Mini PCs. They’re like regular PCs, only… smaller. Stop me if I’m losing you here. The segment has been exploding in popularity lately, I guess because people are looking for more affordable PCs that don’t sacrifice desktop-style upgrade options. MSI sent a couple of its new models to Adam and Will to check out in the PCWorld lab.
MSI Cubi NUC mini PC
First up is one of the smaller designs, the Cubi NUC. This is an evolution of the kind of mini PC that Intel pioneered, with a soldered laptop CPU but plenty of room to upgrade the RAM and storage. Like a lot of these designs, you get the option to mount it to the back of a monitor with a VESA adapter, and it includes a cool little extended power button so you can turn it on without a reach-around.
But if you do want more regular access to the hardware, you get two USB-A ports, a microSD card slot, and a “courageous” headphone port on the front. Around back you get two of everything: USB-A, USB-C, HDMI, and Ethernet ports. Popping the hardware off the bottom reveals a secondary 2.5-inch SATA drive with an interesting adapter cable. That’s on top of two M.2 storage slots, one for a 2280 drive and one for the smaller 2242 format. Two SO-DIMM slots for RAM make it upgradeable, but only with laptop memory. You can also swap out the M.2 Wi-Fi card if you want.
Because it’s based on a Raptor Lake laptop processor, the motherboard is double-sided, with the CPU and cooling hardware on top. (There’s really no reason to access that part of the machine.) But the compact nature of the interior is certainly interesting; the whole thing fits into a space a little bigger than your average fist. The Cubi is a little shy of $900 in this configuration with 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and a Core 7 150U processor, but it’s available for about $500 with less premium guts.
MSI Pro DP21 mini PC
The bigger (but still very small) MSI Pro DP21 is a different beast. It’s more flexible on the front with three USB-A ports (two of which are ye olde 2.0), one USB-C, and split headphone and mic ports. Around back you get HDMI and DisplayPort, triple USB-C ports (all speedy), USB-C, mic and audio-out, and what looks like a truly ancient serial COM port.
This gadget is more for the IT fleet kind of use case, hence the more robust locking and VESA mount options. It also comes with a little plastic vertical stand, which makes it look like a PlayStation 2 to my eyes. Prices for the DP21 vary greatly based on configuration, but it seems to start at around $500 for a Core i3 model.
Inside it’s even more interesting. Everything is exposed to the user, including the CPU and cooler. Because unlike a lot of recent mini PCs, this one is using a full Daddy Bear-style desktop CPU: a screaming Core i7-14700. You can take the basic cooler off, access the socket, everything. It’s paired to laptop SO-DIMMs again for space, but you also get full-sized SATA ports for up to two 2.5-inch storage drives (the one in the box is a spinning hard drive!) plus an M.2 port for newer, faster storage. The older drives can be mounted in a removable tray, which is also near a physical switch that can alert IT if the box is opened.
Stick around to the end of the video if you want to check out some quick benchmarks and Linux use cases, but I’m fascinated by the interior layout of these things. Hopefully we’ll get to explore more of them soon, so subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube to join us.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he's the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop "battlestation" in his off hours. Michael's previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he's covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he's always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.