Beelink AP34 Pro, a mini PC with 6 GB of RAM

Not long ago, I reviewed a computer that was almost identical to the one featured here: the Beelink M1.
But as it turned out, the differences between them are a little greater than I initially expected. Still, the best way to find out is to read the review, which includes a look at the computer, the obligatory teardown, tests, and, of course, conclusions with a comparison table.


I suppose the computer under review is essentially a kind of "hybrid" between the Beelink M1 and AP42. But since it uses the same processor as the M1, I'll be comparing the two throughout this review.

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: 6GB RAM + 64GB flash storage + Type: M.2 slot
Slot for an SD card up to 128 GB.
LAN — Gigabit LAN
WiFi — 2.4/5 GHz
Bluetooth 4.0
Display: 2xHDMI
External interfaces: 4x USB 3.0
Audio output — 3.5 mm jack
Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 24
Weight: 340 g

The key differences are the increased RAM capacity—6 GB versus 4 GB on the M1—as well as two HDMI ports instead of HDMI+VGA, and four USB 3.0 ports instead of three.

The computer comes in the same almost-cubic box as before. There are lots of different labels on the sides, including a note that there's also an otherwise identical version with 4 GB of RAM. Everything is piled together inside the box, but nothing moves around much since it's packed tightly.


The package contents are almost identical to those of other Beelink models.
1. The mini PC itself
2. Power supply
3. Two HDMI cables, one short and one long
4. VESA mount
5. Set of screws
6. Manual.


Besides the manual, the package includes a small note about Windows activation. The manual itself is also available in Russian, which is nice.
The two HDMI cables are 20 and 80 cm long, and they come with a couple of branded hook-and-loop cable ties.
The VESA mount is very simple, secured with just two pairs of screws. They also included one spare screw in case you lose one.
The power supply is rated at 12 V, 1.5 A, which is more than enough for normal use. But if you plan to power several high-consumption devices, it's better not to push your luck. For example, with two hard drives, or a hard drive plus a phone charging.


Unlike the M1, this version of the computer has a metal case, which is certainly better than plastic.


The front has only a status LED opening. It isn't annoying when the computer is on, since the LED is recessed inside the case.


The antenna is external, like on the AP42. That's because of the case material: the M1 had a plastic case, so its antennas were inside.


The port layout and placement differ from the AP42 and M1. To start with, there are four USB ports here, not three as on those models. All the USB ports are USB 3.0. They're also arranged a little differently: they're all on one side of the case. So we have:
Right side — an SD card slot and four USB ports.
Back — power button, power input, two HDMI outputs, Ethernet port, analog audio output, and a reset button opening.


All the ports in one photo.


There are four rubber feet on the bottom. They're fairly soft and barely slip at all. There are also ventilation slots on the bottom and sides.


The VESA mount is universal and supports VESA 75 and 100 mm. It's designed to be mounted with the front facing up, but I'd recommend positioning it with the top facing sideways instead, for better ventilation.


Since the computer is designed to be installed by the user, it has no warranty seals and is fairly easy to take apart. First, peel off the four feet, then remove the bottom cover. However, because of the cooling design, it's difficult to remove.


A piece of thermally conductive rubber gets in the way of removing the bottom cover. It carries some of the heat away from the board beneath the processor.


The board is also secured with three self-tapping screws. There are almost no components on the underside of the board.


Unscrew them and remove the board from the case. The board comes out very easily, but keep in mind that it is connected to the antenna by two thin cables, so be careful.


As with all the previous versions, the board is almost completely covered by the heatsink.


An M.2 slot is provided for expanding the storage, but the drive is limited to 42 mm in length, so keep that in mind.


Another view. By the way, the heatsinks look much nicer now than in the first versions, where they looked like they had been cast in a sandbox in the yard and then finished with a file.
The previous version did have a blackened heatsink, but I don't think that would have helped much with this kind of installation.


If you remember, I couldn't remove the heatsink on the Beelink M1 because the screw head was damaged. No such problem here: the screws are fine, and the heatsink came off without any trouble.


In the past, I sometimes made a small improvement to the cooling by replacing the thick thermal pad with a thinner one and an aluminum plate. That modification has already been done here: a copper plate set into a small milled recess serves as the thermal interface, along with a thin pad, about 0.5 mm thick. Of course, it would be even better without the pad, but that risks damaging the processor die.


If it weren't for the battery stuck on with double-sided tape, I'd give the circuit board 5 out of 5. As it is, it spoils the whole look. The battery is connected to the board via a connector, but apparently nobody thought to use a proper holder.


Black PCB, neat soldering, and even what look like insulators or shock absorbers on the heatsink standoffs. I couldn't even figure out why they're there.
Because of the different layout and connector configuration, this area of the board is substantially different from the previous versions.


1, 2. Unfortunately, neither the USB nor the HDMI ports have proper protection. And unfortunately, this trend has affected many manufacturers lately. I recently put together a roundup of 35 TV box models and found that some budget models used to have protection, while these days even expensive ones don't always have it.
3. Near the power indicator LED, there are a couple of spots for connectors. I assume one of them was intended for USB Type-C.
4. There is a connector for a fan on the board. As far as I can tell, there are control components nearby as well. It's curious that the connector is covered with film; I've never come across that before.


1. Intel Celeron N3450 system-on-chip (SoC)
2. As far as I can tell, the 6 GB of RAM is implemented using two 3 GB chips. At first I thought the chips were 2+3 GB, but they have identical markings.
3. 64 GB SanDisk flash memory
4. Power subsystem based on the RT5074A multi-channel DC-DC converter
5. Wi-Fi module made by Intel; lately, that's all they seem to put in mini PCs.
6. Likewise, the gigabit wired network uses the well-known Realtek 8111G


1. Analog audio is handled by the equally well-known ALC269
2. Flash memory for storing the BIOS firmware. A reminder: on mini PCs, disconnecting the battery doesn't reset the settings; it only stops the internal clock.
3. Power components near the USB ports.
4. Computer power input circuit


Unfortunately, in keeping with the latest trend, the computer's BIOS is bare-bones, with virtually no settings. There's not even an option to power on automatically when power is applied :(
I remember that at first it had everything you could imagine. They gradually tidied it up, keeping the genuinely useful options, but then they removed everything! I think this is because changing some settings could turn the computer into a brick. The manufacturers got tired of dealing with complaints and simply disabled everything.


During startup, we see the familiar Beelink logo. Booting seemed a little slower than on the previous models, though that may just be my impression.


The desktop is practically empty. Nothing but Windows is installed out of the box, and the system itself is in its default configuration.
Unfortunately, only English is enabled out of the box. But when I activated Russian, the computer didn't download anything; it simply switched to the Russian interface after a reboot, so the localization went smoothly.


Although the package included instructions for activating Windows, it was already activated when it arrived.


Of the 64 GB of flash storage, about 43 GB is available to the user. With the option to install an SSD, that's more than enough, but I wouldn't go overboard installing large programs.


Here are the results from CPU-Z. I've already reviewed a similar computer, so I can say there's nothing new here.


The internal flash storage speed test confirmed that the long boot time wasn't my imagination. The figures themselves, 85/75 MB/s, aren't bad, but lately I've come across computers with faster flash storage, and you get used to good things quickly.
On the other hand, USB 3.0 performance is perfectly normal. The second screenshot shows a test of an external SSD. I didn't test the memory card slot because I didn't have any working adapters at home, and my only fast cards are microSD.


As an extra, here's a test with another program; the results aren't much different.


Cinebench gave a slightly better result than the M1. There's no point comparing it with the AP42, since that has a faster processor.
For comparison, the M1 results were:
7.46/1.70 and 12.11/132.


PassMark 8


Comparative results from PassMark 8


PassMark 9.
Unfortunately, both programs' results reflect the computer's overall performance, which includes the speed of the built-in storage. Since the storage isn't very fast, the overall score is lower than the M1's. But the processor performance turned out to be higher, even though it's the same processor as in the M1 (1905 versus 1811).


The 3DMark result was lower, even after several attempts; the M1 scored 3159.


The newer version scored 275, compared with 269 for the M1.


The WinRAR test may seem simple, but it also gives you a way to assess both performance and overheating.


And, more as an extra, a test using the well-known Geekbench program.


Next, a few heat tests.
First, a bit of a classic: LinX. Here I'm looking less at the temperature itself and more at overheating—or, more precisely, whether throttling kicks in. The thing is, programs don't always show when the processor starts running at reduced performance. In LinX, you can see it directly in the performance results.
I can say that it does heat up quite a lot. The passive cooling system can barely cope with this kind of load. You can lower the temperature a little by standing the computer on its side so air can flow through the vents; I tested it lying flat.
But I didn't detect any performance drop as the test progressed.


After that, I decided to repeat the test and got almost the same results. This time, performance dipped slightly now and then, but the drops were practically within the test's margin of error. The temperature rose from 85 to 86 degrees.


The second test suite is OCCT. It's worth remembering that these are stress tests; in real-world use, loads like this are extremely rare, if they happen at all.
First, the power supply test, which essentially puts the computer under maximum load.
Yes, 89 degrees. Seriously. The computer case was noticeably hot.


Because the heatsink has quite a lot of mass, the temperature rises very gradually and eventually hits a limit, which is most likely set to 90 degrees.


This test puts more load on the processor. My experiments showed that it does so even more than the PSU test.


In the end, we effectively got the same 90-degree limit, unfortunately.


During the stress tests, the computer case warmed up to almost 50 degrees, and the power supply to 60. However, there is some measurement error here, since plastic may be somewhat transparent in the IR spectrum, and I was measuring something between the temperature of the case and that of one of the PSU components.


The computer is equipped with an Intel 2.4/5 GHz + Bluetooth wireless module and a 1 Gigabit wired Realtek interface.


As is usually the case with similar Intel modules, sensitivity isn't great, but data transfer speeds are good.
First, the 2.4 GHz band.
Opposite corner of a large room: 20–50 Mbps (green)
About two meters from the router: 65–85 Mbps (blue)
Less than a meter from the router, the speed actually dropped a little, so I ran two tests and got 55–90 (white) and exactly 74 Mbps (red)


In the 5 GHz band, the speed is of course noticeably higher. I attribute this not only to the adapter itself, but also to the fact that there are far fewer access points on this frequency).
The test was run twice, hence the two upper graphs.


For the multimedia test, here are a few tests playing some fairly "heavy" 4K and 8K video files at 60 fps.

4k hdr demo 60fps wildlife video for 4k oled tv 3840x2160
Everything is great; CPU usage is almost zero.


Peru 8K HDR 60FPS 3840x2160
Likewise, playback is smooth, and the computer barely notices the load.


Peru 8K HDR 60FPS 7680x4320
At this resolution, though, it unfortunately gave up: CPU usage shot up to 75–85%, and the video stuttered.
In all tests, playback was from an external drive connected via USB 3.0.


Computer power consumption in different modes.
1. Computer off, but connected to the mains.
2. Desktop
3. Full load, approximately the first 20 seconds, turbo mode.
4. Full load in steady-state mode.


Comparative test results for various mini PCs.


Here are some conclusions from all the tests and comparisons.
First, it's worth saying that this model is very similar to the Beelink M1, although there are differences. Overall performance is about the same, and in some areas even better than the M1, but the built-in flash storage is noticeably slower.
Basically, I have two complaints:
It gets very hot. You can reduce this somewhat by mounting the computer vertically on its side, but the temperature is still pretty high (or indecently high, depending on how you look at it).
The built-in storage isn't particularly fast.

Small computers used to be criticized most often for having too little RAM and flash storage. This one already has 6 and 64 GB, respectively. It would also be nice to be able to upgrade the RAM, but in my opinion, 6 GB should be enough for most everyday tasks. You can add an SSD to increase storage, which expands the computer's capabilities somewhat.
And yes, you can now connect two monitors via HDMI, and there are also 4 USB 3.0 ports.

One other disappointment is the lack of an option in the BIOS to turn the computer on automatically when power is connected, as well as the generally sparse settings. Most ordinary users don't need them anyway.

In short, the computer runs reliably, there are no issues with Russian localization, performance is sufficient for "everyday" tasks, WiFi is fast but not very sensitive, the RAM and flash storage capacity are adequate, flash storage isn't particularly fast, and it gets relatively hot.


The store provided the coupon GBAP34PRO; with it, the price should be $147.99, which seems pretty good to me.

That's all from me. I hope the review was useful, and as usual, I'm looking forward to your questions.