The incredible $300 PC

Jared Newman
|
March 14, 2023

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Back in early February, I impulse-bought a tiny, inexpensive desktop PC for research purposes. I didn’t expect it to change my entire computing setup.

But here I am a month later, using the $300 Beelink SER5 Mini PC as my daily workhorse, powering a pair of 1440p desktop monitors and smoothly handling any productivity task I’ve thrown at it. This little computer has been so delightful to use that I’ve relegated my full-sized desktop tower PC to the basement television, where it’s now serving exclusively as a gaming rig.

Consider this an enthusiastic product review, but also a lesson on technological overkill. Outside of some specialized use cases, the required compute power for getting things done might be a lot less than you think.

Sizing up the mini PC

Beelink sells an array of miniature computers, but the one I bought currently costs $289 with the following specs:

  • AMD Ryzen 5 5500U processor
  • 16 GB of RAM (DDR4)
  • 512 GB of storage (M.2 NVMe)
  • Windows 11 Pro
  • Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
  • Front ports: Two USB-A 3.2, one USB-C, 3.5mm audio
  • Rear ports: One USB-A 3.0, one USB-A 2.0, two HDMI 2.0, gigabit ethernet

Spec-wise, this is roughly on par with laptops in the $500 to $700 price range, except of course you’ll have to supply your own mouse, keyboard, and screen. The 5×5-inch frame is small enough to pick up with one hand, and it comes with VESA brackets for mounting the computer to the back of a monitor or television.

The Beelink SER5 also hides a neat feature on its underside: Removing the bottom plate reveals a slot for a 2.5-inch storage drive. I bought a 1 TB solid state drive to store all my OneDrive files locally, and the PC recognized it without issue. (The device’s RAM and M.2 storage drive are upgradeable as well.)

There’s room for a 2.5-inch SSD in the bottom cover.

How it fares

Going in, my plan was to briefly play around with the SER5’s default Windows 11 Pro installation before going back to my regular desktop for work. Even if I didn’t use the mini PC regularly, I figured it’d be useful for experimenting with other operating systems such as Linux or Chrome OS Flex.

In the end, the transition to daily work was so seamless that I never went back to my old computer at all.

As a tech journalist, my work typically involves writing in Obsidian, chatting in Slack with colleagues (and Advisorator readers), juggling a few dozen browser tabs in Brave, and attending video calls in Zoom or Google Meet. The Beelink SER5 handled all those tasks without ever noticeably slowing down, and it’s much quieter than the full-sized desktop I’d been using before.

I threw some more ambitious tasks at the mini PC as well, such as digitizing some old VHS tapes, recording streaming video sources via PlayOn Home, and running a Plex media server. Even with Plex’s commercial detection and PlayOn’s recording engine running in the background, I continued to work without any noticeable performance setbacks.

And while integrated Radeon graphics are no match for a dedicated graphics card, the Beelink SER5 fared well as a low-end gaming device. Yakuza Kiwami ran at a smooth 60 frames per second on high settings at 1080p, and both Fortnite and the post-apocalyptic cat simulator Stray were playable at 1080p with framerates closer to 30 frames per second.

All this led to a realization that my hulking desktop PC was just wasting space while also being excessively loud and energy-intensive, and after a couple weeks I moved it out of my office for good. I gave it a factory reset, configured it exclusively for gaming in the basement, and now only turn it on as needed.

Lesson learned

When shopping for computers, it’s always tempting to buy for every potential use case, both real and perceived, now and in the future.

The SER5 is a reminder that we’ve reached a point of diminishing returns for most computing use cases. Despite having just a mid-range processor (one designed for laptops, at that), I was never wanting for more power or wishing I’d splurged on a pricier computer.

But mostly, I’m just happy to have a quieter office and a better place for the gaming PC that once occupied it.

Jared Newman here! I hope you’re enjoying this free issue of Advisorator, my weekly newsletter for tech advice, tips, and deals. If you’d like to get newsletters like this one every Tuesday, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Need to know

Google’s VPN gets cheaper: Google is extending its VPN service to all Google One subscription plans, including the cheapest $2 per month tier (which also includes 100 GB of storage for Gmail, Google Photos, and Google Drive). The VPN is strictly focused on privacy and security, in that it can hide your IP address from websites you visit and provide extra protection on open Wi-Fi networks. You can’t use it to evade geographic restrictions on content.

While the need for a VPN is often overblown—especially with public Wi-Fi—the extra peace of mind can still be nice to have. And while you have to trust that the VPN provider itself isn’t doing anything nefarious with your data, Google claims that it won’t use its VPN track users’ activity—at least not beyond what it normally does when you’re signed into services like Search and Chrome. Google One subscribers can download the VPN for iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows.

New Sonos speakers: Sonos announced its long-rumored Era 100 and Era 300 speakers last week. The former is a better-sounding replacement for the basic Sonos One for $249, while the latter is a $449 speaker with a new hourglass-shaped design and Dolby Atmos spatial audio support.

What distinguishes Sonos speakers from most others is their array of connectivity options. Both Eras support Alexa, Apple AirPlay, Bluetooth, Spotify Connect, and of course Sonos’ own multi-room audio system, and Sonos will also sell a $19 line-in adapter for auxiliary inputs such as turntables. But unlike the previous models, the Eras will lack Google Assistant support—presumably stemming from the two companies’ patent battles. The new speakers start shipping on March 28.

Facebook’s Messenger backtrack: About nine years ago, Facebook started making people use the standalone Messenger app to access direct messages on their phones. By forcing the use of Messenger, Facebook hoped to turn it into a platform for apps and services, but it mostly just served to annoy people.

Now, the company is testing the return of messaging inside Facebook proper, announcing the move inside a weirdly defensive blog post about how Facebook isn’t dying. Under pressure from TikTok and a weakening ad market, Facebook needs engagement anywhere it can get it. Removing artificial barriers to messaging might help.

Tip of the moment

Paste as plain text: With the news that Microsoft is bringing Ctrl+Shift+V support to Microsoft Word (starting with beta users), now’s a fine time to celebrate one of my favorite keyboard shortcuts. By pressing Ctrl+Shift+V (or Cmd+Shift+V for Macs) on a wide range of apps and websites, you can paste the contents of your clipboard without any formatting.

This is useful in all kinds of situations, like pasting into a document without messing up your fonts, or pasting article text into Slack without any links. The best use case of all, though, is pasting from a form letter into an email without making it obvious that you’ve done so. I’ve seen too many PR pitches where a mid-sentence change in font gives it away.

To be clear, Word has long offered an option to paste as plain text via a little drop-down menu next to your text, and you can always set Word to paste as plain text by default. If that’s not enough, tools like Microsoft PowerToys and Pure Paste for Mac let you remap the standard Ctrl+V shortcut to paste as plain text instead.

But with a little muscle memory—and broad support from apps like Word—such workarounds should no longer be necessary.

Now try this

Turn websites into widgets: Back in 2020, I wrote about an iPhone app called Glimpse 2 that turns websites into live-updating home screen widgets. Now, JR Raphael brings word of an Android equivalent called Widgetify. As with Glimpse, you set it up by visiting a website, then choosing which part of the page to show on your home screen. It’s perfect for glancing at weather websites, analytics dashboards, or anything else that doesn’t offer an app with its own widget support. Head to JR’s guide for setup instructions.

Get to know iOS Live Activities: Speaking of widgets, Live Activities is a relatively new iPhone feature that can put widgets on your lock screen (or, on the iPhone 14 Pro, inside the Dynamic Island camera cutout) when they have relevant info to share. The MLB app is a great example, letting you track live games for whichever team you’ve marked as your favorite, and MacStories’ John Voorhees has a roundup of other apps with Live Activities support as well.

Around the web

Spend wisely

I know some of you were bummed about missing last week’s RAVPower charger deal, but good news: It’s back again with a new coupon code. Add the charger to your cart and apply the promo code DED98 at checkout, and you’ll get it for $9 with free shipping.

As before, this is charger includes an 18W USB-C port and a 12W USB-A port, letting you charge up to two devices at once. Cables are sold separately.

Other notable deals:

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