At the beginning of the year, I promised you that the category “Laptops and PCs” would become more diverse in 2025. In particular, more and more nettops and all-in-ones are reaching the 3DNews test lab. Recently, our website published reviews of the MSI Modern AM273QP AI 1UM and MSI PRO AP242P 14M models – both AIO systems belong to the Business & Productivity class of equipment, created primarily for work and education. The Cubi NUC 1M mini-PC, which will be discussed below, plays in the same division. Only, unlike all-in-ones, when buying a nettop, the user chooses which monitor to use. The high functionality of the device comes to the rescue, because the little “Cubi” has everything you need to build a workspace of any complexity.
MSI New NUC 1M
⇡#Technical characteristics and equipment
You will find several versions of Cubi NUC 1M on sale. For example, you can buy a so-called barebone — a system without any storage devices installed. The user can choose and install the SSD and RAM that will maximize the system’s productivity. This is the assembly that came to us for testing. It had a WD solid-state drive, a Seagate hard drive, and 16 GB of RAM installed. The nettop version of Cubi NUC 1M-043XRU (Core 7-150U, 16 GB DDR5, 512 GB SSD, no OS) cost 67,540 rubles at Komus at the time of writing. Other characteristics of the mini-PC and its possible configurations are listed in the table. I would like to note that all computers in the Cubi NUC 1M series are equipped with a dTPM 2.0 hardware cryptoprocessor, which protects confidential data using encryption.
Intel Core 5-120U
Intel Core 7-150U
1 × M.2 2242 PCI Express 3.0 x4
1×SATA 6Gbps
2 × Thunderbolt 4
2 × HDMI 2.1
2 × RJ-45
1 × 3.5 mm jack
Windows 11 Pro
And here is the complete set of the “Kubi” PC. The nettop comes with:
- Warranty certificate, operating manual and advertising brochure;
- Plate for mounting a mini-PC behind a monitor (supports VESA 100×100 and VESA 75×75 standards);
- Screws for installing drives and plates;
- 120W external power supply;
- Cable for connecting a 2.5-inch drive;
- External power button.
All components are packed in FSC-certified cardboard boxes. They are made from sustainably sourced wood pulp, ensuring responsible forest management. FSC certification ensures the use of renewable and low-carbon materials.
⇡#Appearance and design features
The hero of the review looks strict: minimalism and laconism are noticeable to the naked eye. In my opinion, this is exactly how a Business & Productivity class system should look. It is also true that owners of the Cubi NUC 1M may not see the nettop at all – hiding the device behind the monitor seems like a reasonable idea.
The Cubi NUC 1M case is made partly of plastic and partly of metal. Only one color is available – black. The manufacturer claims that each mini PC is made of 42.9% plastic obtained from recycled waste. This reduces the amount of plastic sent to landfills, and the environment is less polluted. The Cubi case is not easily soiled, but you should use the device carefully. The test mini PC was clearly used by someone before me – barely noticeable traces of use (scratches and abrasions) are visible on the plastic side panels.
The Cubi NUC 1M is a parallelepiped with rounded corners and a square base. The height of the device is 50 mm, and the volume of the case is only 0.826 l. As already mentioned, the nettop fits easily into a jacket pocket. If desired, you can always take it with you.
The device has only two installation options: horizontally on a table (the bottom panel of the case is equipped with rubber feet) or vertically behind the monitor (if you use the included fasteners).
On the front panel of the computer there is a power button, an activity indicator for the main drive, a slot for installing microSD cards, two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A connectors and a 3.5 mm combo port for connecting a headset. The rear panel has a pair of HDMI outputs, two more USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A connectors, a pair of Thunderbolt 4 and two RJ-45. One of the video outputs supports the Power Link function. This means that the Cubi NUC 1M can be turned on using the monitor’s power button (compatible with some MSI monitors). The performance of the Thunderbolt 4 ports is 40 Gbps. They work not only in USB Type-C mode, but also as DisplayPort outputs. One of the “bolts” transmits up to 100 W of electricity. It turns out that up to four monitors can be connected to the nettop at once. Finally, the system is equipped with two Intel I226-V controllers. Network processors provide maximum throughput of up to 2.5 Gbps.
On the left side of the case there is a Kensington lock, which protects the device from theft, on the right side there is a hole for connecting an external power button. The cable length is 46 cm. The button is attached to any surface using double-sided adhesive tape.
The bottom panel of the Cubi NUC 1M is easy to remove: just unscrew four screws and carefully detach the metal plate. In our configuration, the mini PC had a 2.5-inch hard drive installed. It is attached to the bottom of the device, and the “screw” is connected to the motherboard using a flexible cable included in the kit. Any Cubi PC is equipped with three M.2 ports at once. One slot contains an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX211 wireless controller. The second one contains a terabyte WD PC SN560 SSDPNQE-1T00-1032 drive. You can install another SSD in the third port, but we are talking about 2240 form factor devices. The main M.2 slot is equipped with an aluminum radiator.
The Cubi NUC 1M’s RAM is comprised of two 8-gigabyte Samsung M425R1GB4PB0-CWMOL modules. This is a DDR5-5600 kit that, together with the Core 7-150U processor, operates in DDR5-5200 (42-42-42-82) mode.
⇡#Testing methodology and software
For computer equipment used at home, in the office and on the go, which does not have a discrete graphics processor and/or is not designed for modern games with high system requirements, we have developed a separate testing methodology. Since laptops, all-in-ones and mini-PCs included in this category often use the same platforms and components, we have the right to compare such devices, as they say, head-to-head. Then the user will choose which type of PC suits him best.
For a clear comparison of different models of laptops, all-in-ones, and mini-PCs, we introduced a performance index, in which the test results of the reference system are taken as 100%. It includes an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS central processor (average power consumption in resource-intensive applications is 52 W), 16 GB of DDR5-5600 RAM (46-45-45-90), and an Intel SSDPEKKW020T8X1 solid-state drive. The points are calculated as a percentage of the performance of the reference gaming system, multiplied by 10. The test bench used the Windows 11 operating system with all installed updates (spring 2025) and drivers, including Adrenalin 25.3.2 and AMD Chipset Drivers 7.02.13.148.
The following resource-intensive applications were used:
- Blender 4.3.2. Determining the speed of final rendering in one of the popular free packages for creating 3D graphics. The duration of building the final classroom model is measured.
- Cinebench R23 and Cinebench 2024. Measuring the performance of photorealistic 3D rendering in the CINEMA 4D animation package, CPU test.
- Corona 10 Benchmark. Testing rendering speed using the renderer of the same name. The speed of building a standard scene used to measure performance is measured.
Comprehensive gaming benchmarks:
- 3DMark Professional Edition (current Steam version at the time of testing). Testing in the scenes Time Spy, Fire Strike, Speed Way, Steel Nomad, Steel Nomad Light, CPU Profile and SSD Test.
- Futuremark PCMARK10 Professional Edition (current Steam version at the time of testing). Testing in the scenarios Essentials (usual work of the average user: launching applications, surfing the Internet, video conferencing), Productivity (office work with a text editor and spreadsheets), Digital Content Creation (creation of digital content: photo editing, non-linear video editing, rendering and visualization of 3D models).
Browser tests (Firefox Portable 136.0.1):
- JetStream 2. Test web scripts based on JavaScript and WebAssembly assemblies covering a variety of complex workloads and programming techniques.
- WebXPRT 4: Test web scripts based on HTML5, JavaScript, and WebAssembly, covering a variety of complex workloads and programming techniques.
Games (resolution 1920 × 1080 and/or 1920 × 1200 pixels):
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Complete Edition. DirectX 12. Novigrad and surroundings. Graphics quality mode — Low, RT — off, Upscaling and frame generation — off, TAAU, NVIDIA HairWorks — off, Dynamic resolution — off, Sharpening — High, SSAO, Screen-space reflection quality — low, Additional effects — on.
- Cyberpunk 2077. DirectX 12. Built-in benchmark. Graphics quality mode – “Low”, textures – “Low”, RT – off, DLSS/FSR and frame generation – off.
- Counter-Strike 2. DirectX 11. Dust II map (FPS Benchmark). Current graphics settings template is “Low”, FSR is off.
- PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS. DirectX 11. Training mode. Graphics quality – “Very low”, display scale – 100%.
- Dota 2. DirectX 11. Match recording. Minimum graphics quality, FSR – off.
- GTA V Legacy. DirectX 11. Built-in benchmark (last scene). Graphics quality settings — Standard, FXAA, 8x AF, additional graphics quality settings — off, city population, population variety and focus scale — max, MSAA for reflection — off, soft shadows — Soft, AO shading — Standard, tessellation — Standard.
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. DirectX 12. Built-in benchmark. Graphics quality mode — “Low”, anti-aliasing — off.
- Red Dead Redemption 2. VULKAN. Built-in benchmark (last scene). Minimum graphics quality.
- Fallout 4. DirectX 11. Walking around the Commonwealth. Graphics quality mode – “Low”, TAA, 8x AF.
Testing of devices in games, resource-intensive applications and complex benchmarks was carried out with the fastest mode suitable for these tasks (if any) activated. Performance in games was determined using the well-known CapFrameX program. It allows you to get the rendering time of each frame. The use of the 1st percentile instead of the minimum frame rate indicators is due to the desire to clean the results from random performance fluctuations that were caused by reasons not directly related to the operation of the main platform components.
⇡#Heat, Noise and Performance
The hero of the review works in only one mode, the settings of which are written in the BIOS of the motherboard. The MSI Center application will not help here, but it will be useful for monitoring and managing the computer. Thus, in the Power Meter tab, the “Power Saving” function is available. You can limit the load on the central processor, as well as set the screen operating time and the activation time of the sleep mode. The names of the “Calculator” and “Power Saving Recommendations” functions speak for themselves.
Load on all cores
Load per core
In the default operating mode for the 10-core Core 7-150U, the following values are set: 30 W for PL2 and 20 W for PL1. That is, the processor’s power consumption is slightly higher than the characteristics recommended by Intel. Switching between power limits is very fast. Under full load, the average frequency of the P-cores reaches 2.7 GHz, and the E-cores – 2.1 GHz. There is no overheating and is not expected – the mini-PC cooler does its job perfectly. At the same time, the Cubi NUC 1M works quietly in all modes: in light modes and during idle time – silently, under full load – barely noticeable. But many will attach the nettop to the monitor – it will not be heard at all!
Interestingly, the CPU heats up more when loaded on one core. Firstly, this type of load requires the same 19-23 W of power. Secondly, the frequency of the fastest Core 7-150U core stays at an average of 4.7 GHz with periodic overclocking to 5.4 GHz! The high temperature is an indicator of how much harder it is for the cooler to remove heat from one tiny point than from a uniformly heated crystal. Overheating is not observed in any case, and in real-life PC usage scenarios, you should try very hard to find a type of load when one or two processor cores are loaded for several minutes.
As for the performance, the Cubi NUC 1M demonstrates quite natural results. The Core 7-150U processor works according to the formula “2P + 8E”. The chip is devoid of NPU cores. The productive “heads” have the Golden Cove microarchitecture (as in the desktop Core 12 chips), the effective ones – Gracemont. Confusion is quite possible. For example, in the notebook Core Ultra 100 chips, united under the name Meteor Lake, a chiplet with Redwood Cove P-cores and Crestmont E-cores is used. In comparison with the Raptor Cove and Gracemont microarchitectures used in certain Core 13 and Core 14 processors, they have a slight increase in IPC, and in comparison with Golden Cove – more noticeable. Earlier, we tested the PRO AP242P 14M monoblock model, which has a desktop 10-core Core i5-14400 (6P + 4E). It uses Golden Cove P-cores and Gracemont E-cores. In work applications, its power consumption is kept at 40 W. The Modern AM273QP AI 1UM monoblock model has a 12-core Core Ultra 7 155U (two cores are used for working with AI), the average power consumption of which is 17 W.
Tasks involving low-threaded, fast loads (99% of the user’s routine) are executed quickly and efficiently on the Core 7-150U P-cores. In long, resource-intensive usage scenarios, computers equipped with CPUs with increased power limits come out on top. The graphs below illustrate this perfectly. In my opinion, the Cubi NUC 1M is great for web surfing, watching videos, simple photo and video editing, as well as illustrations and office tasks.
The MSI mini PC is also suitable for older and undemanding indie games.
⇡#Conclusions
The tested version of Cubi NUC 1M is an example of a device from which you know in advance what you will get. The model has excellent functionality. It supports modern fast interfaces and allows you to organize a workplace with up to four monitors connected at the same time. At the same time, the Cubi PC is a quiet and cool system. I like that the manufacturer leaves the user the opportunity to upgrade the device themselves. The upgrade options here are truly wide. The performance of the assembly with a 10-core Core 7-150U is expected – again, you understand in advance what you will get from the device.
Perhaps the only reason for complaints about the tested device and the MSI nettop series as a whole will be its (their) price. Yes, if you want, you can easily find a faster mini-PC on sale.