The MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG is a Panther Lake (Core Ultra Series 3) version of MSI's Cubi NUC series. It's fundamentally a business-oriented PC, but there are a few neat features useful for power users.

Last year, I reviewed the prior generation MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 2MG, which uses Intel's Lunar Lake. Briefly, Lunar Lake uses on-package RAM (like Apple Silicon), so the user can't install or upgrade RAM after purchase. For Panther Lake, Intel provides two basic designs: one with a 12-core iGPU that (mostly) requires soldered memory, and one with a 4-core iGPU that (mostly) uses traditional SODIMMs. For the Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG, MSI only uses the latter, so both the RAM and SSD can be replaced by the user (and the unit can be sold as a barebones kit).

The MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG is much smaller than the MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 2MG.

MSI sent along a Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG with a Core Ultra 9 386H, 32 GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD to test for the purpose of this review. MSI did not read the review prior to posting or otherwise provide editorial input, but did answer questions that I raised during the review process. I'm striving to be objective, though as the lead moderator of r/IntelNUC, I'm clearly enthusiastic about NUCs and Mini PCs generally.

(I was trained as a journalist and by consequence occasionally use em dashes, but MSI was kind enough to send the unit, so the least I could do is actually write this review myself. I didn't use AI to write this.)

MSI Outside

The Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG is 119.6 × 115.2 × 37.5 mm (4.71" x 4.54" x 1.48" in freedom units). This is noticeably smaller than the prior generation, but it's the same size as the Cubi NUC AI 1UMG. It's a touch smaller than the ASUS NUC 16 Pro, but ASUS includes a second M.2 2280 slot inside, as well as two extra USB 3.0 Type-A ports outside. Apple's most recent Mac Mini is somewhat larger than the 3MG, though it doesn't require an external power adapter.

Device	Size (mm)	Volume (L)
MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG (Panther Lake)	120 × 115 × 38	0.524
MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 2MG (Lunar Lake)	136 × 133 × 50	0.904
ASUS NUC 16 Pro (Panther Lake)	114 × 117 × 42	0.560
Apple Mac Mini (M4)	127 × 127 × 51	0.823

The front features a combination power button and fingerprint reader, one 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Type-C port, one 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Type-A port, and a USB 2.0 Type-A port. The Type-A ports are mounted upside down. I've previously asked MSI why they do this, I'm told that it is for easier port access when used with a VESA mount. Personally, I think doing this with USB Type-A creates trust issues, but USB connectors only fit when observed, due to quantum physics. Including USB 2.0 is still useful, I've got a Logitech receiver plugged in for my keyboard and mouse. Compared to the prior generation, this loses the Windows Copilot button that nobody wanted, and the microSD card reader (which I won't miss, but I'll explain that later).

The back of the 3MG. It's very... symmetrical. The little screw hole in the top left is for an optional cable guard to prevent it from being accidentally unplugged.

On the back, below the fan grille, are two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports, which MSI says supports DisplayPort 1.4 alt mode up to 4K @ 60 Hz, with 15W USB-PD output. There are also two HDMI ports, which MSI says "supports 4K @ 60 Hz as specified in HDMI 2.1", and one supports HDMI CEC ("MSI Power Link") to turn on in sync with a monitor, when connected using an HDMI cable. Using an ASUS ROG Strix XG27UCGW, I was able to get 4K HDR @ 158.98 Hz + VFR over USB-C on Fedora 44, but only 4K HDR @ 60 Hz using HDMI. (I'm unsure why MSI doesn't list this support officially.) There are also two RJ-45 ports for 2.5 Gb Ethernet (using Intel's I226-V controller), and the usual barrel connector for power.

The power adapter.

The included power adapter is a Chicony A17-120P1A, with 19.5V / 6.15A / 120W output, with a 5.5mm × 2.5mm barrel, with the converter block measuring 132 × 69 × 26 mm, which is an average size for the output provided. This is the same as the prior model, and MSI uses largely identical power adapters for other products, so replacements should be relatively easy to find. The 19.5V output is slightly opinionated, "universal" adapters might not provide the exact voltage. That said, given that it supports USB-PD input, you can use a standard 100W USB-C adapter instead.

The side of the 3MG. I'm using MSI's stock photo here because I couldn't get my phone to focus properly on this angle.

On the left, there is a Kensington Lock slot, and a tiny two-pin power connector for an external power button, which MSI includes in the box. It's a normal power button (no fingerprint), with a ~40cm cable attached. There's a plastic shield in place which must be removed with tweezers if you want to connect the button. This is quirky, but nice—an external power button makes it easier to turn on the computer when mounted to the back of a monitor. It is possible these pins could be useful for power control with NanoKVM, but existing breakout designs assume this would be installed inside a case, so a custom breakout would be necessary. The system also supports HDMI CEC ("MSI Power Link") to turn on in sync with a monitor, when connected using an HDMI cable.

There's no Maynard James Keenan in the Tool-less Chassis

In theory, the Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG is built around a tool-less chassis. There is one locking screw on the outside, which I thought only required a single turn to unlock (similar to the ASUS NUC 14 Pro), but this is more like a captive screw. It doesn't require a real screwdriver, you could unlock it with a coin.

The bottom of the case. It's got one security screw, but you could open it with a coin, if you wanted.

Opening the case, there are two DDR5 SODIMMs, and an M.2 2280 SSD (a PCIe 4.0 SSD—a Phison 1TB ESR01TBTCCZ-27J-2MS, same as the 2MG) which is held in with... a screw. My ASUS NUC 14 Pro uses weird little plastic plungers to hold SSDs in place, which may better conform to the definition of "tool-less," though I suppose having a proper screw here is relatively secure. There's an AMD RZ717 (MediaTek MT7925) M.2 2230 module below the SSD, which supports Wi-Fi 7 / 160 MHz channel widths, and Bluetooth 5.4. It's nice that MSI opted for a modular card, though the included card is already essentially top-of-the-line. (Bluetooth 6.0 is neat, but the new features don't have much of an advantage for desktop computers.)

The inside of the Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG. The SSD heatsink is attached to the underside of the case and includes a thermal pad, so if you're adding your own SSD, you'll want one that doesn't include a heatsink.

Closing it was reasonably straightforward, though I had to bend the tab (lower left of the bottom plate) for the Kensington lock back in place to get it to fit the first time I opened it. This was a trivial task, it didn't feel as if I was breaking it trying to bend it into place. It's not the first time I've encountered that on a mini PC, and I'm also not the first reviewer to handle this device, so I wouldn't fault MSI for it.

Intel Inside

Expanding slightly on the Panther Lake explanation in the introduction, there are a few changes to the way Intel designs and qualifies processors for OEMs, which affect newer NUCs. These changes center around how SoCs interface with DRAM.

• Arrow Lake (and Panther Lake) are compatible with CSODIMMs, which add a clock buffer on the memory module. This allows for memory speeds higher than DDR5-5600, which is the fastest SODIMM without overclocking. Right now, the fastest CSODIMM is DDR5-6400.
• Lunar Lake uses on-package memory, like Apple Silicon. It's faster (the MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 2MG has a Core Ultra 7 258V, with 32 GB LPDDR5X-8533), but isn't user-upgradable, so you're stuck with what is available at the time of purchase.
• Panther Lake has two versions:
  • The 12-core iGPU version that requires soldering memory directly to the motherboard, or using a new (and uncommon) type of memory module called SOCAMM2.
  • The 4-core iGPU that supports traditional SODIMMs, but technically can also use directly-soldered memory or SOCAMM2, if the OEM prefers.

For the Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG, MSI only uses the 4-core iGPU, and this uses standard SODIMMs, so both the RAM and SSD can be replaced by the user (and the unit can be sold as a barebones kit). For NUCs, neither ASUS nor MSI offer models that use SOCAMM2, and I haven't seen any shanzhai mini PCs from the usual brands support it. The general vibe in the industry is that memory is already extremely expensive, and the SOCAMM2 socket and modules are both expensive, so nobody wants to bear this additional cost.

Because of that, the Core Ultra 9 386H is the most powerful Panther Lake part that MSI offers in the Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG. The 386H has four performance cores (2.1 GHz base / 4.9 GHz turbo), eight efficiency cores (1.6 GHz base / 3.7 GHz turbo), and four lower-power efficiency cores (1.6 GHz base / 3.5 GHz turbo). (Incidentally, despite the name, it's quite a lot faster than the original 386.)

So with that said, here's the fun part:

Performance & Benchmarking

Benchmarking the Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG has been interesting. First, Intel provides Panther Lake (and other recent SoCs, this isn't new) with a configurable TDP, so that OEMs can configure the power consumption to the specifics of the product. For notebooks—which is what Panther Lake is engineered for—the default cTDP is 25 W, which is a reasonable balance for a battery-powered system with a relatively thin profile. Generally, these would bump up significantly (10-15 W) while plugged in to the mains. For NUCs, these are not limited to batteries, and while NUCs are small, there's generally more robust cooling as the design priority is being small, not being thin. MSI touts its cooling design as "FROZR AI PRO," which is a brand carried over from MSI's gaming products. Basically, apparently the fan blades are optimized for pressure, to increase airflow (which allows the cTDP to be tuned higher, for more performance/throughput).

I didn't disassemble the entire thing to get a shot of the fan, but here's MSI's slide explaining it:

https://preview.redd.it/qwxms3tlerkh1.png?width=3298&format=png&auto=webp&s=f8ebc1d0dbba23e14c8b16cae726409dd5e62225

MSI indicated that cTDP for the 3MG is 30W for "Balanced" mode and 45W for "Extreme Performance". Using the Extreme Performance mode with Geekbench 6, I'm getting a better all-core score in Windows 11, but a slightly better single-core score in Linux (Fedora 44). The more surprising result is the larger gulf in the Vulkan benchmark, as Windows scores higher than Linux. This is fundamentally a software question, it's very possible there is some additional enablement for Panther Lake that needs to be done for Vulkan (or Mesa), so I'd expect this gap to close soon.

Benchmark	Windows	Linux
Geekbench 6 CPU Single-Core	2651	2718
Geekbench 6 CPU All-Core	14187	13948
Geekbench 6 GPU (OpenCL)	23517	N/A
Geekbench 6 GPU (Vulkan)	28800	24755

Compared to the Lunar Lake-powered 2MG, this is a significant improvement for all-core CPU performance: the Core Ultra 7 287V scored 10180 for all-core in Windows on the Extreme Performance setting. (Because Lunar Lake has double the number of iGPU cores and faster memory, it scores higher for GPU benchmarks: 31808 for OpenCL and 37216 for Vulkan, on Windows. As a business PC, the Cubi NUC is not marketed for gaming.)

That said, these benchmarks are slightly lower than other Panther Lake-powered products, looking at results from other users and other devices using the 386H in Geekbench's results browser. MSI's Stealth 16 AI+ B3W gets a single-core score 2582 and multi-core score of 15912 on Balanced, with a typical ±2.5% wobble between different runs of the benchmark.

There's some Dell laptops that average out slightly worse, and other notebooks like the Razer Blade 16 RZ09-0581 which score 2811 / 16844, but that system uses higher-speed soldered-down RAM, and that influences the benchmark scores, but that alone doesn't explain the differential. It seems that there's some limit in MSI's default power thresholds or limits for turbo boost, which prevent the 3MG from reaching the throughput that other 386H-equipped devices can achieve.

Conclusions

Despite this, the Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG is much easier to recommend than the prior generation. It's significantly smaller, it's much quieter without needing to manually adjust fan curves, even on Extreme Performance, and the Windows 11 experience was essentially perfect out-of-the-box. There's still some frustration of Windows being Windows, but that's a Microsoft problem. (The 2MG, by contrast, had a lot of initial issues with odd stutters and audio codec crashes. These were eventually fixed in microcode by Intel, with some other issues patched in Windows 11 and in Intel's GPU drivers, but it was rough going for some time.)

The three hardware features that I liked the least on the 2MG are, thankfully, gone in the 3MG: There's no pointless Copilot button on the system, the internal speaker was removed, and the microSD card slot is gone. Combined, that's allowed MSI to use a smaller case, which makes it feel like a proper NUC (and would make VESA mounting less ugly, in theory).

The microSD card slot caused really interesting issues trying to run Linux on the 2MG: even unused, it caused a peculiar PCIe bus error that prevented a clean shutdown, and the 2MG will restart independent of the BIOS setting if powered off by holding down the power button. MSI doesn't provide a way to disable the microSD card reader in the BIOS; I've never quite managed to get Linux to work reliably on the 2MG.

By contrast, the 3MG is predictable. Switching back and forth between Windows and Linux installations, it's never thrown a strange error or refused to cooperate, it's really quite pleasant to use. Everything worked as perfectly as expected in Windows and Linux, including graphics and Wi-Fi. It's impressive how much of an improvement it is generation-over-generation.

MSI provides a three-year warranty with the system, and there is something to be said for warranty service with a company that has a firmly established U.S. operation, in comparison to the shanzhai mini PCs from no-name brands. As for price: this review is probably too long as it is, and a proper diatribe about why the memory market is squeezing everyone—OEMs included—would double the length.

I've also done a quick-ish screenshot walkthrough of the BIOS. Anyway, ask me anything!

It's Computex time, which means there's a firehose of stuff coming out, and oddly one of them is the ASUS Ascent QN10, which seems to be a Snapdragon X2 of some description (it's called "Glymur 8480", per ASUS spec sheets, and but I haven't seen Qualcomm publicly use that name, the PDF cites it as a X2E-88-100), at a 65W TDP, with ASUS bundling a 180W power adapter with the box. It's limited(?) to up to 32 GB RAM, and it being a Snapdragon SoC, it's LPDDR5X, so it's soldered on the logic board.

I'm interested in it, but I find CPUs interesting. (I'm not a good barometer for mainstream interest.) Does anyone here find this interesting, as a product? Do you feel Windows on Arm has finally progressed enough to be functionally usable?

The ROG NUC is getting a refresh parallel to Intel's Raptor Arrow Lake Refresh SKUs, and a nice to see white chassis as well. The price is not great, but the price of everything at enthusiast level is stupidly high, and that's not the fault of ASUS. Videocardz is being rather churlish about that.