Welcome viewers once again to TV box stop, the channel for the best reviews in TV boxes
mini PCs and accessories.
Today I have an exciting review of a powerful mini PC from Tanix who we all know from their
great line of android TV boxes.
They have now ventured into Windows 10 mini PCs and this is their latest model called
the Tanix TX88.
This model packs 8 GB of LPDDR4 RAM, 64GB of internal system disk, and can accommodate
up to 128GB SSD.
So up next, when mini PCs arrive on this channel it’s a two-part video where I briefly focus
on its hardware and the Windows operating system.
Then I do something very exciting where, I convert it into a full-fledged Android 10
TV box, and in this case the TX88 is going to be running
Android on an Intel N4100 CPU clocked at 2.4 GHz.
Sounds exciting?
Then stay tuned because that’s up next.
So I’m back and in the box you get the Mini PC itself.
You get one HDMI cable.
A 12V 2A DC power adapter.
A mounting bracket and screws.
And a thank you card and your installation guide.
And now a look at its design and ports.
The body is made of plastic with the Tanix logo printed to the top.
To the rear you have two HDMI 2.0 ports.
One RJ45 gigabit Ethernet LAN port.
A headphone jack.
And the DC power input.
To the left side you have two USB 2.0 ports.
A micro SD card slot.
A power button.
And some cooling vents.
On the opposite side.
You have two USB 3.0 ports, One VGA port,
One type C port.
And some more cooling vents.
To the front you have an LED power light.
And below the PC you have four rubber feet, and if you pop these off, you have four screws
for to gain access to the internal M.2 SATA port.
Here you can see they have included a 128GB M.2 SATA SSD.
This PC has fanless design so all it has in a large heatsink.
So I’ll now set this up on my TV that I’ll be using as a monitor for this review and
continue.
So I’ve completed the Windows startup wizard and installed all my apps, and here is a look
at the basic Windows system information.
It shows that the operating system is Windows 10 Pro, the processor is an Intel Celeron
N 4100 with a CPU clock speed of 1.1 GHz.
Not shown here is the boost speed of 2.4 GHz.
It has a total of 8GB of RAM, and it’s a 64 bit operating system.
And below here it shows that Windows is activated.
For a little more advanced hardware information, let’s have a look at the hardware summary
of the AIDA64 extreme application.
It shows that you’re running on a 64bit based PC on DirectX version 12.
The CPU is a quad core Intel Celeron N4100 with its base clock at 1.1 GHz.
Its display is powered by a 1GB tri-core Intel UHD graphics 600 GPU.
The audio adapter is the Intel Smart sound technology.
For storage you have 64 GB system disk, and here is the 128GB M.2 SSD, and the brand is
Foresee.
Under network it shows that you have a Bluetooth adapter, an Intel wireless AC 9461 dual band
Wi-Fi adapter, and a Realtek ethernet LAN adapter.
And that’s it for system and hardware information, let’s now have a look at some benchmarks.
First I have the score of the PC Mark 10 advanced edition all in one benchmarking app.
The TX88 got a score of 1340.
And below here you can see the scores from each individual test performed.
If you scroll down this app also has some advanced system information, and here you
can see that the RAM type is DDR4 and the max CPU clock frequency is 2.394 GHz.
After reviewing the results and having a look at this bit of information, I would go with
this app instead of the AIDA64, as it has a much simpler layout and provides more details.
With that said the score generated is an okay score and we will see in a moment where it
places on the chart.
Next I have the results of the Novabench app that measures a PC’s RAM copy speed and
a its internal system disc read and write speeds.
The TX88 has a RAM copy speed of 8140 MB/s.
It’s internal system disc has a read speed of 261 MB/s and a read speed of 229.
For a mini PC these are some okay scores, and they will be added to the chart which
you’ll see in a moment.
Next are the results of the Geekbench 5 CPU benchmark.
The TX 88 got a score of 396 single core and 1052 multicore.
These are the results of its Wi-Fi bands and ethernet LAN speed tests.
The TX 88 has maximum bandwidth on its 5 GHz band and on the LAN port.
The 2.4 band fell below by 49% and this is on a 100 Mb per second network.
The final benchmark are the results of the 3D Mark gamers bench graphics benchmark.
This is the results of the ice storm extreme test.
This is the results of the cloud gate a test.
And this is the result of the time spy test.
These are some okay scores and let’s now see where it places on the chart.
Well the scores are in a but currently I only have two mini PCs on my chart, and in reference
to the PC Mark 10 benchmark scores the Tanix TX 88 the better than the last mini PC and
is at position number one.
This chart will be populated as time goes on and you can view this chart on my website
in full spreadsheet format where you can interact with it and compare various scores see the
link in the description below this video.
Now that all the hardware stuff is out of the way, let’s look at of some of the things
you can do on this mini PC.
First you can install all the Microsoft office applications.
Next you can protect your PC with any antivirus software of your choosing.
You can browse the web with any browser of your choice.
Next for entertainment you can install Netflix from the Microsoft store or view it in any
browser and watch movies in HD quality.
You can watch YouTube videos.
The other thing you can do, is that you can connect a Webcam, and use any video conferencing,
social media network, or attend a zoom session.
And finally, you can do some light gaming with your favorite gamepad weather it’s
wired, wireless with a dongle, or via Bluetooth.
However, this mini PC cannot handle large mainstream high graphics games.
You can however use platforms such as the Nvidia GeForce now platform and steam.
So that’s only the Windows operating system and the many things you can do with it when
applied as a mini desktop PC.
But as with most mini PCs with SATA expandable storage, you have the option where you can
install a separate operating system and enjoy the best of both worlds.
Here I’ve installed android 9 TV OS using the M.2 SATA expandable storage as a standalone
secondary operating system, and in no way affects the Windows operating system but has
full access to the systems hardware.
If you would like to learn how to install Android x86 on a mini PC using expandable
storage, see the link to a video tutorial in the description directly below this video.
When you install android on Windows hardware, if you install the right firmware that has
the right features, you can convert your mini PC into a super android TV box.
This firmware in my opinion is the best android x86 firmware for converting your mini PC into
that said TV box.
It has the right features to ensure that you come as close as possible to having all the
features as you would on a regular android TV box.
For the sake of time, I won’t go through all of these features again in this video,
but if you would like to see all the features of this firmware see the link to that video
in the description below.
Let’s take a quick look at what happens to the hardware under android x86.
The major difference under android x86 is that you now have the CPU running at its boost
speed of 2.4 GHz and not 1.1 as we have seen under Windows.
You also have support for 64bit ABIs which allows you to run a 64 bit applications.
If you look under system you have 8GB of RAM and It app shows that it’s LPDDR3 and not
DDR4 as shown under Windows, but it’s DDR4 as I have confirmed on the Intel website.
Because I installed on the M.2 SATA SSD I now have 128GB of internal storage.
And below here it shows that I have Bluetooth 4.1 support, and I have already confirmed
that works without issues.
With the CPU clocked at 2.4 GHz the heatsink on the CPU is sufficient and maintains a cool
operating temperature around 45°C. So there’s no need for an active cooling
fan.
Even though there are options in the sound settings to enable Dolby and DTS audio options,
in this codex list I don’t see any Dolby or DTS decoders, so don’t expect digital
surround sound audio output under this firmware.
And those are the major differences when you convert this PC into an android TV box.
So let’s now look at the performance you get with some benchmarks.
First let’s look at speeds you get from the RAM and internal storage under android
x86.
You get the same performance from the Wi-Fi bands and the LAN port as you had on the Windows.
The Antutu benchmark if you compare to any regular android TV box it is significantly
higher These are the results of the Geekbench 4 CPU
benchmark.
And these are the scores of the 3D Mark gamers bench GPU benchmark.
Due to the lack of required decoders to play digital surround sound audio formats, the
playback of 4K HDR videos are not good under these conditions.
The GPU performance however is really good so you can enjoy android gaming and emulation
gaming.
In summary.
As a Windows desktop computer as it was originally designed for, though it works as it should
and you can perform lots of tasks with it, they could have set the base clock speed a
little higher.
My dual-boot to android x86 project went really well, and it is one of the PCs that can handle
this function without issues.
So I have come to the end of my review.
If you like to get your hands on the Tanix TX 88 see the link in the description below
this video where you can get it at the lowest price available online.
Thanks for watching I hope you enjoyed the presentation.
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Stay tuned and I’ll be seeing you in the next one.