Pre-built Gaming PCs have turn out to be extra enticing than ever in a troublesome supply-chain market, as OEMs typically get essential elements equivalent to graphics playing cards extra rapidly and at decrease costs than customers.

However, Gaming PC consumers are sometimes cautious about whether or not the OEM’s gaming pc is as extensible, and subsequently future-proof, as a DYI PC. We’ve taken the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i for a spin and took an in depth at these essential questions, along with the efficiency metrics.

Configuration as examined and choices

Our particular take a look at unit is supplied with the Intel i7-11700K CPU, 16GB of RAM (Kingston DDR4 @ 3,192 MHz), a GeForce RTX 3070 with 8GB, and a 1TB Samsung SSD (mannequin MZVL21T0HCLR-00BL7). We estimate the worth to be round $2400.

I’ve seen extra CPU choices for this tower, together with the Intel i7-11700KF (no iGPU) and i9-10900K. There are additionally different GPU choices, together with the RTX 2070 Super (8GB), RTX 3060 (12GB) and RTX 3080 (10GB).

That stated, I’d anticipate Lenovo to replace this mannequin with newer CPU and GPUs as they arrive out, so maintain a watch out for the most recent specs. This design has been round since Intel’s 10^th technology CPUs.

Industrial design

The chassis and total design of a Gaming Desktop PC are important as a result of many individuals maintain their tower for years and substitute the interior elements over time. For instance, I personal an Antec Lanboy air pink/black chassis bought in 2011, now impeccably internet hosting the most recent Intel Gen12 platform.

The 34-liters, 27.6 lbs Legion Tower 7i has a neat design with an excellent aesthetic steadiness between “classic” and “gaming” for those who flip the LED lights on. Our unit additionally options the optionally available clear aspect cowl, which opens the chance for exhibiting off the interior elements.

The left aspect of the case is a strong metallic panel that hides the cables administration space. Overall, I discover the cables neatly hidden, and the group is fairly good. You’ll want a Philips screwdriver to open the aspect panels, however the screws are virtually flush with the panel.

Lighting-wise, the interior 120mm followers (chassis+CPU cooler) have a number of RGB LEDs that Lenovo’s Vantage software program can management. It appears to be like agreeable out of the field, particularly with the clear aspect panel. I didn’t change it in any respect however you possibly can.

Cooling

The three-fans array on the entrance is a stylish characteristic, and you will discover that form of design in DIY circumstances such because the CORSAIR Carbide, MUSETEX Phantom, and extra. So out of the field, the Legion Tower 7i does considerably seem like a custom-built Gaming PC.

The entrance and prime of the case are made from a inflexible metallic mesh that’s nice for cooling and air circulation. In follow, the airflow is pretty much as good as leaving the chassis open, but it surely appears to be like spotless whereas defending the elements.

The again can also be properly ventilated all the way down to the perforated Expansion Slot Covers. It’s the form of particulars the place many OEMs would possibly low-cost out, however I respect Lenovo’s consideration to element.

Air can also be coming in from the underside, so Lenovo included a mud filter to catch a lot of the mud. That’s super-useful in case your PC is on the ground, however even on a desk, that’s a big mud ingress level.

The pre-installed CPU liquid cooler with two 120mm followers makes the interior quantity look cleaner whereas enhancing cooling vs. a heatsink. The dearer and highly effective your CPU is, the extra you need (want) liquid cooling.

The giant and very quiet GPU additionally has greater than satisfactory air-colling, and is even held in place with a beefy GPU bracket that may be very helpful throughout transportation to a LAN get together. A single 8-pin energy connector powers it.

Our 650W Gold PSU will get its personal cooling area and is a bit insulated from the remainder of the case to keep away from having the PSU warmth leak into the remainder of the chassis. If you purchase a extra highly effective GPU or CPU, your PSU is likely to be somewhat totally different to match the facility necessities of your system.

Expansion and upgrades

What I like about this Legion Tower 7i is that it makes use of normal elements via and thru. Sure the usual full-size ATX motherboard is explicitly made for Lenovo, however you may simply swap it out for an additional one, and it might all work nice.

Using normal elements is massively vital to many Gamers as a result of some OEMs use proprietary designs incompatible with retail PC elements, which could severely restrict essential updates like motherboard or GPU.

Inside, you’ll discover two 2.5″ SATA SSD/HDD slots with cables able to be linked (good!). I don’t use any SATA drives today, however they’re handy from a GB/$ standpoint for those who want a number of storage.

There are two 3.5″ SATA slots for those who’re utilizing mechanical drives or something that matches in the identical house. In whole, there are six SATA connections on the motherboard, in case you want extra.

For PCIe SSDs, the pre-installed drive is situated near the CPU slot, and there’s a second m.2 connector (two whole) on the backside of the motherboard.

If you might want to add extra RAM, there are a complete of 4 slots, which may be very a lot the usual for non-workstation desktop motherboards. 16GB ought to be okay for gaming functions, and for DCC work, I’d bump that to 32GB or extra.

Ports

There are often no worries in regards to the variety of out there ports on a desktop pc, and there’s a lot right here situated on the again and prime. However, I’d have appreciated to see no less than one Thunderbolt (TB) port to connect with a TB Dock.

Sometimes you would possibly wish to use this sort of speedy pc as a workstation and having larger exterior connections is good.

The Legion Tower 7i doesn’t include an exterior WiFi antenna, however WiFi 6 is supported to make sure nice wi-fi connectivity in case your router helps it. Alternatively, I like to attach gaming computer systems to the wired community port to get the bottom latency.

System efficiency

As you may need inferred from the specs of our take a look at unit, the CPU and graphics efficiency is superb for its class and displays the standard of the elements. Thanks to the superb cooling design, we anticipate this CPU/GPU combo to carry out in addition to thermals (+ambient temperature) and energy will permit.

By default, the chassis is very quiet, even when the GPU is at 100% for prolonged durations. If you wish to, you may attempt to max out the followers and improve the noise, however in follow, I don’t suppose that’s essential in any respect.

The 3DMark numbers present this configuration lands within the prime percentile of all assessments, and that’s solely anticipated. If you wish to use it as a workstation, I’ve added the Cinebench R23 benchmark (software program 3D rendering).

As we stated earlier, for those who want larger CPU efficiency, have a look at the Core i9 choice, or anticipate an Intel twelfth technology Alder Lake model as we acquired nice numbers with them.

The SSD storage additionally performs fairly properly for a single drive configuration and is properly according to what we anticipate for this worth vary. I’m not conscious of any RAID0 choice, however that’s sometimes not excessive on the players’ precedence record as any extra {dollars} ought to ideally go to a sooner GPU.

Conclusion

The Lenovo Legion Tower 7i makes me have a look at pre-built gaming PCs positively. I’ve at all times constructed my PCs from scratch, and naturally, DIY at all times provides you 100% management that no OEM can match.

However, this gaming PC may be very properly constructed, and I’d be proud of this Lenovo design, and I feel many purchasers and potential clients would agree. This PC fulfills all of the essential design and growth concerns I’m in search of.

The efficiency matches what we anticipate from our configuration, and the pc’s velocity just isn’t held again by cooling or another technical selection. We’re seeing a efficiency on the restrict of what the CPU/GPU/RAM combo can do. If funds permits, you possibly can go for a fair larger GPU/CPU configuration.

Given the PC aftermarket scenario, it’d merely be simpler and cheaper to obtain these elements by way of this Lenovo PC as an alternative of constructing your pc.

Filed in Computers. Read extra about Gaming Pc, Intel, Lenovo, Lenovo opinions and NVIDIA.