Beelink SER9 “AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370” Mini PC Review

Beelink was established in 2011 & is regarded as one of the top sellers in the Mini PC category at Amazon. The company has a diverse portfolio of Mini PCs, Players, and gadgets but the core focus is on the Mini PC segment which includes both Intel and AMD options.

While we have looked at several of Beelink’s Mini PC options in the past ranging from AMD & Intel CPUs, today’s a bit special as the company is among the leading manufacturers to introduce AMD’s latest Ryzen AI 300 APUs in a Mini PC form factor. The company sent us their new and top-of-the-line SER9 Mini PC which is equipped with the fastest AMD APU on the market, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, and this will be my first taste of what Strix Point has to offer in a compact form factor and how much of an upgrade users can expect coming from older Phoenix/Hawk Point platforms.

The Beelink SER9 Mini PC with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 comes in one configuration at the moment, the 1 TB (Storage) and 32 GB (Memory) option which is listed for $999 US. This is a premium and high-end Mini PC option and the price is fair given that laptops based on the same chip go for $1450 US and above.

Beelink SER9 Mini PC – Specifications At A Glance

Beelink’s SER9 Mini PC comes with the top AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 APU which is the fastest in the Strix Point family.  Our unit was the fully decked out variant with two LPDDR5X-7500 32 GB (16 GB x2) SO-DIMM memory modules and a 1 TB PCIe Gen 4.0 x4 M.2 drive.

Coming to the specifications, the Beelink SER9 Mini PC rocks the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 “Strix Point” CPU which features 12 cores based on the Zen 5 core architecture in a combination of four Zen 5 and eight Zen 5C cores to offer a highly efficient yet powerful computing layout, 24 threads, 24 MB of L3 cache, 12 MB of L2 cache, and a boost clock of up to 5.10 GHz. The CPU has a default TDP of 28W which can be tuned between 15-54W. Out of the box, the Mini PC is configured at the highest 54W TDP which should offer great performance.

For the GPU, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is packing the brand new Radeon 890M iGPU which is based on the RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture. This new iGPU optimizes the RDNA 3 architecture and delivers higher throughput, which in some cases should provide up to 30-40% gains.

As for the specs of this iGPU, it comes with 16 compute units which are half that of the Radeon RX 7600 dGPU, and has a clock speed of 2900 MHz. The iGPU is fully overclockable. You additionally get all the latest video support such as DP 2.1, Adaptive-Sync, UHBR10, up to 8K 60Hz and 4K 240Hz support, and the iGPU also fully supports FSR 3 with Frame-Gen, AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2, Hypr-RX and the rest of the technologies that you would get on modern-day Radeon GPUs.

Other specs for the Beelink SER9 Mini PC include 32 GB LPDDR5X-(Dual-Channel) memory operating at 7500MT/s out of the box. The memory is soldered to the system which means that you are only limited with the base spec that Beelink has to offer but it is overclockable and can be tuned up to 8000 MT/s. Storage comes in the form of dual M.2 2280 SSD slots running at Gen 4.0 speeds that can support up to 8 TB capacities.

I/O on the Beelink GTi12 Ultra Mini PC, includes a USB 3.2 (10 Gbps Type-A) port, a USB Type-C (10 Gbps), a 3.5mm audio jack, CLR CMOS button, and a power button on the front. The backside offers two USB 2.0, 1 USB 3.2 (10 Gbps), 1 USB4 (40 Gbps Type-C), 1 DP 1.4, 1 HDMI 2.1, 1 3.5mm audio jack, a 2.5GbE LAN port and the DC IN power port. The following are the main features of the Mini PC:

• 【Built-in Microphone Al Voice Interaction & 360° Omnidirectional Pickup】—The Built-in microphone is powered by an Al chip that supports smart audio pickup, which enables it to effectively separate voice commands from background noise,  achieving 360° barrier-free voice recognition within 5 meters. The picked-up audio is processed by an Al chip, making recorded vocals sound more natural and authentic.
• 【32dB Near-Silent Operation】—Air intake from the bottom is so efficient at dissipating the heat that SER9 needs a very low fan speed to stay cool and stable at 65W TDP, ensuring near-silent operation. Since there are no vents on the top and side panels, the SER9 can now have a more refreshing design.
• 【Built-in Dual-Speakers】—The built-in dual-speakers can offer sound with high volume, rich details, and powerful impact. Without the need for external audio equipment, the SER9 can bring you an immersive audio experience all by itself.
• 【Storage Expansion Options】—SER9 features high-frequency LPDDR5X 7500MHz RAM of 32GB(8GB*4), delivering you the smoothest experience in Al computing, gaming, and multimedia entertainment. There are also dual high-speed M.2 2880 PCle4.0 SSD slots, supporting up to 8TB of fast internal storage. The retail unit comes with a single 1TB SSD from Crucial! 
• 【Triple-display Output】—With HDMI 2.1 & DisplayPort 1.4 & Full Featured USB4(40Gbps/TB3/PD/DP1.4), the SER9 supports up to triple 4K displays.
• 【Ultra-Practical Dustproof Design】—The new mesh filter at the bottom keeps dust out of the SER9, avoiding dust accumulation and dust-related issues.

Beelink SER9 Mini PC – Unboxing & A Closer Look

The Beelink SER9 Mini PC comes in a white colored cardboard package which has a simplistic look.

The back of the box has some basic specifications which list the specific configuration for this model. We got the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 variant with 32 GB of memory and 1 TB storage capacity.

Within the box, you are first greeted with a nice “Thank You” card. Little things like these make for a fun unboxing experience.

Lifting the top box cover, you are welcomed by a soft plastic internal in which the PC and its various accessories are kept safe and away from harm. Before talking about the case itself, we have to mention the accessories that come with the Mini PC. It comes with a Power cord, a mounting bracket with screws, and a manual.

The Mini PC comes with a HuntKey “HKA12019063-6BA” power adapter which offers up to 120.08W of power and has a standard input of 100-240V at 60/50Hz (2.0A).

With the SER9 Mini PC out of the package itself, you are met with another “Thank You” message on the plastic film around the PC.

So looking at the PC, you are met with a gorgeous and perfect square-shaped chassis that comes with a beautiful grey color scheme with a metallic Silver “Beelink” logo in the center. The curved edges and the aluminum + shiny exterior have a very premium feel. You can get the PC in two color schemes, the Space Gray version that we got or a Frost Silver color which has a whiter hue.

The top and sides are fully enclosed except for the rear and bottom of the chassis which have vents to push hot air out of the unit that is dissipated by the cooling solution.

The front I/O on the Beelink SER9 Mini PC comes with two USB 3.2 10 Gbps ports (Type-A + Type-C), a 3.5mm audio jack, a power button, a white light indicator, and four small microphone arrays on the top of the ports.

The back I/O of the Beelink SER9 Mini PC comes with a single 2.5GbE Ethernet LAN port, HDMI and DP outputs, 1 40 Gbps USB4 Type-C port & four two 2.0 Gen 2, a single USB 3.2 (10 Gbps) Type-A ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack and the DC in power port.

The back side has large vents which push air out of the chassis.

That’s about it as far as the outside goes but overall, the looks and feel are very premium of the SER9  Mini PC.

Our test unit came with 32 GB of LPXDDR5-7500 memory and 1 TB of Gen4 NVMeSSD. This is the maximum config you can get from Beelink but still leaves room for expansion of up to 8 TB M.2 capacities for the storage.

The interiors of the Mini PC can be accessed by removing four screws at the bottom which are hidden underneath four rubber pads. Once inside, you will notice a large metal dust filter over the two major components, the speakers and the power supply.

The speakers within the SER9 are big and offer really good sound quality. The Mini PC also features a built-in microphone which is powered by the B1 AI chip for effective noise recognition and noise reduction. This is why there are four microphone ports on the front. You can use the PC as an assistant just like Siri.

The Beelink SER9 Mini PC measures 135x135x44.7mm (W/L/H). The PC also comes with a strong cooling solution in the form of Beelink’s MSC2.0 design which includes a vapor chamber on the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 SoC and a large blade fan that keeps the internals cool. The SSDs are also featured under a dedicated heatsink.

Beelink SER9 Mini PC – CPU Performance

For performance testing, we used the 54W power profile for the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 when testing the Beelink SER9 Mini PC.

Geekom SER9 Mini PC – 1080p Integrated GPU Performance

For gaming, we tested a couple of the latest and most played esports titles along with a mix of AAA titles at 1080p resolution. The performance was measured between the AMD Radeon 890M, Radeon 780, Radeon 680M, AMD Vega 8, Vega 7, Vega 6, Intel Iris Xe, and Intel Iris Xe-LP integrated graphics.

Beelink SER9 Mini PC – Thermals & Power Consumption

Following are the power and thermal numbers of the Beelink SER9 Mini PC using its default 54W and 65W+ tuned power profile.

As for thermals, the Beelink SER9 Mini PC peaked at around 85C with the 65W+ and 81C with the 54W default configuration. The fan noise wasn’t noticeable even at full load which is a good thing.

Conclusion – A Powerful & Compact Gaming Solution

Beelink is back with another powerful Mini PC featuring the latest and greatest. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 powered SER9 is the fastest Mini PC that we have tested yet, offering insane CPU & GPU performance in such a small and compact design that its just astonishing to witness going by the numbers.

The Beelink SER9’s design is once again great out of the box, featuring that perfect square shape with rounded edges and a nice silver esthetic. The internals are just as good with strong-sounding speakers, dual SSD support, and an internal cooling solution that does the job well while keeping quiet. One thing that users might miss on the SER9 is the ram upgradability option which means you will be stuck with the DRAM configurations that Beelink has to offer and those currently only go up to 32 GB but this is a faster LPDDR5X we are looking at which can be overclocked to 8000 MT/s for added performance. The internal cooler also lets users manually tweak the SER9 to push it beyond the factory default TDP of 54W up to 80W which is nice.

The AMD Radeon 890M iGPU is as strong as ever, featuring the fastest iGPU performance that we have seen to date and with great support for all the Radeon features such as FSR 3 Frame-Gen, Fluid Motion Frames 2, Anti-Lag 2, HYPR-RX and you can even tune it to run up to 200 MHz to get those extra frames. We found no trouble playing AAA games at 60+ FPS with a mix of medium and high settings. This RDNA 3.5 iGPU is a beast.

On the IO side, the lack of USB4 or TB4 ports is quite evident as there’s only one. We hope to see more of those options in upgraded designs but the feature set is still very nice. For a price tag of $999 US, the SER9 is definitely a premium-positioned product and the PC is the first on the market with this configuration. But there’s no doubt that Beelink has really pushed out a very capable PC that has so much power to offer that you’ll be surprised by this little thing.