Beelink AI Mini: A Palm-Sized Server with Heavyweight Power
Imagine a server that fits in the palm of your hand but packs the wallop of a heavyweight. That's the buzz around the upcoming Beelink AI Mini. This isn't your average tiny PC; Beelink is aiming for something special here, powered by AMD's beastly Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor. We're getting some first looks, and this little machine looks like it's built for some heavy lifting, with the ability to team up with others through super fast dual 10 Gbps Ethernet ports.
More Than Just Another Mini PC
You might be thinking, "Another mini PC". And, yeah, it is small, but the Beelink AI Mini seems to be in a league of its own. It is being likened to the likes of Minisforum's N5 and N5 Pro, but the AI Mini's core – that Ryzen AI Max+ 395 – is on an entirely different plane of power than some recent contenders.
Minisforum's latest offerings, by comparison, top out with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. That's a great chip, no doubt about it, and Beelink themselves use it in PCs like the SER9 Pro. But the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 in the AI Mini. That's a significant step up. We're talking some serious power here, which will likely translate to a more premium price tag, but also performance that may surprise a few. In fact, this chip's Radeon RX 8060S integrated graphics have been shown to stand toe-to-toe with Nvidia's RTX 4070 laptop discrete GPUs. Yes – some serious gaming cred for this small server.
Power User Connectivity
Beyond the pure processing power, the AI Mini is connected for speed and flexibility:
- Two USB4 ports are available, with a blazing 40 Gbps transfer speed.
- There's also a front-facing USB Type-C port for convenience. We're waiting to hear if the front port also hits those USB4 speeds, but it's a nice touch.
- The kicker for server applications. Dual 10 Gbps Ethernet ports. This allows for the potential of linking multiple AI Mini units together for even greater processing power through clustering. Beelink hasn't spilled all the beans on this feature yet, but it's an intriguing one.
Coming Soon: What We Know
Mark your calendars. The Beelink AI Mini will launch globally later this year. Get ready for a starting price of around $1,999, and it can be specced with a massive 128 GB of RAM. This little box is clearly aimed at those who need serious compute power in a tiny, and perhaps clustered, form factor.
