The best value Core i3 PC right now has unbelievably good features

(Image credit: Chuwi)

Autumn is here and it appears Intel has finally managed to sort out the stock issues that have plagued its Core chip.

Chuwi, a challenger computer brands from China, has announced it will be selling an updated version of its CoreBox business PC - called the CoreBox Pro - for only $399 (roughly £310/AU$550).

However, there is a catch: the tiny workstation won’t go on sale for a few weeks yet, so all you can do is wait for the Indiegogo page to go live (yes, it’s a crowdfunding effort) and for the campaign to close.

What’s in it for me you ask? Well, hold on tight because you’re in for a treat. The CoreBox Pro features an Intel Core i3-1035G1 (Ice Lake), a dual-core processor that scored more than 5,000 points on PassMark’s popular benchmarking solution.

There’s also 12GB LPDDR4 RAM in dual channel configuration, a 256GB PCIe SSD that Chuwi claims can reach 2GBps in read/write speeds, a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports and Intel’s AX200 WiFi6 connectivity chip. The whole thing is squeezed into a miniature enclosure that’s only 2L in volume.

Oh, there’s also a Thunderbolt 3 port that should allow you to daisy chain a pair of 4K monitors for productivity tasks (not for games though, as the UHD Graphics 620 is too weak for anything other than office tasks).

We’ve also confirmed that Chuwi will soon unveil an AMD workstation, possibly based on the same chassis as the Chinese manufacturer likes to recycle designs for speed and, well, economies of scale.

You can also check our reviews of the GT Box and the HiGame, two previous workstations from Chuwi.

Desire Athow
Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.