Beelink has updated its modular ME Pro NAS with an Intel Core 3 304 "Wildcat Lake" processor, one of Intel's first chips manufactured on its 18A process node. The new model swaps the previous version's 5GbE port for 10GbE, adds dual Thunderbolt 4 ports running at 40 Gbps, and ships with 16 GB of DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM memory expandable to 64 GB. It comes with Windows 11 Pro, but the hardware is compatible with TrueNAS, Unraid, Proxmox, and Ubuntu Server.
The five-core processor pairs one performance core (up to 4.3 GHz) with four low-power efficiency cores, all backed by a 15 TOPS NPU and a single-core Xe3 GPU, giving the SoC a combined 24 TOPS of AI compute. Beelink published LLM inference benchmarks using Gemma4 and Qwen3.5 models at 2B and 4B parameters, positioning the box for on-device media tagging and local AI workloads alongside its NAS duties. Intel's Linux NPU driver v1.35.0, which went stable on July 24, adds Wildcat Lake to the verified configuration table and ships official Ubuntu 24.04 .deb packages, so running inference under Linux should not require out-of-tree patches.
CNX Software's hands-on testing of the Beelink EQi 304, a mini PC sharing the same Core 3 304 SoC, found Ubuntu 26.04 with a Linux 7.0 kernel recognized all hardware out of the box, including both Ethernet ports and the MediaTek MT7922 Wi-Fi module. Networking throughput on both the 2.5GbE and 10GbE interfaces was described as outstanding. Some regressions relative to Windows remain, though the platform is described as already usable for everyday workloads.
Storage spans two SATA bays (2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drives up to 30 TB each), one M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 x1 NVMe slot, and 512 GB of built-in UFS 3.1 flash for the OS. That M.2 slot is a step down from the three PCIe Gen 3 sockets on the older N95/N150 model, a trade-off driven by Wildcat Lake's lower PCIe lane count. Networking pairs the 10GbE jack with a 2.5GbE port, a combination well suited to software routing, LACP bonding, or simply separating management and storage traffic. Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4 come via a MediaTek MT7922 module.
The ME Pro chassis uses a tool-less slide-out motherboard design with a gold-finger connector that physically separates the compute board from the storage backplane. Beelink has announced plans for swappable AMD and ARM motherboard options in the same chassis, though only Intel configurations are available today. The aluminum unibody enclosure measures 16.6 x 12.1 x 11.2 cm (6.5 x 4.8 x 4.4 inches) and weighs roughly 2.1 kg (4.6 lbs) without drives.
Pre-orders are open at $620 (€570), with shipping expected in August 2026. The package includes a 120W power adapter, an HDMI cable, and an Ethernet cable.
