For each gaming PC with an enormous case or a spaceship-inspired design, there is something a bit of extra refined. In many ways the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i ($3,349.99) follows the lead of workplace mid-towers with a grey, boxy design. Nevertheless it additionally emulates one of the best possible gaming PCs with bathroom same old portions and quite a lot of choices for upgradeability.
Powering the Tower, in the one configuration as of this writing, is an Intel Core i9-13900KF and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080, which proved to be an impressive aggregate at each 1080p and 4K in our gaming checks.
The Legion is worthy of attention for any individual keen to drop $3,000 on a pre-built PC. listed here are some problems with RAM pace to handle, despite the fact that they did not appear to impact gaming efficiency an excessive amount of in our revel in.
Design of the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i (Gen 8)
The Legion Tower 7i is a bit of of a mashup between an workplace desktop, a gaming rig and even perhaps the Mac Professional. Probably the most hanging characteristic, for higher or worse, is a huge, cheese grater-style design, however with squares somewhat than circles. Should you like that at the Mac Professional, perhaps you’ll be able to love it right here, however it is much less polished right here. The entrance additionally has an RGB Legion brand, grew to become vertically.
Lenovo’s 34-liter chassis is in large part a grey (sorry, “hurricane” grey) field. I am OK with that — PC avid gamers are used to utilitarian chassis which might be in large part designed to accommodate their portions. I do assume that Lenovo may zhuzh it up a bit of, despite the fact that. Whilst a few of it’s steel, massive quantities of it are plastic, and that does not glance or really feel top class.
The highest of the field has a cutout to permit airflow in or out of the chassis (Lenovo has two exhaust fanatics up there). I want that there was once a mud filter out constructed into that high phase, and even only a reasonable reusable one. The mud filters on the entrance and the highest will have to have some tighter tolerances.
Symbol 1 of 5
There is a glass aspect panel at the left aspect of the Legion, letting you notice your portions and any RGB results you have got going. On our unit, the GPU, water cooler pump and fanatics all lit up, and there is a white mild strip above the glass door to supply some brightness. I preferred turning the sunshine strip off, which introduced out extra of the colours.
You’ll trade the settings in Lenovo Vantage (despite the fact that I needed to watch for the tool to replace the primary time round), nevertheless it does not but keep watch over the RGB at the GPU, which is caught in a rainbow trend (this tousled the all-green glance I used to be going for). Lenovo says extra lights results can be to be had when its Legion Spectrum tool releases later in 2023. (There also are lights choices within the BIOS, however that still does not characteristic GPU results as of this writing.)
At 19.37 x 18.27 x 8.31 inches, I consider the Legion Tower 7i is simply sufficiently big that most of the people will stay it at the ground below a table. It is not fairly as giant as different contemporary RTX 40-series desktops we have reviewed, just like the Alienware Aurora R15 (20.8 x 20.1 x 8.86 inches) and the MSI Countless RS thirteenth (23.03 x 10.12 x 21.14 inches).
2x USB 2.0 Sort-A, 2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Sort-A, headphone jack, microphone jack
Rear Ports (Motherboard)
2x USB 2.0 Sort-A, 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Sort-A, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-C, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-A, Audio ports with SPDIF, Ethernet
Video Output (GPU)
3x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI
Energy Provide
850W, Absolutely modular
Cooling
AIO CPU cooler with 360mm radiator, 3x 120 mm case fanatics
Running Machine
Home windows 11 House
Dimensions
19.37 x 18.27 x 8.31 inches / 492 x 464 x 211 mm
Value as Configured
$3,349.99
Ports and Upgradeability at the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i
Lenovo has four USB ports at the height of the Legion Tower: two USB 2.0 Sort-A ports, and two more recent USB 3.2 Gen 1 Sort-A ports. For my part, I might have preferred to look a Sort-C port as smartly, however four is greater than I see on many prebuilt. There also are separate ports for headphones and a microphone.
(*19*)
Symbol 1 of 2
(Symbol credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})
(Symbol credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})
At the again of Lenovo’s motherboard, there are two USB 2.0 Sort-A ports. four USB 3.2 Gen 1 Sort-A ports, a unmarried USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-A port and USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-C port. That is a tight quantity of connectivity. There is additionally an Ethernet jack and audio ports, together with SPDIF.
If you wish to upload or exchange portions, entering the Legion is lovely simple. The left panel is hung on by way of two thumb screws which might be captive within the glass door, and the proper again panel comes off similarly.
Symbol 1 of 3
(Symbol credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})
(Symbol credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})
(Symbol credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})
From right here, the arena is your oyster. Certain, you’ll get to the RAM, the cooling and the three-slot-thick Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 (perhaps Lenovo will have to come with a strengthen for it). Nevertheless it additionally seems that Lenovo is the use of a typical ATX motherboard right here, suggesting it might be changed and that it’s good to proceed to make use of this case down the road. The whole lot right here appears to be business same old, and a few of Lenovo’s opponents (taking a look at you, Dell) may be told from this.
The motherboard has four m.2 slots. In ours, two had been taken up: one with the Wi-Fi card and one with a 1TB SSD. The opposite two are yours so as to add to later.
Cable control is first rate, taking into account Lenovo is coping with Nvidia’s 12VHPWR adapter. There will have been some instances the place I might have attempted to jam extra instances throughout the again of the device, despite the fact that Lenovo has driven the grommets within the device to their restrict right here. One’s rubber coating was once slipping off out of the field. However whoever constructed the program took complete good thing about the case’s mounting issues for cable ties. The PSU is roofed by way of a shroud, so you’ll handiest see the entire additional cables there from the again.
The again of the case additionally gives more space for garage upgrades, together with a difficult pressure caddy and 2 mounting issues for 2.5-inch SATA SSDs or HDDs.
At the rear of the device, there are two vertical PCIe slots covers, suggesting that any individual with a modding pastime (or no less than a PCIe extension cable) may mount a two-slot GPU vertically on this case.
Gaming and Graphics at the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i (Gen 8)
Configured with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 and an Intel Core i9-13900KF, the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i can energy via many video games at their very best settings and at 4K answer. At 1080p, which makes use of the CPU extra, it infrequently finally ends up on par with techniques with the extra robust RTX 4090.
The Tower 7i can deal with Regulate (which remains to be a punishing recreation in the end those years) at its best possible, albeit no longer at 60 fps. At 4K at the top graphics preset and top ray-tracing settings, the sport ran at round 50 frames consistent with 2nd whilst preventing to cleanse an object of energy, and at a close to consistent 80 fps within the Astral Aircraft (however those sections are quick, few and feature all-white backgrounds) and at as little as 40 fps in intense fight sequences with heaps of results (which can be way more not unusual).
(*20*)
Symbol 1 of 5
At the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (very best preset), the Legion accomplished 236 fps at 1080p and 93 fps at 4K. That is not up to the RTX 4090-toting Alienware and MSI, however the distinction was once a ways greater at 4K. The Lenovo additionally confirmed off sturdy generational enhancements over the iBuypower Rise up 3, which we examined with an RTX 3080.
Grand Robbery Auto V‘s benchmark produced fascinating effects. At very top settings and 1080p answer, the Legion, MSI Countless and Alienware Aurora all hit the similar 186 fps, despite the fact that the latter competition have a extra robust RTX 4090. That is in part as a result of Grand Robbery Auto V has all the time been notoriously CPU certain, and that’s the reason nearly all the time the case at decrease resolutions. It may additionally counsel that as of late’s top-end playing cards are hitting some form of restrict for the sport. At 4K, the Legion hit 57 fps, falling in the back of the 4090 desktops, and just a unmarried body forward of the iBuypower.
We noticed a an identical trend on A long way Cry 6‘s benchmark at extremely presets. At 1080p, the Legion tied the Alienware at 127 fps (which had relatively surpassed the MSI) at 4K, however fell in the back of in 4K, at 92 fps. (We were not operating this benchmark after we examined the iBuypower, so it is excluded from the chart.)
The RTX 4090-based techniques took a transparent lead in Pink Useless Redemption 2. Whilst the Lenovo Legion hit a good 166 fps at 1080p and 57 fps at 4K on medium settings, the MSI and Alienware surpassed it by way of greater than 20 fps in every answer.
At the Borderlands 3 benchmark’s “badass” preset, the Legion Tower accomplished 228 fps at 1080p and 92 fps at 4K, falling in the back of the MSI (258 fps at 1080p /129 fps at 4K) and Aurora (263 fps at 1080p/128 fps at 4K)
We pressure techniques by way of operating Metro Exodus at its RTX preset for 15 runs, which lasts kind of part an hour. The Tower 7i hit a median of 119.12 fps and was once somewhat consistent from run to run. The Core i9-13900KF’s efficiency cores ran at a median of 5.3 GHz and the potency cores ran at a median of 4.3 GHz. The CPU measured a median of 58.24 levels Celsius. The GPU ran at a median of 2,529.89 MHz and measured 54.25 levels Celsius.
Productiveness Efficiency at the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i (Gen 8)
If you find yourself no longer gaming in your PC, the Legion Tower 7i will have to be lots competent as a workhorse due to its Intel Core i7-13900KF and 32GB of RAM, in addition to a 1TB SSD. Lenovo states that the Legion Tower 7i has DDR5-5600 RAM, and sure, there are two 16GB DIMMS that meet that specification.
However in our overview unit, the ones DIMMs did not run at the ones speeds, however somewhat at 4,400 MHz. Lenovo claims that “there are barriers that the chipset inherently has relying at the selection of modules [that] are put in. Necessarily, the clock speeds are routinely limited to decrease values when leveraging twin and quad channel reminiscence setups.” That is not a subject matter we have observed with different techniques operating two DIMMs, however Lenovo did recreate it on their finish.
Symbol 1 of 3
(Symbol credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})
(Symbol credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})
(Symbol credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})
On Geekbench 5, the Legion Tower 7i was once inside of some extent or two of the MSI endless RS and the Alienware Aurora R15 at the single-core take a look at at 2,178. The Legion accomplished a multi-core rating of twenty-two,275, ever so relatively in the back of the Aurora 15 and trailing the Alienware.
The Legion we examined got here with a 1TB Samsung PM9A1 PCIe Gen 4 x4 SSD, which transferred 25GB of recordsdata at a charge of 1,152.26 MBps. That is slower than each the MSI and Alienware, despite the fact that it is a ways higher than the iBuypower from final 30 days.
The Legion took the highest rank in Handbrake, changing a 4K video to 1080p in 2 mins and 18 seconds, quicker than anything within the box.
Keyboard and Mouse with the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i (Gen 8)
If you do not already personal a keyboard and mouse, the pack-ins that include the Legion Tower will have to get you began. As soon as you are began, you will have to put money into a unique keyboard and mouse.
The pack-ins are office-grade plastic, no longer appropriate for gaming. The membrane keyboard is cushy and squishy, and the stressed out mouse, whilst effective for normal surfing, is not relaxed sufficient for lengthy gaming periods. It is one factor if those include an affordable device, which can let any individual on a decent price range get by way of whilst they save up for his or her subsequent splurge, however even the most cost effective gaming equipment you’ll to find could be an development, particularly when you find yourself spending over $3,000 at the rig itself. Take a look at our lists of the best possible gaming keyboards and best possible gaming mice.
Instrument and Guaranty at the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i (Gen 8)
Lenovo has been increasing its tool footprint on all of its units, together with Legion, for higher or worse. Lenovo Vantage remains to be the main app, appearing CPU and GPU utilization, overclocking choices and letting you convert your lights. Now a separate piece of tool, known as Area, acts as a library to retailer all your video games from throughout other launchers. There is additionally Lenovo Welcome, which tries to promote you upgraded strengthen services and products, download spouse apps and upload a desktop shortcut to Lenovo’s personal Legion Sport Store, which general appears like extra of an advert than an invaluable piece of tool.
Steelseries’ Nahimic is the on-bpoard tool to regulate audio, which turns out to be useful. The one different piece of third-party tool is a tribulation of McAfee LiveSafe.
Sadly, Lenovo has put some bookmarks within the Edge browser (a rising apply from numerous producers at the moment) with hyperlinks to Lenovo’s website online, its strengthen website, and McAfee.
Home windows 11, after all, nonetheless has hyperlinks to a couple bloat, which can download apps like WhatsApp, TikTok, Spotify, ESPN or Instagram when you click on them within the Get started menu.
Lenovo sells the Legion Tower 7i (Gen 8) with a one-year guaranty that may be upgraded for an extra price. Lenovo bundles its “final strengthen” for Legion with this desktop, together with 24/7 availability via telephone, chat and electronic mail, subsequent industry day strengthen onsite and strengthen for {hardware}, tool and equipment.
Lenovo Legion Tower 7i (Gen 8) Configurations
We examined the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i (Gen 8) with an Intel Core i9-13900KF, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 and a 1TB PCIe SSD. At the present time, that is the one configuration that Lenovo gives, with a $3,349.99 price ticket.
As of this writing, many different outlets are nonetheless promoting older technology Legion Towers with older Intel CPUs, despite the fact that some have the newest Nvidia graphics.
Backside Line
The Lenovo Legion Tower 7i is a succesful gaming gadget with quite a lot of improve probabilities down the road. The RTX 4080 is in a position to enjoying video games at 4K, and the motherboard’s swatch of m.2 slots imply there is a ton of room so as to add garage.
(*3*)
(Symbol credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})
As of this writing, the Core i9-13900KF/RTX 4080 is the one configuration of the gadget that Lenovo is promoting. Those that want the facility of the RTX 4090 (and keen to pay the fee for it) in a prebuilt will wish to move to different distributors, like Alienware or MSI.
Whilst Lenovo is leaning tougher on preinstalled tool than it used to, I am glad to look a typical case with same old portions right here. There is quite a lot of choices to make this PC your personal for years yet to come.
MORE: (*10*)Highest Gaming Laptops MORE: (*7*)Highest PC Builds
Publishing request and DMCA complains contact -support[eta]laptopfrog.com. Allow 48h for review and removal.
Allow 48h for review and removal.