My New Favorite! Chuwi Larkbox X Mini PC Review

[@pedxing]

this was a cool showing. I wouldn't have thought of the N100 this year but it looks pretty damn efficient with a nice price point.

[@juliomelchiore245]

I really enjoy your reviews. You hit all the points I'm interested in. Keep up the good work!

[@Robtech]

Just an amendment to the Chuwi Larkbox X review. A viewer informed me to try USB-PD (power delivery via USB-C) and it does indeed work. I tested under load without issue. Not sure why it says in the spec it's not supported.

[@JakubChalupnik]

Do you mean the box can be powered by USB-C, or the USB-C on the box can charge phones? Thanks!

[@sludgepipe]

Uhhm how do you deliver power to it with a USBC cord exactly? I plugged it in and hooked it to a socket with a phone charger box and nothing

[@MarcRitzMD]

​@@sludgepipe He said usb-c pd. That's a usb spec. You need a charger which specifically mentions pd (power delivery). You'd probably want one that can do at least 12V. The cable also needs to be usb-c to usb-c

[@sludgepipe]

​@@MarcRitzMD hey thanks for the information marcritzmd really appreciate it!

[@szabuowski8677]

​@@JakubChalupnik ​ @sludgepipe @robtech​ @MarcRitzMD I have this Chuwi Larkbox X (n100) and was curious about this supposed full USB C functionality and tried it myself: video output over USB C works - tried 4k USB C portable display with C2C cable as well as some cheap 1080p projector with USB C to HDMI cable - yep, it works. USB C PD also works and it does work both ways! I connected a mobile phone to this port and it started charging, also tried connecting a macbook - it started charging too. I don't have proper tools to measure possible voltage and amperage output but iStat Menus on my mac showed it was getting 1.97A at 4.15V. So it either maxes out at just 5V/2A or maybe it is because included DC charger is only 36W (3A at 12V). Again, I don't have multiple DC chargers to experiment. And for the other charging direction - I connected Apple's macbook 61W charger to the front USB C and the device booted normally. But I cannot guarantee every single one is like that. This device listings on Ali and elsewhere usually say that included 512GB SSD drive is SATA but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that mine had an NVME drive installed. So maybe I've also got some USB C upgrade, who knows ;) BTW BIOS is terribly poor, basically the only options there are to change the time and date, boot order, bios password, and... I think that's all. There is also an option to autostart the device after power loss and restore but has some really weird name, I don't remember it but considering that there is so small number of settings in general stumbling upon it will take like only 30 seconds of browsing.

[@thomasmccormack4796]

I am seriously tempted to buy this just for work. The most demanding thing I do is teach classes online and use Office. It is so cheap, I dont feel I have much to lose. I am tired of turning on my huge massively engergy draining tower everyday. I just want to turn my tower into an emulation arcade machine.

[@jrussellmoore]

It checks many boxes of what I'm looking for (SATA/NVMe support, USB type C alternate mode for DisplayPort, proper DisplayPort too, Power Delivery compatible, etc.), but what makes me somewhat reticent of getting one is servicing. Not only on the physical side, getting to the upper part (i.e., properly disassembling the unit) seems to be impossible, or at least I have yet to see anyone document how it would be done (and with that vent up above I wonder if the insides won't be getting dust easily), but also on the software / firmware side: no website with BIOS updates, limited, kinder garden-like BIOS setup, ... Did you end up getting one? How is it doing?

[@dave_r]

Rob, it's nice to see enthusiasm for a low-end unit , and I agree that it's handsome, though that round black fan input grill does point out the small fan (which I assume is roughly the size most of them use). I'm glad it's a good WiFi/BT card, slightly regret soldered RAM and no expansion (other than to replace the SATA stick with a larger one and those are getting a bit hard to find), but at least 12GB will hold up better than 8GB. Also, I may be wrong about this, but I don't remember another brand that used Win 11 Home rather than Pro. For most people that may not make a difference, but I really do like being able to RDP into the minis I have. Fun review to watch.

[@john__west]

Dave out here on the frontlines putting work in for the algo ❤

[@dave_r]

@@john__west One does what one can.

[@Robtech]

And John is helping again 🥰. Yeah, this one is the first one with Home that I remember coming across.

[@edrd6257]

@dave_r Sorry to disappoint you. The fan used for this 2023 model is actually wayyy smaller than that small round black grill. But the good thing is, it's not the whining type.

[@Nightingale1887]

you can buy a SATA extension cable as there is a port on the motherboard which converts to SATA and makes it so you can mount 1x 2.5 inch HDD/SSD.

[@Johnassu]

This review was exactly what I was searching for! The performance benchmarks, KZbin FPS drop tests-it's the best. I just wish there was a throttling test using Cinebench because I'm curious about how long it can handle gaming.

[@s737500]

Just bought mine from the EU store. Fantastic mini PC. Much better than I expected. Forget running "real" games, but for everything else its realy impressive.

[@RandomNamedNPC]

Does this support 1080p 144hz?

[@chrisumali9841]

thanks for the demo and info, have a great day

[@AgentZeroNine1]

I wish there was an inexpensive PC handheld with this chip for emulation and light weight PC gaming.

[@Bareego]

With the minis no vesa mount isn't much of an issue, just get some stick on velcro tape, done.

[@jabonorte]

Mine came with a VESA bracket. Happy with mine, though the MoreFine looks more 'premium'/less like a big smoke alarm. Using it as a daily driver in the office and can report that it's dealing with Office 365 and cloud solutions quite happily, which I could never say about Intel's earlier budget processors.

[@Robtech]

Thanks for the update. Good to hear its included.

[@tonytschanz5642]

Great and comprehensive review. Thanks!

[@jrose25_]

u helped me so much on makin this pick !

[@orogin1]

Just bought one for a 128 dollars. Can't wait to get it

[@MUXLegend-yg9xt]

I bought it for 116 USD last Dec. 2024 with free shipping.😁

[@timothy3686]

Hey Rob, have you compiled a complete list of all the benchmarks you’ve done to date? E.g single thread, multithread, encoding test etc. if so could you share it somewhere? I would really like to compare between models but your comparison charts 📊in the videos only show the segments of similar systems. I’d really love to see a spreadsheet of all your compiled data!

[@Robtech]

No, I'd need someone to code a website or find a finished template that let's me input data and let users select which units they want to compare. Maybe I'll get round to asking the community at some point

[@peterboy209]

I like it. Good Specs, nice looks

[@craigprocter1232]

ordered a Chuwi Larkbox X 2023 today from aliexpress for $149 ($219 AUD) + $20 USD shipping. Should arrive in a couple of weeks with any luck.

[@xtsplaash]

if i connect my hdd will it works?

[@Hostilenemy]

I really wish you showed a side by side comparison of some of those gaming tests with other N100 NUCs. The LPDDR5 memory should have a chunky bandwidth lead over the regular DDR4 SO-DIMM sticks which would result in higher GPU performance. Probably not by a whole lot but enough to justify its non upgradable memory.

[@Robtech]

I've done it before. Didn't make a difference. N95 and N100 aren't bandwidth limited. Might be because of the lack of EUs.

[@Hostilenemy]

@@Robtech Shame, let down by iGPU.

[@Robtech]

N200 has more EUs. Looking forward to trying it once its released.

[@MrJustintreat]

I don't know anything about computers, but this looks like i can do school, magic arena, and Minecraft so i think I'll pick it up

[@jabonorte]

Tried it with a PCIE Gen 3 drive. I know it was never going to make a massive difference, but I was working from home, trapped in a room with a new Mini and a spare drive.... Anyway, it worked fine and CrystalDisk is giving me 841 MB/s, so that's a 50% speed increase. I'm only using it for work stuff, so it's not going to overheat. Pleased with the benchmark boost, but probably won't make any difference in performance. Back to work now ......

[@Robtech]

Ah, so it works with NVME too. Nice. Didn't try as it said SATA only when I reviewed it 😅. At that speed, it's running at Gen 3 x1 speed like most of the other N100 minis.

[@Wojtek-J]

Thanks for your comment! Do you know if NVME Gen 4 drive will also work with it?

[@jabonorte]

@@Wojtek-J Haven't tested it with a Gen 4 but there's no reason why it shouldn't work - it's the same socket. You won't get any speed benefit though - it will still be a x1 connection. Worth doing if you already have a spare drive, but don't get too excited.

[@Wojtek-J]

@jabonorte Thanks Jabonorte, I appreciate your quick response. I did some reading after asking the question and it became clear that it would work (Gen4 is backward compatible), but its purchase probably doesn't make sense because of the high price and, as you wrote, in this little Chuwi it won't make any difference. What's important is that I can take out the M.2 SATA and throw the M.2 NVME in there - not even by speed gains, but it's easier and cheaper to buy NVME 2 TB and easier to move it to another device in the future. Great that NVMEs in Chuwi work, that's good news, thanks for letting us know about it

[@Bareego]

That's good to know, NVMEs are a lot cheaper at higher capacities than SATA versions.

[@israelramirez1617]

Excellent review pal... I was very curious about the new Chuwi N100

[@OffNight914]

Great advice, funny jokes, new sub

[@AlexanderHetzel-lu9ne]

Did you try the Displayport yourself? Specs state it supports maximum 4k60p, but users on reddit state it can go waaay beyond with displayport.

[@Robtech]

Intel's N100 CPU specification lists a maximum of 4K60 on both HDMI and DP for the included integrated graphics www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/231803/intel-processor-n100-6m-cache-up-to-3-40-ghz/specifications.html

[@indiekiduk]

Great info about the network ports, that isn’t even on their spec

[@regenjo]

They reduced the ram speed in newer boxes according to reddit.

[@MasterPandaBearChannel]

Chuwi released Ubox, with ryzen will you do a review

[@JoR-m4l]

Just got mine from EU store, unfortunately no VESA mount adapter was included 😞... But still, nice little thing!

[@s737500]

just got mine from the EU store too. VESA bracket and 4 scres were included.

[@israelramirez1617]

By the way.... CHUWI CoreBOX 5th review? It arrived to my home in MX yesterday... 5,200mhz RAM, 3,500MB SSD.... I look forward for your review 😁

[@Robtech]

If they offer to send it to me, I'll review it.

[@daniel326935]

Sir 😔 I’m planing to get this pc to play StarCraft. One and StarCraft2 you think this pc will work for me ?

[@lebelame]

any review on watching LIVE sports events on browsers ?

[@homersez]

I just got mine in the last week and it appears that the ssd is n ow NVME.

[@talk9415]

as always thank you for awesome content! it goes for 105 USD on aliexpress now, killer deal or its obsolete now? there is no official datasheet anywhere, I cannot figure out if I can swap the ssd, I heard it comes with SATA crappy noname china brand, and I do have a 512GB crucial ddr4 NVME. can the socket on the motherboard work with NVME SSD?

[@Robtech]

N100 won't be superseeded for another year at least and then the price of the new chips will be higher anyway. I didn't test, but multiple reports of NVME working and some of the units come with an NVME drive

[@talk9415]

@@Robtech thank you, just ordered one for 97 USD can you believe? Aliexpress and their sales...

[@egorts.2356]

Dear all, could you please suggest one thing which confuses me a bit... What would be the difference between Intel N100 PCs and AMD Ryzen (5500 for example)? Why the author compares PCs with same CPUs but not between different CPUs - for example to find best mini PC under 300$? Seems AMD performs much much better and are same quiet as well.. What is the magic and what I should chose if I want quiet mini-PC for office needs?

[@Robtech]

5500U wasn't a budget tier CPU when it launched. I consider budget under $250USD. If you can find a 5500U around that price, great. But I can't keep up with and compare discounted pricing of older generation minis. If AMD starts releasing new gen budget CPUs, they'll be in the comparison chart, but they've exited this market, leaving Intel alone. Oh, also I haven't reviewed a 5500U 😅

[@jasonspratling]

Would something like this be good for coding being able to handle programming software running visual studio code programming in JavaScript and being able to build and launch applications ?

[@jrussellmoore]

I suppose it would depend on the applications you want to be running, launching VS Code, learning or doing some programming, sure, compilers wouldn't have much of a problem; but building something like Chrome (for example), no, not advisable at all.

[@johannesr.6143]

First thanks for the grat review! How do you feel about the Chuwi Larkbox X compared to the N100 competitors Beelink Mini S12 / Trigkey G4 (both 16GB DDR4 RAM, 500GB SSD, WiFi6, BT5.2)? What would you buy given all of them cost 200€, like in my case? Any difference in support? Thanks in advance! 🙂

[@Robtech]

It would just be price and features in this category. Here's my top 5 based on the price at the time in the US kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZmtYaGefMmCobM

[@pedxing]

I haven't somehow missed a review of the SimplyNuc device with the 7040 have I? The Moonstone r9.

[@Robtech]

No, I'll be reviewing that next month.

[@pedxing]

@@Robtech hot dang! =)

[@333milos333]

Have you managed to test whether the USB-C port supports PD? Their Aliexpress listing has an image stating that it should support, while true that the text description says it doesn't. But moreover there are a few chinese youtube videos showing PD actually working with this mini PC.

[@Robtech]

You're right. I tested it and it works 😆. I'll pin a comment

[@333milos333]

​@@Robtech Thanks for testing and confirming! With that feature it really makes it even more compelling.

[@RusselTheMuscle20]

I just got my Chuwi Larkbox X today. I noticed that the fans does not spin even though the CPU temp is at 54 degrees Celsius. Is that normal?

[@Robtech]

54C is plenty cool. If the fan isn't running above 80C, then there's a problem.

[@musicmaestrodj]

Thanks for thr great review. I have an old laptop with a intel i7 3770 and 16gb of ram and was wondering if that little box would put it to shame. What do you think? Thanks in advance! Bybtye way, i purchased a Chuwi laptop for my wife and she loves it. Looks like a decent build.

[@Robtech]

In single core the N100 (922) beats the 3770 (820). In multicore the 3770 has the lead (3650) over the N100 (2959). Couldn't find the graphics score, but the N100 is probably faster. Likely another budget generation and the 3770 will be beaten in all metrics.

[@musicmaestrodj]

​Thanks for the info. Here are the full specs. Sorry for not posting before. Lenovo IdeaPad P580 Laptop PC i7 -3520M 2.9GHz 15.6" 8GB 750GB HDMI BT NVIDIA GT 630M - upgraded to 16gb ram Planning on using it to run a DAW (Reaper) for music production. Want to make sure this would perform better. Other option would be a used i5 9th gen mini Lenovo with 16GB DDR4 RAM. ​@@Robtech

[@Robtech]

Oh, I was comparing the desktop 3770 (missed the laptop bit). In that case, the 3520M gets beaten pretty easily. www.cpu-monkey.com/en/cpu-intel_core_i7_3520m. But the GT 630M graphics will come out on top. Since it's the CPU and not the graphics that's important for music production, the N100 should perform much better.

[@raffyhaji]

That Morefine M9 Benchmark was really impressive since its the only N100 with DDR4 on that rankings 3:57 P.S. does that means DDR5 are'nt that gamechanging in Alder lake Mini PCs? Thanks Mr. Rob this is basically the better ZX01 Plus with more trusted brand on Chuwi

[@Robtech]

Yeah DDR5 makes practically no difference. Even the last N95 I tested had full speed GPU with a DDR4 stick running at 2400

[@andrewrodrix85]

This is still your favourite cheap?? I need one for oficce work and play movies!!!

[@Robtech]

Still a good option. But price hasn't moved since this review. I have a new top 5 list here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/npncnpKNqLaCaNk

[@OmegaLaser-xy4ip]

10 times better than a raspberry pi

[@jrussellmoore]

A tad late for when the video was released, but I am only now considering getting one, I was wondering if you could tell us something about the BIOS of the machine: does it allow for auto power on on power failure? My scenario has it running 24/7, but if the power goes out I'd like it to go back to being powered on directly. Also, no news about the kind of support we're to expect from this in terms of BIOS/microcode/firmware upgrades, right? I looked for it, but to get newer revisions it seems we need to contact the company (insert Jackie Chan meme face here).

[@Robtech]

I don't remember and I don't have it anymore unfortunately. You'll need to ask Chuwi. Pretty much all of these budget minis get no BIOS updates unless it's from the bigger vendors (ASUS, ASRock, Gigabyte etc.)

[@jrussellmoore]

Thank you nonetheless @@Robtech I appreciate it! Too bad about support though 😔

[@animelinkup2529]

how caN i access to the BIOS? ive tried f10 but nothing...

[@brooksb7]

Is it good for open world games like Skyrim and fallout?

[@Robtech]

Look up "Skyrim N100" on KZbin. Same with Fallout and you should get some examples.

[@xtsplaash]

what do you mean by there is no storage option, if i connect my hdd will it works?

[@Robtech]

There's one slot on the board and it is occupied already. External drives will work fine.

[@hectorberistain]

Thank you for your videos, I am writing to you from Mexico, I have a KZbin channel and I edit all my videos with the Filmora software. I would like you to recommend, in your opinion, the best mini PC to be able to edit video. I thank you very much.

[@Robtech]

The Intel N100 minis like this one work okay for 1080P video editing. Depends on your budget, the better ones are quite a bit more expensive.

[@nedimpocket]

Waiting for windows on arm version in next 1-3 years

[@malzbier1339]

This thing sucks. You can not access the bios advanced settings.

[@dinosaurd7295]

I bet the follow up machine will be called Sticky :)

[@Boemtie]

just want to know how many browser tabs you can open before it slows down?

[@MasterPandaBearChannel]

438

[@wiktorbednarz229]

i wanna see the frames on a game like miecraft to see if its in the 100's or not

[@renji708]

Sorry to bother you but kind of new with this stuff and i was wondering the vram on mine is set to 128 megabytes i wanted to run ps2 games since i seen videos of it doing it but i don't know how to get the ram to work if i change the settings any help would be appreciated

[@Robtech]

PS2 works fine out of the box.

[@renji708]

@@Robtech oh Thanks for the response sorry tried playing day of reckoning on game cube and the game ran like but so assumed i was doing something wrong honestly just wanted it for a emulator box

[@renji708]

Also is there a way to get the ram to go more that 128 megabytes to get games to run better?

[@Robtech]

It's a setting you might be able to change in the BIOS. Unlikely to make a difference though. It's the CPU and iGPU performance holding it back.

[@Nick-ep4rs]

Why am I struggling to find these mini pcs shipping with a UK plug :(

[@Robtech]

I use travel adapters most of the time as an AU plug is even rarer.

[@albertomendez7063]

Does this work well with batocera

[@Stealthguy-rk4ed]

Is there any way to make the advance option appear in bios?

[@Robtech]

You can try CTRL + F1 in the BIOS.

[@petermerkus5175]

Can you boost up cpu? It must have 3,4 ghz but i only see 800 mhz

[@s737500]

if you change the power plan in windows to performance mode, it boosts up there more.

[@jairtzinioortiz8602]

I'm using mine to run a firewall on my network.

[@Trusteft]

I wonder how these machines handle video editing.

[@Robtech]

Simple 1080P should be okay. Any effects will slow it right down, and exporting will be test in patience.

[@Trusteft]

@@Robtech It sounds familiar. I have a i7 5960X with 64GB RAM and a GTX 1660 Super. Some times it can be rough. Thanks for the reply.

[@johnnny9]

would this be good for a home server?

[@Robtech]

Home servers benefit from lots of cores. You'd be better off with something like a Beelink SER5 5560U which is much more powerful and has 6 cores 12 threads compared to the 4 cores with this one.

[@johnnny9]

@@Robtech thank you

[@evgen5647]

Linux: Does audio work?

[@annualizard]

does the ram run in dual channel?

[@Robtech]

Intel Alder Lake N CPUs only support single channel.

[@jrussellmoore]

@@Robtech More or less! On paper (Intel's Ark) it states as much, but there is no such thing as a single channel DDR5, even when it's just one stick there are 2 channels in there ;)

[@RandomNamedNPC]

Does this support 1080p 144hz ?

[@Robtech]

Yes

[@Nightingale1887]

Did you delete my comment wtf

[@martinchacon9741]

My interest is peaked ! What was your comment?

[@ndjdj7989]

Bro can you help, im deciding whether to buy the chuwi larkbox or the gmktec g3, when it comes to thermals/heat dissipation/management, etc.,,, which one is less prone to overheating?

[@Robtech]

I'd go with this

[@Kbecao86]

wake on lan available?

[@Robtech]

Yes, enabled by default

[@Kbecao86]

@@Robtech thank you, greetings from Brazil.

[@Mysty_mm2]

Does it run Roblox good

[@Robtech]

30-40fps at 1080P

[@Mysty_mm2]

@@Robtech is That good

[@cloudcitydigital]

Wish I could buy this bare metal, Im sure Windows adds $10 in cost

[@fredreed2001]

You can upgrade the memory Sticks with 16GB which will give you a total of 32GB RAM which is the most you can have In this. I can tell you that it can handle pretty much any even high end games without any problems according to other reviews.

[@Robtech]

This N100 unit comes with soldered memory and can't be upgraded. It handles older titles like Grand Theft Auto V at 720P (30FPS). It can't modern high end games at all.

[@iissuhayati6312]

Can play ps2 smoothly ?

[@Robtech]

720P most games full speed

[@iissuhayati6312]

@@Robtech thank's

[@THEG12EG]

Only 1 ssd is disappointing

[@EViL3666]

Soldering RAM for the sake of saving a few dollars is shortsighted... oh well... NEXT!

[@jrussellmoore]

Usually I'd say... it depends, here I kinda have to agree. The depends part is because on DDR4, for example, you could be able to run a tighter integrated system (more MT/s) on the soldered package vs. user replaceable one. The N100 caps at 4800 MT/s regardless, hence me agreeing, subtimings may be better still when it comes to soldered (which in turn "may" benefit things dependant on the graphics part), but meh.

[@lushensuku4095]

Thnx for the 50 gifted

[@smartcam1701]

PC was a meh! The T-shirt where its at!

[@john2001plus]

The CPU is so weak compared to other minis selling from $280 to $700. For $300 you can get a CPU that is 4 times more powerful.

[@darongreene182]

Which one

[@jrussellmoore]

I think you're 2x-ing the price at the very least with that bracket chief, there are mini PCs with more powerful CPUs, sure, especially at the prices you mention; but the appeal one of this things has (at least for me) is not only the bang for buck, but also their power efficiency.

[@djashjones]

Nope, you lost me at sata 🤣

[@jrussellmoore]

The one that it ships with is SATA, the thing itself allows for NVMe as well. I am not sure of the lanes it has allocated to it though with all that external IO.