We have been working for months to bring our readers the Intel Core i3 N305 performance. Ever since we heard about Alder Lake-N, we have been excited. With five systems ordered with the N305, the first to arrive was the Beelink EQ12 Pro. This mini PC uses the N305, a 15W TDP CPU with eight cores, and a new Intel graphics engine to do something that we have been waiting to see for over a decade. A usable fully E-core machine.
Beelink EQ12 Pro Overview
As we have for many of these STH Mini PC series reviews, we have a video for this one:
Thanks to the STH YouTube members for making buying this unit possible. As always if you want to help us buy these units, you can join the channel to help the budget. We also suggest opening the video in its own window, tab, or app for a better viewing experience.
Our Beelink EQ12 Pro is the high-end unit of this series. With the Pro model, we get a fully configured machine with Windows 11 Pro pre-installed. More on Windows in our key lessons learned.
In terms of our configuration, we got 16GB of DDR5 and a 512GB NVMe SSD. The catch is that the NVMe SSD is on a PCIe Gen3 x1 link.
We got WiFi as well, but it was an Intel AX101 unit so only a 1×1 WiFi 6 solution. The key thing to keep in mind is that at just about every turn there was cost-cutting in this unit versus some of the higher-end systems we have seen.
Beelink EQ12 Pro External Hardware Overview
The front of the system has two USB 3 Type-A ports and a headset port. Along with the power button, the CLR CMOS button, a Beelink staple, is present.
The sides of the system have vents.
The material is very plastic feeling. This is one of the cost-saving measures in this system.
The rear of the system has a USB Type-A and Type-C port. There are two HDMI ports and two 2.5GbE LAN ports (Intel i225-V B3.) It is nice to have that level of networking on a system like this.
The top of the system is a textured plastic with the Beelink EQ logo.
The bottom of the unit has Beelink’s large rubber feet. Beelink does better than companies like Minisforum here because it has large rubber feet with through screws.
Beelink also has the instructions to get into BIOS as well as a pull tab for the bottom here.
Next, let us get inside the system.
I got an N100 version to replace my mum’s old desktop, and was very impressed with the little 4 e-cores. So I can imagine the N305 is very impressive.
I haven’t seen anything with the N300 yet, also 8 cores but only 7W TDP.
Do Intel’s -N cpus have hardware AV1 decode? I’ve seen conflicting info from different sources. Can you verify? Thanks.
@Yuri yeah they do. https://www.servethehome.com/new-2023-n-series-gracemont-cpus-are-a-huge-upgrade/
I would be interested in a few of this items if:
– I could get a lower powered CPU as i3 is much more than I need;
– I did not have to pay “the Windows tax” since I would run Linux on them.
Other than that, the Intel NIC is preferable to a Realtek NIC IMHO. The single channel memory is not an issue nor is the memory amount supported.
Really interesting machine and the CPU is quite powerful.
What I find a bit strange is, why is the multicore score so low? It’s only 4 times the singlecore score, even though the CPU has 8 cores.
I think they’re selling out on power for 3.8GHz single core but then they’ve got to go back down for 8c. They’re running at a system power of 3w/c sustained. With all the NICs, fans, SSD, RAM, and PSU they’re at maybe 2w/c max. Even Arm needs low clocks to stay 1.5-2w/c.
So the E cores not as efficient as one would think (I already figured out since alder lake), they accommodated 8 cores by increasing power budgets usually expected for this class
If you put this next to a AMD phoenix 15W…
Also for those asking for Intel, many i225s have issues especially on windows. 226 might finally get rid of the jinx but the realtek 2.5 solutions is actually far more stable and works with 2.5 routers/switches better.
Great review of this. That’s good power consumption. Henkel’s breakdown is good. I’d hope you can do one like that in future articles. I’d like to see the N100 too.
Realtek 2.5Gb still suffers from when you stress them they freak out. They’re cheap but not good. We’ve got around 1,000 ports of PC’s now with Realtek and Intel i225. We’ve only got like 30 i226’s so far. Users complain about Realtek 4:1 over Intel FWIW.
So it’s the same performance as 6-core i5-8500T from 2017 for the same TDP? Only a bit cheaper. But it’s always better to have X performance from 6 cores (8500T) than from 8(N305). Where’s the innovation, Intel? Where’s the generational growth?
What kind of core count/speeds do we need to drive a full 10GbE dual-port firewall appliance?
I’d like to start thinking about retrofitting my home network once again now that some of the new motherboards are coming with 5GbE NICs onboard.
I currently have an 11th gen NUC with dual 2.5GbE running firewall duties, and it’s obviously overkill. But would it be right-sized if the NICs were 10GbE? Or still overkill. I only run ~100 firewall rules.
An AMD 5825U w/ i226 seems like a better option for many home lan purposes (ESXi in particular). Equivalent CPU TDP, almost twice the cpu benchmarks, same i226 NICs available paired with, usually ships two SODIMM slots so you can go to 64GB. What am I missing? I think I’d easily jump on the intel unit if it had two DIMMs, otherwise AMD is liable to take my money for 4 or more of these units.
This is a very interesting CPU but not for these prices. Beelink is now discounting the 5500U unit for the same price. That is a lot more CPU and double the GPU, though I do think you lose AV1 decoding (shouldn’t be an issue with this CPU).
Setup an N305 based router for a friend a couple weeks back. Runs super smooth with OPNsense. Would love to see an itx/nas variant.
Does this N305-bearing EQ 12 Pro actually exist? Both links provided take us to systems not wielding an N305. Would absolutely love to buy one of these, but I’m not seeing them anywhere. Even Bee Link’s website only mentions an N100 version. Any thoughts here?
You would search for the ALN50(i3-n305) mini PC.