MSI PRO AP242P 14M All-in-One PC Review: For Those Who Need a Good Screen and Increased Comfort

Stop, stop, stop – no one is saying that a monoblock will completely replace a laptop. Whatever you say, the latter can always be taken with you, using it both on the road and in any room, be it an office, home, hotel, cafe, dacha, and so on. However, I am often asked to choose a laptop that will be used in one place in 100% of cases. So a person wants to save space at his workplace or at home. In such a situation, a monoblock looks like a more suitable candidate, because it has a larger screen, better ergonomics and higher functionality.

MSI PRO AP242P 14M

⇡#Technical characteristics and equipment

The MSI PRO series of all-in-one PCs consists of two parts: one includes computers with a 23.8-inch IPS matrix, the other includes 27-inch models. Today we will talk about the AP242P 14M category. The marking is easy to decipher, and in addition to the physical size of the screen, it becomes clear that the all-in-one PCs are equipped with 14th-generation Intel Core chips. Thus, at the time of writing, models equipped with desktop Core i3-14100, Core i5-14400 and Core i7-14700 chips were available for sale. Other characteristics of the PRO AP242P 14M are listed in the table below.

Intel Core i5-14400
Intel Core i7-14700

1×SATA 6Gbps

1 × USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C
2 × USB 2.0 Type-A
2 × USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A
1 × HDMI 2.1
1 × DisplayPort 1.4
1 × RJ-45

No OS

At the end of March, the PRO AP242P 14M-676XRU (Core i3-14100, 16 GB DDR5, 512 GB SSD, no OS) model cost 63,999 rubles in the DNS computer store chain, PRO AP242P 14M-659XRU (Core i5-14400, 16 GB DDR5, 256 GB SSD, 1 TB HDD, no OS) — 84,999 rubles, PRO AP242P 14M-668XRU (Core i7-14700, 16 GB DDR5, 512 GB SSD, no OS) — 97,499 rubles. PRO AP242P 14M versions are available for sale in both white and black.

PRO series all-in-ones are equipped with a built-in dTPM module version 2.0. The hardware crypto processor provides support for various functions responsible for data protection, which is very important for office work.

The complete set of any “Proshka” includes:

• 120W external power supply;
• Wireless keyboard and mouse set;
• Additional cables for connecting a 2.5-inch drive;
• Webcam plug;
• Monitor wall mount kit.

The mouse + keyboard set is simple. I don’t see the point in focusing on the periphery of the all-in-one, but it’s nice that the device is ready to work, so to speak, out of the box.

⇡#Appearance and design features

MSI PRO series all-in-ones belong to the Business & Productivity class of devices — therefore, these devices were developed primarily for work and education. So it is not surprising that PRO AP242P 14M look strict and presentable, confident and premium. A user who has never encountered all-in-ones will not smell a catch, thinking that in front of him is an ordinary 24-inch monitor. And it is not surprising: without a stand, the thickness of the case is only 8 cm. The case of the all-in-one, including the stand, is made of matte plastic. Both the screen and other parts of the computer become covered with dust and fingerprints over time. However, no one said that computer equipment does not need to be looked after.

I like the build quality of the PRO AP242P 14M. There are no noticeable flaws. The display frames are thin, their thickness at the top and sides is only 5 mm. The webcam, microphone and sensors are located in the usual place – on top. For this purpose, there is a kind of comb on the body of the all-in-one. The camera supports Full HD resolution and shows a fairly high-quality picture in bright light. Interestingly, the computer comes with a plastic plug: s-s-click – and the webcam of the all-in-one is equipped with a retractable curtain.

The all-in-one, as expected, is supplied disassembled: the case with hardware and display is separate, the leg, consisting of two parts, is separate. Assembling the device into a single structure, however, will take you at most one minute. You won’t have to look for a screwdriver. The leg is attached to the main case using metal grooves and a latch. Everything is very simple, intuitive, but most importantly, reliable and safe. Naturally, the PRO AP242P 14M can be mounted on the wall – for this you will need a bracket that supports the VESA 75 × 75 standard.

The case position is adjustable in two directions. We can change the height of the screen with a tolerance of 10 cm, and also change its tilt along the horizontal axis in the range from -5 to +20 degrees. I have no questions about the stability of the computer, the rocking of the case, the reliability of the lifting mechanism – testing did not reveal any problems or shortcomings.

The holes on the back wall are perforations for the monoblock cooling system. At the same time, if you look at the device from behind, the CPU cooler is located closer to its right edge. The grilles seen at the bottom of the case are necessary for the computer speakers.

On the right edge (if the all-in-one is in front of you) are two USB 3.2 Gen1 A-type ports, as well as the all-in-one controls – the device on/off button and the display brightness change keys. The main interfaces are located at the bottom – a certain amount of skill is required to blindly connect the cables to the device. Among all the connectors, I would like to highlight the presence of USB 3.2 Gen2 C-type and DisplayPort output. Overall, the PRO AP242P 14M has decent functionality, but it would be cool to equip the computer with an HDMI input (to use the device in monitor mode) and a card reader.

The monoblock is easy to disassemble: unscrew all the screws at the bottom of the case and in the place where the leg is attached, and then carefully move the plastic back panel. The PRO AP242P 14M is based on a thin-ITX motherboard. Its design features are immediately noticeable: support for laptop RAM modules (SO-DIMM connectors), external power supply, and no expansion slots.

Our assembly has one 8 GB RAM module installed. The configuration uses DDR5-5600 RAM, but with the Core i3-14100 and Core i5-14400 chips, the “brains” work only in DDR5-4800 mode. The board is based on the H610 chipset, and any RAM settings are blocked by default. In fact, the BIOS of the all-in-one PC lacks overclocking functions, power consumption settings, timings, and the frequency of the processor and memory. The motherboard also has two SATA 6 Gbps ports soldered to it, but in reality, you can connect one storage device to the system at best. The necessary cables are included. Overall, the PRO AP242P 14M has excellent system upgrade capabilities. It just begs for another RAM bar and a 1-2 TB SATA SSD.

The cooling system of the all-in-one has more in common with the coolers used in laptops. Three L-shaped copper heat pipes are soldered to a massive aluminum radiator. The entire structure is blown from the bottom up by a single fan. Even without tests, it is clear that such a cooling system has noticeable limitations: the desktop central processor installed in the system will obviously work with reduced power consumption. But with what? The basic (minimum) characteristics of the Core i3-14100, Core i5-14400 and Core i7-14700 are 60, 65 and 65 W, respectively. The real parameters are much higher.

⇡#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.
• 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. 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.

The display of laptops and all-in-ones was tested using an X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter and the DisplayCAL 3 application.

The battery life of the laptop was tested in two modes. The first load option – web surfing – involves alternately opening and closing tabs on the sites 3DNews.ru, Computeruniverse.ru and Unsplash.com with an interval of 30 seconds. For this test, the Google Chrome browser version current at the time of testing is used. In the second mode, video in .mkv format and Full HD resolution is played in the built-in Windows OS player with the repeat function activated. In all cases, the display brightness was set to the same 200 cd/m2, and the keyboard backlight (if any) and sound were turned off. The wireless communication module worked constantly.

⇡#Display

The display is an important feature of any all-in-one PC. In many ways, choosing this type of PC instead of a laptop is due to the desire to get a larger screen. However, “bigger” does not always mean “better”. The PRO AP242P 14M test sample has an IPS matrix. The vertical refresh rate here is 100 Hz – the manufacturer emphasizes this: “A display with a high refresh rate provides better viewing quality and less strain on the eyes by displaying more images in the same period of time, which ensures a smoother and more pleasant perception.” – these are his words. And the matrix of the “Proshka” has a TÜV certificate (indicates a reduced amount of blue light) and supports EyesErgo technology, which provides protection against flickering.

In the end, the hero of the review is equipped with a good display. The matrix color gamut almost completely corresponds to the sRGB standard. Perhaps, those who actively work with digital content will not be satisfied with color deviations. Perhaps, some users will not like the rather narrow range of panel brightness. Otherwise, such a color profile and settings are quite sufficient for watching movies and videos, working with tables, web surfing and video conferencing.

MSI PRO AP242P 14M
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⇡#Heat, Noise and Performance

The PRO AP242P 14M comes with the MSI Center application. Depending on the scenarios of using the monoblock, you can set additional functions for the computer. For example, in the True Color menu, as you might guess, there are options for configuring the display. Unfortunately, MSI Center does not have modes for configuring the operation of the central processor and cooler – the monoblock always works with the same set of presets “sewn” into the BIOS of the motherboard.

The BIOS of the device also does not have a wealth of interesting and useful functions for the user. In this regard, the PRO AP242P 14M is not much different from the absolute majority of laptops. For example, we cannot change the PL1 and PL2 parameters for the processor – it is locked at 40 W. In such conditions, the cooling system copes with its task with dignity.

Load on all cores

Load per core

Firstly, there is no overheating – the hottest Core i5-14400 core heats up to 83 degrees Celsius at most, but the average value is noticeably lower. At the same time, the cooler fan rotates quietly – this is secondly. Thus, under maximum load, the cooling system is almost inaudible. You can use the computer with maximum comfort. This is the case when MSI engineers correctly configured the main components of the monoblock. I believe that the company could squeeze an additional 10-20 W from the pre-installed Core i5, which would have a positive effect on clock frequencies and overall system performance. However, such overclocking would have resulted in too much increase in temperature and noise.

Our website has published a review of the Core i5-14400 — with power limits disabled, the power consumption of this 10-core processor in the same conditions reaches 110 W. The frequency of the P-cores in Cinebench R23 is 4.1 GHz, in the E-cores — 3.5 GHz. In the case of the PRO AP242P 14M, we see that limiting PL1/PL2 to 40 W leads to a noticeable decrease in frequency — by 1.2 GHz, to be more precise. At the same time, this state of affairs has little effect on the chip’s performance in applications using 1-2 cores — here the frequency of the P-cores of the Core i5-14400 remains at 4.5-4.6 GHz. Just as the chipmaker intended.

Does this mean that the PRO AP242P 14M is not suitable for resource-intensive tasks? Of course not. Everything is relative, and in the category of laptops, mini-PCs and all-in-ones, a system with a 10-core modern processor with a TDP limit of 40 W looks presentable. In resource-intensive applications, the hero of the review lags behind the reference system by 28% on average, and in tasks that load 1-2 processor cores, the hero of the review, on the contrary, is even slightly ahead. Perhaps, for complete happiness, the test configuration lacks RAM. For example, the same Cinebench 2024 does not start on systems with 8 GB of system memory. So, on the one hand, it is more effective to immediately invest in the purchase of an all-in-one with 16 GB of RAM. On the other hand, 8 GB is still enough for office tasks and web surfing.

The only place where the PRO AP242P 14M looks really weak is in computer games. Here, the low FPS is due not only to the integrated graphics Core i5-14400 (UHD Graphics 730 with 24 execution units), but also to 8 GB of RAM operating in single-channel mode. Installing a second RAM module will significantly increase the frame rate. However, in general, no miracle will happen.

Again, the concept of a “gaming computer” has no clear boundaries and limits. It will not be difficult for me to point out a dozen or two games without a Google search that will work perfectly even with integrated UHD Graphics 730 graphics – naturally, we are talking about old tube projects that will nevertheless run on modern operating systems. Take the word of a person who continues to play Disciples II: Rise of the Elves even in 2025.

⇡#Conclusions

This type of computer, such as all-in-one computers, is perfect for the office. I don’t see any limitations if a modern system is required at home — for schoolchildren, students, parents. In fact, all-in-one computers offer the user a good set of features that definitely increase productivity and comfort. A large (compared to laptops) display, its convenient location, many ports — will there be any downsides at all? MSI PRO AP242P 14M is an example of a quality workhorse: the computer has a good quality display built into it; the motherboard has modern ports; the cooling system works efficiently and quietly; the device is easy to service and upgrade on your own.