MSI Pro DP21 Review

Mid-tower PC cases dominate budget desktop shopping, but why not go smaller? Starting at $329 ($471 as tested), the MSI Pro DP21 is a mini PC that holds just as much capability in about one-tenth the space. Compact enough for VESA mounting behind a monitor or under a desk, it nevertheless has plenty of ports, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth wireless connectivity, and a perky Intel Core i3 processor. The ECS Liva Z3 and Intel NUC 12 Pro are even smaller, but neither balances price and performance as well as the Pro DP21. With that, this mini MSI easily earns an Editors' Choice award among budget mini PCs.

MSI's Pro DP21 is aimed at home and business users with everyday needs such as office productivity, web surfing or video streaming, and point-of-sale operations. Our entry-level review unit has a quad-core Intel Core i3-12100 processor, 8GB of memory, a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD), and Windows 11 Home. The PC is ready to run out of the box and includes a basic USB keyboard and mouse. All you'll need to add is a monitor.

This PC's no-nonsense case measures 2.2 by 8 by 8.2 inches (HWD), which works out to a volume of just 2.3 liters. That's almost nothing when you consider a typical mid-tower is around 30 liters.

As mentioned, the Pro DP21 supports VESA mounting, allowing you to put it behind a monitor, on a wall, or even attached to the underside of your desk. If you don't want to mount it, that's fine; it can lie horizontally or be placed vertically in its included stand.

Design-wise, the Pro DP21 won't attract second glances, though its front panel makes an attempt at standing out with plastic ridges for definition and a silver MSI logo. Ports up front include 3.5mm headphone and microphone jacks and four retro USB 2.0 ports. The power button glows white when the system is powered on.

Around the back, you'll find HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort video outputs, each supporting 4K at 60Hz for a modern dual-monitor setup. In addition to those are Gigabit Ethernet, serial, three USB Type-A (two versions of 3.2 Gen 1 and one 3.2 Gen 2), one USB Type-C (3.2 Gen 2), and microphone-in and line-out audio jacks. A final connector accommodates the laptop-style 120-watt AC adapter, as this desktop is simply too small for an internal power supply.

This little desktop allows for commendable serviceability. Removing two Philips screws lets you slide the top panel rearward. The 6.5-inch-square motherboard has everything in plain sight, including an M.2 2280 slot for SSDs, an M.2 2230 wireless card slot, and two DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM slots for up to 64GB of RAM (two 32GB modules). The included Intel AX201 wireless card supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. Its antenna is built into the chassis.

Two 2.5-inch storage drives can be installed in the metal cage above the memory slots. Even the Pro DP21's processor can be upgraded; the motherboard supports socketed FCLGA1700 Intel "Alder Lake" CPUs with a 65-watt base power rating. Mini PCs often resort to non-upgradable mobile chips, so this is a pleasant surprise.

Cooling needs are minimal in a PC this small. The fan atop the CPU heatsink is the only one in this unit; it stays quiet even under intense use.

To recap, our $471 MSI Pro DP21 (model 12M-407US) features an Intel Core i3-12100 CPU (four 3.3GHz Performance cores, no Efficient cores, eight threads), Intel UHD 730 integrated graphics, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and Windows 11 Home. The warranty is one year, and a USB-wired keyboard and mouse accompany the bundled stand. I briefly saw the system for sale for $429 on Amazon.

MSI's low price and desktop CPU are a rare combo in the mini PC segment. Performance-wise, it competes with small-form-factor PCs, such as the Acer Aspire TC-1760-UA92 ($559 as tested with a Core i5-12400). Mini PCs in the vicinity include the palm-sized ECS Liva Z3, which is inexpensive ($250) but hobbled by a weak Intel Pentium Silver CPU. We also have the Geekom IT8 Mini PC ($549), which uses an older-but-capable, laptop-grade Core i5-8265U chip. Neither of them is as upgrade-friendly as the Pro DP21.

In addition to these PCs, we include benchmark results for the $1,064 Intel NUC 12 Pro powered by a laptop-grade Core i7-1260P. You can see the contenders' basic specs in the table below.

Our first test is UL's PCMark 10, which simulates a variety of real-world productivity and office workflows to measure overall performance for everyday apps ranging from word processing and spreadsheet work to videoconferencing. It also includes a storage subtest for the primary drive.

Three other benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Primate Labs' Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).

Our final productivity test is Puget Systems' PugetBench for Photoshop(Opens in a new window), which uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe's famous image editor to rate a PC's performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It's an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.

MSI's desktop posts a PCMark 10 score that clears the 4,000-point hurdle signifying excellent performance for Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace, outdoing the Geekom and the underpowered Liva Z3. The Pro DP21 also puts up healthy numbers in the CPU benchmarks, coming close to the six-core Acer in Geekbench. Adobe Photoshop is not this mini PC's strong suit, but with more RAM it probably would have fared better.

For Windows PCs, our synthetic gaming tests include two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark, Night Raid (more modest, suitable for systems with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Also looped into that group is the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which we use to gauge OpenGL performance.

MSI's Pro DP21 does about as well as can be expected from a desktop with Intel UHD integrated graphics—in other words, it won't be playing the latest games anytime soon. Intel's NUC 12 Pro, with later-generation Iris Xe graphics, scores considerably better in these tests, as an example.

In short, the Pro DP21 exemplifies what value-oriented mini PCs should be all about. Its current connectivity, including Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth—and its impressive upgrade potential—make the Pro DP21 a viable alternative to small-form-factor towers, and its desktop-grade Intel processor is much more responsive than many mobile CPUs. For less than $500 as tested, you can't go wrong with the MSI Pro DP21, earning a well-deserved Editors' Choice among budget mini PCs.

MSI's budget-friendly, desk-space-saving Pro DP21 mini PC delivers plenty of performance, lots of wired connectivity, and Wi-Fi 6 for a low price.

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