Chuwi Larkbox Mini PC on Indiegogo for ~ $220

Lrookie317 on 06/07/2020 - 11:20
Last edited 06/07/2020 - 14:45 by 1 other user

Link

Was looking for a low powered, mini PC to add to my growing fleet of nodes and came across this little guy. You get a decent amount of performance for a 10W Intel Celeron 4c/4t chip with dual channel (I recall reading this somewhere but I could be wrong) 6GB LPDDR4 RAM, 128GB eMMC drive (can be expanded with M.2 2242 slot which I'd do immediately since eMMC is just not good enough), WiFi+BT, oh and Windows 10 64-bit Home preinstalled. To get such small footprint (smaller than a RPi I think?) the device PCB is broken into layers, if I'm not wrong the tech is called Intel Foveros 3D.

Some reviews: techradar, liliputing, someone managed to play a bunch of simulator games on it quite smoothly YouTube

I personally bought the 2-pack (~$420) and overall I think you get a lot for the price, especially if you'd prefer a Window box. Make sure to pay with free foreign tx fee card as you'll be charged in HKD.

EDIT: thanks to kogi, here's the link for secret perk (extra USD$6 off).

Mod: Removed referral link

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  Jasongood on 06/07/2020 - 13:41

  This box is certainly interesting to put that many things in a small case. One thing to concern is the after-sale support (drivers, doa etc.), and a one-year warranty is too short to me.

  This can even be the next Mac Mini you know ;)

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    rookie317 on 06/07/2020 - 14:13

    Yeah I'm fully aware of the risks but given the price, I'm willing to take it. A similar cloud configuration will cost me like $30 pm anyways so as long as they can run for a year, I'll have profited more than enough. That said, I'm aware it's a fairly niche product though.

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  Hybroid on 06/07/2020 - 13:51

  Yay more vapourware. Good luck ever getting it.

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    rookie317 on 06/07/2020 - 14:09

    A fully working prototype that has been sent to several reviewers is considered vapourware? There's nothing remotely ground breaking about it to even make it vapourware anyways. Also Chuwi isn't just some random start-up from China. They've developed and shipped many products in the past. They might have not always delivered in quality but the price has always been reasonable for the specs. Guess I'll see you when I get my box?

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  [Deactivated] on 06/07/2020 - 14:17

  How do you plan to use them?

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    rookie317 on 06/07/2020 - 14:23

    I'm running a lot of crypto nodes at home (this is different from mining). The more nodes I have the more redundancy I have as 99%+ uptime are critical to earning. I don't need much computing power but a good price/performance box always helps. I've ran calculation and it's just cheaper for me to run them instead of cloud providers. Also the ability to troubleshoot locally is just immensely helpful.

    Aside from that I don't really have any other plan for them. For everyone else, maybe media server? NAS? TV box? Simulator? Just toy?

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  kogi on 06/07/2020 - 14:27

  +1

  There is a Facebook add link that takes an extra au$10 off

  And at the bottom of the lilliputing review there is also a discount link

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    rookie317 on 06/07/2020 - 14:30

    Thanks, updated. I didn't notice the secret perk.

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  Clear on 06/07/2020 - 15:01

  +1

  I've been following this for a while and a couple of disappointing things. The lack of ethernet is a big downside and they'd have enough room to fit one easily. Also the USB-C isn't properly spec compliant so you can't run USB-C to Ethernet with a hub and it doesn't have USB-PD. Rather it supports 12V/2A and you'd need a special barrel to USB-C adapter.

  Put a better CPU in the Herobox and it would go alright, though obviously not fitting the form factor they're after.

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    rookie317 on 06/07/2020 - 15:17

    All good points, your inputs echo what people have been saying on the comments section. I think this is a case of "no bad product, only bad price", they've definitely cut cost here and there to fit that price. That said, I do hope from now until the final product shipping phase, they'll add ethernet port and a compliant USB-C port. It seems unlikely though given the provided roadmap.