Beelink EQi13 Pro Review – Part 2: A mid-range Intel Core i5-13500H mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro

We’ve already checked out the specifications, gone through an unboxing and a teardown, and booted the Beelink EQi13 Pro mini PC to Windows 11 Pro in the first part of the review. Since then, we’ve had more time to test the Intel Core i5-13500H 12-core/16-thread Raptor Lake mini PC with Windows 11 Pro in detail.

So we’ll now report our experience with features testing, benchmarks, Ethernet and WiFi performance evaluation, 4K and 8K YouTube video playback, and measurements of fan noise and power consumption for the Beelink EQi13 Pro mid-range mini PC.

Software overview and features testing

After performing all updates, the System->About window confirms the Beelink EQi13 Pro is equipped with an  Intel Core i5-13500H CPU with 32GB RAM running Windows 11 Pro version 24H2, build 26100.2033.

HWiNFO 64 utility provides more information about the Intel Core i5-13500H 12-core (4P+E) /16-thread (8P+8E) Raptor Lake-H processor, the AZW BQ motherboard, and the 80 EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics.

Further details about the integrated Intel Iris Xe GPU can also be found in GPU-Z.

The PL1, PL2, and PL4 power limits are set to 35W (PBP), 35W (MTP), and 65W, with the Intel Core i5-13500H having a 45W TDP. Intel Ark indicates that the BPB and MTP can be set up to 45W and 115W, so Beelink may have decided to lower the values because the Core i5-13500H processor is installed in a compact mini PC, making cooling more challenging. If you operate the mini PC in a cool room (e.g., 20°C), you may want to tweak the values to extract more performance.

HWiNFO 64 lists two 16GB DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM modules for a total of 32GB, as expected.

This is further confirmed by the Memory section of the Windows Task Manager.

We can quickly check network options in the Device Manager, Network adapters section, listing two Realtek PCIe GbE ports, WiFi 6, and Bluetooth.

HWiNFO 64 shows two Realtek RTL8168/8111 PCIe Gigabit Ethernet NICs connected at 1 Gbps.

An Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 160 MHz wireless card is listed with a maximum link speed of 551 Mbps, but we can ignore this, since our test below will show much higher performance.

Let’s go back to the Device Manager to check the Bluetooth version.

LMP11.xxxx version looks up to Bluetooth 5.2 as advertised. We also quickly tested Bluetooth by transferring a file between the EQi13 Pro and Khadas Mind mini PCs.

All USB 3.0 ports on the Beelink EQi13 Pro are advertised as supporting 10 Gbps speed, and there’s also one 480 Mbps USB 2.0 port. But let’s not simply believe the specifications, and let’s check that out by ourselves using an ORICO M234C3-U4 NVMe SSD enclosure for the USB 3.0 ports, a Seagate USB HDD for the USB 2.0 port, as well as HWiNFO 64 and CrystalDiskMark utilities.

For reference, here’s the information from the USB 3.0 (10 Gbps) port on the front panel…

… and the USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) port on the rear panel.

Here’s the summary for all five USB ports from left to right:

• Front panel
  • USB-A #1 – USB 3.2 – USB 3.2 Gen2 (SuperSpeedPlus 10 Gbps) – Read speed: 1,060 MB/s; write speed: 1,039 MB/s
  • USB-C #1 – USB 3.2 – USB 3.2 Gen2 (SuperSpeedPlus 10 Gbps) – Read speed: 1,060 MB/s; write speed: 1,040 MB/s
• Rear panel
  • USB-A #1  – USB 3.2 – USB 3.2 Gen2 (SuperSpeedPlus 10 Gbps)  – Read speed: 1,060 MB/s; write speed: 1,040 MB/s
  • USB-A #2  – USB 3.2 – USB 3.2 Gen2 (SuperSpeedPlus 10 Gbps)  – Read speed: 1,059 MB/s; write speed: 1,039 MB/s
  • USB-A #3  – USB 3.0 – USB 2.0 High-Speed (480 Mbps) – Read speed: 44 MB/s; write speed: 44 MB/s

All working, as advertised.

Since the mini PC also features a second PCIe Gen4 x4 2280 socket, we installed a high-performance 2TB WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe SSD in the spare socket.

The SSD was detected, and the performance was close to or even matched the theoretical limits (7,300MB/s read and 6,600 MB/s write) with a 6,930 MB/s sequential read speed and 6,684 MB/s sequential write speed.

The Beelink EQi13 Pro supports up to two monitors through its two HDMI 2.0 ports.

We tested the dual display feature successfully using the GAOMON PD2200 Pen Display with 1920 x 1080 resolution and the KTC A32Q8 32-inch 4K UHD Smart Monitor at 3840 x 2160 resolution. Most other mini PCs can support three to four displays, but this was one of the ways Beelink lowered the cost of the EQi13 Pro to make it more affordable.

Beelink EQi13 Pro (Core i5-13500H) mini PC benchmarks on Windows 11 Pro

Before starting the benchmarks, we set the Power mode to “Best performance” in the System->Power window. All benchmarks were performed in a room with an ambient temperature of around 27 to 29°C, and running the same benchmarks in a cooler room may yield better results.

Let’s start the Windows 11 benchmarks with PCMark 10.

The Beelink EQiPro 13 mini PC achieved 5,743 points.

The 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark stresses both the CPU and GPU, and the Intel Core i5-13500H SoC with integrated Intel Xe Iris Graphics achieved 4,290 points here.

In PassMark PerformanceTest 11, the Raptor Lake mini PC achieved 4,734 points, This benchmark gives a fairly high weight to the Disk Mark, and the pre-installed NVMe SSD performed well with 41,118 points. Let’s confirm that with CrystalDiskMark. The 1TB drive could read at up to 5,207 MB/s, and write at up to 4,765 MB/s. Not bad indeed.

Cinebench R23 can be used to evaluate the single-core and multi-core performance of the Intel CPU.

That’s 1,692 points for the single-core benchmark, and 10,594 points for the multi-core benchmark, or 6.26x MP ratio for the 12-core(4P+8E)/16-thread Intel Core i5-13500H CPU.

Let’s now start testing the GPU with Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0. The EQi13 Pro mini PC could render the benchmark scene at 45.2 FPS on average with a score of 1,140 points at a standard 1920×1080 resolution.

Next up, we’ll test 4K and 8K YouTube video playback in Firefox, with the mini PC connected to the KTC A32Q8 4K Smart Monitor.

No problem at all with a 4K 30FPS video played for over 7 minutes, and no frames dropped at all.

Same results at 4K 60FPS.

8K 30FPS YouTube streaming was excellent too, with only one frame dropped while playing the video for over 5 minutes.

Sadly, we can’t say the same for 8K @ 60 FPS, since 6,714 frames were dropped out of the 7,786, and needless to say, the video was unwatchable. It’s usually a memory bandwidth or overheating issue, so switching to DDR5 memory or a cooler room may help here.

Another way is to switch to Google Chrome, as the same video played smoothly at 8K 60 FPS, although with a few dropped frames (26) while watching the video for 5 minutes.

In summary, YouTube can play 4K videos up to 60FPS, and 8K videos up to 30 FPS with Firefox, but 8K videos won’t play smoothly at 60 FPS. Switching to Chrome improves that with smooth video playback up to 8K 60 FPS.

Comparison of Beelink EQi13 Pro Windows 11 benchmarks against other sub-$500 mini PCs

We can now compare benchmark results in Windows 11 for the Beelink EQi13 Pro Intel Core i5-13500H mini PC against two other mid-range (sub-$500) mini PCs, namely, the GEEKOM Mini IT12 (2025 Edition) powered by an Intel Core i7-1280P SoC, and the GEEKOM A6 equipped with an AMD Ryzen  7 6800H CPU. Let’s check the basic specifications for each model first.

And now for the benchmark results:

While the Beelink EQi13 Pro has none of the top scores, we should bear in mind that it’s the cheapest of the lot, and its performance is quite close to the GEEKOM MINI IT12 (2025 Edition). Its thermal design appears to be quite better when we look at the Cinebench R23 multi-core score. The AMD-based GEEKOM A6 performs quite better than the two Intel ones, especially if higher 3D graphics performance is required, and its main weaknesses are its single-core performance and NVMe SSD storage that’s not as performant.

Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi 6 networking performance

We’ll now test wired and wireless network performance, starting with the GbE ports using iperf3 and UP Xtreme i11 Edge mini PC (192.168.31.12) on the other side.

Results for the left Ethernet port:

• Download

• Upload

Results for the right Ethernet port:

• Download

• Upload

No problem here, although it’s not surprising for Gigabit Ethernet ports…

Let’s now test WiFi 6 by adding a Xiaomi Mi Router AX6000 to the mix.

• Download

• Upload

Excellent performance here with 1.52 Gbps downloads and 1.73 Gbps uploads, faster than the GbE ports (when placed at about one meter from the WiFi router), although we can see some drops in speed to about 1000 Mbps at the end of the Download test.

Stress test and thermal performance

We’ve tested the cooling ability (thermal performance) of the Beelink EQi13 Pro mini PC using the 3Dmark Fire Strike benchmarks to provide a CPU+GPU load while monitoring the system with HWiNFO64. The maximum temperature was 84°C, and thermal CPU throttling was detected, but for only a very short period. That’s probably because of low power limits selected, but it may still be a plus for the longevity of the computer.

We rebooted the computer and repeated a similar test with CineBench R23 multi-core benchmark, and this time the CPU temperature went up to 88°C with CPU thermal throttling detected for a longer period of time. The maximal operating temperature of the Intel Core i5-13500H CPU is 100°C, so I’m not sure why that’s the case here.

Fan noise

The Beelink EQi13 Pro is quieter than most other actively-cooled mini PCs we’ve tested. Like its peers, it is quiet at idle and under light workloads, but the fan is still barely audible under heavier loads. We measured the noise level with a sound level meter placed around 5 cm from the top of the enclosure.

• Idle and light load –  39.4 – 40.1 dBA
• 3DMark Fire Strike – 41.4 – 45.7 dBA

In a quiet room, the sound level meter reports 38-39 dBA.

Beelink EQi13 Pro power consumption

We measured the power consumption with a wall power meter:

• Power off – 2.0 Watts
• Idle – 10.9 – 12.3 Watts
• Video playback – 32 – 34.3 Watts (YouTube 8K 60 FPS in Firefox)
• Cinebench R23 Multi Core –  62.4 – 64.2 Watts

The idle power consumption is a worry, as it’s fairly high, and other similar computers are usually well under 10 Watts (6W typ.). If a user ran the mini PC idle 24/7 for one year, that would be roughly equivalent to 100 kWh per year, or around 40 Euros per year, using 0.4 Euros per kWh (Electricity rate in Germany).

Note: the mini PC was connected to WiFi 6, one USB RF dongle for a keyboard and mouse combo, and a GAOMON PD2200 pen display through one of the HDMI ports during the measurements.

Conclusion

The Beelink EQi13 Pro is a solid mid-range mini PC that performs well in Windows 11 Pro with everything working to expectation, including the dual Gigabit Ethernet port and WiFi 6, up to 8K 60 FPS YouTube video playback, and acceptable benchmark results, which could potentially be further improved by adjusting the power limits.

As a mid-range mini PC, some tradeoffs have to be made, and that means no 2.5GbE networking, no 40 Gbps USB-C port (USB4/Thunderbolt), no DisplayPlay Alt mode, and only support for two displays via the HDMI ports. The company also opted for DDR4 instead of DDR5 memory. What makes the Beelink EQi13 Pro stand apart from the competition is its “silent” fan that’s still audible, but fairly quiet, even under heavy loads. That’s somewhat tarnished by the relatively high idle power consumption of the built-in PSU in the 11 to 12 Watts range. We’ll now start testing Ubuntu 24.04 for the final part of the review.

We’d like to thank Beelink for sending the EQi13 Pro mini PC with an Intel Core i5-13500H processor, 32GB RAM, and 1TB M.2 SSD for review. Beelink sells the model reviewed here for $429,  and you can also find it on Amazon at the same price.

Continue reading: Beelink EQi13 Pro Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 on an Intel Core i5-13500H mini PC

CNXSoft: This article is a translation – with some additional insights – of the review on CNX Software Thailand by Suthinee Kerdkaew.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.

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