MSI Cubi NUC 1M review

Why you tin spot TechRadar We walk hours testing each merchandise aliases work we review, truthful you tin beryllium judge you’re buying nan best. Find retired much astir really we test.

Last year, Intel stopped processing its celebrated NUC mini PCs, signing an statement pinch Asus that it would “manufacture, waste and support nan Next Unit of Compute (NUC) 10th to 13th procreation systems merchandise line, and to create early NUC systems designs”. I assumed that meant Asus would person nan monopoly connected nan NUC name, but not so: MSI has entered nan fray pinch its Cubi NUC line, and assures maine that much will travel successful nan coming months.

You tin bargain nan Cubi NUC 1M arsenic a barebones system, pinch nan Core 3 100U type costing £349 inc VAT. Core 5 120U and Core 7 150U versions are disposable for £449 and £519 respectively (prices from scan.co.uk). Or you tin bargain Cubi NUCs arsenic complete systems, supplied pinch RAM, SSDs and Windows 11 Pro. Here, I trial nan top-end version, pinch a Core 7 150U, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.

Arguably, this is simply a 14th gen NUC arsenic Intel released nan 150U earlier this year. However, Intel seems intent connected adopting much confusing names for its chips pinch each release, and nan 150U really has overmuch much successful communal pinch nan 13th procreation Core i5-1335U than nan caller Core Ultra line. It still uses nan Raptor Lake architecture, includes 2 P-cores and 8 E-cores, and there’s nary NPU for section AI tasks.

Like each U bid chips, nan 150U is designed for maximum ratio alternatively than all-out speed. When I pushed it to extremes, nan Cubi’s instrumentality kept astatine a low-pitched but audible hum, but its powerfulness depletion peaked astatine 61W (it’s 15W erstwhile idle). That compares to 101W from nan Geekom A8 Mini PC (see rumor 359, p62) erstwhile I tested it pinch an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS.

While nan Core 7 150U holds its ain successful single-core tasks, outperforming nan Ryzen 9 8945HS successful Geekbench 6 pinch a people of 2,635 versus 2,561, there’s a gulf successful benchmarks that trial each cores. In Geekbench, nan Geekom A8’s 13,237 return is ray years distant from nan MSI’s 8,651, and nan spread grew successful Cinebench R23 pinch 16,615 against 6,342.

The gulf successful capacity continued into gaming, arsenic illustrated by nan Geekom’s return of 3,215 successful 3DMark Time Spy, almost doubly nan MSI’s 1,711, and wherever nan Ryzen’s 780M graphics proved bully capable for 35fps successful Shadow of nan Tomb Raider (at 1080p High settings) nan MSI could only rustle up 22fps.

So, if all-out velocity is your priority, nan Cubi NUC is not your champion choice. However, fewer group request specified power, particularly successful businesses wherever MSI is surely targeting this mini PC. For instance, it includes 2 2.5GbE ports, 1 of which tin beryllium utilized for out-of-band management, while those IT board who request to show they’re making biology strides will admit that 43% of nan plastics are PCR. MSI takes renewables seriously, too, pinch 92% of its factory’s powerfulness coming from renewable sources.

I besides asked MSI astir its customer support. You’ll beryllium buying from a reseller alternatively than nonstop from MSI, but for businesses its attack is to person a fresh proviso of buffer banal truthful that faulty units tin beryllium swapped retired and past fixed astatine MSI’s precocious established UK work center. It’s hardly Dell next-business-day on-site support, but location is simply a plan.

The Cubi should beryllium of peculiar entreaty to immoderate business wanting to equine mini PCs connected a monitor. If you bargain a compatible MSI show past its powerfulness move tin besides move connected nan PC, but different MSI supplies an outer powerfulness move that sits astatine nan extremity of a cablegram and intends users don’t request to scope information nan back. You tin moreover powerfulness nan Cubi via USB-C, pinch up to 100W of power, massively simplifying cablegram management. There are 2 USB-C ports here, some supporting Thunderbolt 4, and erstwhile you adhd Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, 4 USB-A ports, a microSD paper scholar and 2 HDMI 2.1 ports it’s difficult to deliberation of thing that isn’t included.

Those looking for a home intermezo system will beryllium pleased to observe those HDMI ports support CEC (so cosmopolitan remotes will work), and location are plentifulness of ways to widen storage. A 2nd M.2 socket sits empty, albeit M.2 2242 alternatively than 2280, and you tin equine a 2.5in SSD externally via 4 screw slots connected its bottom. Or plug accelerated outer retention into nan USB-C ports.

As ever pinch NUC designs, nan large advantage of nan Cubi is its expertise to compression into immoderate situation. Here, you could usage nan Cubi for integer signage (the Core 3 type will beryllium good for specified tasks), successful schools, successful businesses and successful homes. It isn’t nan fastest mini PC around, nor nan smallest, but for versatility it’s an absolute winner.

We've rated nan champion business computers.

What is simply a hands connected review?

Hands connected reviews' are a journalist's first impressions of a portion of kit based connected spending immoderate clip pinch it. It whitethorn beryllium conscionable a fewer moments, aliases a fewer hours. The important point is we person been capable to play pinch it ourselves and tin springiness you immoderate consciousness of what it's for illustration to use, moreover if it's only an embryonic view. For much information, spot TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee.