LarkBox X Mini PC, Intel i3-1220P (Beats 7330U), 8GB RAM 256GB SSD

I have reviewed mini PCs for over 3-4 years now, and during that time, I have found that unknown brands tend to give better value than the likes as Intel, Asus, Acer, etc. One of my favorite value brands is Beelink, and lately I have seen Chuwi offer their computers through the Amazon Vine program that I am also part of. What struck me first was their hardware design -- they looked decent enough than other unknown brands. Unfortunately, I was not able to grab one of their computers through Vine, but I was in need of a mini PC for our vacation rental home. Do I get another Beelink or should I give Chuwi a try? Opted for the latter. SUMMARY The Chuwi LarkBox X -- an akwarddly named series, is a good-looking Mini PC with the white accent for its upper half. Performance was on part with higher-performing laptops/mini PCs from 2021. Indeed, when I researched its processor for this review, the AMD Ryzen 7 3700U was released in the second quarter of 2019. Compared to my favorite Mini PC, the Beelink GT-R, it performed about 10% faster in my benchmarks against the GT-R's Ryzen 5 3550H chip. This essentially translates to no noticeable performance difference for the vast majority of consumers, but that also means that it is among the best Mini PCs in its class and price range with the ability to run as demanding tasks as light video and photo editing with budget gaming to boot. For the office worker or power user who needs multiple displays for better productivity can be happy with a 4K triple-screen (3x) connectivity option from a computer so small, it can be VESA mounted behind a monitor/TV or simply be thrown inside a well-ventilated drawer. (For comparison, the GT-R can accommodate 4 displays.) Likewise, its compact size makes it suitable as a travel companion that can be neatly tucked away in a RV or camper van. Ubuntu Linux 20.04 ran flawlessly with minimal configuration. My tests found the Chuwi to be very speedy and has performed better than expected in running multiple, virtual machines after a simple memory upgrade to 16GB (it can accommodate up to two 16GB modules for a total of 32GB of RAM.) It has been more than adequate for my family's needs with mainstream desktop and entry-level gaming performance, and will certainly negate the need to bring a laptop to our vacation home -- we can simply do our computing off the extra 4K TV we have there. With performance being similar to Beelink's GT-R, would I recommend this Chuwi? Yes and no. Yes, because it costs less, has a more modern/faster Graphics card, and has a nice, black and white color hardware style. No, because the Beelink has some additional gaming-centric features, a more premium look with its glass top, Windows 10 Pro (vs Chuwi's Windows 10 Home), and more modern hardware, but at a higher price. I find both computers to be plenty capable and have no hesitation to recommend either model. THE BRAINS: CPU, MEMORY, GPU The brain of this Mini PC is the AMD Ryzen 7 3700U processor based on the 2018 Zen+ Picasso design. The CPU, the "brain" of a computer, is an important piece to gauge performance. It is responsible for processing all the general calculations and instructions to carry out everything an electronic device can do. The faster it can "think", the faster things will get done. Intel's Celeron brand had always been associated with lower-end computers, Pentium as higher performance, and Atom for low-power, low-cost devices like tablets. The Core series is considered the top-of-the-line and consists of the i3, i5, i7, and i9 models, respectively going from lowest to highest performance. AMD's "Ryzen" numbering scheme mirrors Intel's "Core": the 3, 5, 7, 9, and "Threadripper" models go from lowest to highest performance. The LarkBox X's Ryzen 7 3700U is positioned against Intel's higher-range, mainstream Core i7 processor. It was very popular with 2020/2021 gaming laptops ranging between $800 – $1,500. PROS - Excellent, mainstream computing performance with an average performance-to-price value -- About 280% faster than Beelink U57 overall and 10% faster than Beelink GT-R -- Fully capable of browsing the internet, use Microsoft Office, watch 4K movies, do some light photo and video editing, and play entry-level games --- After upgrading to 16GB RAM (32GB max capacity), it runs TWO virtual machines (each with 4GB RAM, dual core, Windows 10 Pro) within VMware Workstation Pro 15.5 pretty very well --- Plex Media Server capable with full transcoding - One of the best-performing Mini PCs available at the $500 price range - Easily upgradeable (storage, memory) by removing a few screws from the bottom and opening the cover - Storage -- 1 SSD slot – See TIPS section for more info on SSD drives --- Generic 256GB M.2 2280 NVMe drive with up to 2TB support. Faster than Beelink X55's mSATA. CrystalDiskMark Test: 1827 MB/s read, 1434 MB/s write - 2 RAM slots (up to 32GB total, DDR4 2400 MHz) -- Slot 1: Generic 8 GB. Supports up to 16GB -- Slot 2: Open. Supports up to 16GB -- If adding memory ("DDR4 2400 MHz SODIMM"), I recommend Crucial, HyperX, Kingston, and PNY - APU Graphics: AMD Radeon Vega 10 runs about 30% faster (overall) than Beelink GT-R's Vega 8 -- Offers excellent performance for older games -- Grand Theft Auto V, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Battlefield V, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Call of Duty: WWII, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dead or Alive 6, Dirt Rally 2.0, Dota 2, Forza Horizon 4, Fortnite: Battle Royale, Overwatch, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Soul Calibur 6, Skyrim SE, The Witcher 3 - Operating System (OS) -- Licensed Windows 10 Home x64 pre-installed with no visible bloatware. See TIPS for more info -- Ubuntu 20.04 (Linux) installed easily with everything working right out of the box -- Very fast startup from power off state - Compact and portable, though a bit hefty, at W 5" x D 5" x H 2" @ 2.5 lbs, making it about the same size as the GT-R's W 6.6″ x D 4.7″ x H 1.5″ @ 3.2 lbs -- Excellent option for TV-based video conferencing when used with a webcam, including Skype, Teams, Zoom, WebEx, GotoMeeting, Facebook Messenger - Networking -- WiFi: WiFi 5 (802.11ac) --- Beelink's GT-R uses the newer WiFi 6. The newer standard can more efficiently send data to multiple devices at once (like a delivery driver stopping by multiple clients on the way to the final customer), helping to maintain optimal speed to everyone. Can improve battery life and security. However, WiFi 6 a router and devices that support it. So, at this time, WiFi 6 and WiFi 5 do not yet have any performance impact for the vast majority of consumers -- Wired: 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports for very fast, wired network transfer or advanced network configurations (link aggregation, routing, failover, load balancing, etc.) Chipset: Realtek - Bluetooth 4.2, allowing the use of Bluetooth keyboards, mice, and headphones - Up to 3 screens (HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4, USB-C) -- Support for "4K" videos (3840×2160 UHD). UHD is commonly referred to as 4K on televisions (True cinematic 4K actually is 4096 x 2160) - 4x USB 3.0 ports -- If the TV does not support HDMI but has VGA, you could purchase a HDMI-to-VGA cable - Low power consumption CONS - Fan can be a bit loud under heavy workload - Pre-installed 256GB M.2 SSD drive is not from a well-known brand. Windows sees it as a generic SSD - Does not support all forms of wireless keyboards/mice right out of the box, and this is normal for any new Windows 10 configuration, whether it's a laptop, tablet, or desktop PC. See TIPS section for more info TIPS HARDWARE WIRELESS KEYBOARDS/MICE The Mini PC does not support all forms of wireless keyboards/mice right out of the box, and this is normal for any new Windows 10 configuration - If you have a Logitech or Microsoft wireless keyboard/mouse, Windows may already know how to talk to them. Simply plug in the USB dongle and see. It did detect my Logitech K400 Plus keyboard without any additional configuration - If wireless is not detected, you will have to plug in a wired mouse and keyboard to complete the Windows installation and THEN add a Bluetooth or USB wireless keyboard/mouse through the Settings app STORAGE & EXPANSION Replacing the M.2 SSD drive or replacing/adding extra RAM are hassle-free. Pop off the 4 screws found at the bottom of the case to reveal the storage/memory slots. Be sure to educate yourself (see below) about which parts to buy. DRIVE DIFFERENCES: SATA, SSD, mSATA, M.2, NVMe Hard disk drives (HDD) are mechanical devices whose performance was primarily based on the RPM (revolutions per minute) rating. They were generally 5400 or 7200 RPM (and beyond) — the higher the number, the faster it would usually perform. As with anything mechanical, they break down over time as the components age. Flash-memory based Solid State Drives (SSD) were introduced in the 1990s and were VERY expensive. SSD promised resistance to physical shock, faster performance, lower heat output, and more silent operation. Even to this day, SSDs still cost more than similarly-sized HDDs. SSD and HDD connect to your computer via multiple interfaces. Relative to this Mini PC, we are only concerned with the SATA and PCIe ones. SATA can connect two drive types: - 2.5″ SATA SSD (nowadays used in most laptops and desktop PCs and is physically larger) - mSATA and M.2 SSD (typically used in Mini PCs and laptops), each with their own connection types Mini-SATA (mSATA) is older and slower than M.2, and the latter can also connect to the newer, significantly faster PCIe interface (those drives are known as NVMe M.2 SSD). - This Mini PC includes two M.2 SSD 2280 slots (NVMe, SATA3) and a 2.5″ SATA interface M.2 SSD 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280? - The first two digits correspond to the width of the drive - The last two are the length A M.2 SSD 2280 is 22mm wide and 80mm long. This is important to know, especially with Mini PCs where space is scarce. If you purchase a 2280 drive and the computer only has room for 2230, you would not be able to use the former. WESTERN DIGITAL COLOR CODING WD introduced a COLOR CODING system to help consumers determine which drives to buy. My GT-R unit came with a 1TB Western Digital Blue drive. - GREEN = lowest cost drive: slowest performance and not the best reliability - BLUE = everyday, mainstream consumer use - BLACK takes BLUE up a notch = best performance for gaming, photographers, videographers - RED = for NAS - PURPLE = digital video recording SOFTWARE FRESH WINDOWS INSTALLATION - Win 10 Home x64 came pre-installed - Right out of the box, a fresh Win 10 Home installed perfectly when connected to a computer monitor. It detected every device after performing a Windows Update - Performance improvements and tweaks can be gained by installing the AMD Radeon Adrenalin software from AMD's website -- Keeps drivers up-to-date, enhances image quality and video playback, and more

I picked this up to use as a low-power firewall server. After unboxing and booting into Windows once, I rebooted onto a USB drive, formatted the AirDisk SSD as ZFS and installed FreeBSD 14.2. FreeBSD recognized the intel wifi, bluetooth, sound, and wired NICs. I ran into an issue with the Realtek NICs, but it was a well known issue with a workaround: install the realtek-re-kmod package and add a couple lines to /boot/loader.conf. After that, the 1Gb NIC (WAN) behaved perfectly and the 2.5Gb (LAN) linked up at full speed. For security and to minimize power consumption, I told FreeBSD not to load the sound drivers and I opened the box and removed the WiFi/Bluetooth card (I have dedicated WAPs for that). Setting up the device as a router was straight forward as FreeBSD has excellent networking abilities. It found it be considerably easier to get Quantum's (Lumen/Centurylink) 6rd up and running compared to hacking that ability onto my Unifi routers. Setting up PF was also straightforward. Since FreeBSD 14 recognized all the hardware, I expect this box would work quite well with opnSense and pfSense, for those who don't fancy writing their own firewall ruleset. Quantum's 6rd assigns an IPv4 derived dynamic IPv6 network. Which means, when my IPv4 address changes, so too does the IPv6 network. That's just not fun when you want to have some static IPv6 addresses for devices on the LAN, such as DNS, NTP, and other servers. I initially worked around it by using some private IPv6 addresses, but that's extra bother having firewall rules for static and dynamic IPv6 networks. I ultimately scrapped that idea and set myself up with an IPv6 allocation from HE. Now my IPv6 works as Father Postel would expect. After getting it all set up and burned in, I measured the power draw at 8W with very little variation. The unit runs surprisingly cool, making it easy to believe my Kill-A-Watt readings were accurate. For backups, I dropped in a USB 3.2 thumb drive. I plugged it into the front USB ports initially but noticed that it wasn't very speedy, so I moved it to the rear. It turns out the front USB ports are USB 3.0 Gen 1 (5Gbit/s) and the rear ports are 3.2 Gen 2 (20 Gbit/s). So, use them front ports for slow stuff like keyboard and mouse and plug fast stuff in the rear.

It doesn't get exactly where I hoped it would with a steady 120hz gaming stream, but with another stick of ram I've it able to hold a steady 4k 120hz display with a 75 Hz stream with another "ghost" display to a receiver for atmos support before noticing latency spikes utilizing the usb-c port on the front with a cablematters powered hdmi->usb-c adapter. So I haven't been able to fully push the capabilities of my entertainment are to it's fullest, but pretty close. Getting a shell with the i3 instead of a N100 and 2 SoDimm slots is a great deal if you don't mind tinkering a little to get the most out of it

I am impressed by the performance provided by this small but powerful mini pc. It has very good connectivity and all the expansion capability most people are likely to require and all at a very reasonable price. A massive improvement on our previous home theater pc and about a tenth of the size. This has no problem multi-tasking. I usually have plenty of tabs open without any issues. I hook this up to our projector so that I can stream movies but also just to browse the internet while in my theater room. I have a combo wireless keyboard/mouse connected to it, I have to say it's never hiccuped or had to wait for it to open a page (unless the site I’m on is slow). My husband now wants to install programs and use it in his office, he said it will handle most of his blueprint software, he will add more memory and it’ll be perfect. This is also a great computer for light weight gaming and even emulation. The really popular, competitive titles like league of legends, counter strike, overwatch, will run very comfortably on this computer while kid friendly games like minecraft and roblox are also great options. So if you like to play the classics or like to play the competitive ones, this compact computer doesn't leave you making any compromises As per the specs: CPU - AMD Ryzen 7 3700U (4 Cores 8 Threads, Base Frequency 2.30GHz, Turbo Frequency 4.0GHz) AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 Graphics 8GB DDR4 memory , Dual Channels , 260 pin DDR4 SO-DIMMs , Max up to 64GB 256GB NVMe SSD PCIE3.0, supports up to 2TB (not included) via the 2280 M.2 slot HDMI 2.0 4K@60Hz ; DP 4K@60Hz ; Type -C 4K@30Hz (3840 x 2160) WiFi - Inside m.2 Wifi & Bluetooth 4.2 Preinstall Windows 10 Home , Support Windows 11 , Linux , Ubuntu Measures only 5 x 5 x 2 inches Dual lan 2.5Gbps Ethernet RJ45 Ports Overall It may be very small but it pack an enormous amount of processing power and connectivity and I do recommended 100%

So, I’ve had this mini pc for almost 2 months now and it’s nice. Not noisy and quiet enough and connected right away to my home internet. The storage capacity is good enough for what I need. Speed and performance wise is ok. I seem to be having trouble with the display. I have it hooked up to my TV so it switches to HDR display or another display when trying to view videos. Thought it was just it getting use to running through the tv but it has become annoying. Other times the display seems to be stuck in 800x600 or very high quality where all my stuff has tiny text and small icons. Note: I am using my “55 tv and when it does this display switch, it really does look drastically bad. When then this happens, I have to restart it and then everything is fine for a bit. I don’t know why this happens. Other than that, it’s a good “upgrade” from a “all in one touch screen gateway” computer I’ve had more than 8+years. That one was still in good condition but was slowing down and couldn’t be upgraded to windows 11 without heavy invest of upgrade parts.

I picked up the LarkBox X on sale for $439 and I think that price point is right on the money. This is a lightweight PC (under 400g) and is smaller than an Xbox controller -- not quite as small as their ultra-compact LarkBox but much more portable than their HeroBox and CoreBox options. The body is all plastic with a sleek black-and-white design, it definitely looks nicer than many other Chinese-developed PCs. Ports are adequate with 4x USB 3.0 and a single USB-C (full function) port that is thankfully at the front. I wish it had more connectivity options but it gets the job done with dual gigabit ethernet, Bluetooth, and WiFi (the website says BT 5.2 and WiFi 6, while this listing says BT 4.2 and WiFi 5). I'm still getting a feel for its performance but the 8GB of RAM feels snappy with the Ryzen 7 APU and will certainly work well for home computing tasks and some light gaming (1080p on lower settings). While I think you can find a higher league of performance if you want to spend something around the $600 mark from Beelink or Minisforum, at $439 (sometimes cheaper when on sale), this is a good upgrade from those sub-$300 cheap PCs while still giving you a good amount of cost savings against the next tier.

I was pretty impressed with this tiny box. First thing anyone needs to do is upgrade the memory and m.2. The M.2 it comes with is only a SATA SSD, but it can support a NVME. The AMD Ryzen 7 3700U also has support for DDR4 3200. I would recommend upgrading to more and faster memory. The bios has options to play around with power and timings which was a surprise to me. You also need to change the APU memory from 512meg to at least 2-4gb of shared memory in the bios. After tweaking a few settings I was able to get at least 30fps in games like Fallout 4, Skyrim, No Mans Sky, and other games. You won't be able to max out the settings, but I was able to run most of the games I wanted to play at Medium - High settings depending on if I played at 720p or 1080p. I was very surprised with No Mans Sky. They added support for FSR and I am able to play on enhanced settings with good FPS at 1080p. I can literally mount this thing to the back of my TV and have a pretty good little SteamBox. The Larkbox X also supports Windows 11. It activated automatically from a fresh install. The only issue I ran into was having to manually search for several drivers. Windows 11 does not detect several of them, but with a little Googleing I was able to find everything. Chuwi's website does not seem to list any drivers for support so don't expect to just go to their site and download them. Besides that this mini pc is awesome for what it is.

DO NOT BUY!!!!! THIS BOX SHUTS DOWN RANDOMLY. IT IS UNRELIABLE. I WILL BE TRYING TO RETURN IT AS DEFECTIVE EVEN THOUGH IT IS PASSED RETURN WINDOW. IT DOES NOT WORK.

日次のスケジュール起動ジョブを動かす低消費電力の常時起動PC（Intel Celeron J4105）リプレース用で購入。Windows11Homeは削除してUbuntu23.04で運用。ファームウェアの制限かUEFIでの設定に制限があるのが残念だが、それ以外はスペック的にも期待どおり。他の方のコメントやネット上のレビューをみているとWindowsの場合はドライバーインストールの関係でLANや無線機能に不具合が生じることもあるようだ。 負荷の高い作業は期待できないが、その分低消費電力で安定動作が期待できるため、目的に合えば非常に満足度の高い製品といえる。OSはWindowsではリソース消費が過剰な上Homeでは制約もあり、上記ドライバー問題もあるようなので、Linuxに変更するほうが製品特長が活かせると思う。 ファンがあるが通常利用時に大きな音になることもなく静音性も高い。Herobox X2023との価格差が数千円であれば、メモリやディスク容量に明らかなメリットがあるこちらを選択するのがベターだと思う。

Actualicé a Windows 11 y no me gustó para nada, muchas fallas que no se si serán para todos o en este equipo hubo más fallas. Terminé regresando a Windows 10, y en el camino me deshice del software de AMD que solo la hacía más lenta. Ya las demás fallas es porque Windows solo tiene muchas fallas desde que lo lanzan y mientras se usa. La he usado para trabajar con programas de diseño de Adobe y para programación web, y me ha dejado satisfecho. Desearía más porque es apenas ajustado su desempeño para mi uso diario. También para jugar, no he probado con juegos muy exigentes, pero al menos Fall Guys y TrackMania se pueden disfrutar de forma fluida. Genshin Impact hace que se caliente demasiado y mejor lo dejé hasta ahí. Para lo que costó se me hace ajustado, pero mejor que comprar una laptop del mismo precio y que tenga menos rendimiento

Por el precio y lo que obtienes es un gran trato. Muy buen desempeño con windows 11 lista para usarse sin problemas de que se sienta lenta. Le coloque un teclado genérico y un monitor gamer, excelente desempeño, corre minecraft sin problema. Muy recomendable y gran compra

私は今まで小さくてそこそこ動くデスクトップPCを探していて、インターネットで調べていたらミニPCの存在を知りました。 そしてそのミニPCをYouTubeやネットの記事を参考にしながら調べているときにこのミニPCを知り、デザインもよくCPUもメモリもバランスが良く、ライセンスの問題もないということなのでこのミニPCを選びました。 結論から言いますとネットの評判通りの性能で、私からしたらそれ以上のパフォーマンスがあると思います。 まずYouTubeの視聴やブラウジングや文章を書くといったことは前評判通りに動きましたが、まさかPS2といったゲームのエミュレーターもそこそこ動く程の性能があって驚きました。 特にPS2の軽い3Dゲームや2Dゲームは余裕を持ってエミュレーターで動かせたことはかなり満足しています。 ただ本格的にゲームをやりたい人には性能が足りていないうえに、グラボもないのでゲーム目的で買うのは絶対におすすめできません。 とはいえ余程最新のゲームや重いゲームでなければ、軽い2DゲームやPS2あたりのエミュレーターでゲームは遊べますし、書類作成や普段使いに使うならこのPCで充分だなと思います。

Ha sido una muy buena experiencia, aunque sobre estimé la capacidad de trabajo pesado ya que pensé por un momento que podría usar este mini Pc para trabajos de reenderizado para poder utilizar la impresión 3D sin ningún problema y la verdad es que si me ha hecho un poco de batalla en uno que otro momento. Por lo del tema de consumo de multimedia como navegar por YouTube o ver películas de Netflix o incluso películas de Apple TV, soporta los videos en 4K y puedo asegurar que ha reproducido videos en 8K sin ningún tipo de problema. Con la conectividad de dos pantallas si lo probé y funciona muy bien solo que no suelo usarlo constantemente, pero de que soporta dos o tres pantallas si las soporta. Mi calificación es de 7.5. Ah y sinceramente siento que las ram de DDR5 parece que las aprovecha como debería porque la configuración de Windows 11 degrada la usabilidad, por tanto recomendaría meterle mano en overclock pero con expertos en informática.