MSI Modern AM242 MAM242TP1M1093 Black 2024

Great touchscreen AIO for everyday work, terrible for gaming despite what MSI's marketing says. Get it under $1,100 and you'll be happy.

The Core 7-150U is a low-power chip built for efficiency, not raw speed. It sits in the 36th percentile for CPU performance among all-in-ones, which means it's fine for spreadsheets, video calls, and a dozen browser tabs, but it'll choke on heavy photo editing or anything with real compute demands. The 32GB of RAM is the standout spec here, landing in the 83rd percentile. That's more memory than most people need, and it'll keep this thing feeling snappy for years. Storage is a 1TB SSD, which is about average for this class. The port selection is genuinely good: 8 USB ports total, dual HDMI, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 6E. You won't be hunting for a dongle.

If you want an all-in-one for home office, the Dell Tower ECT1250 is a more reliable pick with better long-term support, though you lose the touchscreen. The Lenovo Legion Tower 5i absolutely destroys this thing in performance, but it's a traditional tower, not an AIO, so you're trading desk space for power. The Apple Mac Studio M4 Max is in a completely different universe for creative work, but it costs several times more and isn't a touchscreen AIO. For most people cross-shopping this MSI, the real question is whether you value the clean all-in-one form factor over raw performance. If you do, this is fine. If you don't, get a tower.

Pricing is all over the map, from $971 to a frankly absurd $45,199 across vendors. That high number is almost certainly a listing error or a scalper fishing for suckers. At the low end, around $971, this is a reasonable deal for a touchscreen AIO with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. At anything over $1,200, you're paying too much. Best Buy has the most consistent pricing if you want to avoid the wild west of third-party sellers.

The MSI Modern AM242TP is a clean, touchscreen all-in-one that nails the basics for home office work. It's got a 23.8-inch FHD IPS display, a 10-core Core 7-150U, 32GB of DDR5, and a 1TB NVMe SSD. That's a solid everyday setup. But don't let the 'gaming' marketing fool you. The integrated Iris Xe graphics score a 13 out of 100 for gaming in our database. This is not a gaming machine, and anyone buying it for that is going to have a bad time.

If you're looking for a gaming PC, this isn't it. The Iris Xe graphics are one of the worst options we've seen for gaming, scoring 13 out of 100. Go get a Lenovo Legion Tower 5i or an HP OMEN instead. If you need serious CPU power for video editing or 3D work, skip this too. The Core 7-150U is a low-power chip that'll leave you staring at progress bars.

The MSI Modern AM242TP is a good home office machine hiding behind misleading gaming marketing. Buy it for the touchscreen, the RAM, and the clean desk setup. Don't buy it for gaming, heavy creative work, or if you're expecting a premium keyboard. At the right price, it's a solid daily driver. At the wrong price, it's a trap.