What is exceptional about Beelink GTR mini PC? The GT-R runs on an AMD Ryzen 5 3550H with an embedded Radeon RX Vega 8 GPU. This APU is designed for laptops, notably the Asus TUF Gaming FX705, but we will see if it feels at home in a small desktop PC and examine how much power can fit in such a small case. It can satisfy your diverse scenarios’ use such as entertainment, Games, office, etc. 3 copper tubes and 2 fans design, with strong heat dissipation capacity, almost no noise. Get details in Beelink GTR mini PC with 16G DDR4 512G SSD 1TB HDD AMD Ryzen 5 3550H review.
Specifications – Beelink GTR mini PC with 16G DDR4 512G SSD 1TB HDD AMD Ryzen 5 3550H
- Dimensions: 168 x 120 x 39 mm
- Weight: 700 g
- OS: Microsoft Windows 10 PRO
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3550H (Picasso)
- RAM: 2 SO-DIMM slots, DDR4L-2400 dual-channel 8/16 GB, expandable up to 32 GB.
- ROM: 2280 M.2 NVME 256/512 GB + HDD 1 TB + 2280 M.2 SATA3 slot
- Graphics: Radeon ™ Vega 8 (Integrated)
- Wireless networks: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), 2×2, Bluetooth® 5.1 (Intel AX200D2WL module)
- Wired network: 2 x RJ45 / 1000Mbit Ethernet
- Audio: HDMI, 3.5 mm audio jack
- Screen: 2 x HDMI, DP + Type-C
- USB ports: 6 x USB 3.0
In the box
Beelink GT-R is packed in a cardboard box, which shows a mini PC and its main technical characteristics.
The box contains the following kit:
- mounting plate + set of screws for fastening;
- 2 HDMI cords;
- mini PC Beelink GT-R;
- power supply unit 19 V, 3 A;
- bootable USB 3.0 drive for installing Win 10 PRO;
- instructions for installing drives into the case;
- instruction manual.
How much Power it consume?
Power consumption was measured as follows:
- Powered off – 0.9 Watts
- BIOS* – 24.1 Watts
- Boot menu – 22.5 Watts
- Idle – 9.6 Watts (Windows) and 8.3 Watts (Ubuntu)
- CPU stressed – 52.9 Watts then drops to 45.2 Watts (Ubuntu)
- Video playback** – 32.7 Watts (4K in Windows) and 31.5 Watts (4K in Ubuntu)
Beelink GTR mini PC with 16G DDR4 512G SSD 1TB HDD AMD Ryzen 5 3550H review
Build
The top glass shows smudges easily, though. The GT-R’s case is beautiful and strong. The GT-R’s case is well-made, aesthetically pleasing, and hewn from a magnesium alloy. The top panel is covered with glass, giving a bit of extra pop. The case feels sturdy and holds firm under direct pressure. Its neutral gray color gives a professional look, and the matte finish on the side panels resists fingerprints.
Design
The Beelink GT-R is a slightly larger mini PC physically consisting of a 168 mm x 120 mm x 39 mm (6.61 x 4.72 x 1.54 inches) rectangular metal case with a plastic top. It is an actively cooled mini PC that uses a (previous generation) Zen+ microarchitecture 12 nm Ryzen 5 3550H mobile processor which is a quad-core 8-thread 2.1 GHz processor boosting to 3.7 GHz with Radeon Vega 8 Graphics.
Ports
Front: mic, power, CMOS clear, 2x USB-A 3.0, headset, USB-C 3.0 w/ DisplayPort, mic. Rear: DC-in, 2x Gigabit LAN, 2x HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4, 4x USB-A 3.0, exhaust (along top)
The rear boasts two gigabit LAN ports and three display hookups (two HDMI, one DisplayPort), and four more USB 3.0 Type-A ports. With the three display outputs on the back and the USB-C port on the front, Beelink says that the GT-R can support up to four displays.
Beelink fit quite a few ports onto the device. The front of the GT-R has two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a headset jack, and a single USB 3.0 Type-C port that supports display out. To the left of these are a bright red power button and a small green button for clearing the CMOS (more on that later). There are also two microphones flanking the front I/O.
Storage, memory & processor
The heart of the Beelink GT-R is an AMD Ryzen 5 3550H mobile APU. The quad-core, 8-thread chip is coupled with a Radeon RX Vega 8 GPU and offers decent performance for such a small package. Beelink mixes in speedy NVMe storage, two additional bays for SATA drives, and support for up to 64 GB of RAM. In sum, the GT-R makes for a fine office machine with some media skills and light gaming chops.
Graphics in Beelink GTR mini PC with 16G DDR4 512G SSD 1TB HDD AMD Ryzen 5 3550H
On the graphics end, the Ryzen 5 3550H is equipped with eight Vega Compute Units (CUs) that max out at 1,200 MHz. The Beelink GT-R Pro comes with two DDR4 SO-DIMM RAM slots, opening the doors to pairing the Ryzen 5 3550H with up to 64GB of memory.
What is good in AMD Ryzen 5?
The Beelink GT-R’s AMD Ryzen 5 3550H is positioned against Intel’s mid-range, mainstream Core i5 processor, was announced in January 2019, and is based on the second-generation Zen+ microarchitecture. It currently is used in 2020 gaming laptops ranging between $700 – $1,200.
- CPU: 4 cores / 8 threads / 12 nm process
- More cores and threads allow the “brain” to process more tasks simultaneously, speeding up supported operations. Think of multiple brains working together instead of one
- Base: 2.1 GHz / Boost: 3.7 GHz
- Up to 64 GB of dual-channel 2400 MT/s DDR4 memory
- Thermal Design Power (TDP): 35W
- APU – Accelerated Processing Unit (formerly “Fusion”)
- AMD’s CPU with a truly integrated GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)
- Intel also offers integrated GPU, but its design is inferior to the APU for gaming performance
- Graphics: Radeon Vega 8
- Execution Units: 8 / Shaders: 512 / Burst: 1.2 GHz
- Max Displays: 4 / Output: HDMI, DisplayPort
- AMD’s CPU with a truly integrated GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)
Upgrade option
The motherboard provides two slots for housing speedy M.2 SSDs. There’s one tiny caveat. Only one of the M.2 slots is compatible with PCIe NVMe drives, while the remaining slot is limited to SATA-based M.2 SSDs.
Dissipation and noise
As previously mentioned the GT-R uses active cooling and actually has a dual-fan configuration to assist with heat dissipation. Although the device didn’t become hot to touch, the fans were rather noisy at times. During benchmarking the maximum temperature I recorded on the top of the device was around 22°C in the back left corner and around 30°C in the front right corner with an ambient room temperature of 15.5°C. The loudest the fan became during the benchmarking was 45.2 dBA compared to 32.2 dBA when it was not running. However, when gaming the fan noise increased and measured up to 54.0 dBA.
Beelink GTR mini PC with 16G DDR4 512G SSD 1TB HDD AMD Ryzen 5 3550H Performance review
GAMES
We performed our gaming tests on the Beelink GT-R which thanks to its Radeon RX Vega 8 GPU offers us quite good performance on many titles that are totally impossible to play on Intel processors with integrated HD Graphics GPUs. As we can see in the results we can play quite a few demanding titles with 1080p resolution, emulators are also feasible but at most we stay in some simple Wii titles.
- GTA V / Overwatch / Fortnite / PUBG Lite: low settings, 720p* resolution and No VSync
- LOL / CS:GO: low settings, 1080p resolution and No VSync.
*On models with powerful discrete GPU settings in medium and 1080p resolution
Performance test in Fortnite, medium quality settings and 100% rendering at 1080p resolution. Quite playable with these settings if we settle for stable 30fps, results in the line of the same APU mounted on laptops.
Streaming
In the streaming aspect the Beelink GT-R mini PC with the most popular streaming services we pass some test for Youtube, Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime Video and others with their native apps or using the most compatible browser. .
- Performance: Has hardware acceleration for VP9 4K codec on Youtube.
| Streaming service | Video / Audio | Result | Manual |
| Youtube | 4K (2160p) / 5.1 | OK | – |
| Netflix | 4K (2160p) / 5.1 | OK | Netflix for PC |
| HBO | FullHD (1080p) / Stereo | OK | HBO for PC |
| Disney+ | FullHD (1080p) / Stereo | OK | HBO for PC |
| Amazon Prime Video | FullHD (1080p) / Stereo | OK | Amazon Prime video for PC |
| DAZN | HD (720p) / Stereo | OK | – |
| IPTV | FullHD (1080p) / Stereo | OK | – |
4 monitors can be connected to Beelink GT-R simultaneously. Two HDMI 2.0b ports, DP 1.4 port and USB Type-C connector are used for connection. Maximum resolution 4K @ 60fps.
The integrated graphics accelerator Radeon ™ Vega 8 has a GPU with hardware support for HVEC and VP9 codecs, there is support for video with 10-bit color and HDR.
2160P YouTube videos are played back without skipping frames.
