Beelink SER10 Max Mini PC review: Gorgon Pointcomes ready to dual-boot Windows and Ubuntu
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The Beelink SER10 Max might look like a standard Mac Mini-style mini PC, but this unit is fairly unique when compared to many of its other Mini PC compatriots – it comes dual-booted with both Windows 11 and Ubuntu, the latter of which also comes with OpenClaw and a lightweight local AI model pre-installed on the drive. Sporting AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 HX 470, a light refresh that boosts performance over its predecessor by 100Hz and AI TOPS to 55 over 50, is the curious configuration a simple party trick, or is the $1,649 mini PC doing something actually useful?
Outfitted in a vibrant red, the PC comes ready to dual-boot between Windows 11 and Ubuntu with the additional boon of OpenClaw having been pre-installed on the system alongside a local AI model – Qwen 3.5-9B-Q4_K_M – on the Ubuntu install, meaning that setting the SER10 Max up for AI usage should be fairly straightforward. It’s important to note here that, despite the branding and usefulness of the setup, the HX 470 is hamstrung by a maximum memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, a far cry from the Strix Halo’s 256 GB/s, meaning that local AI performance will be somewhat limited.
Design of the Beelink SER10 Max
Beelink has taken a few notes from Apple’s playbook for the design of the SER10 Max. While the underside and rear of the chassis are both made from plastic, the rest of the shell is made from high-quality machined aluminum. Our unit comes in with a red anodized aluminum finish, which looks fantastic, though it might not be to everyone’s taste. The red finish is specifically for units that come with the “OpenClaw” feature pre-installed. For everyone else, there’s a silver finish, which makes the unit look even more Mac Mini-inspired.
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One thing to note about the SER10 Maxis is that, unlike some other mini PC’s, the power supply is external, meaning that you’ll have to find a place for the power brick to live. Luckily, the unit we were shipped came with a fairly long cable. It’s a tight, well-made package sporting vapor chamber cooling and a single active fan that never gets too loud while under heavy loads, which is a rarity when dealing with PCs in this form factor.
Specifications
|
Processor |
AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 |
|
Memory |
64GB (2x32GB DDR5-5600) |
|
Graphics |
AMD Radeon 890M (integrated) |
|
Storage |
2TB 2280 M.2 SSD |
|
Networking |
10Gbps Ethernet, Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 |
|
Front Ports |
USB 3.2 Type-A 10Gbps, USB-C 10GBps, 3.5 mm audio jack |
|
Rear Ports |
USB4 (Type-C), HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, 10Gbps LAN, USB 2.0 Type-A, USB 3.2 Type-A |
|
Power Supply |
100-240V AC, Output 19V 5.26A |
|
Operating System |
Windows 11, Ubuntu |
|
Dimensions |
5.31 × 5.31 × 1.76 inches (134.9 x 134.9 x 44.7 mm) |
|
Price as Configured |
$1,649 |
Ports and Upgradeability on the Beelink SER10 Max
There’s some easy-access ports on the front, though I would have liked to have seen more Type-C ports over Type-A. The USB4 functionality might also come in handy for anyone looking to run an eGPU dock. On the back, 10Gbps Ethernet could make it a handy machine for running locally connected workstations for AI development (though on this machine, it’s probably better for fast networking). There’s nothing special to write home about here, though the additional feature of auto-power on via LAN is incredibly welcome, cementing the way that this PC is specifically positioned as a satellite compute unit.
The SER10 Max can be quite easily opened up, once you get past the adhesives. There are four rubber feet at the bottom of the chassis, which are unfortunately glued to the heads of the four screws. These are quite strongly bonded, and when I removed one of the small rubber stoppers, it flew off my desk, and into oblivion, never to be found again. Once you’ve taken your handy spudger or guitar pick, all it takes is removing four Phillips head screws, and a tug of a rubber tag at the bottom of the unit to remove the plastic bottom panel. There, you’ll be met with a dust filter, which takes another two screws to access the components within.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Our unit came with two populated dual-channel DDR5 SODIMM slots, in addition to two NVMe drives (one for each slot, housing each OS), which are underneath a heatsink, which is partially taped to another part of the chassis. You can easily remove the two screws holding the SSD heatsinks in place and lift it up, revealing two populated M.2 2280 slots, each housing a Crucial 1TB drive. Beneath the one on the right is an additional M.2 2230 slot, which is shielded, housing the Intel AX200 Bluetooth and Wi Fi module. These core components are all very easily accessible, meaning that if you wanted to upgrade your storage or if anything goes wrong with your connectivity at some point, it’s all user-replaceable, which isn’t a given with this segment of small PCs.
Productivity Performance on the Beelink SER10 Max
The SER10 Max’s performance across productivity workloads squarely put it in the middle of the pack for our currently tested suite of mini PC benchmarks. That’s no bad thing – the system can handle everyday office and demanding CPU tasks thanks to its 12-core / 24-thread configuration, which shines in multi-threaded workloads. In everyday use, I was not wanting for any more power than what was already on offer here.
Kicking things off with single-threaded results, we see that the Beelink SER10 Max sits slightly ahead of the HX370-based Arctic Senza AI 370, though it loses out to the MSI Cubi AI+ 3MG NUC, the latter of which uses an Intel Core Ultra 386H. Both HX470 systems in our benchmarks were slightly edged out by the GMKtec EVO-T2, a Core Ultra X7 358H-based system. In Geekbench 6’s single-threaded results, we see that the system fares slightly better than our overall geomean ranking, leading at the top of the pack by a slim margin. Multi-threaded workloads also tell a similar story, with the Beelink SER10 Max sitting second in our list of benchmarks against other systems, but not far behind the Arctic Senza AI 370, which, in all fairness, is only a single point ahead.
In real-world tasks, such as video editing for Tom’s Hardware’s ‘Quick Takes’ using Capcut, I found that the Beelink SER10 Max performed admirably, loading and rendering video, cutting and rendering at a solid speed, so I wasn’t waiting around for effects to be rendered within the timeline. In the videos I edited on the Beelink SER10 Max, I didn’t feel as though I was waiting around for anything to be rendered, effects to be applied, nor was I wishing that I was editing on a more powerful system. However, editing using a “light” video editor like CapCut, against something more powerful like creating effects using After Effects and Premiere, are very different things. Throughout operation, we only heard the Beelink SER10 Max crank its single fan up to full tilt once, during a synthetic workload. Otherwise, the system was remarkably quiet throughout our testing.
Gaming and Graphics on the Beelink SER10 Max
The Beelink SER10 Max is equipped with AMD’s RDNA 3.5-based Radeon 890M GPU, which features 16 CUs at speeds of up to 3.1 GHz. This isn’t going to suddenly be able to run every game perfectly, as the device out of the box is configured to dedicate only 4GB of its memory pool to VRAM. Given that we have a lot of memory in the system, those looking to game may wish to extend that RAM pool further for peace of mind that they won’t run out of VRAM throughout. All of our tests were run with the 4GB VRAM pool, as was configured out of the box, meaning that you’ll likely find some performance gains should you tweak it to be slightly higher.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
In Cyberpunk 2077’s “Steam Deck” configuration at 1080p, the SER10 Max offers playable performance at 1% lows of 42 FPS and an average of 51 FPS, respectively. On Cyberpunk 2077’s High setting with all upscalers turned off, we see 1% lows of 25 FPS and an average of 30 FPS. In Cyberpunk, the Beelink SER10 Max is trailed only by the Arctic Senza AI 370, which has a faster memory pool, and the GMKTec Evo T2’s Arc B390, which also has faster memory.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the same pattern is echoed; faster memory is just as important for serving frames as the silicon within, though the Beelink SER10 Max achieves an average of 52 FPS and 1% low of 40 FPS. This isn’t going to become a AAA games machine, nor should you expect it to perform that way. Synthetic benchmarks confirm what our real-world testing tells us – the newer silicon Gorgon Point silicon doesn’t make up for slower memory when compared to the Arctic Senza AI 370’s 32GB of soldered LPDDR5X-8000.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
However, in smaller and simpler titles like Hollow Knight: Silksong, the SER10 Max managed to reach an average of 100 FPS at 4K with V-Sync off, Particle Effects set to Normal, and Blur Quality set to High. This is about as expected for a 2D game of this type, and aside from the odd hiccup when transitioning between areas, it ran extremely well. In Stardew Valley while tending to my crops, the SER10 Max at 4K maintained a steady 60 FPS throughout.
While those two are markedly lighter titles, I also played co-op climbing hit Peak on the system, where running things at a native 4K resolution came up against the reality of its default 4GB VRAM configuration with render scaling set to native, where the game struggled to reach a baseline of 30 FPS, with the rest of the game set to High. Punching all the settings, including render scaling to Medium, I managed to get things running at a steady average of around 70 FPS. So long as you keep your expectations in check regarding performance in heavier 3D titles, the SER10 Max is a performant “indie” machine. Just don’t expect to light the world on fire with all the latest bells and whistles, or run expect to run the newest titles at native 4K resolutions.
Dual Booting on the Beelink SER10 Max
Dual booting between Ubuntu and Windows 11 is one of this unit’s flagship features, isn’t quite as straightforward as you might be led to believe. Instead of being met with an option between the two upon booting the unit to switch between OS’s, you must instead switch the boot drives within the BIOS to get to your preferred OS. This isn’t a dealbreaker, but there are some more caveats to the feature that potential buyers should know about.
Ubuntu and Windows 11, even while running on different NVMe drives, don’t play well together unless you’ve set up Windows first. In particular, the networking chip wasn’t recognized by Ubuntu until I had booted up Windows 11, set up the device, and restarted the system to boot into Windows again, then switched to Ubuntu. No amount of driver installations or re-installations on Ubuntu managed to solve the issue on our end. That was the only real problem that we encountered when testing the Ubuntu installation on our review unit.
Secondly, the OpenClaw installation is remarkably simple to set up, with Beelink itself offering a setup guide for new users (like me) who had never used OpenClaw before. A well-documented setup guide, and 10 minutes later, I had my own local LLM running on the system, and communicating to me via Telegram on my phone. It’s worth mentioning that Beelink also offers a pre-installed LLM for OpenClaw usage on the device, in this case, Qwen 3.5-9B-Q4_K_M.
When querying the model in the llama.cpp front-end, we found that the model ran at 11.4 TPS, which is quite slow. A 1,350-token query took around two minutes in total to generate, which is a fairly slow speed for those looking for light, fast responses. Getting OpenClaw to learn new skills is a crucial part of having a model running on your phone. Without it, the model will just occasionally lie to you. That’s not the PC’s fault, but a byproduct of running a 9B model locally. During the setup of OpenClaw, you can also install other LLMs that fit into the system’s memory, such as Google’s Gemma 4 model or other lightweight LLMs. However, given that this system cannot quite manage to fit larger, more complex LLMs locally, you also have the option to use an API key for your provider of choice, which removes some of the load and opens the door to running more agents concurrently on the system.
The reality is that for Local AI and AI development, you’d be more suited to spending more on an AMD Strix Halo or Nvidia DGX Spark-based system, as those offer much more performant architectures and higher memory bandwidth for running larger, heavier local models. However, for those looking to simply dip their feet into the Local AI waters, the SER10 Max is capable of running some of those tasks, but you’ll be looking to upgrade your hardware sooner rather than later if this is the main reason behind your purchase.
Software and Warranty on the Beelink SER10
The SER10 Max comes with a delightfully lightweight and bloat-free Windows 11 installation, shipped with Windows 11 Pro 24H2, meaning that once you get the unit, you’ll likely want to upgrade it to 25H2 if yours hasn’t already. Oddly enough, it took a few attempts to successfully install it, after several rounds of failed updates. Soon after, we were up and running with no issues, but Beelink should really update its Windows installation image to 25H2 to smooth onboarding for new users. Over on the Ubuntu side, you’re simply looking at having all the files for OpenClaw pre-installed. This is a pretty refreshing take, as the system is not filled with bloatware. Once you’ve installed all of your drivers on the system, then things are fairly nimble and lightweight.
Beelink offers a three-year warranty on its website, which covers manufacturing defects or if the product does not work as advertised. While you can go straight to Beelink’s website and purchase the system, many models of the SER10 Max are also available via Amazon.
Beelink SER10 Max Configurations
Beelink offers the SER10 Max in a multitude of flavors and configurations. The base model offers Windows 11 Pro, in 32GB/1TB and 64GB/1TB flavors with a silver anodized aluminum finish, priced at $1.299 and $1,599, respectively. The “OpenClaw” models ship with Ubuntu and come in the red colorway and can be specced slightly higher. The 32GB / 1TB will cost you $40 more than the Windows 11-based equivalent, while the 64GB / 1TB OpenClaw config retains pricing parity to its Windows 11-based brethren.
The OpenClaw configurations also ship with more DDR5-5600 RAM and 2TB of storage. The configuration we reviewed, the 64GB / 2TB OpenClaw model, will set you back $1,799, and is the only model that ships dual-booted. You can also equip yourself with a 96GB / 2TB variant, which tops out at $2,199.
Shopping around for other Gorgon Point Mini PC’s of this type, Geekcom’s A9 Max is $100 more expensive for the base model, whereas the MINISFORUM AI X1 Pro-470 in a 64GB/1TB variant costs $1,639, whereas Beelink’s SER10 model with the same RAM and storage capacities is slightly cheaper at $1,599.
Bottom Line
The Beelink SER10 Max’s appeal is curious. On one hand, you have a well-performing desktop PC that can churn through most productivity and performance tasks with ease, and is even well-suited for some light gaming. For the past week and change, it’s even acted as a suitable replacement for my desktop gaming PC in a pinch, and I’ve not been left wanting on the performance front in my day-to-day usage. The biggest weakness of the SER10 Max is in its fairly limited memory bandwidth, capped at 89.6 GB/s. We’ve seen this limitation crop up in some gaming workloads, where previous-generation silicon with faster RAM beat the SER10 Max’s HX470 out. We’ve also seen the unit butt up against this limitation when serving tokens for local AI models, as the system must communicate between the model weights stored in the RAM and push them through the APU for every single token generated.
Where the confusion comes is in the OpenClaw-based branding of the unit, as a result. The Ubuntu dual-boot is handy, but far from a difficult task to perform for someone familiar with the platform. For prospective AI developers, there is merit in being able to run a smaller model locally at lower token speeds, while also leveraging a more powerful cloud model. But you would need to take a hybrid approach. Don’t expect to suddenly abandon your Claude subscription for a model that this the SER10 Max can run – you’ll only set yourself up for disappointment. This makes the OpenClaw branding come across more like a marketing gimmick, rather than an actual day-in-day-out use case, unless you’re dedicated enough to set up a hybrid local and cloud AI setup, where you’re passing off smaller tasks to a slower locally-run model.
This makes the particular configuration that we’ve reviewed niche in its overall utility for AI enthusiasts. You have to go in understanding all of the limitations of the hardware before even considering purchasing it. For some, the configuration on offer here will suit just fine; for others, particularly those interested in running powerful local AI models – you should instead look toward systems with faster memory bandwidth, higher memory capacities, and speeds. Luckily, it’s not a dedicated AI box, and the SER10 Max is a quiet, performant desktop computer that’ll suit most everyday tasks incredibly well.
