Beelink GTR7 7840HS Mini PC GBAtemp review
Hardware
Product Information:
- Official Store: https://bit.ly/3otK9iu
It was only a few years ago when a "mini pc" either meant an underwhelming micro-ATX PC build, or a Raspberry Pi. As technology has advanced, and with the advent of AMD's new RDNA integrated GPUs, mini PCs have evolved leaps and bounds into fully-fledged tiny gaming boxes. Beelink has gotten a head start on this mini PC revolution, with their 7840HS GTR7 unit. Pushing this new Ryzen technology to its limits, Beelink very well might have one of the most exciting gaming devices out this year.
Coming in four fun color patterns, the GTR7 is a tightly compact, incredibly well-built piece of kit. It has an all-metal case, which feels super solid and premium. On the top is a mesh vent, and if you pop that off, it'll reveal a chunky copper heatsink and fan to keep everything cool. Over on the opposite side, you've got the PC's RAM slots, which come with some power-packed DDR5 memory clocked at 5600MHz, alongside two M.2 NVMe slots, one of which is outfitted with a Crucial P3 Plus SSD, and the other is left empty to let you upgrade later down the line.
Tech Specs
- Color options: Green, Dark Blue, Space Grey, Hermes Orange
- CPU: AMD Ryzen™ 7 7840HS Base 3.80 GHz boost to 5.10 GHz
- GPU: AMD Radeon™ 780M 12 Cores 2700 MHz Frequency
- SSD: PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe 2280 1TB SSD (extra slot for extra storage)
- RAM: Dual SO-DIMM 32GB DDR5 5600Mhz
- Wireless: WiFi 6+Bluetooth 5.2/2x 2.5G LAN ports
- OS: Windows 11
Included on the front of the case are a handful of useful ports: power, CMOS reset, a USB-A 3.2, a USB-C 3.2, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Further I/O on the opposite side features two USB-A 2.0, another two USB-A 3.2, two USB-C 4.0, HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 for output, two LAN ports, and another headphone jack, giving you a lot to work with. As an extra bonus, the GTR7 also has a fingerprint sensor--a surprisingly useful and novel inclusion, assuming you're going to keep the machine within arm's reach. This mini PC has a wonderful assortment of I/O, with room to cram in all the accessories you could hope for.
With how thick the heatsink and CPU fan are, you'd hope the GTR7 handles heat dissipation well, and it does--at least for the most part. Running it default out-of-the-box gives you solid performance and some great temperatures, given this is a mobile processor in a tiny box. After installing programs, fiddling with settings, and just general use, most of the components were sitting around 39C.
Alt-tabbing over in the midst of a session of Cyberpunk 2077, though, where the mini PC was being stressed, showed temperatures closer to 87C for the CPU, and a wildly shocking 98C for the RAM; that isn't something you want to see happen often. The 32GB of Crucial DDR5 offers seriously good performance, but I'm left uneasy by those operating temps. There is a fan located near where the RAM is situated, but it's moreso designed to cool the M.2 drives. And even if you wanted to cram some heat spreaders onto the RAM, it's a bit of a hacky solution, and a lot of extra effort and cost that you probably don't want to bother with, if you're already shelling out for a nicely pre-made mini PC. On the whole, everything else is cooled well, and even when it's at max load, the fans don't get too loud--it's really just the RAM that's a blemish on the experience.
[UPDATE] Fortunately, the RAM problem has a solution: you simply need to update the BIOS to the latest version. According to Beelink, there are data reading errors out of the box. and in our testing, flashing the BIOS brought down the idle temps of the RAM to something much more manageable. Still hot, but not worryingly so.
In-game performance from the mini PC nets you great results. In a lot of cases, if you set it to 1080p/low, you'll get a solid 60fps--that's the case in Borderlands 3, The Witcher 3, Control, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Other games like Spider-Man, Cyberpunk 2077, and Elden Ring can hit 60 as well, so long as you're willing to mess around with FSR. The GTR7 handles emulation great as well, doing PS3, Switch, Wii U, 3DS, and 360 emulation without a hitch.
Coming in at $789.00, the GTR7 really does offer a premium-made product for a premium price. Having all this power stuffed into a small box is nothing short of impressive, especially when you consider how well the CPU is cooled. Being able to emulate even Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 3 titles makes the mini PC a fantastic emulation box, on top of the ability to play the latest AAA games at around 1080p. However, with the advent of the Asus ROG Ally, it feels like a lot of the novelty and niche of the GTR7 is covered by an even more portable device. Of course, you do get better performance than you would from the handheld, but the Ally is also lower-priced. On the other hand, you get tons of ports and the ability to output to multiple displays, and even use the GTR7 as your daily driver. If you're looking for a mini PC, I think Beelink has the ultimate experience on their hands--it just depends on if you're in the right market for such a thing.
Verdict
- Great BIOS for tweaking/overclocking
- Lovely case and lots of ports
- Runs quiet and fairly cool overall for the form factor
- Lets you get in there and upgrade it later down the line
- The RAM runs way too hot (now has a BIOS fix)
- You pay a premium for the form factor
