Can an i5 match an i9? | Chuwi Corebox 5th Mini PC

Testing the i5-13500H-powered Chuwi CoreBox 5th Mini PC in gaming, 3D rendering & video editing
Specs as provided:
Intel i5-13500H
Iris Xe 80EU integrated graphics
16GB DDR5-5200 (1x16GB)
512GB NVMe Gen 4 SSD
Thanks to Chuwi for supplying the review unit. Link here (not affiliated):
store.chuwi.com/products/core...
Mini PCs can pack some pretty powerful components, but the “mini” part can often be restrictive. Even modern, efficient CPUs can struggle to reach their potential without sufficient power and cooling. Chuwi’s CoreBox range trades a small increase in size and mass for some improved thermals. Can this trade-off make an i5-powered mini PC equal to an i9 one? Or even better?
Music by Backing Track backingtrack.gg/
Track names: “Binary Sunrise”, “Starstream Returns” & “Midnight Racer”
00:00 Chuwi CoreBox 5th
00:36 Big Mini PC
01:12 Cooling the CPU
01:35 CPU specs
02:02 RAM, Storage & Expandability
02:57 Connectivity
03:42 Full Specifications
04:24 The Benchmarks
04:27 Synthetic Benchmarks
06:53 Productivity Benchmarks: Davinci Resolve Studio
08:15 Productivity Benchmarks: Blender Classroom
08:47 Gaming Benchmarks
08:50 Benchmarks: Apex Legends
09:15 Benchmarks: Battlebit Remastered
09:38 Benchmarks: Counter Strike 2
10:10 Benchmarks: Fortnite
10:40 Benchmarks: Overwatch 2
11:01 Benchmarks: Forza Horizon 5
11:40 Benchmarks: Crysis
12:25 Benchmarks: Civilization VI
13:00 Power consumption
13:13 Conclusion
A D S
The following links are affiliated. Everything costs the same to you, but I get a commission.
G E A R
Audio:
Behringer UM2 amzn.to/3aV17wq
Behringer XM8500 amzn.to/3nCt2WY
Generic microphone arm amzn.to/339yZRC
Video:
Fujifilm X-T3 amzn.to/3nGapRY
Camera & 18-55mm lens kit:
Fujifilm 23mm f2 amzn.to/3udXvgn
FeiyuTech G6 Max Gimbal amzn.to/3nHndYs
Interfit LM8 Video LED amzn.to/2SkESJL
Neewer 120cm Softbox amzn.to/2RjlMDm
Raleno Rechargeable Bicolour Video LED Panel amzn.to/3f2l7hV
C O N T A C T
Twitter/Insta @IcebergTop10s
Email [e-mail]
#Intel #Chuwi #miniPC

[@IcebergTech]

Forgot to mention a few things: The BIOS is about the most basic I've ever seen, no functionality at all regarding the CPU or RAM, not even fan profiles or power limits. Voltage control is locked down on H series CPUs, so Throttlestop had little use, and unlocking the TDP in XTU had a neutral to slight negative effect on benchmarks - hence why I didn't mention it.

[@ABaumstumpf]

Throttlestop, powerlimits, overclocks, voltage-changes - those are basically all functionalities of the BIOS. There are H/B-series desktop boards that auto-of-the-box overclock CPUs to hell and beyond (running an i5 13500K to >200W).

[@LNCRFT]

Some CPUs can still be unlocked but since the BIOS is so basic, no patch will probably be available.

[@roqeyt3566]

Hey Iceberg, how long did you wait for this to be delivered? I've ordered from their website and I've exceeded the expected delivery time, just checking if it's normal or if I should contact customer support

[@IcebergTech]

​@@roqeyt3566 I didn't order mine, it was supplied by Chuwi's marketing department, so it's probably not the same supply chain as retail. I got a dispatch notification on the 7th and received the parcel 5 days later.

[@roqeyt3566]

@@IcebergTech thanks for the heads-up! I'll be a little more patient and wait for that dispatch message. Thank you for showing this lil PC! Sad to see there's no easy way to add a dGPU

[@nolimitza.j5063]

I always get caught off guard whenever he says "usb A holes".I always hear the wrong things and its funny as hell

[@IcebergTech]

I stole it from @TechDweeb, ngl

[@marctorres7182]

I was going to point out TechDweeeb being a bad influence, but seems you already noticed it@@IcebergTech

[@falcon6329]

what do you mean?

[@nolimitza.j5063]

@@falcon6329 its like a joke that always gets me

[@BadContentCreator193]

It’s not USB As-

[@hamiltonalexUA]

Iceberg is one of the most underrated channels on KZbin. Very few channels match the camera work, with the aesthetics and maintain a good info rate. Keep up the great work mate!

[@seikoudesu9935]

You deserve more subscribers, everything from the writing, to the editing is phenomenal. Great work :DD

[@ISAK.M]

So true like the production value and effort put into these videos are better then most 300K+ channels

[@jackcoughbendover434]

It's refreshing to actually see a mini pc maker care about thermals

[@Sand2Go]

I don't know how I accidentally pressed on this 3 minutes after it released, but I can't complain, I love this channel's content.

[@ChristopherPBacon1]

Another great video! BTW. Never change the intro music, it’s iconic!

[@IcebergTech]

Aye, I owe my whole channel to Unicorn Heads and Backing Track 🎵

[@Elomentoplayz]

The vibe of his videos are quite unique and definitely will become iconic once he has a few hundred thousand subs in a few years.

[@joekoch8485]

Always interesting to see how the mini pc’s stack up! I can’t wait for newer gen intergrated graphics to improve to make them more viable.

[@RowdySkills]

Keep up the good work! I subscribed when you had 20k subs. All that hard work is paying off!

[@Al3ksandrOrlov]

Awesome content as per usual man

[@Garrettdx1988]

I’m convinced that this channel gets more 69 FPS results than any other channel on KZbin

[@IcebergTech]

Allow me to introduce you to a certain Sr. Kryzzp...

[@selohcin]

3:01 "Six external USB 3-type A-holes" is a phrase I never expected to hear.

[@jimmyb3]

Keep up the high quality videos man! 😁

[@samuelsyrzysko8110]

Just ordered a laptop with the 13500h and was searching for videos of gameplay with the CPU but just couldn't find anything but thanks to you I now know what to expect love the content keep it up👍💪

[@cebul9267]

Yahoo!! Perfect for slacking off after school.

[@MarcosCodas]

I had a cr*p day. A new Iceberg video soothes the soul. No joke.

[@richardmcgowan1651]

Unless you are talking about the cheaper mini PCs powered by Intel N100s and the like. You are always better off with AMD-powered mini PCs. If you are looking to spend more money. AMD has ruled the APU market for so long even before Ryzen they were better.

[@atoo7yt490]

when you smell that 78th review unit mini pc zaza

[@Kim-fm2vo]

Something worth noting for the GPU video render test is that QuickSync generally looks far better than AMD's equivalent (AMF I believe) at similar bitrates. I've also never seen such a huge time discrepancy like that, that's very interesting. Great tests!

[@alilokhd4638]

Two videos dropped in a week 🎉

[@IcebergTech]

Upping my game for the end of the year!

[@coelhovinicius140]

I sweare i was thinking of exactally something like that and you just post it wtf

[@nadtz]

About what I would expect from 13th gen overall but I can't lie I'm interested to see what meteor lake will do once it's out and available to all these mini pc makers. AMD still the best option for mini's right now unless you have some absolute need for intel + mini pc.

[@hurryhurry9723]

Problem with Chuwi is they very often die around 5-6 months and theres no return policy what-so-ever. When you write them back and send it on "warranty" case they just vanish without any response

[@israelramirez1617]

Thanks for this very interesting video.... Mine also arrived to MX with the 5200Mhz 16GB memory module so... i need to add another 16GB module to have enabled the IRIS xe graphics... think i will wait the 32GB 5200Mhz modules to be less expensive and then upgrade.... i wonder if that will benefit the performance

[@akin242002]

Between these 2 choices, the Geekom IT3 for me. I love 4k displays, so having two Type C 4 ports with 40Gbps data transfer speeds wins by default. Also, slightly better performance and smaller form factor play a part in my choice.

[@akin242002]

FYI... the Ryzen 7 7840HS and Radeon 780M iGPU are better for gaming and video editing. 10 minutes faster for 4k video editing is amazing time efficiency if you have a tight deadline. M2 Mac Mini would be the only video editing mini-PC better. However, the gaming option gives the Radeon 780M iGPU the advantage. Radeon 780M iGPU mini-PCs: - Geekom AS7 - Beelink SER7 - Beelink GTR7 Pro - Minisforum UM790

[@AndersHass]

I keep laughing when you say a hole, lol

[@GLDragon93]

Is there a way to disable the E cores on the Chuwi? I feel like they do more damage than being useful in power limited scenario despite the whole "Efficiency" gimmick, eating watts that could be used to feed the P cores and keep them at a steady max turbo speed, or feed the igpu more power. You can clearly see that in Battlebit E cores are just idling, and P cores can stretch their leg hovering around 3.5 - 3.7 Ghz, while in other tiles they keep jumping up and down despite not hitting a thermal limit as the temps are fine. I also think you're not using max performance mode on the Chuwi, thus sometimes frequency drop. This could help regain some performance and more consistent framerate.

[@O_Shag_Hennessy]

Do you think another stick of RAM would help with some of the gaming issues?

[@BelleDoesStuff]

I believe the results you are seeing with Civilization VI on mini PCs is a direct result of their attempt to save power / thermals. Looking at the recording, the game isn't majorly loading the CPUs so it seems sensible that they wouldn't be boosting much and instead are trying to keep power consumption low

[@ronchum5178]

Seeing the price tag almost made me consider it, until I realized it doesn't have a gpu. I don't think I'll be happy with the performance of these boxes until we start seeing some strix point ones making it onto storefronts.

[@jlnrdeep]

8:12 the information given here is very important to those who are still using older CPU´s. Most recent benchmarks given in youtube videos only compare against current or 2 previous generations so there isn't a real comparison for those who haven´t upgraded in a while, almost all modern CPU's gives between 100-160% uplift but that's really isn't useful information.

[@DiggetyDank]

"type-a holes" just sounds lke "type assholes" to me lol

[@IcebergTech]

I never noticed! Oops.

[@ABaumstumpf]

In general you want to higher core-count higher binned CPUs if you want the highest efficiency, but not for lowest idle power. An i9 13900K is still more efficient than an i3 13100 - IF you run it according to spec or even undervolt it as the default-settings on most boards are atrocities applying way too high voltage on their automatic-overclocks (still intel is to blame as they have not stepped in to stop that).

[@couriersix2443]

2nd comment: I hate to be the one to point this out…but your final comparison graph for the 13900H vs 13500H incorrectly shows the latter having 4P + 6E w/ 18 total threads 😅 which would technically be 14 threads, but it is 4P + 8E for 12c/16t total on the 13500H. Either way pretty much most of us knew what you meant anyways, and as always great video!

[@IcebergTech]

It’s okay, you’re not the only one to point it out 🙂

[@JehanPrasetyo.p]

Ayy... I'm late apparently.

[@IcebergTech]

I was wondering where you were 😔

[@sennpowerhv6922]

Back in 2014 the Pentium G3220 blows the i5 4250U out of the water with its same core count even without hyper threading its base clock being much higher than the i5s single core boost. The i5 4670K is uncomprehenceably better than the 4250U

[@alilokhd4638]

I recently tried gaming on linux and i saw about the same and sometimes 10-13% fps boost but the better thing is less ram and vram usage Can u investigate this

[@Rayyan-hi2ge]

Review the t480s

[@OneAngrehCat]

Nice DVA bomb.

[@IcebergTech]

The definition of a Hail Mary, we were getting annihilated in that game.

[@OneAngrehCat]

@@IcebergTech A Hail Mei-ry She froze them, you blew them

[@Wooksley]

7940hs is probably the best-in-class chip in this generation. Or 7945HX if you don’t want graphics. Intel’s 10nm is just too old compared to TSMC’s 4nm. And efficiency is king in power constrained scenarios.

[@JBrinx18]

Make sure you start at 0 for benchmarks with a time component. Starting at 8 or some other number is misleading

[@IcebergTech]

Right now I can't find a neater way of doing that in Google Sheets than adding a dummy cell with 00:00 in it, but I'll see if I can find a better way.

[@couriersix2443]

Those are some interesting CPU-Z results. My R5 5600 (with an 4.8Ghz OC & -100mV UV) pulls just under 90w, and has a “high score” of 648 in single core / 5,127 in multi core respectively. [Edit: the RAM paired with it is 32GB (16GB x 2) dual rank 3200mhz CL14]. Peak temps were around 65-68c (across all cores), using some older MX-4 paste with a Wraith Prism RGB air cooler. Which effectively places it around a stock 5900x/5950x in single core and between a stock 2700x/3700x in multi core. I’m sure I’ve said it a lot at this point, but I’ve been insanely happy with my 5600. It’s been one hell of a 6c/12t chip for just over $100 brand new, and used to be sheer overkill for my use cases (mainly gaming)…at least until devs started making it so that games need even more capable hardware. Which leads me to another point, in my personal opinion the age of 6c/12t CPUs is unfortunately coming to a close much quicker than I would’ve anticipated - especially seeing how long 4c/8t has managed to remain somewhat relevant at least. Although even with that being said, current gen chips such as the 7600x prove that 6 (capable) cores with strong IPC & high clock speeds can still hold their own vs something like the 13400 with 10c/16t (which is really just a 12600K with a locked multiplier due to the lack of Raptor Lake P-cores) or even its 14c/20t 13500 sibling. On another note, I was also really impressed with the 7840HS, those Zen 4 cores are really efficient when it comes to performance per watt. Basically has the same single core performance as Zen 3 cores at their peak but with only half the power.

[@chadbrick67]

Don't believe you

[@couriersix2443]

@@chadbrick67 lol you don’t have to, doesn’t change the fact that it’s the reality of the situation 😂 guess I won the silicon lottery with my 5600, either way I got it like a month after launch from Micro Center for like $129. Soon it’ll be part of my wife’s PC since I’m about to upgrade to LGA1700. Still haven’t decided what CPU, but also gonna give her my 3060ti as I’m gonna be getting either a 6800/6900 XT. Where I live the latter is going for just over $400 now lol

[@chadbrick67]

@@couriersix2443 don't believe you

[@GewelReal]

11:21 didn't know it could run DLSS

[@IcebergTech]

Bah, sh*t.

[@reeveho1384]

maybe you should check out the Minis Forum hx77g, with its RX 6600m, it will shred all 3 of these in gaming.

[@IcebergTech]

Fingers crossed they drop me an email 🤞

[@reeveho1384]

@@IcebergTech hopefully 😅

[@scotttait2197]

3:04 A-holes ....😂

[@cairnex4473]

...you said "a-holes" ;-)

[@magicpancake1089]

14:49 good video, but doesn't the 133500h have 16 threads?

[@IcebergTech]

oh god damn it.... I went over that video like ten flippin times looking for errors 😫

[@magicpancake1089]

​@@IcebergTechhappens! no worries !

[@Azureskies01]

You always have quality videos but I do have to say there is ZERO reason to buy an intel based "mini PC" over an AMD one.

[@deamondeathstone1]

Depends, my I3-12100f is at least an equal to the last I7, the 6700k, I've have ever owned. So if there's enough generations between them...

[@damasterpiece08]

in games, it beats the ryzen 3700

[@fv101]

still waiting for a gpu in these things...

[@IcebergTech]

Now that Intel makes their own, I'm hoping it's just a matter of time....

[@reeveho1384]

Actually there is a mini PC with an Intel a730

[@fv101]

@@IcebergTech there was one of these once with a 2060, i think dawid made a review on that.

[@Trick-Framed]

The i5 13400 beats the i9 9990k in both single core and multi core IPC.

[@Kennephone]

Crysis disappointed me, even though it's an Intel iGPU, it's a nearly 20 year old game, of course if you played it at resolutions people did back in the day you could crank it up, but then it'll be super soft.

[@grumpywolfgaming]

Did you say "a-holes"? lol

[@michaelmcconnell7302]

A holes. 😅

[@pamus6242]

At this point anyone who says the AMD chip, especially the "average" performing 7840HS as a mediocre chip compared to the i9 13900H is clearly suffering from delusions. Most people are now deep in the Stockholm syndrome phase that Intel is still better in "some" things whereas every evidence is contradictory.

[@sklynexd]

Impossible that mobile i5 is better than 5600x which scores 4850 points in CPUZ, I have up to 100W tdp with PBO and undervolt, not real

[@bulletpunch9317]

Geekbench compute most useless bench for gaming.

[@chadbrick67]

The buffet plate is 12.50