MSI PRO DP21 2023, Core i7-13700, 16GB, 1TB SSD, Black

The MSI PRO DP21 is a compact office desktop with a surprisingly strong Core i7-13700 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD for $749 USD. It's built for productivity and business use, not gaming, and the integrated graphics reflect that. If you need a small, capable Windows 11 Pro machine for work, this is a solid choice. If you want to play games or do GPU-heavy work, look elsewhere.

That Core i7-13700 is the star here. In our database, this CPU sits at the 76th percentile among desktops, which means it's well above average and more than enough for multitasking, data crunching in Excel, and even some light photo editing. The 16-core, 24-thread configuration means background tasks won't choke your foreground work. You can have a dozen browser tabs open, a video call running, and a few Office apps going without the system breaking a sweat. The 16GB of DDR4 RAM helps there too, though it's worth noting that RAM is actually the weakest spec on this machine relative to other desktops, landing at the 32nd percentile. For most office work, 16GB is still plenty, but power users who keep 50 tabs open while running virtual machines might feel the ceiling.

The 1TB M.2 SSD is a solid middle-of-the-pack performer in our rankings, sitting at the 54th percentile. Boot times and app launches will be quick, and 1TB gives you room for years of documents, email archives, and the occasional large file. The integrated Intel UHD graphics are the obvious bottleneck, ranking at the 36th percentile. That's not a disaster for an office PC, but it means no gaming beyond solitaire or very old titles, and no GPU-accelerated rendering or machine learning work. If your workflow is CPU-heavy, this machine will surprise you. If it needs a real GPU, look elsewhere.

Stacked against the Apple Mac Studio M3 Ultra, the PRO DP21 is in a completely different league. The Mac Studio is a workstation-class machine with a GPU that can handle serious creative work, but it also costs several times more. If you're comparing these two, you're probably not actually cross-shopping them. The Mac Studio is for video editors and developers who need massive GPU and memory bandwidth. The PRO DP21 is for office workers who need a reliable Windows box that doesn't take up space.

Against the Lenovo Legion 90YA003GUS or the HP OMEN GT16-0364, the story is similar but reversed. Those are gaming desktops with dedicated GPUs that will run circles around the PRO DP21 in any graphical workload. But they're also bigger, louder, and more power-hungry. The Dell Desktop ECT1250 is probably the closest real competitor, another business-oriented desktop. The Dell tends to offer better reliability scores in our database, but the MSI's CPU is stronger for the price. If reliability is your top concern, the Dell might be the safer bet. If raw CPU performance per dollar matters more, the MSI has the edge.

At $749 USD, the PRO DP21 is priced like a mid-range office desktop, and for the most part it delivers. The Core i7-13700 alone would cost you a few hundred bucks if you were building your own system, and you're getting a complete machine with Windows 11 Pro, a 1TB SSD, and Wi-Fi 6 for that price. For a business buying in bulk, that's a reasonable deal, especially when you factor in the small footprint and low power draw.

The value equation changes if you need more RAM or any kind of GPU. You can't upgrade the graphics, and while the RAM is technically replaceable, you're paying for 16GB of DDR4 in a world where DDR5 is becoming standard. Compared to similarly priced competitors, you're trading graphics performance for CPU horsepower and compactness. If your work is mostly CPU-bound, that's a good trade. If you need any graphical muscle, it's not.

The MSI PRO DP21 is a small form factor desktop aimed squarely at office work, light productivity, and business deployments. It's not trying to be a gaming rig or a content creation monster. What it is trying to be is a compact, quiet, and capable machine that handles spreadsheets, browser tabs, video calls, and the usual daily grind without taking up half your desk. At 1.27kg and a mini-tower footprint, it's the kind of machine you can tuck behind a monitor and forget about.

Inside, you're getting an Intel Core i7-13700 with 16 cores and 24 threads. That's a serious processor for a box this size. The base clock is a modest 1.5GHz, but it boosts up to 5.2GHz when the workload demands it. Paired with 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 1TB M.2 SSD, this thing should feel snappy for everyday tasks. Windows 11 Pro comes preinstalled, which matters if you're buying for a business that needs domain join, BitLocker, or remote desktop support.

The catch is the graphics. You're relying on Intel UHD integrated graphics, which is fine for spreadsheets and YouTube but falls apart the moment you ask it to render a modern game or handle heavy GPU workloads. That's reflected in our scoring: this machine lands at 52.7 out of 100 overall, with a compact score of 57.2 and a gaming score of just 11.5. It's a purpose-built office tool, and it knows it.

If you have any interest in gaming, video editing, 3D modeling, or any GPU-accelerated workload, skip this machine entirely. The integrated Intel UHD graphics are a hard limitation, and there's no way to add a dedicated GPU later. You'd be better off with a desktop that has even a modest discrete graphics card, like the HP OMEN GT16-0364 or the iBUYPOWER Element EBI7N5701, both of which will handle those tasks far better.

Also, if reliability is your top priority, you might want to look at the Dell Desktop ECT1250 instead. The MSI's reliability score sits at the 37th percentile in our database, which is below average for this class of machine. For a business deploying dozens of these, that's a meaningful consideration. The Dell tends to score better on reliability, even if its CPU isn't quite as strong at this price point.

For a standard office environment, the MSI PRO DP21 is a solid pick. The Core i7-13700 gives it enough headroom to handle years of software updates and increasingly demanding office apps, and the 1TB SSD means you won't be juggling storage space. The compact size is a genuine advantage if you're outfitting a small office or just hate clutter. Windows 11 Pro seals the deal for business buyers who need management features.

If you're a home user who occasionally wants to play games or edit video, this is not your machine. The integrated graphics are a hard wall you can't get around. You'd be better off spending the same money on a desktop with a dedicated GPU, even if it means stepping down to a Core i5. The PRO DP21 is a specialist, and it's very good at its specialty. Just don't ask it to be something it's not.