We’ve received our first Wildcat Lake hardware for review, as Beelink has sent us an EQi mini PC powered by the Intel Core 3 304 entry-level 5-core processor with a 15 TOPS AI accelerator.
The mini PC ships with either 16GB of LPDDR5 (soldered-on) or 24GB/32GB of DDR5 (SO-DIMM) memory and 512GB UFS 3.1 storage. It also features two M.2 Key-M PCIe Gen4 sockets, 10GbE and 2.5GbE RJ45 ports, WiFI 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, three display outputs via HDMI and USB4 ports, and more.
We’ll start the review by listing the specifications, checking out the hardware with an unboxing and a teardown, before giving it a quick try with Windows 11 Pro. In the second part of the review, we’ll focus on Windows 11 Pro, with feature testing and benchmarks, before switching to Ubuntu 26.04 to test a recent Linux distribution on a Wildcat Lake mini PC.
Beelink EQi Wildcat Lake Core 3 304 specifications
- SoC – Intel Core 3 304 “Wildcat Lake”
- 5-core CPU – 1x P-cores @ 1.5/4.3 GHz (Turbo) + 4x LPE-cores @ 1.4/3.3 GHz (Turbo)
- Cache – 6MB L3 cache
- GPU – 1-core Intel Xe3 Graphics @ 2.3 GHz (9 TOPS)
- NPU – 15 TOPS
- Manufacturing processor – Intel 18A
- System Memory – 16GB LPDDR5, 24GB, or 32GB DDR5 memory
- Storage
- 512GB UFS 3.1
- Supports up to 2x NVMe SSDs via M.2 Key-M (PCIe Gen4 x2) and/or M.2 Key-M (PCIe Gen4 x1) sockets
- Video Output
- HDMI 2.0 video output up to 4Kp60
- 2x DisplayPort via USB-C ports up to 4K @ 60 Hz
- Audio
- 3.5mm audio jack
- Digital audio output via HDMI and USB-C
- Networking
- 10GbE RJ45 port
- 2.5GbE RJ45 port
- Dual-band Wi-Fi 6 up to 2.4 Gbps and Bluetooth 5.2 via MediaTek MT7922 module
- USB
- 2x USB4 (40 Gbps) ports
- 1x USB 3.2 (10Gbps) Type-C port
- 1x USB 3.2 (10Gbps) Type-A port
- 2x USB 2.0 (480Mbps) Type-A ports
- Misc
- Power button
- Power status LED (white when powered on)
- Clear CMOS button
- Quiet active cooling system (32 dB noise levels)
- Power Supply – Built-in 85W PSU with 100-240V AC, 50/60Hz, 1.9A input
- Dimensions – 126 x 126 x 44.2mm
- Weight – 500 grams
The mini PC ships with Windows 11 Pro installed on UFS storage.
Unboxing
I’ve received the mini PC in a basic retail package, simply reading Beelink EQ.
The key specifications can be found on the sticker on the bottom side of the package. I received an EQi mini PC powered by an Intel Core 3 304 processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, 10GbE and 2.5GbE LAN ports, and a 100-240V AC 1.9A power supply.
The mini PC ships with a power cord for your country/region (I got an EU power cord), an HDMI cable, a “Hello” card (which looks bland in the photo below), a multilingual user manual, and a small sheet about USB power settings.
You can basically configure jumpers depending on whether you need to support wake-up from USB (e.g., keyboard/mouse) or not. I’d assume this can lower power consumption somewhat.
The front panel features a USB 3.2 Type-A port, a 3.5 audio jack, a USB 3.2 Type-C port, a power button, and a power LED. The case appears to be made of ABS plastic, which feels like a cheaper design than some mini PCs we recently reviewed.
The rear panel comes with two Thunderbolt 4 ports with DisplayPort Alt mode, two USB 2.0 ports, a 4Kp60-capable HDMI video output, 10GbE (left) and 2.5GbE (right) RJ45 ports, and the AC power jack.
Beelink EQi Wildcat Lake teardown
Since it’s user-serviceable, the mini PC is designed to be opened. To do so, we’ll need to remove four rubber pads, loosen the four screws underneath, and pull the bottom cover with the small rubber bit on the bottom left corner in the photo below.
We can see the AW-XB591NF wireless module (MT7922-based for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity), a relatively large heatsink, and the 100-240V power supply.
You’ll also notice the 3-pin jumper to configure USB power behavior. We’ll keep the current “USB ON” configuration for now, and change that when measuring power consumption in the Windows 11 review.
The heatsink can be removed to access the two M.2 sockets. As a side note, the mainboard is named “EQI_LP”, probably referring to LPDDR5, and the 24GB/32GB model should have a different motherboard supporting SO-DIMM memory. The heatsink is clearly made for SSDs or AI accelerators with two pink thermal pads for cooling.
One of the sockets is PCIe Gen4 x2 and the other is PCIe Gen4 x1.
I don’t own any spare PCIe Gen4 SSDs, so instead, I’ll use MAKERDISK PCIe Gen3 x4 SSDs designed for the Raspberry Pi, one with 256GB capacity connected to the PCIe x2 socket, and the other with 128GB capacity connected to the PCIe x1 socket.
Let’s put the heatsink back in place to complete the SSD installation.
First boot to Windows 11 Pro
Time to reassemble everything and boot the mini PC to Windows. I initially tried to connect a USB-C cable to my display, but it didn’t work. So instead, I connected power to the display and used an HDMI cable, plus a USB RF dongle for a keyboard/mouse combo.
After I pressed the power button, the mini PC booted into… Ubuntu 24.04. Well, that’s unexpected. That’s because I probably used one of the SSDs for a Windows review a while back. So I went to the BIOS and booted from the “Windows Manager” partition instead. I could go through the setup wizard, select the region, the keyboard layout, and configure WiFi, after which Windows stayed in the “Just a moment…” loop for over one hour…
I eventually stopped it and moved inside to carry on with an Ethernet connection. It took another 20 minutes or so. The onboarding process was awful, but I finally managed to get to the Windows 11 desktop…
The System->About window in the Settings confirms we have an Intel Core 3 304 processor clocked at 1.5 GHz (Base frequency) with 16GB of RAM, running Windows 11 Pro 25H2. I have 834 GB of storage because of the 512GB UFS chip, pls the 128GB and 256GB NVMe SSDs.
HWiNFO 64 provides a few more details about the processor, motherboard, networking chips (RTL8127, Intel i226-V, MT7922), and so on.
We’ll go into much more depth in the second part of the review with Windows 11 Pro testing all features and running various benchmarks, before checking out Ubuntu 26.04 in the third part of the review to find out how the Intel Core 3 304 mini PC handles itself under Linux.
I’d like to thank Beelink for sending the EQi Wildcat Lake Core 3 304 mini PC for review. The model reviewed here, with 16GB LPDDR5 and 512GB UFS 3.1 storage, can be purchased for $509 on the Beelink store.
Continue reading
- Beelink EQi review – Part 2: An Intel Core 3 304 “Wildcat Lake” mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro
- Beelink EQi 304 Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 26.04 on a Wildcate Lake mini PC (coming soon)
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.
Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress. We also use affiliate links in articles to earn commissions if you make a purchase after clicking on those links.
