Jalen Sigh Tech

REVIEW – The mini PC is an interesting product, manufacturers have basically taken laptop components and crammed them into a small box. While these have been around for a while, early versions had pretty limited performance compared to comparable desktop PCs. Recently though, the gap between desktop and laptop CPUs in particular has gotten smaller and smaller, so you’re not taking nearly as much of a performance hit when choosing a mini PC over a traditional desktop. The Maxtang T0-FP750 Mini PC has similar components to some of the other mini PCs I’ve reviewed, but I’ve found that the spec sheet doesn’t always tell the whole story: if thermal management is poor, a good processor can be limited to midrange levels. I’ve run the Maxtang T0-FP750 Mini PC through both benchmarking as well as real world work and play, so let’s get into the review!

What is it?

The Maxtang T0-FP750 Mini PC is a mini PC with some of the better components available for this form factor, available at a reasonable price. It comes with Windows Pro 11 and a couple of configurations, I was sent the version with a Ryzen 7 8845HS 8-core CPU, Radeon 780M integrated graphics, 1 TB Gen 4 NVMe SSD, and 32 GB of DDR5 RAM. 

What’s included?

• Maxtang T0-FP750 Mini PC
• Power Adapter
• HDMI Cable
• VESA mount bracket and mounting screws
• User manual

Tech specs (for review unit)

Design and features

The Maxtang T0-FP750 Mini PC has a plastic body which is roughly 5 inches by 5.3 inches by 2.2 inches high. The front panel sports a power button with status LED, two USB-A 3.2 ports, one USB-C 3.2 port, and an audio jack. 

Unlike some mini PCs that have ventilation on the sides, the Maxtang T0-FP750 Mini PC only has ventilation on the top, bottom, and the back. This makes for a cleaner look, though we’ll see how it impacts thermal performance in the performance section of the review!

Speaking of ventilation, the backside has large open squares that allow for a nice exhaust flow. Also on the back is a Kensington lock port, 2.5 Gbps LAN port, a full USB4 type-C port, a USB-A 2.0 port, a full size DisplayPort 1.4 port, an HDMI 2.0 port, and the power input port. The USB-C port supports DisplayPort-over-USB, so you can connect 3 monitors directly to this tiny PC for a triple monitor setup!

The top of the unit has the Maxtang logo in silver. The groove around the edge hides a clever top air intake for the cooling system. 

The bottom has rubber feet for stability, as well as ventilation holes. There are also two holes to mount the mini PC to the included VESA mount (which can then be mounted onto something else, like behind a monitor). I always like to see this option included, as it can make for a great clean minimalist setup. 

Installation, Setup, Virus Scan

The assembly of the Maxtang T0-FP750 Mini PC is just like any other Windows PC, there were no extra steps or bloatware that I could spot. A deep Windows Defender scan found no malware or viruses. 

Performance

I started testing the performance of the Maxtang T0-FP750 Mini PC by running it through a series of benchmarks. They don’t always tell the full story, but I like to get a feel for the PC’s performance baseline, especially compared to other models I’ve tested out. I decided to directly compare this one to the recently reviewed Geekom GT1 Mega mini PC with the Intel® Core™ Ultra CPUs.  Benchmarks used were Geekbench 6 and Cinebench. 

The GT1 mega mini PC is roughly 50% more expensive than the Maxtang T0-FP750 Mini PC (at time of review), but was only ~15% faster than the AMD-based Maxtang T0-FP750 Mini PC in multicore benchmarking (and roughly the same on single core benchmarks). Of course, the Geekom also sports an AI chip, so running localized language models or generative AI programs is going to be way faster on the Geekom, but if you’re using cloud-based AI solutions (or not really dabbling in that stuff yet) then you’ll probably be very happy with the Maxtang T0-FP750 Mini PC. Running 3DMark TimeSpy often results in some visible thermal throttling on laptops and mini PCs (manifested by dropping CPU frequency over time as the benchmark runs), but on the T0-FP750 Mini PC that frequency climbed after the long run into the CPU-only portion, which is a sign that the thermal management system is doing a good job. 

Some people (myself included) like to be able to game on just about any device they own. Both the Geekom and GT1 can play even the most recent games at 1080P, though you’ll likely be running on “Low” graphics settings with more demanding titles. The benchmarks show an advantage to the Geekom GT1 Mega, but after testing a variety of titles including Fortnite, Valheim, Battlefield 2042, and Total War: Warhammer III, I would pick the Maxtang over the Geekom a couple of reasons if you’re going to be using the mini PCs to game often. The first reason is that AMD’s resolution scaling solution was reliably better for me. This scaling technology works on any program and can be set to be always on, which then starts kicking in if you set the game resolution to a lower value than your monitor’s resolution. On games like Warhammer III, I could play it on Low/Medium settings on a 2k screen, upscaled from 1080P, and it looked just as good as playing it on the full native resolution, and I was getting 30-60 frames per second. The Intel-based GT1 doesn’t support game resolution upscaling unless Intel or the game developers have added it. Some of my favorite games have it, but others don’t, like Valheim. Valheim was playable on both mini PCs, but the experience was better on the Maxtang T0-FP750 Mini PC. I had fewer dips in FPS, and higher perceived visual quality thanks to upscaling. The second reason I’d pick the Maxtang T0-FP750 Mini PC over the Geekom GT1 Mega for gaming is driver support. The AMD 780M is a pretty popular graphics chip, and I think some of the issues and FPS drops I experienced on the Geekom were due to driver issues. 

For general purpose office work, this mini PC has more than enough power for most users. Everything worked as smoothly as any other high end machine I use, be it editing large spreadsheets, browsing the web, consuming media, and using resource-intensive programs like video editing tools (DaVinci Resolve) and 3D printing slicers (Orca Slicer). Fans are silent in normal use for me, and very reasonable when under strain. 

What I like about the Maxtang T0-FP750 Mini PC

• Solid little machine that can do just about anything you’d want to throw at it
• It’s even decent at gaming, latest games are playable on low settings and 1080P
• USB 4.0 is great to have for futureproofing (or even adding an eGPU, though an Oculink port is a bit is better for this purpose)

What needs to be improved?

• IO is decent but less than some other mini PCs, would like to see a newer version of HDMI and more USB options
• Plastic body seems solid but feels cheaper than metal bodied mini PCs

Final thoughts

The Maxtang T0-FP750 Mini PC is a solid performer for nearly any workflow, and can even do well in less demanding games (and play the latest games in 2024 on lower settings with ~30 FPS). The thermal management is impressive, nothing I threw at it seemed to cause any thermal throttling, and everything else just worked as you’d expect it to. I have it installed now next to a large laser cutter/engraver that I’m working on reviewing, and I think I’ll probably keep it there for now with a portable monitor to control that machine (and double as an extra gaming PC for visiting friends/nephews/nieces). If a family member was looking for a smaller computer and didn’t need the portability of a laptop, this Mini PC would be on my list of recommendations for them, as long as they could get it around the sale price when I was reviewing it ($649 or less with coupons). 

Price: $769.99 ($649 sale at time of review)
Where to buy: Maxtang
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Maxtang. Maxtang did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.