MSI PRO DP21 PRODP2113M499 Schwarz 2023

The MSI PRO DP21 packs a full-power i7-13700 into a tiny, quiet chassis with best-in-class port selection. The 8GB of RAM and integrated graphics are the weak spots, so skip it for gaming. At the $662 US price, it's a solid buy for office work and home servers.

The i7-13700 is a 16-core monster that sits in the 76th percentile for CPUs in our database. For office work, spreadsheets, and general multitasking, this thing flies. The 8GB of DDR4 is the bottleneck though. It's in the 10th percentile for RAM, which means heavy browser tabs or memory-hungry apps will make it sweat. The 500GB SSD is fine but sits in the 38th percentile for storage, so you'll want to keep an eye on space. The integrated graphics are the real limitation. Fine for video playback and basic productivity, but don't even think about modern games.

Against the Lenovo Legion Tower 5a Gen 10 or HP OMEN GT16-0364, the PRO DP21 gets absolutely destroyed in gaming performance. Those machines have dedicated GPUs and are built for a completely different job. The Dell Tower ECT1250 is a closer match for office work, but it's a full-size tower, so you lose the compact footprint. The Apple Mac Studio M4 Max is in another league entirely for creative work, but it also costs several times more. The Acer Nitro N60-180-UB33 splits the difference with a dedicated GPU in a smaller package, but it's still bigger than the DP21. If you need a tiny office PC with a strong CPU and tons of ports, the DP21 is hard to beat. If you need any gaming or graphics performance, look elsewhere.

Pricing is all over the place. US listings range from $662 to $949, a $287 spread that's worth paying attention to. At the low end, this is a solid deal for a compact office machine with a serious CPU. At the high end, you're paying too much for what you get. The best US price we're seeing is $662, and that's the one to hunt for. The European and UK prices are higher, but that's typical for this category.

The MSI PRO DP21 is a tiny desktop that punches way above its weight class in the CPU department. You get a full-power Intel Core i7-13700, the same chip you'd find in much bigger towers, crammed into a 1.27kg box. That's the headline here. The rest of the spec sheet is a bit more modest, with 8GB of DDR4 and a 500GB NVMe SSD.

Ports are the other big win. DisplayPort, HDMI, two USB-C, ten USB-A, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 6E. That's a 99th percentile port selection in our database, which is wild for a machine this small. Just don't expect to game on it. The integrated Intel UHD 770 graphics land at a 9.8 out of 100 for gaming, which is about as useful as a chocolate teapot for anything beyond Solitaire.

Skip this if you need any gaming or graphics performance. The integrated UHD 770 is one of the weakest GPUs in our database for gaming, and 8GB of RAM will choke on anything demanding. If you're a creative professional working with video or 3D, the Apple Mac Studio M4 Max or a machine with a dedicated GPU is a much better fit. Also skip it if you hate tinkering, because you'll want to upgrade the RAM almost immediately, and the screwdriver-required case isn't exactly user-friendly.

This is a niche machine, and it knows it. If you need a compact, quiet desktop for office work, a Plex server, or a home office setup where space is tight, the PRO DP21 is a great pick. The i7-13700 gives you headroom for years, and the port selection means you'll never run out of places to plug things in. Just budget for a RAM upgrade to 16GB or 32GB, because 8GB is going to feel cramped fast.