine in a 10" rack.

After almost a year of daily use, this PC is holding up great. Fan is a bit audible if sitting up on the desktop and running things that are high CPU load, but not excessively loud or higher-pitched, like some other similar form factor builds. Main uses are web and office apps, as well as video and music streaming. The Windows installation this arrived with was not activated, so had to contact Beelink support to resolve.

I've been using these i5-12450H loaded mini-PCs this years as office workstations for basic Microsoft 365 and ERP workloads. These things are quite fast and I've had zero complaints about performance lag. Amazing how far tech has advanced in the past 2 years. Desktop towers are on the brink of obsolete.The Beelink performs as well as any that I've tried with the added bonus of not coming with highly illegal malware preloaded into a bogus Windows OS like the Ace Magician machines do (or at least did). My only knock on this one is the Display Port. I'd normally go with something that has 2 HDMI ports since the vast majority of monitors and displays used by everyday people do not have DP connections. I went with Beelink just because their reputation is solid and I could rely on them to not try to spy on my organization and sell data to ransomware outfits. I figured I would just use one of the DP to HDMI adapters out of storage and be good to go. It turns out, you can only use the DP port for your second monitor with an active DP 1.4 to HDMI 2.1 cable which is $20-40 dollars. A common DP 1.2 to HDMI 1.4 adapter does not work. This doesn't take away from the machine's performance but the exclusive port requires you to make an extra purchase if you plan on using it for a second HDMI monitor. Not to mention time lost researching the problem and losing a couple days waiting on another cable to show up. Not sure why a mini PC would need an 8K capable display port when it only produces up to 4K but there's nothing wrong with having the advanced tech if you advertise it properly and warn buyers of the requirements for adapting which most people will need to do.