Intel's Panther Lake processors are starting to show up in compact form factors, and MSI is among the first to ship one in a sub-liter chassis. The Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG, first previewed at CES in January, is now on sale in barebones configurations with either an Intel Core Ultra 7 355 for $689 (€635) or a Core Ultra 9 386H for $809 (€745). A more affordable Core Ultra 5 322 option and fully configured models with up to 16GB of RAM, 1TB of NVMe storage, and Windows 11 Pro are expected in May, with top-tier builds reaching $1,670 (€1,550).
The 0.51-liter enclosure measures just 120 x 115 x 38 mm (4.7 x 4.5 x 1.5 inches) and is VESA-mountable, making it a natural fit for behind-the-monitor deployments. Connectivity is generous for its size: dual Thunderbolt 4 ports at 40 Gbps, dual HDMI 2.1 outputs, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, and dual 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet jacks driven by Intel I226V controllers. Wireless duties fall to a MediaTek RX717 card providing WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, and there is a fingerprint reader integrated into the power button.
Internally, the Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG accepts up to 96GB of DDR5 across two SODIMM slots and has a single M.2 2280 slot for a PCIe NVMe drive. The Panther Lake chips inside offer up to 16 CPU cores and an NPU rated at up to 50 TOPS, which makes the system well suited for local AI inference workloads. One detail worth noting is that MSI opted for the 4-core Intel Graphics variant of Panther Lake rather than the 10 or 12-core Intel Arc B3xx iGPU found in some higher-end chips, so this is a productivity and AI-focused machine rather than a gaming-capable one.
