MSI is no stranger when it comes to NUC PCs. The MSI Cubi NUC 1M is the company's latest generation of compact systems for home and office use. With current Intel mobile processors, plenty of RAM, and impressive storage options, the Cubi NUC 1M should offer enough power to get the job done. What makes such a device interesting for the office is the ability to mount it to the back of a display, reducing desk space. The I/O is sufficient to connect not only office equipment, but also multiple networks with two 2.5GbE ports.
Not only does MSI make a decent mini PC, but it also markets the Cubi NUC 1M as an eco-friendly 0.8-liter PC, with a claimed 42.9% recycled plastic (PCR) content for the materials used and a renewable energy source for the factory that made it. The green approach doesn't end there, as MSI also allows you to manage and view power consumption in its Windows software. The power plan can be changed on the fly, as can fine-tuning how much power the laptop CPU should draw from its socket. In our testing, I found the MSI Cubi NUC 1M with an Intel Core 7 processor to be well-suited for work and even homelab use.
About this review: MSI provided XDA with a Cubi NUC 1M for testing, but had no input prior to release.
MSI Cubi NUC 1M
I like the Intel Core U-series in this PC. The Rocket Lake chips can last a full workday with their excellent single-core performance. It could also be used as a great homelabs server, but it is not cheap.
- Power-efficient Intel CPU performance
- Compact design and expandability
- Ideal as an office PC or home lab server
- Will be expensive
- Gets hot under load
Price, specifications and availability
The MSI Cubi NUC 1M starts at $380 for an Intel Core 3 with no RAM or storage. It's a barebones unit for aftermarket components. The barebones Core 5 and Core 7 systems cost $500 and $650, respectively. That's not a terrible price, but you'll need to be prepared to spend more when you factor in DDR5 RAM and SSDs, especially from MSI. Inside our review unit is a 10-core chip with a maximum boost speed of 5.4GHz, 16GB of DDR5-5600 RAM, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. Wi-Fi 6E is present alongside Bluetooth 5.3, with plenty of USB ports to hook everything up to the system.
What I like
I appreciate the design of the MSI Cubi NUC 1M. It's a sleek cube with a small footprint, perfect for placing on your desk or installing on the back of a VESA-compatible monitor. Regardless of where you put this PC, it'll do fine with office applications and even some video editing if you don't mind slower rendering times compared to more power-hungry desktop CPUs. There are three storage slots inside the Cubi NUC 1M, as well as removable RAM and a Wi-Fi card. Accessing the internals is as easy as removing four screws, though doing so voids the impressive three-year warranty.
One of my favorite features of this PC is the optional power button that can be connected to the unit. The cable is considerably long to make it easier to turn the system on and off when it is installed out of reach.
For connectivity, you can connect up to four monitors to the Cubi NUC 1M. It has two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, four USB-A 3.2 Gen2 ports (two of them front-facing with an audio combo jack), two HDMI ports, and two 2.5GbE ports. The dual 2.5Gb LAN is interesting as it opens up more use cases for the NUC. Remove Windows in favor of TrueNAS SCALE, Ubuntu Server, or even Pfsense and you can create a powerful platform for running homelab instances. The included VESA mount allows the Cubi NUC 1M to be installed on the back of a monitor and an optional power button to be used. MSI has pretty much thought of everything.
The processor performed equally well in our battery of benchmark tests. A CPU-Z score of 795 and 4,224 for single and multi-core performance is pretty good considering the size of this machine. Compared to some of the competitors, namely some mini PCs from Minisforum, the Intel Core 7 150U can't keep up with the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G, but that's not what it's designed to do. The MSI Cubi NUC 1M is a power-efficient PC designed for business and productivity. If you have a home office setup and need a compact PC that can handle all sorts of tasks, the Cubi NUC 1M is the system for you.
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MSI Cubi NUC 1M (Core 7 150U, Intel graphics) |
Minisforum MS-A1 (Ryzen 7 8700G, Radeon 780M) |
Minisforum AtomMan X7 Ti (Core Ultra 9 185H, Intel Arc Graphics) |
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|---|---|---|---|
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PCMark 10 |
5,613 |
7,590 |
7,311 |
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Geekbench 6 (Single/Multiple) |
2,634 / 8,481 |
2,669 / 13,607 |
2,587 / 13,577 |
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Cinebench 2024 (Single/Multiple) |
106 / 434 |
107 / 979 |
112 / 1,061 |
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3DMark Steel Nomad (light/normal) |
1,178 / 172 |
2,770 / 473 |
2.824 / 668 |
MSI uses the Western Digital SN250 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD and it's rated at around 5,000MB/s. Our testing showed that the SSD was comfortably just under the maximum speed when reading data, and write numbers weren't far off what WD claims in marketing and spec sheets. The integrated heatsink for the SSD is a nice touch, as PCIe 4.0 drives can generate significant heat, and active cooling in the NUC is limited due to space and PCB layout. If you install a 2.5-inch SSD in the system (as I did for this review), you'll generate more heat while having fewer openings for cool air to access.
To reduce the environmental impact of building and running the Cubi NUC, MSI provides some controls in its MSI Center software to manage CPU power consumption and view the system's power draw from the wall outlet in the form of a historical graph. It's a good addition to the office, especially if you have several of these units running for eight or more hours per workday. One of my favorite features of this PC is the optional power button that can be connected to the unit. The cable is quite long to make it easier to turn the system on and off when it's installed out of reach.
What I don't like
With a price starting at $380, the MSI Cubi NUC 1M can be an expensive PC. Those of you looking for a relatively cheap compact system will be put off by the MSRP, especially if it comes with more RAM and storage. The model I received for testing costs $879. While it offers the top-of-the-line Intel Core 7 CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and 1TB of PCIe 4.0 storage, with more storage and system memory, you can easily exceed the $1,200 mark. The Intel Core 7's graphics processing is weak, and is the standard integrated GPU in Intel chips. You won't be playing many games on this PC.
An external GPU could improve gaming performance if you really want to enjoy your Steam library on the Cubi NUC 1M. Although the system runs relatively cool and the single fan isn't noticeable, unless you push the system hard with a few apps open or some benchmark tests, the CPU does get hot under load. However, for general computing, which is what this NUC is primarily used for, it is nearly silent. If your workday involves resource-intensive applications, you may need to consider a different system or think twice about stuffing the MSI Cubi NUC 1M with extra memory and faster CPUs.
Should you buy the MSI Cubi NUC 1M?
You should buy the MSI Cubi NUC if:
- They care about the environment.
- For work you need a reasonably powerful compact PC.
- You need to equip an entire office with new PCs.
You should not buy the MSI Cubi NUC if:
- You need better graphics processing.
- You want the best value for money.
- You don't have to save space on your desk.
The MSI Cubi NUC 1M may not be the most powerful mini PC on the market, but it's not far off. As long as you can look past the relatively high price compared to rival systems, this is a capable PC for work and home lab use. After extensive testing of Windows, I decided to use pfSense to take advantage of the dual 2.5Gb connections, and the router software runs well. The Intel Core 7 chip is hardly tasked with tasks managing a busy network of clients. Whatever you plan to use the Cubi NUC 1M for, it can handle almost anything you throw at it, although it does get hot in the process with the single fan and all the memory slots occupied.
You can't go wrong with this PC for use at home, in the office or in the home lab.
If you're looking to save space on your desk and have a reasonable budget for RAM and storage, you'll have a lot of fun with the MSI Cubi NUC 1M. It's the little things like energy efficiency during production or operation and even the optional power button that makes it easier to turn the system on and off when it's stowed away. You can't go wrong with this PC for home, office, and homelab use.
MSI Cubi NUC 1M
The MSI Cubi NUC 1M is an Intel-powered compact PC designed for power-efficient applications such as office PCs. It's neither the cheapest NUC on the market, nor the most powerful, but it strikes a good balance between the two, with numerous configurations available and solid, eco-friendly software.