CHUWI LarkBox Teardown - World's Smallest 4K Mini PC

[@d.m.hutchins2nd696]

I can't wait so see the emulation test on this unit. Perhaps some lite photo editing also. Please make more videos on this thing!

[@pilabs3206]

It's a beast

[@josecarlosxyz]

With a celeron chip?! Good luck with that this chip is garbage

[@derekp9737]

@@josecarlosxyz Better than the raspberry pi 4 ;-P

[@yearls]

That thing is pretty neat, I love how tidy it's internals are, and it's pricing is impressive too.

[@antikommunistischaktion]

They do make high performance thermal pads. Arctic and Thermal Grizzly both produce high quality thermal pads in addition to their pastes (and metal alloys in some cases).

[@komruz]

Use a 10x10x1mm copper shim, put thermal paste on each side, also if there is space use the remaining thermal pad around it to hold into position. Thanks for the teardown

[@LazyBunnyKiera]

I was going to recommend this as well. A copper shim should work much better than a thermal pad.

[@justinreynolds6318]

I third this. I use these shims on all of my Pi 4 cases. Works a treat.

[@d.j.tweets375]

@@justinreynolds6318: THIS is why I love reading the comments in these tech videos - Great & practical ideas!!

[@snownedone2256]

Thank you I saw a 81c CPU and 68c gpu temps after 5 minutes at 100% load on my larkbox and came here for the comments. Going to go the shim and paste upgrade. I already hada ssd ordered pre campaign offering and lost $10 getting one myself OOF. #385

[@javids6656]

How thick did you use?

[@ArtemisKitty]

I really wish they’d gone a different route on the RAM. When I first heard “6GB” it made me think of older business laptops that would have 2GB soldered to the motherboard, then either 0, 1, or 2 RAM slots. I thought maybe this had a 4GB module and 2GB soldered. Ahh well. Still looks very interesting. Thanks for the awesome teardown! Edit: Make that 2 things. The power supply. WHY not go with a USB-C PD source? Even an older, lower-powered USB-C PD charger can put out 12v 2.0A easily over a little trigger interrupt board, so why not implement that as well? Then you’d also have the ability to brag about it NOT needing a big power brick like all the competition.

[@stoojinator]

I thought it was powered from USB-C PD? I couldn't see any other way of powering it on that video.

[@Ashquacks]

Uhh, that IS what it uses for power.

[@majedh3310]

They actually changed the power supply. Look at the campaign page

[@razbakar7889]

Nice teardown! Clean, tidy, concise... Thanks for sharing the vid!

[@nitrousman8882]

Thanks for this! Just for the record… if you’re keen to improve cooling, just put a copper shim in between the heat sink and the cpu. Thermal paste on both sides… job done! :)

[@stephenlittle7534]

It's amazing how time flyes. From my old Dos. 1. 2. 286. 386. And so on to this little toerag. OMG.

[@excitedbox5705]

Seriously. My first PC had 33Mhz and the second had 66Mhz. I believe my third had 180 and then 300 or 320Mhz if I remember correctly. I was so excited when I got the big jump from 500Mhz to 1.2GHz a few years later. I usrd to get a new PC almost every year in the early 2000s because the jumps were so massive. Over the weekend I was using my 2013 Macbook Pro and it still keeps up with modern laptops.

[@vhalrougelarfouxe]

This is the exact kind of board one needs to make a handheld gaming pc. This is amazing.

[@tampa2pac]

Just use a penny and put thermal paste on both sides to make heatsink and cpu make cotact :)

[@BoingoInstaller]

I am fixed my laptop cooling system by coin With stock thermal pad video chip was hot, and I just replace pad to thick enough coin Temperature was dropped by 20 degrees! I was schoked. Thanks ASUS for damn thermal pad

[@gentarofourze]

@@kopeofonrac2084 I cooled a GPD win and got far better results using one of those heatsinks made for a Raspberry pi 3 chip it made it run cooler and quieter so a good thing to remember as well, that being said it would be thinner than a penny.

[@SRC267]

@@mokubakaiba1751 true

[@pjsivley]

Just buy the little copper shims, you can get several of them in different sizes for a couple dollars!

[@javids6656]

Have you noticed temperature differences? What thickness can be suitable, maybe 1mm or less?

[@blip-hn6is]

J4115 is a extremely effcient cpu, they could have done full aluminum case and cool it passively

[@johnsimon8457]

I grew up with Macs with loud SCSI hard drives... total silence and no fans to break or get dirty is a wonderful thing to have

[@adfury]

Aftermarket case? This teardown makes it seem possible.

[@remyremington1056]

If this thing takes off and goes gangbusters you can be sure a 3rd party will make an aluminum case!

[@MrTarmonbarry]

@@adfury perfectly possible , get a section of box aluminium , mark and cut the holes for the i/o . Nice little project if you have the skills and tools

[@AndrewLazarevBlog]

Chuwi has big experience in portable PCs, laptops and windows tablets. So they know better

[@dennisolof9994]

Nice teardown. I would like to see a fanless version. Same size, same form factor etc. The only difference would be that it would look like a high rise building where to top part would be the massive heatsink cooling the device. Something like the Streacom DB4 case.

[@dustinhornbeck9713]

Something tells me this is a perfect windows streaming box

[@_tanzil_]

Imagine about the IBM computer that used to block a big room to stand 😁👌

[@828ok]

Nice teardown. It will be useful to show which brands of components the box is using for various functions, DRAM, Wifi, etc.

[@RupeeClock]

I'm looking forward to getting one of these, the main thing I want to try on it is a batocera.linux installation (via bootable microSD). Batocera should be ideal because it offers an emulation station front end with hand-picked libretro emulation cores, and bundled Kodi media player with Bluetooth and USB controller supporter.

[@RupeeClock]

@The Lavian I'm aware, but I'd still like to dual boot with Windows

[@Yantonio7]

this was sweet, amazing videos you made about the LarkBox..is impressive

[@kingneutron1]

Nice teardown - short, straight and to the point

[@klausbrinck2137]

5:31 You must measure the CPU/copper-gap, and shorten the plastic studs (of the plastc lid), on which the mainboard is bolted on, respectively. Then you can use thermal paste! What´s up? It´s only some milligramms of plastic, that´s not a problem...!

[@hksduhksdu]

Thanks for the review!! Can you imagine that if they have the board not stacking up but side way and make it a tiny bit taller, then they could have similar design of Mac Pro (garbage can style) cooling that could have possible passive cooling.

[@steelscooter]

Thermal Grizzly make the 'Thermal Grizzly Thermal Pad Minus Pad 8' which would be ideal for this application.

[@FARRIZ-y2d]

This pc would be pretty neat for making like a handheld project, just design a case, somehow connect a battery, add some buttons and it'll be an awesome D.I.Y handheld!

[@philippenkov5622]

This mini PC is sick!!

[@ahiyanali7231]

Try a graphics card plugged into it

[@mixedup5858]

RTX 2080Ti

[@MobileDecay]

@@mixedup5858 Bottleneck city. 😂

[@NamelessPassenger]

markun petrucci why dude? Why not rtx 3080ti =))

[@antikommunistischaktion]

There's physically nowhere to connect a dGPU so there would have to be soldering to get one connected. There's no Thunderbolt and the old route of hijacking the PCIe connecter from the WiFi card won't work here as it's soldered down.

[@TechnoLadz]

Ryan C But you could use the 2242 m.2 slot, though the performance would be limited, the maximum I would use with it due to the bottlenecks of bandwidth and CPU would be a GT 1030.

[@maxmouse3]

Can’t wait for the emulation and Android tests :)

[@l33td00d]

Thx for the vid. Thinking about getting one of these for my kid. He mainly plays Minecraft, and some other games like JS&B, Shovel Knight, Stadew Valley, and Terraria. If it can handle those he'll be super happy!

[@Speedy.V]

Is called a Daughter board. The board that has the CPU is the motherboard and anything that attaches to that is the daughter board. If the CPU is on its own board then it's a daughter board that connects to a motherboard.

[@starrynight3945]

I love this concept. Actually it can be upgraded to modular PC like the Google modular phone concept. Actually if they allow to sell daughter board or motherboard and user replaceable. or make it technician can handle it. For example the mainboard cost 75% of the cost and the daughter board cost 25% of the cost. If i using it as backup multimedia room's pc. We wont need to buy another, just buy motherboard or daughter board if that board is broken. Good is the sustainability and recyclable, bad could be some under-developed country must rebuy and repair this modular PC's part for up to 15 years. But we do not produce more waste this way.

[@alphenhousplaysgames4565]

this+linux+wireless peripherals= super clean office pc that is cheap AND functional.

[@cryptopsycho4838]

Please do the dual boot of Android TV and Win10 in this device.

[@jwbowen]

I just got mine and it's incredibly cute!

[@pierregrobbelaar9116]

It's always to take things apart not so much to put it back together again.Yesterday we had no power for 6h so i got this idea of cleaning my pc.She's wasn't that dirty but wanted to redo my cable management and man was that a bad idea.Atleast i got iy so that it don't push against the side panel.I have a very slim case so for me to get it like this is amazing.

[@adhancock79]

Those stand-offs are very studly. 😉

[@conanseibel4464]

Shave down the mounting points on the heat sink and you could make the thermal paste work. Cool little unit.

[@ThomasGrillo]

Oh, if only they'd take it up to 16Bb, so modded Minecraft could be run on this thing. But, still! This is incredible! Thanks for sharing this inside look! :)

[@DaltonMyWorld]

Thanks and thanks for including the price👍🏿

[@Richie016]

The specs are impressive

[@kalryndarkpaw70]

Yea i own one of these i bought it last year off of Amazon and its a sturdy little PC

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

Put a polished penny or dime between the heat sink and processor, with thermal paste squished in there on both sides. If the coin is too thick somehow, use a Dremel tool to grind it down. 😉

[@shopliftfilms]

Bought one a few weeks ago. Looks like a cool product.

[@PhaQ2]

I would suggest flipping either the polarity of the fan, or the fan itself. Drawing cool air in from the side and pushing it straight out the top will improve cooling.

[@stanrogers5613]

It's an impeller blower rather than a fan, so that's not an option - they can't run "backwards". (Well, they can _run_ the wrong direction, but they can't move significant air when they do it.)

[@SETSUNAFSEIEI885]

Man I really love the idea, this mini pc is awesome, hopefully other company will follow this idea

[@Codemantic]

I just got my first 4k tv and this is just begging to be thrown into the entertainment center.

[@krukhlis]

Regarding cooling -- you can replace this "thermo-pad" with a copper cooler pad for RPI -- just use it with paste instead of any thermo-pad and it should work.

[@ІгорМиколайович-р4ъ]

5:30 you can buy some tiny and special copper plates to put correct one between CPU and heatsink with thermal paste. But be carefuly to fit a correct copper plate. It has step with 0.2mm and you must find correct thick.

[@sanrasuzumaki942]

They should have make that contact spot on on the copper plate a little thicker for thermal paste, can't wait for someone to make an aluminium case and a better heat plate as a mod for this thing.

[@g.s.3389]

wow, it is really very well designed for compactness...

[@tungurahua8257]

I‘d love to see this turned into a Hackintosh. That would be awesome.

[@yllib2012]

Great review. The plastic shell is a deal breaker for me. Perhaps future models will use aluminum. If so I'll be getting one.

[@garyh420]

Seeing one in your hand is a confidence booster for me to order one. Would be interested to see it run Android in a future video

[@MobileDecay]

If they actually release it i'll be excited. I don't trust crowd funded products though. Especially not Indigogo. Thanks for the videos.

[@elsasslotharingen7507]

CHUWI is a brand that has already released some other Mini PC's, so in this case I wouldn't be too worried. Still, it's an extremely niche product.

[@Prisoner_ksc2-303]

Elsass Lotharingen CHUWI is a brand that goes from miniPC to tablets. They've been around for ages. Sometimes they move to indiegogo when it's about more niche and daring projects

[@Carboxylated]

Amazing video

[@bigintellectual8010]

It's been out 1 minute. You haven't even watched it.

[@TDensmores]

@@bigintellectual8010 Same!

[@Carboxylated]

@@bigintellectual8010 but I did, youtubes time codes are not sync'd, just like some videos have tons of likes but no views. It all has to catch up to eachother.

[@bigintellectual8010]

@@Carboxylated no, like the video had been out for two minutes. It's more than 2 minutes long, yaah?

[@itamar8424]

I got a notification for this 6 days after the video was released

[@IRWPD]

They packed a lot of stuff into that little plastic box.

[@Vimse1973]

I used a copper shim to fill the gap and used some good themal paste to make the cpu have good thermal connection to the copper cooler and fan. I did see a drop in max temp so it got better. I did see increase in low temps. I thinnk this is cos of the heat in the copper raise the min temp just a little. So now its never over 65 C. Needed a very thin copper shim. But it made it keep the fan on more steady and not on and of all the time. The spikes in temp that is above 70C is now gone. Mostly is below 60C. I think it was worth it. Im going to get an M.2 drive but im not sure what to buy. Its both Sata and NVMe out there.

[@XiaoYuz2011]

According to their official spec: Raspberry Pi 4 Dimensions: 85* 56 * 15.24 = 72542.4 mm^3 LarkBox Dimensions: 61 * 61 * 43 = 160003 mm^3 In practice single RPI board usually doesn't considered as a complete PC (more referred as dev kit), but given both of them use external power adapter, even performance (RPI has better CPU, cortex A72 > J4115 > J4105) and RPI has less than half of the space that LarkBox occupies, I would *double quotes* the phrase World's Smallest just being concise. Here are some features that I care (I might be biased) the most if I'm getting a small portable full-fledged computer for regular use (basic usage, entertainment, development), and RPI wins the almost from every perspective (maybe the downside is that it's "uglier" than LarkBox ;P). ___________________________________________________ | | LarkBox | RPI 4 | |----------- |------------ |--------------------- | | RAM | 6GB | 8GB | | CPU | J4115 | Cortex A72 | | Storage | eMMC | eMMC | | WiFi | ✓ | ✓ | | Bluetooth | ✓ | ✓ | | GPIO | X | ✓ | | 4K | ✓ | ✓ | | Chassis | ✓ | X | | Cooling | Fan | Passive, Fan addon | | Price | 155 USD | 75 USD | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'd suggest CHUWI be more careful of choosing the production title here to avoid creating the unnecessary hype.

[@meeder78]

mm^3 you mean

[@XiaoYuz2011]

@@meeder78 thank you, i knew something wasn't right...

[@MessalineApghar]

I definitely would like to see this running android as a dual boot and also connected with the nexdock2 to turn it into a full laptop.

[@martyburgess341]

Super neat setup!

[@johnchristopherrobert1839]

Exelent presentation, great content

[@IngwiePhoenix_nb]

You know what just crossed my mind? ...aren't there Intel WiFi drivers in macOS? Hackintosh Ultra Mini! :D Looking forward to the emulation test! This looks like THE streaming box I have been looking for. Attaching a DVB-C receiver to this and making Kodi aware of it and using the inner SSD for recordings and sharing them on the network? That would be uber-sick. Lovely little box!

[@CtrlAustin]

today I learned we use the same screwdriver set

[@pickleshanks]

Lol, yeah. I have the cell phone toolkit version off that. It worked ok for a lot of my needs, but I upgraded to the iFixit pro kit to fulfill the rest of my needs. Now that poor little green kit sits collecting dust in my closet.

[@EmeraldSamurai117]

Same, For the price its a great kit

[@RexMods]

Would like to see you adding a copper or even steel shim between the CPU and heatsink. I'm pretty sure even with the extra thermal interface and if torqued down properly, would give you better thermal performance. Not that the chip runs terribly hot at 10W or anything, but it could reduce the noise levels. Very interesting little box.

[@Appalling68]

If you're really thinking about Manjaro linux, also consider an Arch install with the Zen kernel and XFCE. Would also love to see Linux Mint XFCE as well!

[@Alibaba-wm8ck]

Good work ETA PRIME

[@EmmEff3168]

Please clarify above specs - is the M.2 slot SATA or NVMe capable? The 2242 SSD price diff is astonishing ....

[@kang7014]

how thick is the thermal pad? wonder if an aftermarket thermal pad like Thermal Grizzly thermal pad at 0.2mm thin would fit or provide better cooling

[@jeramzPC]

I wish it had a smaller power adapter like my beelink j45.

[@gk780]

You can carry your desktop computer in your bag. It can be solution against thieves if you don't want to leave it in office. Laptop computers might be heavy because of weight of battery.

[@ugzz]

Pretty interesting little PC. I'd be interested in seeing how similar (or different) it is from the BMAX mini box that's been on aliexpress. They look pretty similar, definitely a slightly different board layout though, they have the same cpu, and similar expansion, but the BMAX has 8gb memory and runs about $210.

[@KaraokeDuov2]

Add thermal paste, add a slightly smaller metal square, add small amount of thermal paste again and assemble. Gap solved. Improved cooling begins.

[@javids6656]

Have you noticed temperature differences? What thickness can be suitable, maybe 1mm or less?

[@chrisl5097]

Hey ETA PRIME great video, lovin the lark box form factor I would like to see android operating on this hardware, shame about the heatsink not making contact with CPU, GPU though

[@vighneshmallampally6627]

Eta prime has become jerry rig everything lol 😆. Nice vid though 👌👍

[@norlesh]

Wedge a sheet of copper or aluminium of appropriate thickness in place of the thermal pad along with paste if you really wan't to boost the cooling.

[@Tiamorg]

Hello. Did you check the thermal pad thickness? It should be beneficial for temps to change that pad for something like arctic or thermal grizzly. Also yes for android, do it please.

[@akidoomar]

The thermal pad is pretty thicc. But they are really not my type

[@JimacGTti]

I for one am very interested in this, especially if you can get Android running on it. Very nice teardown vid! :)

[@dozer8065]

I cant wait for this to come out, im gonna buy one too stream geforce now, project xcloud and retro gaming in another room. plug into tv, connect xbox controller and power it up, super super simple.

[@mishasoika6145]

It would be cool to make a retro handheld from it

[@krypticmac]

could you have used a .5mm copper shim and thermal paste? I have done this with many of my mini computers in the past.

[@thenewplayerbegins]

pleeeease, do android emulation ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ i am veeery interested, love your videos

[@BowsettesFury]

Sick little pc

[@bliiblaablue]

You can get laptop gpu copper plates starting from 1mm thickness on Ebay. Put thermal paste on both ends and there you have it.

[@jeffjankiewicz5100]

Last month bought a Pi4b, 8gb model, maybe I should have waited. Please do a full emulation video and lets see what it can do. Hmm, maybe Ps3? Cute little cube. Thanks ETA Prime

[@lee99bay]

Nice little box ;)

[@yhygyhbyhuhhgggf7022]

It's like a nuc with extra steps that doubles as a oven.

[@magicbeanman772]

lookin like a mini gamecube

[@skyriakou]

Definitely test Manjaro Linux. It's a nice little powerbox btw. I wonder if they could produce versions with AMD inside in the future.

[@blurigard447]

You should definitely try an eGPU on this

[@W1ldTangent]

I've never heard of individual RAM chips coming in anything other than a power of 2 size, that's very strange.

[@dazaspc]

I would guess that they are larger chips that have faults and have be reclaimed to use at the smaller size.

[@W1ldTangent]

@@dazaspc could be, not sure if RAM can be "binned" in that way they do with CPUs and GPUs, at least I've never heard of it. But it is plausible.

[@KyussTheWalkingWorm]

@@W1ldTangent RAM binning is an extremely common practice. When buying higher performance RAM kits you are in fact mostly paying for the binning, as decently binned kits of the best RAM chips (Samsung B die) are not *that* expensive.

[@ihater3tards]

dude im not gonna go into the history of ram....but think before you speak...look at ram 10-15 years ago and tell me what capacities you find.... TWO has nothing to do with it... whats important is BYTES... Example when i first started building PCs...ram was 32-64 Mb sticks so the actual magic number is 8...

[@W1ldTangent]

@@KyussTheWalkingWorm binning for speed, absolutely, sorry I used perhaps too general a term. The chips that test high will go into better products obviously. I mean taking known defective parts that happen to have the defects in areas not needed for a lower end SKU, as happens in CPUs and GPUs often.. didn't think that was done with memory. Again, could be wrong.

[@KnHawke]

Almost looks like the standoffs for the top of the case are too long (those in the corners), I'd get creative and use sandpaper and a flat surface to shave those down.

[@StaticVapour590]

Never seen so small PC

[@StaticVapour590]

@J Fz Fine. I have seen one but it's not cube :) Technically it's the same thing in different box.. But that thing is somewhat cool, tiny cube

[@vapor4den]

Why they say on indigogo the CPU rate is at 1.5Ghz and in your video description its 1.8Ghz ? Did they change the specs ?

[@atriedes38]

Definitely looking forward to the emulation video. I never leave comments, but I gotta tell you, I've learned tons from you. I put Batocera on an HP Elitedesk 800 USDT running an i5 4690s. It's for my nephew. He's 10. Can't figure one thing out. I tried dowloading and installing the bezel project, just to PSx to check it out. It made all the PS1 games unloadable. I deleted it, but the problem remains. Any ideas what I might have done? I'll take input from anybody. Thanks. And keep them coming.Great work.

[@PrivateSi]

Very nice but I'd be happier with it being 1 cm taller and wider for a better heatsink and fan on top and a side space for an extra fan or a couple of internal USB sticks.

[@derekp9737]

I wonder if the 3gb ram chips could be upgraded to lets say 2 4 gb ones with a heat gun :)

[@jorgeisaacdominguezvalle3174]

Hey bro you can use HDD raw copy, for clone the installed ssh to the new one, and just expand the partition on the new ssd (no reinstall windows and no need to install drivers or preloaded soft)

[@jorgeisaacdominguezvalle3174]

or mount the new ssd to your user folder, like linux using partitions per folder (like SD1 -> / AND SDA2 ->/HOME/USER)

[@AhmadFAskar]

Cant wait for ryzen APU version.

[@hassosigbjoernson5738]

Some Android X86 Testing would be nice. MAybe with a bluetooth remote control added. Those android media apps should run fine on these thing. And with a remote it would be perfekt for a tv

[@Otakusenpai786]

Is osm to like to see android system on this tiny cpu 🤩

[@ifaithful1]

just use a copper shim on the cpu and heat sink might as well sell the shim on ebay once you get the proper measurements.

[@Tiut]

It seems good. I'll wait the emulation test :)

[@milankostic5401]

Well, quite sure this could be passively cooled with one can of Coke. Remove that fan, make some connection to the bottom of the can and try it out 😆