Prebuilt BeeLink U57 Mini PC at 0.6L - full base unit with Win 10 bootable OOB

[neilhart]

This is the system driving a Dell 24” display at 1920x1200 and in the background it is playing a video on the Samsung 55” HDTV. Audio over HDMI works as does Audio to the local 3.5mm jack.

I saw the BeeLink U57 mini-computer on Amazon and was amazed at the feature set for the price. I certainly don’t need this computer but in the end I could not resist.

The model that I purchased was the model with the Intel i5-5257U cpu, 128 GB SSD on the M.2 port and 8 GB DDR3-SODIMM. Amazon had this unit on sale for $300 and another $20 off at checkout.

This is a complete Windows 10 Pro system bootable out of the box. It has provision for the user to add a 2.5 inch device; I added a 1TB SSD that I already owned. Again, this is not a bare bones system as most mini PCs are.

Video reviews on You Tube, search for “Beelink U57 Mini PC”.

Anyway I spent some time to get Apple macOS Catalina 10.15.6 to do a fresh install onto my BeeLink. My system now is dual boot using Clover for the boot loader (v 5107)

The Intel 7265 WiFi/BT is built into the system motherboard and the WiFi and Blue Tooth work well with Windows. WiFi is not working under macOS due to lack of working driver software. Blue Tooth appears to working in macOS.

Note the size of this system unit is 0.6L (42,9 mm tall with the mini feet, 124.5 mm wide by 113.3 mm deep) but then there is the wall wart power supply to consider.

The CPU is on the top of the motherboard (system is upside down here) and is BGA soldered. It is covered by a copper finned heat sink along with a small fan. Note that there is mesh located on all of the vents. I do not hear the fan but then I am also old and am fine with not hearing everything.

Okay that's it for now. I am pleased for the $ 280 paid. If interested, I would suggest that you watch Amazon for a SALE.

Neil

 

[pobutek]

Quote from another side, I also have this problem:
URGENT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1
Is there a BIOS update for Intel Core i5-5257U U57 processor?
Updating thermal behavior in the BIOS to make your PC usable?

At the moment it is a disaster, useless ... It has only 3 gears: "fast", "faster" and "very, very, very slow".
If you use the top gear for more than 10 seconds you will fall into the bottom gear.

Of course, it seems quick at first. Supports all 4 CPUs at 2.9GHZ at around 63ºC, even without load
so the fan usually stays on even when you move the mouse!
When you only load one or two CPU cores, it jumps to a 3.1GHz turbo frequency and the fan becomes louder.
It's still fast though. Perfect if it still works!

But now, if you add more than 50% of the load (suppose you want to do something modern like make a Skype call and browse the web and one more thing at the same time)
EVERYTHING STOPPES.

Let me explain.
First the temperature rises, then the system starts to fear it might overheat, so what does it do?

Does it gradually reduce clock speed and leave the fan running at full speed?
Maybe up to 2 GHz or 1.5 GHz on all 4 processors?

NO!!! Completely turns OFF the FAN and sets the CPUS to 0.5GHZ.

So your Skype connection loses audio and video, the browser is not responding because you now have a 500 MHz computer!

Is it 1990?

Of course, you just have to wait for this completely unresponsive machine to cool down ...

Since nothing is running (walking slowly), the temperature drops even without the fan. Eventually it goes back to 57 degrees.

The result: the processors roll back to 3.1 GHz right away ... but only for a second or two! When the temperature rises to 90 °, the fan turns off and the speed is reduced again to 0.5 GHz


You're stuck in lowest gear almost permanently until you close the programs you need to work.

 

[neilhart]

Hummm. I do not see the problem that you are documenting.

My system is dual boot, however I only run Apple maxOS Catalina 10.15.6. And in Catalina when I run Prime95 torture test the 4 threads are at 100 duty cycle and the temps are running 79 to 81 C on both cores. This will run for hours with no issues. I can also stream movies from my LAN concurrently without issues.

If I was experiencing the issues that you are, I would return the unit for a refund or a replacement system.

Neil