In 2023, mini PCs are becoming increasingly popular, with more traditional PC brands entering the market, showing a trend of completely replacing traditional entry-level desktops.
Among the recently launched new products, there is a particularly special one, the Thunder God’s new generation MIX, a mini PC that inherits the excellent genes of NUC13 and boasts outstanding aesthetics.
This product features a delicate and compact white body, a 13th generation Core i7-13620H processor, dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, a Thunder God smart control center that allows switching power modes without entering BIOS, and a starting price of 2499 yuan (barebone system).
If you like the design of the NUC but have been troubled by its high price and poor performance (the NUC is equipped with an i7-1360P processor and costs 4999 yuan), the new MIX is undoubtedly the perfect alternative. If you have no experience installing memory, hard drives, and operating systems, I strongly recommend choosing the 16GB+1TB complete version; the launch price of 2999 yuan is also reasonable, making it safer to use right out of the box.
Compact and Exquisite Design
The packaging box of the Thunder God MIX mini PC is entirely black, with a diagonal line on the front separating the logo and the Thunder God head, giving it a mysterious feel; you can tell at a glance that the machine inside is extraordinary.
The first impression this machine gives me is that it is compact, exquisite, and beautiful.
The dimensions of the Thunder God MIX mini PC are 117mm × 111mm × 39mm, approximately 0.5L in volume, only the size of an adult’s palm, with a surface area equivalent to 1/6 of a 15.6-inch laptop.
When compared to typical mini PCs like the Jike IT13 (0.62L) and Mingfan UM780XTX (1L), it appears even slimmer and cuter, making it one of the thinnest and most compact mini PCs with a standard pressure processor.
After installing dual memory and one SSD, the total weight of the Thunder God MIX mini PC is about 478g.
The standard power adapter is 95W, with a wavy texture on the surface, which is anti-slip and visually appealing, weighing about 319g in actual measurement.
Many mini PCs are designed with a business style, primarily using stable black and gray tones. The biggest feature of the Thunder God MIX mini PC is its rare silver-white color, which is lively and elegant, beautifully versatile, and can easily blend into various home decor styles.
This product features a CNC one-piece precision carved aluminum alloy chassis, which has a strong metallic texture and is very sturdy.
The main external difference from the NUC is the logo.
The top is a white plastic cover, with the Thunder God and MIX logos added in the lower right corner, and the surface has invisible fine textures, which are anti-slip and fingerprint resistant.
The bottom cover of the machine is also made of plastic, and the silver metallic spray paint gives it a strong metallic feel. The bottom also has screw holes for fixing wall-mount brackets, allowing it to be hung behind a monitor with the included bracket accessories, further freeing up desktop space.
On the left side of the chassis, there is a security lock hole, which can be used to prevent theft if the host is placed in an open office area.
The interfaces of the Thunder God MIX mini PC are located on the front and back panels, with the front equipped with 2 USB-A 3.2 Gen2 ports, an audio interface, and a power switch with an internal white indicator light.
The back of the machine is equipped with a power socket, 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, 2 HDMI 2.0 ports, a 2.5G Ethernet port, 1 USB-A 3.2 Gen2 port, and 1 USB 2.0 port.
Both Thunderbolt 4 ports are full-featured, not only offering a theoretical maximum transfer rate of 40Gbps but also supporting video output and 100W PD charging. I tested it using a 130W GaN charger, and it was very stable. Additionally, the Thunderbolt 4 ports support 15W external power supply, allowing for one-cable connection to monitors and portable screens.
With 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports and 2 HDMI ports, the Thunder God MIX can achieve 4-screen display, making it easier and more enjoyable for stock trading or content creation.
Easy Disassembly and Excellent Internal Design
The Thunder God MIX mini PC I received is a barebone system, requiring me to purchase memory and hard drives and install the operating system myself. I will create a separate tutorial for installing the system and drivers later; this content primarily focuses on the internal design and performance of this machine.
Disassembling the Thunder God MIX mini PC is very easy; you only need to unscrew the 4 screws on the bottom cover and pry it open along the edge seams.
Inside the bottom cover, there is a large pure copper heat sink with thermal conductive silicone pads, which can assist in cooling the SSD to avoid temperature issues affecting the network card and hard drive.
The motherboard of the Thunder God MIX mini PC is equipped with 2 DDR4 memory slots and 2 M.2 hard drive slots (one 2280 and one 2242), with the wireless network card (Intel AX211) located beneath the 2280 hard drive slot.
I happen to have 2 Lexar 16GB DDR4-3200 memory sticks and a 1TB Guowei SSD, which can form a complete host platform with the Thunder God MIX barebone system.
The memory slots of this product support a single 32GB stick, allowing for a maximum of 64GB in dual-channel mode. The 2280 hard drive slot supports PCIe 4.0 SSDs, while the 2242 hard drive slot only supports SATA SSDs. For a 0.5L mini PC, the ability to install dual hard drives is already a very sincere design.
Removing the top cover of the Thunder God MIX reveals that the signal receiving antenna is fixed in the layer between the plastic and metal top cover, without any metal or paint covering, allowing for excellent signal stability and strength.
Powerful Performance with Standard Pressure Chip
The core competitiveness of the Thunder God MIX mini PC lies in its use of the Intel 13th generation Core i7-13620H standard pressure processor, which features 6 large (P-core) and 4 small (E-core) cores, totaling 10 cores and 16 threads, with 24MB of high-speed cache and a maximum turbo frequency of up to 4.9GHz, integrated with an UHD 64-core graphics card.
Next door, the Xiaoxin mini has also launched a model equipped with this processor, with a starting price of 3999 yuan for the 16GB+1TB version. In comparison, the i7 version of the Thunder God MIX with 16GB+1TB is only 2999 yuan, saving enough for a decent monitor and a mechanical keyboard and mouse set.
The i7-13620H processor supports hardware decoding for almost all video formats, and when playing 8K video encoded with AV1, the CPU usage is only in the single digits, capable of replacing a TV box and acting as a home entertainment terminal at any time.
Many mini PCs have power modes that allow setting different power release levels, but they all require a restart to enter BIOS to modify settings.
Another core competitiveness of the Thunder God MIX mini PC is the Thunder God Smart Control Center software, which allows switching between balanced mode, performance mode, and extreme mode with just a mouse click, without entering the obscure BIOS interface. Here, you can also modify fan speeds and view regular hardware information.
In extreme mode, running the AIDA64 FPU stress test, the Thunder God MIX can achieve a power release of 65W, with peak temperatures reaching 94 degrees. After about 30 seconds, it gradually decreases and stabilizes at 50W, with temperatures around 82 degrees and a processor frequency of 3.25GHz.
During the stress test, the overall power consumption stabilizes around 78W, with the noise level next to the host measuring about 53 decibels. When the sound monitoring device is brought close to the user, it drops to below 46 decibels.
In the game “League of Legends”, the performance is similar to that during the stress test, with overall power consumption at 76W, noise level at 53 decibels, and user-side noise around 44 decibels.
When in standby, the overall power consumption of the Thunder God MIX fluctuates between 9W and 11W, with noise levels next to the host below 35 decibels, making it very quiet.
Next, let’s take a look at the performance output of the Thunder God MIX mini PC in extreme mode.
In the Lu Master benchmark, this machine can achieve a total score close to 1.19 million, surpassing 77% of computer users nationwide.
In the CrossMark test, the Thunder God MIX scored 1834 overall, and in the PCMark 10 modern office test, this product achieved a score of 6387, also showing impressive performance.
By comparing CPU-Z and CineBench with other common hardware platforms for mini PCs, the i7-13620H processor in the Thunder God MIX leads in single-core performance over the Ryzen 7 7840HS, only slightly lagging behind the 13th generation Core i7-13700H.
In terms of multi-core performance, the i7-13620H is basically on par with the i5-13500H, significantly outperforming the low-power version Core processors like the i7-1360P.
In the 3DMark graphics test, the Thunder God MIX’s Fire Strike score is above that of the Iris Xe 80, but the Time Spy score is slightly lower.
In the gaming test segment, “League of Legends” at 2K resolution and maximum quality, after a 21-minute game, the Thunder God MIX can achieve an average frame rate of 168FPS, with a maximum of 229FPS and a minimum of 119FPS, providing a very smooth experience.
For mainstream 3A games like “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” and “Shadow of the Tomb Raider”, at 1080P resolution and low quality, the Thunder God MIX can achieve average frame rates of 27 and 32FPS, respectively, which is just barely playable. It’s important to note that this is just a 0.5L small machine.
Smaller, More Aesthetic, and High-Performance Mini PC
In my personal aesthetic opinion, I believe the Thunder God MIX is currently the most aesthetically pleasing mini PC on the Core platform. The CNC metal frame and white cover combination truly captures users’ preferences for quality and appearance. After upgrading to the 13th generation Core i7-13620H standard pressure processor, it can also deliver stronger performance than the same-source NUC, providing excellent expansion and connectivity capabilities in a compact form.
The main competitors of the Thunder God MIX mini PC are small traditional desktops priced around 3000 yuan, such as the Dell Inspiron 3020s. Currently, for 3249 yuan (excluding monitor), you can buy a configuration with an i5-13400 processor, 16GB of memory, and a 1TB hard drive, but the latter has a size of about 7.8L, which means you can fit 15 Thunder God MIX units in one chassis.
Although the Thunder God MIX is smaller, it can still accommodate 2 hard drives, and its peripheral interface connectivity is even stronger than that of a desktop. The performance of the i7-13620H is comparable to that of the i5-13400, but the integrated UHD 64 graphics outperform the latter’s integrated UHD 24. Aside from the inability to choose a higher-performance discrete graphics card, the overall performance and experience far exceed that of the Inspiron 3020s.
Therefore, if you were originally planning to buy a similar small desktop like the Inspiron 3020s for your home, it would genuinely be better to buy a Thunder God MIX, which is smaller, more beautiful, and has greater overall performance.
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