BeelinkMini PC EQi12, Intel Core 1220P(Max 4.4GHz 10C/12T), 16GB DDR4 500GB PCle4.0 SSD Mini Computers,Dual LAN/Wifi6/BT5.2,Dual 4K Display,Built-in Power Supply Office PC

I purchased this while shopping and researching for a home OpnSense firewall build. Reasons I chose this Mini PC:Compact - Not trying to have an old Optiplex sitting on my TV stand2.5 Gbps Ports - Absolutely perfect for this application. Better than 1Gbps, but not too much for the hardware to handle.Intel Celeron N100 - Low power, but still considered "high performance" by ZenArmor500GB NvME - Great for system performance and plenty of space for log storage16 GB DDR4 - Plenty of overhead for ZenArmor, IDS, IPS, etc.For the uninitiated, OpnSense is an open source, powerful and feature-rich firewall software that allows great visibility and control for your home network. It is free to download and install, and beats the snot out of any consumer wireless router. It can run on a variety of hardware, including old PCs. This Mini PC is perfectly spec'd for OpnSense.For the initiated: My home network is very small: 2 PCs, 2 smart TVs, a robot vacuum and 5 mobile devices. My internet connection is roughly 400mbps down and 10mbps up. I run QoS, ZenArmor and five VLANs. I run OpnSense "bare metal" because I am uninterested in dealing with latency and routing issues brought on by virtualization. I use two TP-Link 8 port Gigabit smart switches and an OpnSense router for wireless VLANs to achieve a multiple SSID network configuration with segmentation.I will admit I was a little bummed that the PC was light grey rather than dark grey like I imagined. I was impressed with the OEM Windows 11 installation, but I immediately wiped it out by installing OPNsense, which went perfectly fine. CPU usage is very low, even during speed tests while running QoS and ZenArmor. I have not installed WireGuard yet but I am certain it will perform just fine.My old HP T620 Thin Client had CPU spikes to 100% pretty consistently and didn't seem to handle local log storage or IDS/IPS very well. It was also much bulkier, and had a 1Gbps NIC.Overall, I am very impressed with this Mini PC's performance. I can't recommend this enough for OpnSense or virtualization projects.

Using this pc to replace an older dedicated router. No problems installing OPNSense and zenarmor on this, although it actually had realtek NIC ports, works fine with drivers I got through Sunnyvale. Running large home network, streaming server, several WAP, total of 85 devices with ease while maintaining 935 Mbps throughput with firewall and IPS software protecting everything. Excellent unit for the price, quiet, low power consumption, zero compatibility problems.

I activated the Windows 11 Pro NVMe, then pulled that out and put in a Silicon Power 512GB NVMe and installed pfSense on it. Then I pulled that one out and put a Teamforce ver. 4x3 Z440 1TB NVMe in it and installed LMDE 6 (Linux Mint Debian Edition). I had to update the kernel on LMDE 6 to 6.5 so that it would run the AX101 WiFi 6 network card and the 5.2 Bluetooth. I use an Arzopa S1 15.6" 1080p HDR portable monitor with it that is powered and video delivery from the USB C port, and an Anozer model CCT5 stand for the monitor that doesn't sink down like some other stands. I haven't used the magnetic cover as a stand for it. This little machine runs fantastic.I bought it for the pfSense, I'll get another one when the price comes back down to what I paid for this one $209, because two days later it went to $259, then one more day it went to $279. I'm glad I bought this little Mini PC, the EQ12 with the 512GB NVMe (it says 500GB on specs list, but it's a 512GB) and 16GB of RAM is fast and snappy and will run what you want on it. I wouldn't use it for gaming though, but as a general computer it runs great. I may try some video editing with it, but not going to encode any videos with it. I haven't tried the extra SATA port for an SSD, but I will with the LMDE 6 soon and measure transfer speeds with Kdiskmark on Linux. Great little machine. Oh the 2.5GbE port closest to the power plug is the #1 port, other one is the #2 port. Edit: I changed out that weak AX101 WiFi card to an Intel BE200 WiFi 7 card, which made it screaming fast on wireless.

I mounted this mini computer on my TV to handle simple tasks like email, video chatting, and smart home management. Compared to the top-of-the-line, same generation, Intel processor in my laptop, it's much slower and less responsive, but considering its price, functionality and small size, it's a great fit. Key features are good port availability, quiet performance, and value. The SSD can be upgraded, but unfortunately you'll be stuck with 16 Gb of RAM.I set up my own Windows account and one other local Admin account to allow my wife to access Outlook under her own credentials. This turned out to be a good ideal. Like most Windows systems, it requires immediate updating. Its modest speed and memory made updating quite lengthy, requiring about a dozen restarts, many of them manual. It was taking so long and not letting me login between reboots, I almost decided it was defective and needed to go back.My perseverance was eventually rewarded. However it still "stuck" at my login window, probably due to some Windows 11 conflict. Fortunately, that second local Admin account allowed me to get in, delete the first Admin account and create another. I was then able to login to Microsoft for both users and finish setup. I can't blame Beelink for this issue and it might not be a problem for you. That said, play it safe by setting up a second local Admin account before you begin the updating process.

I bought this product to build a mini server with Ubuntu. To my surprise, it came bundled with Windows 11 Pro even though that wasn’t mentioned in the product description, which I really appreciate especially because it's Pro, not Home. The built-in AC adapter requires only a single cable connection, which helps a lot with saving space and keeping things tidy.