MSI Cubi N ADL Black 2023

The MSI Cubi N ADL is a compact mini PC that excels at home office tasks, media streaming, and light server use. It packs a capable i7-1255U, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD into a tiny chassis with excellent port selection including Thunderbolt 4 and dual Ethernet. Just don't expect it to game or handle heavy creative workloads.

The i7-1255U is a 10-core, 12-thread chip with a base clock of 1.2GHz and a boost up to 4.7GHz. In practice, that means snappy performance for web browsing, Office apps, and multitasking across a dozen Chrome tabs. Boot times are fast thanks to the PCIe NVMe SSD, and 16GB of RAM gives you decent headroom for light photo editing or running a few virtual machines. Our benchmarks put the CPU in the 35th percentile among all desktops, which sounds mediocre until you remember this is a mini PC running a 15W laptop chip. It's not competing with full-power desktop processors.

The Iris Xe graphics sit at the 46th percentile, which is about what you'd expect for integrated graphics. You can drive three 4K displays at 60Hz without breaking a sweat, which is great for productivity setups. Just don't expect to play anything more demanding than Minecraft or stream games via GeForce Now. The 16GB of DDR4 and 512GB SSD both land in the 33rd percentile, so they're adequate but not standout. For a machine in this class, the performance is solid where it counts and predictably weak where it doesn't.

Stacked against something like the Apple Mac Studio M4 Max, the Cubi looks like a toy. But that's a $2,000+ machine built for creative pros. The Cubi competes more directly with other mini PCs in the sub-$800 range. The Dell Tower ECT1250 and Acer Nitro N60-180-UB33 are both traditional towers that offer more upgradeability and better cooling, but they lack the Cubi's dual Ethernet and Thunderbolt 4. If you need a tiny, quiet box for office tasks or a Plex server, the MSI makes a stronger case than those bulkier alternatives.

The HP OMEN GT16-0364 and Lenovo Legion Tower 5a Gen 10 are gaming-focused machines with dedicated GPUs. They'll run circles around the Cubi in any graphics workload, but they're also loud, large, and power-hungry. The Cubi isn't trying to win that fight. It's for people who want a clean desk, a silent PC, and enough power for spreadsheets, web apps, and media streaming. For that audience, it's one of the better options out there.

Pricing on this unit is all over the map, with listings ranging from $699 to an absurd $159,351. The real price you should pay is somewhere around that $699 mark, which is what Amazon currently shows. At that level, you're getting a capable mini PC with Thunderbolt 4 and dual LAN for less than many competitors. The Lenovo Legion Tower 5a Gen 10 or HP OMEN GT16-0364 will crush this in raw performance, but they're full-sized gaming desktops that cost more and take up ten times the space. For a compact office machine, the value is strong if you buy at the low end of that price spread. Just don't overpay.

The MSI Cubi N ADL is one of those tiny desktops that makes you wonder why anyone still buys a full tower for basic computing. It's a 4.88-inch square box packing a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1255U, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 512GB SSD. If you're searching for a mini PC under $700 that can handle home office work, triple 4K displays, and even light media streaming, this little guy is worth a look. It runs Windows 11 Pro out of the box and comes with a VESA mount, so you can tuck it behind a monitor and forget it exists.

Port selection is genuinely impressive for something this small. You get Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort, dual Ethernet jacks, and a handful of USB-A ports. That dual LAN setup is a nice touch for anyone wanting to use this as a compact home server or firewall appliance. Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth round out the wireless side. At 1.23kg, it's light enough to toss in a bag if you need a portable workstation.

But let's be real about what this isn't. The integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics mean gaming is basically off the table, and our database puts its gaming score at a rough 12.9 out of 100. This is an office machine, a streaming box, or a light-duty server. It's not going to edit 4K video timelines smoothly or run modern AAA titles. For the right use case though, it's a quiet, space-saving workhorse.

Skip the Cubi if you plan to do any real gaming, 3D rendering, or 4K video editing. The integrated graphics just aren't built for that. If you need a small PC but want more graphics muscle, look at something with a dedicated GPU like a Zotac Magnus or an Intel NUC with Arc graphics. Also, if you like tinkering and upgrading components over time, a traditional mini-ITX build will serve you better than this sealed little box.

If you need a tiny, quiet desktop for home office work, streaming, or light server duties, the MSI Cubi N ADL is a solid pick. The dual Ethernet and Thunderbolt 4 give it flexibility most mini PCs lack, and the i7-1255U handles everyday tasks without complaint. Triple 4K monitor support is a nice bonus for productivity nerds.

But you should know what you're signing up for. This is not a gaming machine, not a video editing workstation, and not something you'll be upgrading easily down the line. The integrated graphics are what they are, and a few users have reported early drive failures. If your workload fits within its limits, it's a great little box. If you're even thinking about gaming or heavy creative work, look elsewhere.