Review: Chuwi AuBox 8745HS mini PC

Review unit provided by Chuwi

The Chuwi Aubox 8745 is a powerful and affordable mini PC priced at USD 440.

My review of this mini PC is from the perspective of a visual content creator, someone who does graphic design, digital art and edits photos and videos.

Bottom line

The Chuwi Aubox 8745 provides smooth lag-free performance for office type work and heavy graphic design workflow. The main limitation is with gaming which is not surprising considering this mini PC is using integrated graphics AMD Radeon 780M.

Fan noise is not audible unless you're gaming.

The selection of ports is good. There are four high speed ports and four ports with video output.

The pricing seems quite competitive with other mini PCs of rather similar specifications. So which to choose really comes down to which ports you'll want.

Specifications

• Processor: AMD Ryzen™ 7 8745HS (8 cores, 16 threads, up to 4.9 GHz)
• Graphics: AMD Radeon™ 780M (12 Compute Units, up to 2600 MHz, RDNA 3 architecture)
• Memory: 16GB DDR5 5600MHz (Expandable up to 64GB)
• Storage: 512GB PCIe 3.0 SSD (Expandable up to 2TB via dual M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 slots)
• Display Support: Quad Display, up to 4K@144Hz
• Ports:
  • 1× USB 4 Type-C (back)
  • 1× USB 3.2 gen 2 Type C (front)
  • 2× USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (front)
  • 2× USB 2.0 Type-A (back)
  • 1× HDMI 2.1
  • 1× DisplayPort 1.4
  • 2× 2.5G LAN Jacks
  • 1× 3.5mm Audio Jack
  • 1× DC-In Jack
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, 2.5G LAN
• Operating System: Windows 11 Pro
• Cooling: Mini-ITX Cooler with excellent heat dissipation
• Dimensions: 154 x 154 x 45mm
• Weight: 740g

Things included

• Mini PC
• Power cable
• Power adapter
• User guide

Design

Design of the Chuwi Aubox 8745 looks clean and simple. The unit has a matte textured silver-coloured metal body. Build quality feels solid enough.

The front has the AMD Ryzen 7 sticker and the power button.

The right side has one USB 3.2 gen 2 Type C port, two USB 3.2. gen 2 Type A ports and a Kensington lock. Having these ports by the side makes sense if you plan on mounting the mini PC to the back of a monitor, so that the cables will come out by the side instead of at the top.

The left side has two big exhaust holes for the hot air.

Ports on the back are power, USB 4 Type C, 3.5mm audio jack, DisplayPort v1.4, HDMI v2.1, two USB 2 Type A, and two 2.5G Ethernet ports.

Port selection is quite good. This mini PC can output video through four ports, and according to Chuwi can run 4K displays at 144Hz. I do not have that many 4K monitors to test full video capabilities though.

Four big rubber feet and the fan can be seen underneath the unit. While I did not open the unit up, I read that there's one empty slot for more RAM, and another empty slot for a M.2 NVMe 2280 SSD.

Performance

This mini PC comes with the AMD Ryzen™ 7 8745HS processor with 8 cores, 16 threads, up to 4.9 GHz.

There's one stick of 16GB RAM included and that takes up one slot so you'll probably want to get another 16GB to fill the dual channel for better performance.

GPU is the AMD Radeon 780M. Integrated graphics is alright for some light gaming but don't expect to play graphics intensive 3D games at high frame rates. I played Hades II and could only get 60FPS after resolution is reduced to 1080P. With Stray, frame rates is 24FPS or lower with 1600 x 900 resolution.

Transfer speed of the 512GB PCIe 3.0 SSD is fast enough.

Photo editing performance is good. I was able to import a hundred 16MP RAWs into Adobe Lightroom Classic and thumbnails were able to generate fast. I applied automatic Quick Develop and that took a few seconds to run before the thumbnails reflect the updated edits. Editing individual photos is responsive and instantaneous. To export the hundred 16MP RAWs took 1min 37s which is fast enough to me.

It's possible to edit simple cut-and-join 4K videos with Davinci Resolve. Playback is smooth.

OS and software

The OS included is Windows 11 Pro and there's no bloatware installed.

Conclusion

Chuwi Aubox 8745 is a mini PC that's great for general usage but it also has enough performance for basic content creation that includes photo and 4K video editing without effects. And the unit runs quite most of the time unless it's gaming or exporting videos.

The selection of ports is good.

This is not a gaming mini PC since there's no dedicated graphics card, but it can be used for some light gaming. Having said that, this mini PC is meant more for work than for gaming.

USD 440 is quite reasonable for the performance it delivers so I can recommend this quite easily as a general purpose non-gaming desktop computer.

If you need a computer for only simple office type work or education, you can just get the cheaper Chuwi LarkBox S or LarkBox X. But if you have the budget, I would recommend this more powerful system and for longevity.

Availability

The Chuwi Aubox 8745 is available from Chuwi online store and from AliExpress here and here.