MSI Modern AM272P 1M Black 2024

The MSI Modern AM272P is a clean 27-inch all-in-one built around an efficient but slow laptop processor. It excels at basic office work and offers a rare HDMI-in port for external devices. Pricing varies wildly from $994 to $1,279, so shop around. Skip this if you need any real processing power or have gaming on your mind.

The Intel Core 5-120U is the heart of this machine, and it's a chip we typically see in ultraportable laptops, not desktops. With 10 cores and a base clock of just 1.4GHz, it's built for bursty office tasks. Open a browser, launch a document, jump on a Zoom call, it'll handle those without breaking a sweat. But sustained workloads tell a different story. In our multi-core tests, this processor lands in the 38th percentile for its category. That's not terrible in a vacuum, but it's underwhelming for a desktop that has no battery to worry about and plenty of physical space for cooling. You're getting laptop performance in a box that can't move.

Storage is actually a bright spot, with the NVMe drive hitting the 81st percentile. Boot times are snappy and apps load fast, which makes the whole system feel more responsive than the CPU scores would suggest. The dual-drive setup, with that 1TB main drive and an extra 250GB SSD, is a practical touch for separating work files from your OS and apps. RAM sits at a solid 56th percentile, which is middle of the pack and perfectly adequate for office multitasking. The integrated graphics are exactly what you'd expect, landing at the 50th percentile, which means it can drive the 1080p display and your second monitor just fine. Just don't expect it to do much beyond that.

MSI pitches this against productivity all-in-ones, but we'd actually look at something like a Mac Mini M2 paired with a 27-inch 4K display for a cleaner home office setup with vastly more performance and a similar footprint. Apple's silicon runs circles around the Core 5-120U in both speed and efficiency. The downside? You'll spend about the same money or a bit more in some configurations, and you lose the all-in-one simplicity and Windows if that's a requirement.

If you're stuck on the all-in-one form factor, HP and Dell both have competing 27-inch models with more traditional desktop processors that will feel snappier under load. The reliability scores on some of those competitors also sit higher in our database, which matters if this machine is going to be your daily driver for the next three to five years. The trade-off is that you might lose the HDMI-in port MSI includes, which is a genuinely useful feature we'd love to see on more AIOs. You're essentially choosing between long-term performance and a clever monitor feature.

Pricing on this model is all over the map. We're seeing it listed anywhere from $994 to $1,279 across vendors, which is a $285 spread. That's a huge swing for what is essentially a fixed config. If you can snag it for under a grand, the value proposition starts to make a lot more sense, especially with Windows 11 Pro and the generous port selection. At the high end of that range, approaching $1,300, you're in dangerous territory. There are mini PCs with far more powerful AMD or Intel desktop chips that you could pair with a higher resolution monitor for less money.

What you're really paying for here is the integration. That clean desk aesthetic, the single power cable, the built-in webcam and speakers. For a business buying ten of these for a call center or reception area, the simplicity has real operational value. For a single home user, though, you need to weigh that convenience against the performance ceiling and the fact that when one component dies, the whole thing is basically a paperweight. The warranty and MSI's support reputation, which our reliability data pegs below average, become pretty important at this price point.

MSI calls the Modern AM272P an all-in-one, and on paper it's exactly that. A 27-inch screen, a 10-core Intel CPU, 16GB of DDR5, and a terabyte of NVMe storage all tucked behind a matte IPS panel. No tower, no cable rats nest, just plug it in and go. For someone setting up a home office or a front desk workstation, that simplicity is genuinely appealing. And MSI threw in an HDMI-in port, which is a feature we don't see enough of, letting you use this display for a console or laptop when the PC part eventually feels its age.

But here's where the marketing gets a little loose. The product page talks about 'gaming without compromise' and throws around phrases like Intel Arc graphics. The reality is the graphics here are integrated Intel Graphics tied to a Core 5-120U processor, a chip built for thin laptops that sip power, not for pushing polygons. Our gaming score of 12.3 out of 100 puts it dead last among all the all-in-ones in our database. We're not talking about compromised gaming. We're talking about not gaming, period. This machine is for spreadsheets, video calls, and maybe some 4K video streaming, and that's fine if you know that going in.

For the right person, the Modern AM272P is a clean, competent office machine with Windows 11 Pro out of the box and a generous port selection. Two USB-C ports and four USB-A ports mean you won't immediately need a hub. The 120W power brick tells you everything about the performance ceiling here, though. This is a system built around efficiency, not speed. And at a price that swings from just under a grand to nearly $1,300 depending on the seller, it's sitting in a really tricky spot where you need to know exactly what you're buying.

If you ever plan to do anything beyond web browsing, video calls, and office documents, walk away from this one. The Core 5-120U processor is designed for thin-and-light laptops, not desktops, and it will choke on video editing, 3D modeling, programming compilations, or even heavy multitasking with dozens of browser tabs. Spend the same money on a small form factor PC with a desktop-class Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 and a separate monitor. You'll get dramatically better performance and the ability to upgrade components over time.

Also skip this if you value screen sharpness. A 1080p resolution stretched across 27 inches just doesn't look great in 2025 if you're used to higher-density displays on laptops and phones. There are competing all-in-ones with 1440p panels, or you can build a modular setup with a 4K monitor for the same price as this MSI at the top of its price range. The HDMI-in port is clever, but it's not worth sacrificing performance and display quality for unless you have a very specific use case in mind.

For a reception desk, a shared family computer in the kitchen, or a no-fuss WFH setup where you mostly live in a browser and Office 365, the Modern AM272P is actually a pretty solid pick, assuming you can find it closer to that $994 price. The display is big enough to spread out your work, the matte coating fights glare in bright rooms, and Windows 11 Pro means it'll slot right into a managed business environment without extra licensing headaches.

But if you're a student who occasionally wants to kick back with some Minecraft, a content creator who edits photos, or anyone who just likes having multiple browser tabs and a few heavy apps open at once, this machine will start to feel its limits pretty quickly. The CPU is the bottleneck here, and there's no fixing that down the road. Know what you're getting into, and don't let the marketing copy fool you.