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Constructing a gaming PC will be tough in the event you’re new to the pastime. Thankfully, pre-built desktops take away many of the guesswork; you may count on them to ship dependable efficiency straight out of the field. Particularly since gaming desktops include more and more aggressive {hardware}.
Lenovo’s Legion Tower 5 (or T5 for brief) is a main instance of a stable prebuilt desktop. It’s a gaming pc, however as I found over the couple of weeks of my testing, it’s versatile sufficient to achieve content material creation. Enable me to elucidate.
Desktop footprint
Fashionable PC circumstances usually have a vertically tall design, a mode of pc known as a “tower.” This form is standard for quite a lot of causes: they facilitate airflow for cooling parts, however extra importantly, they take up much less bodily area.
The Legion T5 does issues slightly completely different. As a substitute of increasing upward, it is stout. It measures 8.31 x 19.31 x 16.3 inches. Under is a picture of the Legion T5 subsequent to my Maingear MG-1 (16.88 x 19 x 8.12 inches) beneath my desk. Each computer systems within the picture under are according to one another. Discover simply how a lot the Lenovo pc stands proud (and the way a lot decrease it’s).
Discovering an area for the Legion T5 could show tough due to its stout body — a minimum of it was for me. I swapped out my private PC with the Lenovo desktop for a time, and sometimes discovered myself bumping the aspect of the pc with my legs and chair. Fortunately, the sides and corners of the desktop are rounded, so I averted something too painful.
All in regards to the aesthetics
The selection between stout and tall tower PCs comes down to non-public desire. Admittedly, the Legion T5 appears fairly cool. I actually favored the bumpy warmth vent on the high. I requested Lenovo if this design had any sensible functions, they usually informed me it was only for aesthetic functions. Both manner, it was a very good name on their finish.
Port choice is surprisingly restricted. A bulk of the inputs are situated across the again of the desktop. Simply to focus on a couple of, you may discover three DisplayPort inputs, an HDMI 2.1 for outputting 4K video at 60Hz, and three completely different audio ports. That is all nice to have, however I actually would’ve favored it if the entrance had extra as a result of it solely has three: a 5Gbps USB-C enter, a 5Gbps USB-A port, and an audio jack.
At greatest, you may have sufficient room for a pair of headphones, a controller, and one accent. Extra ought to’ve been obtainable inside arm’s attain, as there’s loads of room. Lenovo’s Legion Tower 7i, for instance, has three USB-A inputs on the entrance.
One other neat factor in regards to the Legion T5 is its ARGB lighting. The “A” stands for “addressable,” which is Lenovo’s fancy manner of claiming customizable RGB lighting. Through the Legion Area app, customers can activate lights over sure parts, just like the rear fan or GPU. You possibly can combine and match no matter you wish to create enjoyable mild arrays.
Dynamic desktop
Below the hood is an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card, and 32GB of RAM. Unsurprisingly, gaming on the Lenovo Legion T5 felt easy, even when working demanding titles. This configuration allowed fast-paced shooters like “Name of Obligation” and stylized motion video games like “Hades 2” to run with out a hitch, conserving framerates persistently excessive. I used to be capable of keep targeted on matches as a substitute of worrying about sudden dips in efficiency. Any gamer will inform you that having good stability makes a world of distinction.
The highly effective {hardware} brings out the visible options that make trendy video games shine. Lush environments, like these present in “Monster Hunter Wilds”, felt lifelike. Particle results had been explosive, and in-game lighting seemed true to life. The Legion T5’s skill to help a number of visible enhancers and nonetheless get principally easy efficiency permits the desktop to separate itself from the common prebuilt pc.
I say “principally” as a result of I bumped into some visible glitches taking part in “Ultimate Fantasy 15” at its peak settings. Characters would spaz out, limbs flailing round as the sport struggled to run at such a excessive decision. To be truthful, it is possible these glitches are the results of some kind of driver concern, not essentially the {hardware} struggling to maintain up.
Nonetheless, I needed to focus on this second as a possible state of affairs you would possibly encounter. Whereas the {hardware} is definitely highly effective, you may all the time run into a couple of efficiency troubles.
Past gaming, the Legion T5 proved to be a powerhouse for artistic duties. Workloads like 3D rendering in Blender profit vastly from the highly effective {hardware}. They scale back rendering wait occasions, permitting customers to fast hop between preview renders and initiatives. The workflow quickens significantly. On Adobe Premiere Professional, video enhancing felt seamless. I uploaded my very own 4K recording, and due to the {hardware}, I used to be capable of seamlessly navigate by means of the video timeline, making use of numerous results with out slowdown.
My major gripe with the {hardware} is that it solely comes with 1TB of storage. After putting in seven video games from Steam, I used up many of the SSD. Right now’s AAA video video games take up dozens of gigabytes of area, so 1TB simply would not fairly lower it. In case you do not thoughts paying slightly additional, I like to recommend buying an exterior drive.
ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation
Lenovo’s Legion Tower 5 is at the moment obtainable at Finest Purchase for $1,880. That is a reasonably good worth. I used to be truthfully anticipating to be over $2,000. In case you want the additional area, you may head over to Lenovo’s web site and buy the Tower 5i Gen 10, which has a 2TB SSD for $1,980. It has the identical graphics card, though the Tower 5i swaps out the AMD processor for an Intel Core Extremely 7 265F CPU.
For avid gamers on the go, I like to recommend the Tenth-generation Lenovo Legion Professional 7i. It is a gaming laptop computer with barely higher {hardware} and a vibrant 16-inch 250Hz OLED display screen.
