Beelink M1, a mini PC with an Intel N3450

I already have quite a few mini PC reviews under my belt—I really like these things. And now another member of this large family has landed in my hands. Actually, I got two of them, but I’ll tell you about the second one another time.
To sum up the key points, this is a mini PC with an N3450 processor, 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of flash storage, an M.2 slot, 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi, and two video outputs.
And if you want the full story, with tests and a teardown, welcome to the review.

I ordered it and received it quite a while ago, and had some time to play around with it—both literally and figuratively. Now I can finally tell you about it properly.
The model name cheered me up a little: the way it’s written, it looks like MI, although it’s actually M1. At first I even thought Beelink was trying to imitate a certain well-known Chinese company :)

First, the specifications.
Operating system: Windows 10
Processor: Intel Celeron N3450, 1.1 GHz (2.2 GHz in Turbo mode)
Graphics: Intel® Intel® HD Graphics 500
Memory: 4 GB RAM + 64 GB ROM + Type: M.2 slot
Slot for an SD card up to 128 GB.
LAN — Gigabit LAN
Wi-Fi — 2.4/5 GHz
Bluetooth 4.0
Display outputs: HDMI and VGA
External interfaces: 3x USB 3.0
Audio output — 3.5 mm jack
Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 24
Weight: 250 g

The computer comes in a typical Beelink box. I’ve handled similar packaging many times and often wondered what it reminded me of. Then I happened to come across a box for an Intel processor. Of course, the packaging is a little different—there’s a version that looks even more similar—but even this one has something in common with it in terms of design.
The sides of the box have promotional information and specifications.


The packaging is sturdy, which matters when shipping from far away, but most of the contents aren’t secured inside at all. The computer itself, though, is protected underneath by a metal adapter.


As always, the bundle is excellent—something that’s become the norm for Beelink.
1. Beelink M1 mini PC
2. Power supply
3. HDMI cable of the usual length.
4. Short HDMI cable
5. VESA adapter
6. Mounting hardware
7. Manual


A quick look at the bundle.
1. HDMI cable, about 80 cm long.
2. HDMI cable, about 20 cm long—handy for mounting the computer behind a monitor.
3. Small illustrated manual
4. VESA adapter, a handy thing for mounting the computer behind a monitor. By the way, the computer runs a little cooler when installed vertically.
5,6. 12 V, 1.5 A power supply. More than enough to power the computer, a 2.5-inch hard drive, a flash drive, and something else besides. It gets warm during operation, but doesn’t overheat. Beelink used to include a 2 A power supply, but apparently decided that 1.5 A is enough. I agree with them, though.


Let’s leave the accessories aside and move on to the computer itself.
The case will look familiar to anyone who’s seen a Beelink mini PC: a simple little square box with a logo. This time, though, they’ve changed the design a bit and made the top glossy.


The dimensions are the same as before: 12 x 12 cm.


The top is very glossy, but the fine pattern makes it relatively resistant to fingerprints. Actually, no—it does show fingerprints; they’re just hard to notice. I think that’s more accurate.


Every side of the little box has something on it.
1. The power indicator LED is on the front. It’s actually set deep inside and shines through a small hole by reflection, so it’s barely noticeable.
2. On the right are several ventilation holes, an SD card slot (Beelink stays true to its traditions), and a pair of USB 3.0 ports.
3. On the back: the power button, power jack, third USB 3.0 port, HDMI output, Ethernet port, and reset button hole.
4. The left side has a significant addition: another monitor output, this time VGA.


Most of it in one photo.


There are four rubber feet on the bottom. They slide on the table, but not easily. There are also plenty of ventilation holes underneath, but there’s one problem: the holes are about 1–1.2 mm in diameter, which is too small for natural airflow. Based on experience and old reference books, I can say that holes smaller than 3–4 mm in diameter aren’t effective, so if you’re going to improve the cooling, that’s where you should start.
The case is plastic.


It’s best to start the software section with the coat rack BIOS settings, especially since there isn’t much to describe.
The computer’s BIOS is cut down almost completely. That is, In fact, all we can do is reinstall the operating system, and that's as far as it goes.
For an average user, this isn't really a problem, but if you want to improve anything, you'll run into trouble, unfortunately.
As always, you can click any image in the review to enlarge it.


After booting, we're greeted by an almost pristine desktop.


I was pleased to see that Russian was available right from the start. More precisely, I simply selected Russian in the initial setup, and everything worked right away, even without an internet connection.
Windows 10, which is standard these days, comes preinstalled. It activated automatically without any problems as soon as I connected to the internet.


Of the 64 GB, about 45 GB is available to the user, which is pretty good. Updates will take up some of that over time, of course, but I think around 40 GB will still be left for user software.


The drive is split into three partitions. The third partition contains system recovery data.


First look and initial tests. I already knew the general specs, since I'd reviewed a computer with this processor (SoC), so I was more interested in performance, especially compared with the same test unit.
In the end, the tests showed that the Beelink is a little slower than the Voyo Vbook I mentioned above.


This computer uses eMMC flash memory for storage, and the read graph is quite flat. By the way, all the flash memory speed tests were run after several write cycles, with the test programs installed—in other words, under conditions closer to real-world use.


Read speed is pretty good at 150 MB/s, but write speed is a bit disappointing, at just 50 MB/s.


CDM gave roughly the same results in its third test. The USB 3.0 connection test was limited by the speed of the test hard drive.


As I've explained before, "to keep the results consistent," I run the comparison test using an older version of CrystalDiskMark.
Here, too, the program agrees with HDtune: 150 MB/s read and 50 MB/s write.


For comparison, here are the test results for other computers with eMMC memory. I won't link to the reviews; they're easy to find by searching for the computer's name.
Voyo Vbook V2
Beelink AP42
Voyo V1 (eMMC)
CHUWI HiBox
Beelink BT7
Pipo X10
Pipo X9
Pipo X7
Pipo X7S
MeeGoPad T02
Pocket P1
Vensmile W10
Teclast X98 Pro
MeeGoPad T03
Wintel Pro CX-W8



Cinebench immediately returned a rather low score, and out of habit I even started blaming poor cooling.


Then I remembered that computers like this usually ship with old drivers, so I installed Intel's driver update utility. It found newer drivers for the graphics card and Wi-Fi module (also from Intel).


I installed them, rebooted, waited a couple of minutes for Windows Update to settle down—it pushes CPU usage to 50–60% on startup—and ran the test again.
Much better: graphics performance more than doubled, and I ran all the remaining tests with the updated drivers.


The PassMark score, however, was lower than that of the previous "test subject." Last time it scored 924; this time it managed just 878 points.
The Beelink was faster in terms of CPU and graphics performance, but the slower RAM and flash memory cost it some points, bringing the overall score down.


Interestingly, both the 2006 version of 3DMark and the more recent one gave slightly lower scores than the VOYO VBOOK V2, which uses the same processor.
It did get quite hot, but the temperature never reached the red zone.




Last time, I was surprised that the WinRAR test returned a result of 1800 KB/s, even though systems with the more powerful N4200 had scored 1300 and 1478. No miracle here either: 1286 KB/s.


We all know that mini PCs tend to overheat, so I usually pay close attention to this test.
Although I ended up getting a fairly high temperature of 86 degrees, there was no throttling. You can see that in the test results—or, more precisely, from the fact that performance did not drop. The temperature also rose very slowly, which is good.


And, of course, the usual one-hour test in OCCT at maximum load. After an hour, the temperature reached 92 degrees, but the computer ran perfectly stably. So it's fair to say that it should work fine under typical workloads such as browsing the internet, office applications, watching movies, and so on.


Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are handled by an Intel module, while wired networking is handled by a Realtek chip. There are quite a few settings, which may be useful to some people.


However, the sensitivity is low. This has become the norm for Intel-made modules installed in computers like these. For example, I could see my 5 GHz access point and even connect to it, though the signal was borderline, but I could only see my neighbors' 2.4 GHz networks.


Now for the actual data transfer speeds.
1. Red graph: 5 GHz at the maximum distance; 2.4 GHz didn't work at that distance.
2. Green, white, blue: 2.4 GHz, opposite corner of the room, two meters, one meter.
3. Gray: 5 GHz, about two to three meters away, with a small obstacle in the way.


I tested the wired connection speed; the two upper graphs show speeds of 400–700 Mbps.


For video playback, I started with a demanding 4K video at a bitrate of 240 Mbps. No issues at all: everything was smooth, with CPU usage at 20%.


The same video in Full HD: 13.6%.


And a less demanding 4K video at a bitrate of 100 Mbps, with CPU usage just under 6%.


Since my reviews almost never go without a teardown, I opened this one up too. The case opens just like all the previous ones: peel off the four feet and remove the four screws.
But since this model has a slot for an SSD inside, this way of taking it apart seems a bit odd. It's not very convenient, especially with the clips around the perimeter of the case as well.


All right, it's open. Two antennas are attached to the top half of the case, which is already better than many models that only have one.


The antennas are connected via connectors, so a simple upgrade to external antennas is entirely possible. These are often more effective, though not always.


Most of the interior is taken up by a large black heatsink, with some radio components peeking out from underneath.


The heatsink is designed quite well, with a thick base and tall fins. The problem is that it's not very effective inside the closed case, since it heats itself up. Unfortunately, this is a problem with many (if not all) mini PCs of this kind. That said, this one is far from the worst—in fact, it's better than most.


As promised, there's an M.2 connector for an SSD. A Toshiba eMMC memory chip is installed nearby, which is also a nice touch. An Elpida RAM chip is visible next to it.


With the board removed from the case, you can see an additional heat path to the steel plate at the bottom of the case. Incidentally, the plate has a distinctive cutout that also appears on other plates in computers and TV boxes from this company. In this case, it’s just an observation, nothing more.


There are practically no components here.


Apart from the battery, the flash memory chip containing the BIOS firmware, and a few transistors in the power converter (one is visible in the upper left of the second photo), that is.


Next, I planned to remove the heatsink as usual and see how I could improve the cooling, but then I got stabbed in the back: I couldn't unscrew one of the screws and simply stripped its head.
I was using a proper screwdriver, and the right size, too, but the screw was very tight, and there was no way to get another tool in there.
I was actually ready to just drill it out, but when I started looking for a replacement screw, I found that I didn't have any like it. It's 1.3 mm in diameter and about 8–12 mm long. I had to leave empty-handed :(


Disappointed, I took a few photos of the board and then simply put everything back together. But I did manage to find out that there is a rubber pad about 1.5 mm thick between the processor die and the heatsink. Similar pads are also fitted between the heatsink and the RAM chips, as well as the power controller.


The VGA output is most likely connected through a DisplayPort-to-VGA converter. The audio and network chips are visible in the photo. You can also see that the HDMI output lines lack proper protection.


On the plus side, the board has not only a connector for a fan, but all the associated circuitry as well. You could just plug one in, except there's nowhere to put it—the heatsink isn't designed for this kind of upgrade.


For my final test, I decided to play one of my favorite games. Not the original version, though, but the updated HD version. The FPS counter showed around 35–40 frames per second, dropping to about 28–30 in demanding scenes. But I really enjoyed playing it, that's for sure. By the way, when I tried playing FarCry on a similar computer, the load was lower—or at least that's how it seemed to me.


Finally, here are some comparative test results for various mini PCs. The one reviewed here is at the very bottom of the list.


Overall, based on the test results, I can draw a few conclusions.
Performance-wise, this computer is quite suitable for relatively undemanding tasks. I had no problems with various software, and tested it with both office applications and Photoshop. As for temperatures, the device runs hot, but it doesn't reach the point where the clock speed is throttled. In this case, that's not thanks to good cooling, but to the high throttling threshold. As I mentioned near the beginning, mounting it vertically behind a monitor lowers the temperature somewhat; during the tests, the computer was simply lying on the desk. One advantage, though, is that it runs completely silently.
The M.2 slot is a welcome feature; the downside is that you can't add more RAM.
The manufacturer definitely deserves credit for the included accessories, especially the VESA mount, which could be very useful.
Wi-Fi works at a decent speed, but its range is shorter than that of other computers. As I mentioned, this is partly a "feature" of Intel modules.

Otherwise, it's a pretty decent device.

That's about it. As always, I look forward to your comments and questions, and I hope you found this review useful.