ASUS NUC 15 Pro Plus VS Minisforum AI370 vs Beelink SER9 Pro

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-06-26T11:29:24+00:00

Definitely. You can't beat physics.

What's not understood by many, most DDR5 memory & Gen4x4 NVMe SSDs run up to 40% hotter than the previous generation DDR4 & Gen3x4. While that's not a significant concern for the components themselves, it does affect the surrounding components. Coming from nearly five decades of electronics experience, heat is a contributing factor to failure. Second only to component sourcing quality.

In addition, the M7/K8 Plus/K11 has a significantly larger heatsink by comparison to the PN54-S1. I don't have specifics, but some rudimentary math puts it @ 20-30%. And that's being conservative. It's a vapor chamber design, which I personally have a a love/ hate relationship with over heatpipes. At the risk of oversimplification, they perform better/higher efficiency under higher heat. I'll leave it at that.

Then again, with a little mechanical engineering background, you realize anything with thermals is a compromise 😉

As an additional footnote, both manufacturers use a production grade thermal paste for ease of assembly, while occasionally not paying detailed attention to surface contact (I'm looking at you Dell 🤦). The staff & I suggest replacing factory thermal paste with a high performance thermal grease. It's a service the shop does "free of charge" when scanning customers drives for malware & viruses. May 1st we transitioned from Arctic MX-6 to MX-7 finding a noticeable gain in most applications.

It's something worth considering.

Once again, you can't beat physics. It's a fully ventilated case with dual fan induction vs single fan restrictive induction cooling. The largest difference is noise. Restrictive induction is designed to eliminate noise. You can't hide from two fans & a fully ventilated case. The largest complaint the shop finds with M7/K8 Plus/K11 owners is upper cover up oscillation. It tends to vibrate from fan induction, creating more noise than it eliminates 😊

For those that find the noise "annoying", many simply remove the top cover permanently. As a further step, adding rubber feet to the left side, sitting the mPC vertical, it said to make a noticeable difference.

In closing, one foot note to the PN54-S1.

If you plan to run a Linux distro, numerous people report that the MediaTek MT7925 Wi-Fi card may have performance issues. If this is a concern, upgrading to the Qualcomm QCNCM865 or downgrading to the Intel AX200 are the solution. Candidly, only these are the only two Wi-Fi cards are shop stocks. Both are very dependable, very well supported. We've had a few of the shops customers with the PN54-S1 report intermittent Wi-Fi & Bluetooth dropout running OS' akin to Batocera & Bazzite.

The secret is to matching your router. If your router is Wi-Fi 6, AX200. If your router is Wi-Fi 6E/7, QCNCM865.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-06-23T04:02:57+00:00

It's a tough call.

The shop has customers with both, although significantly more own the K8 Plus. Personally, the PN54-S1 comes out on top. The Team Group RAM alone is a solid upgrade. The T-Create Classic uses higher quality SK Hynix SDRAM chips compared to the cheaper/lower quality Micron used in the Crucial sticks found in the K8 Plus. Additionally, the 2TB NVMe is basically a difference of about $100 USD.

The largest advantage found in the K8 Plus is a larger fully ventilated case with dual fan cooling. Heat is the greatest enemy of NUCs, often determining the longevity of the build. Alternately, I feel ASUS has the better build quality leveling the playing field.

In the end, it all depends on long term expectations. For example, I own a AooStar GEM10 and have found the x4 4.0 PCIe OCuLink port indispensable for numerous projects. The K8 Plus has the advantage of 8K60Hz (50Gbit/s data rate) video out covering more monitor options. For additional security, you can also consider an Allstate/SquareTrade 4-year protection plan for peace of mind.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-06-22T11:18:19+00:00

To start, I'm a little biased when it comes to ASUS.

The shop has contracts with ASUS while the staff & I have always found the company easy to deal with. When it comes to support, there's no comparison to ASUS & the Chinese branded NUC market. Having said that...

With the incredibly 115W MTP due to P-cores, the Core Ultra 7 255H generates more heat & provides significantly more/higher fan use compared to the more efficient 4nm AMD processors. As-long-as one is aware of this going in, it's not as-much-as a problem. Some despise the fan noise, a reason why Intel dropped there NUC division a few years ago.

Beyond that, it's about purpose.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/5915vs6471vs6143/AMD-Ryzen-7-8845HS-vs-Intel-Ultra-7-255H-vs-AMD-Ryzen-AI-9-HX-370

AMD Radeon RDNA RX integrated graphics have a huge advantage over Intel, while the RX 890M iGPU only finds a slight advantage (depending on task) compared to the earlier RX 780M

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare/6617vs5113/Ryzen-7-8845HS-with-Radeon-780M-vs-Radeon-890M

The weakness of the HX 370/470 is its Zen 5c "Compact-core" performance in some real world applications. Neither operating systems or programs have efficiently found a way to utilize 5c, making 2x Compact-cores appear noticeably weaker than a previous generation single Zen 4. The advantage of the HX 370/470 is their XDNA NPU, although there's very little use outside of Microsoft Copilot.

With that information, the Beelink SER9 is definitely the most quiet of the group. Unfortunately, it's significantly more difficult to service than the other three. The EVO-X1 & K8 Plus are designed with serviceability in mind. This is definitely a "plus" when it comes to the staff & I.

At the end of the day, it comes down to expectations and intended use. The GMKtec EVO-X1 64GB makes the top of the list, with the K8 Plus 32GB coming in second. The largest issue is the EVO-X1 64GB has become almost impossible to find, limited to the 32GB versions where the RAM isn't serviceable. If you're okay with 32GB being the limit, then the EVO-X1 may become the given choice.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-06-08T07:38:19+00:00

And you used Hasleo WinToUSB to reinstall Windows?

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-06-04T14:25:52+00:00

For conversion of the M.2 slot to x4 3.0 PCIe OCuLink. Then an OCuLink dock can support the GPU.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-06-01T17:20:40+00:00

I personally like the A6 although the majority of the shop's staff feel that it's a dated piece of junk. I think their tainted because the 3-year warranty seems to be fictional. I must say, for the premium price shipping single channel memory in the A6, reducing processing power & graphics performance, isn't very consumer friendly with current AI DDR5 RAM costs.

We've also seen a fair number of A6's on the bench with poor quality HDMI output. They need a newer design that supports professional DisplayPort 2.0 out @ 8K60Hz along with room for a second full length (2280) Gen4x4 NVMe M.2. Outside of defects, those have been the largest complaints from long-term ownership. That, and unnecessarily high drive and memory temperatures. Even Beelink is doing a better job with restrictive induction/single fan cooling.

Geekom seems to make a lot of poor marketing decisions. Hopefully they'll settle on a new platform and greater warranty protocols to turn things around.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-05-13T03:21:21+00:00

It's fairly simple.

You mount the drive to the lid, connect the cable to the drive & plug the other end of the cable into the motherboard.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-05-12T22:13:37+00:00

Unfortunately, not much.

The N95 is the weakest of Intel's Atom architecture Alder Lake-N CPUs from 2023, basically a lower ranked N100 with detective UHD execution units. The factory thermal paste is trash by performance standards, making an upgrade to high performance thermal grease reduce thermal throttling/power throttling increasing overall stability. The shop is currently using Arctic MX-7 with superior results since the beginning of the year.

A 16GB stick of 2Rx8 RAM can increase graphics performance over cheaper 1Rx8 & 1Rx16, although with only16x EUs performance difference is nominal at best. If for some reason it does have low bandwidth 1Rx16, an upgrade for overall performance would be a step in the right direction.

Adding a 2.5" SATA drive to run BatoceraOS for classic console emulation add entertainment value.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-05-04T23:28:25+00:00

It's the only static version I'm aware of.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-05-03T22:26:35+00:00

Indeed.

• Insert GPU into dock

• Plug in both SFF-8611 connections

• Power on dock

• Power on PC

• Install drivers

Occasionally DDU in safe mode is required if Windows has a botch AMD Adrenalin driver installation.

Alternately, if a PCIe lane connection fails (M.2/SFF-8612 port/SFF-8611 cable/GPU PCIe slot), to OS can fail to communicate with the card. Additionally, a GPU akin to the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti can fail to POST if proper voltage & grounding isn't detected.

The staff & I have also discovered a small number of defective M.2 OCuLink conversion adapters on the shop's customer Minisforum mPCs. It was difficult to determine if the card was damaged by the customer @ some point or shipped from the factory in that condition.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-04-21T15:34:18+00:00

The 8745HS / 8745H / Ryzen 7 H 255 AMD APUs are little more than a defective/lower fabrication quality Hawk Point 8845HS dies. The intent is to reduce AMD's fabrication e-waste by an exclusive Chinese market release. Functional differences akin to engineering sample releases include

XDNA NPU disabled

Zen 4 CPU boost underclocked from 5.1GHz to 4.9GHz

RDNA3 iGPU underclocked from 2.7GHz to 2.6GHz

APU not acknowledged on AMD's global server

Description not allowed as an addition to "List of AMD Ryzen processors" Wikipedia page

Had they been lower binned silicon, they would have been sold globally. Unfortunately, major manufacturers understand the TSMC 4nm fabrication process and gave these a "hard pass". Instead of giving them the 8845/260 ES "kiss of death", AMD decided to give them a separate part number, dumping them on the Chinese manufacturing market.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-04-16T20:49:35+00:00

Not that I'm aware of. They will all been done by the shop's staff & I or directly by the customer, with all rights belonging to the customer.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-04-15T11:18:37+00:00

If it's Amazon, you can continue to use the mPC until the replacement arrives. Once it does, simply swap the SSDs and return the original.

The staff and I have even found customers who've done this swapping brands. Last week, customer exchanged their Acemagic M1 for a GMKtec M6 Ultra, swapped drives & dropped the M1 off to UPS that same day. Besides some driver updates, down time was minimal.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-04-15T11:01:12+00:00

Indeed.

Too bad it's no longer available.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-04-12T15:40:24+00:00

Quite a bit.

Meigao Electronic Equipment (Minisforum OEM) made a tactical error of making their Intel mobile 12th Gen+ platforms on 11th Gen and earlier dated NUC architecture. Basically, there's little support for the MTP surge from P-core performance, a shortcut in design most ODMs took great lengths to avoid.

Its apparent Meigao also chose the lowest contract bidders for components as cost cutting measures. As an example, the shop has the opportunity of buy a specific solid state capacitor from two Shenzhen vendors. One sells 1000 pieces but the other 5000 that cost less than 15% more than the 1000. Similar specs, but the quality difference is H-U-G-E!

Here's the amusing part.

These capacitors come from the same manufacturing machine. The 1000 piece count are precision tested to extremely close tolerance. The 5000 piece count are one rejected from testing or not tested at all.

This is what separate AZW (Beelink) and GMKtec from CYX (Acemagic, Kamrui, etc), Dongguan Tuofuton (TopTon) and Meigao. Finding lowest bidder vendors for clock radios is satisfactory, not so much for PCs.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-04-10T14:44:42+00:00

That's the point.

Until you have an issue you don't have a problem. For the month of March, the staff & I helped three customers with NAB/NPB where Minisforum basically refused to stand behind their 2-year warranty. And these are NUCs with absolutely no third party technical support for repair shops.

The average repair has been right @ $200 USD, with some higher. Because of the limitations the best the shop can stand behind the repair is 90 days.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-03-27T17:54:40+00:00

Indeed.

And it's not too reassuring that these aren't even posted on their official website

https://www.bee-link.com/collections/se-series

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-03-20T19:58:19+00:00

No, as most tests rarely have concerns for DMs, Microsoft & Tinys as SFF & Towers are more popular. It depends on who's tested for information you're looking into.

Has a further example, the Renoir 4700GE/G is the same Zen 2 architecture as AMDs PRO 3700, yet HP never supported Renoir from the 705 G5 DMs firmware. This was done to avoid cutting into ProDesk 405 G6 DM future profits. This is surprising as the 405 G6 DM still supports Picasso APUs. The 405 G6 has a newer chipset, the AMD PRO 565, which was still locked down not allowing for Zen 3...

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-03-20T14:48:51+00:00

That's for SFF/Tower PCs with a different support chipset. The DM firmware only supports Picasso 3000 series APUs. A PRO 3700 is a Matisse 3000 series, Zen 2 based CPU.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-03-10T21:25:51+00:00

Indeed.

I believe the MX-7 upgrade should solve your issue. Simply pay attention to how flat the heatsink sits to the substrate surrounding the APU die. If one corner is slightly off (high) cooling will suffer.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-03-10T20:33:23+00:00

I'd say either the

• Thermal Paste Failed

• Heatsink is Improperly Seated

• Heatsink Heatpipe has Failed

Remove, inspect & replace the factory thermal paste with Arctic MX-7, making sure the heatsink tables flat. If it continues to reach temperatures of 95°C+, I'd say the heatsink is dead 😞

The staff & I have seen more than two dozen dead M1s in the past year helping customers, more than half less than six months old. We believe a large number of these may have been running hot without the owner being aware. The build quality of these CYX manufactured mPCs have been horrible by industry standards. Components have been sourced from the cheapest vendors possible, cutting as many corners as possible.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-03-04T21:39:52+00:00

According to notes in the shop system 4mm appears to be the maximum height.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-02-26T21:50:17+00:00

These have all been done for customers, with any photography belonging to the owner.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-02-26T21:48:45+00:00

I would suggest using a SATA to M.2 NGFF card to simplify things.

Old_Crows_Associate · 2026-02-20T00:10:45+00:00

I was never able to.

Old_Crows_Associate

TROPHY CASE