This year, the DIY PC market has cooled down. Although the prices of hard drives and memory have dropped significantly, people seem to be losing interest in assembling desktop computers. Not only desktops but even laptops have started to drop in price. Even so, the desire to purchase does not seem to be high. However, since mini PCs exploded in popularity last year, this alternative form of computer has attracted a lot of attention. Unlike the cooling situation in the desktop and laptop markets, mini PCs have seen particularly high heat and sales this year. Following Xiaomi’s launch of a mini PC last year, many new mini PC brands have appeared on the market.
Some say that Xiaomi ignited the mini PC product line; we won’t discuss that here. However, I also bought my first mini PC for around a thousand yuan last year and used it as my main machine for about half a year. I indeed have a lot of feelings about this new category of computers. At the time, I was worried that the mini PC experience wouldn’t be good enough, so I didn’t dare to buy an expensive one. I bought a thousand-yuan mini PC and found that its heat dissipation was quite good, it was very quiet, and it could handle general office tasks. Connecting it to the TV at home to watch videos is much better than an Android system filled with ads. However, due to the limitations of the N5105 processor’s performance, playing large games is impossible.
Mini computers are only palm-sized. I have completely accepted them now, moving from initial doubts about their performance and concerns about heat dissipation. Initially, I wanted to buy the Xiaomi mini computer, which has a very powerful chip, the Intel 12th generation i5 processor. However, I was deterred by the high price. Recently, I found a mini PC from Maxtang, the TRI12, which also uses the Intel i5-1240P processor. The 16G+512G version costs over 2700, much cheaper than Xiaomi’s. I have been using this high-performance mini PC to replace my desktop for about half a month now, and today I would like to share my experience with this mini PC equipped with a flagship processor.
First, let’s talk about the appearance. If you are seeing a mini PC for the first time, you will be very surprised because the body of the mini PC is indeed very small. The dimensions of Maxtang’s mini PC are only 130x128x52mm, with a volume of only about 0.6L and a weight of only 612g. It really is a small box that fits in the palm of your hand, completely overturning the traditional understanding of desktop computers. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it is almost 40 times smaller than a traditional desktop.
As expected from a nearly 3000 yuan machine, the material of the body has improved a lot compared to my previous thousand-yuan mini PC’s plastic shell. The entire body is surrounded by a gray metal shell, and the edges are treated with CNC chamfering. The top and bottom covers are made of glossy glass material, which looks very high-quality.
In addition to the Maxtang mini PC, the official also includes an HDMI cable and a monitor mount that can hang the PC behind the monitor, turning it into an all-in-one computer. However, the power supply uses an external power supply solution, which is quite large.
The interfaces are located on both the front and back sides of the machine. First, let’s talk about the front interfaces. On the front, there is a power button, two USB ports, and a full-function Type-C port. On the far left side, there is a 3.5mm headphone jack. It is worth mentioning that this full-function Type-C port can be used not only for data transmission but also for connecting portable screens. By connecting a portable screen that supports touch, the mini PC can transform into a touchscreen 2-in-1 laptop, allowing for more creative uses.
Don’t be fooled by its small size; the interfaces on the back of the machine are very rich. It comes standard with two HDMI 2.0 ports, allowing you to connect two screens simultaneously. Adding the monitor connected through the Type-C port on the front allows for a three-screen setup. Additionally, there are two 2.5G RJ45 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, and a DC power port. At the bottom of the back is the machine’s heat dissipation vent.
The two sides of the machine are the heat dissipation air intake, with a large air intake and the heat dissipation vent at the back, providing a reasonable airflow design. The heat dissipation effect is much stronger than that of the narrow space in a laptop.
Next, let’s open the machine. Opening it is very simple; just unscrew the four screws on the bottom cover. You can see that the internal construction of the Maxtang TRI12 is quite neat, showing the quality of a big manufacturer. The memory and hard drive are from well-known brands. The memory is equipped with two 8GB DDR5 4800MHz modules from Crucial, and the hard drive is Kingston with a capacity of 512G.
Under the hard drive is an Intel AX200 wireless network card. Additionally, we can see a SATA interface on the side of the memory slot, allowing for the expansion of a 2.5-inch hard drive using the included hard drive cable.
Regarding heat dissipation, despite the mini PC’s small size, it achieves excellent heat dissipation in such a small space. This relies not only on the reasonable airflow design but also on the internal fan. The Maxtang TRI12 is equipped with a single fan and a single heat pipe as its active cooling solution. Although the body is small, it uses a laptop-grade mobile CPU along with memory and hard drive, so there is no need to worry too much about heat dissipation.
Like desktop computers, the mini PC needs to be equipped with a monitor and keyboard/mouse to start using it. I am currently using my old 27-inch 2K monitor, and later I may upgrade to a 4K monitor.
For the keyboard, I specifically paired it with a Ducky K615W wireless mechanical keyboard. Ducky’s mechanical keyboards are very famous. Don’t underestimate the keyboard; having a good monitor and keyboard greatly enhances the overall experience of using a computer. After all, you often have to use these products when using a computer. In the past, I thought there was no need to buy a good keyboard, and I always used a cheap one from an online store. With such a powerful computer, I found that playing games was not responsive.
The Ducky K615W white backlight version is a three-mode wireless keyboard that supports wired Type-C connection, as well as 2.4G wireless and Bluetooth wireless connections. It can connect to the Maxtang mini PC, tablet, and mobile phone simultaneously, allowing for easy switching between devices.
As for the switches, I chose silent red switches because I placed this Maxtang mini PC in my bedroom and was worried that typing on the keyboard would disturb my family at night. The Ducky K610W silent red switch is very classic and quiet. The silent red switch uses Kailh’s Turbo series switch, with a high smooth composite POM material for the switch core, making it very smooth and quiet, especially suitable for typing at night. This keyboard has a 2.0±0.5mm trigger travel and a 45±10gf trigger pressure, and supports hot-swapping. Personally, I find the feel of this keyboard very good.
Speaking of keycaps, I want to mention that when choosing a mechanical keyboard, you should definitely choose keycaps made of PBT material. The advantage is that they are durable and do not wear out, so you don’t have to worry about the keycaps slipping after long-term use. The keyboard has white RGB lighting, which looks particularly beautiful at night.
Can you see the advantages of a mini PC? By connecting a mini PC to a large display and a good mechanical keyboard and mouse, isn’t the overall experience much better than a laptop? The main reason I don’t like laptops is because of their built-in keyboards, which I can’t get used to.
Moreover, having a mini PC on the desk is much more compact and portable than a traditional desktop, and it takes up little space, freeing up a lot of desktop space. When booting up, you can see that the Maxtang comes pre-installed with a genuine Windows 10 system, which is great. I have always liked the WIN10 system; it suits me. However, if you prefer the WIN11 system, you can upgrade yourself.
After booting up, as is customary, I first ran the benchmark test with Lu Master. The score shows that the Maxtang TRI12 can achieve a high score of over 1 million points, which is really strong. This score is completely acceptable and is comparable to the performance of mainstream flagship laptops. Among them, the CPU score is 528,000 points, memory is 215,000 points, hard disk is 199,000 points, and the graphics card score is also 85,000 points. This configuration can be used smoothly for at least ten years. Intel’s advantage is its stability in office tasks, and this CPU can fully meet my office needs, including running large office software and video editing.
Let’s check the configuration, which is consistent with what the manufacturer has provided:
Now let’s focus on the Intel 12th generation Core i5 chip, the i5-1240P, which is a very powerful low-power, high-performance mobile CPU from Intel. It is currently a common high-end flagship CPU in laptops. Although Intel has already released the 13th generation CPUs, the performance improvement over the 12th generation is not significant, and they are quite similar. In terms of cost-performance ratio, the 12th generation is still stronger. The i5-1240P uses a 10nm Intel 7 process; the CPU part has 4 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores, totaling 12 cores and 16 threads, with a base frequency of 1.7GHz and can boost up to 4.4GHz. The integrated graphics is Intel’s Iris Xe graphics from the Alder Lake-P series. The biggest feature of this generation of CPUs is that their performance has greatly improved compared to the previous generation, almost comparable to the previous generation’s i9, but with better power consumption.
Running CPU-Z benchmark tests, we can see that this Intel i5-1240P processor scores 702.9 points in single-core performance, exceeding 700 points, which is very impressive, while the multi-core score reaches a high of 4987.7 points.
Standard are two Crucial 8GB DDR5 4800MHz memory modules, forming a 16G dual-channel memory setup. Yes, Maxtang uses DDR5 memory, while Xiaomi’s mini PC still uses DDR4 memory, which is also why I chose this machine.
Through AIDA64 benchmark testing, we can see read speeds of 62285MB/S and write speeds of 59096MB/S, showing a significant improvement in memory bandwidth and data throughput compared to the previous generation DDR4 memory.
Under normal circumstances, 16G of memory is sufficient for all daily needs. However, the Maxtang TRI12 supports memory upgrades. We can remove the two 8GB memory modules and replace them with two 16G modules to upgrade to 32G of memory. I bought two 16GB DDR5 4800MHz modules from Gainward. Here, I remind everyone that if you also want to upgrade memory, be sure to buy two modules of the same brand and frequency; notebook memory is fine, but don’t buy desktop memory because the number and size of the golden fingers for desktop and notebook memory are different.
After replacing the two Gainward memory modules, I started it up, and it lit up on the first try. The memory upgrade process is very simple; just a few steps and the memory has been upgraded to 32G. The Gainward memory modules use Samsung B-die and Hynix chips, both from reputable manufacturers, ensuring very good compatibility. Additionally, Gainward memory supports On-die ECC self-correction technology, allowing the memory to correct errors that occur during data access, making data safer and more reliable.
We can run AIDA64 to test these two memory modules, showing read speeds of 61672MB/S and write speeds of 56602MB/S, which are comparable to the original memory modules, but with an additional 16G of memory, making it sufficient for daily office tasks and editing high-definition 4K videos.
Through AIDA64 testing, we can see that the Gainward memory modules I received are from Hynix.
After replacing the memory, I ran the benchmark again with Lu Master, and the memory score was 241,000 points, higher than the original Crucial score of 215,000 points.
The Kingston hard drive included with the Maxtang is 512G in capacity, and it comes with a heat dissipation cover. Testing the speed with CrystalDiskMark, the read speed is 3794.86 MB/s, and the write speed is 2182.14 MB/s, which is already very fast. However, the Maxtang TRI12 supports PCIe 4.0, allowing for further improvements. It can later be upgraded to a high-speed hard drive with read/write speeds of 7000MB/s.
In the PCMARK10 benchmark, this data mainly tests the overall office capabilities of the computer. We can see that the Maxtang TRI12 has a comprehensive score of 4899, which proves that this computer can fully meet the demands of medium-intensity office software.
Although the Maxtang TRI12 excels in office tasks, I still tested a few mainstream large games to assess its gaming performance. For example, the visually stunning game “Genshin Impact” can run at 40 frames per second at 1080P resolution.
For large AAA games like “God of War,” as long as you lower the graphics settings and set the resolution to 720P, you can play smoothly, with a frame rate around 30. However, I still don’t recommend using a mini PC for AAA games, as it lacks a dedicated graphics card and sacrifices graphics quality.
Although mini PCs are still considered niche products, it must be said that they have unique advantages compared to laptops and desktops. For instance, my Maxtang mini PC, priced at over 2700, offers performance comparable to laptops in the 4000 range but at a much lower price. The key point is that the Maxtang mini PC is more convenient for connecting to a large display and a better mechanical keyboard than a laptop. The only downside is that due to the small size of the mini PC, there are currently no versions with dedicated graphics cards available on the market. If you plan to use a mini PC for large AAA games, I would recommend purchasing a desktop instead. However, if you need a computer for office work and have high configuration requirements, this mini PC equipped with the flagship i5 1240P can fully meet your needs.