MSI Cubi NUC 1MG-008US Black 2024

A tiny office ninja with dual 2.5G LAN and quad display support that's perfect for productivity, but its integrated graphics are a complete non-starter for gaming or creative work. Buy it cheap or not at all.

What surprised us most is how well this little box handles multitasking despite its mid-pack CPU ranking. The Core 5 120U sits right around average in our database, but in real-world use, it punches above its weight for office apps. You can have a video call running, a dozen Chrome tabs open, and a few Office docs up without feeling any lag. The 16GB of DDR5 helps a lot here. Just don't ask it to render anything or open Photoshop. The integrated graphics are a weak spot, falling behind most of what we test, and you'll feel that immediately if you stray beyond basic photo viewing.

Stacking this against the HP Omen 45L or Lenovo Legion Tower 5i is almost unfair. Those are full-tower gaming rigs with dedicated GPUs that will run circles around the Cubi in any graphics workload. But that's not the point. The Cubi competes more with other mini PCs like Intel's own NUC lineup or Dell's OptiPlex Micro series. Against those, the MSI holds its own with dual 2.5G LAN and Thunderbolt 4, features you don't always find in this size class. If you need a tiny, network-heavy office PC, this is a standout. If you need any graphical horsepower at all, go look at those gaming towers instead.

The value story here is completely dependent on where you buy it. The price spread across vendors is a staggering $1796, which is frankly ridiculous. At the low end around $870, this is a compelling little office PC. At $2666, you're getting absolutely fleeced. Shop around, and if you see it creeping past a grand, walk away. The best deal we spotted comes from Newegg, where pricing tends to stay closer to the reasonable end of that spectrum.

The MSI Cubi NUC 1MG-008US is a tiny desktop that knows exactly what it is, and more importantly, what it isn't. This isn't a machine for gaming or heavy creative work. It's a purpose-built office workhorse that disappears behind your monitor and handles spreadsheets, video calls, and a dozen browser tabs without breaking a sweat. The Intel Core 5 120U and 16GB of DDR5 RAM make it feel snappy for everyday productivity, and the dual 2.5G LAN ports are a nice surprise for anyone running a home lab or needing serious network flexibility.

But let's be real about that integrated graphics. Our gaming score landed at a brutal 12.6 out of 100, which puts it in "don't even think about it" territory. That's fine, because this thing wasn't built for frame rates. It was built to be quiet, small, and reliable for getting actual work done. The 1TB SSD is a generous starting point, and Windows 11 Pro out of the box means it slots right into a business environment without extra licensing headaches.

If you're looking for any kind of gaming performance or GPU-accelerated work, this isn't it. Go get a Lenovo Legion Tower 5i or even a last-gen gaming laptop instead. This machine's integrated graphics are one of the worst we've seen for 3D workloads, and no amount of RAM or fast storage will fix that.

Buy this if you need a discreet, capable office PC with killer networking and multi-monitor support. The dual 2.5G LAN and quad display capability make it a niche beast for productivity and light server duties. Just make sure you're paying closer to $870 than $2600, and don't expect to play anything more demanding than Solitaire. For the right user, it's a fantastic little machine. For everyone else, it's a hard pass.