Equally the globe's largest PC maker, Lenovo is well-known for its diverse portfolio of offerings spanning habitation and business concern. Gaming, on the other mitt, is ane area Lenovo has mostly ignored over the years. With that in listen, we innovate to y'all the Erazer X700 -- Lenovo's first stab at a PC tailored for gamers.

Features which qualify the X700 equally a full-fledged gaming PC are its unique exterior, performance-centered parts, aplenty tool-free expandability, liquid cooling and OneKey overclocking. Sound good and then far?

Our review unit houses an Intel Core i7-3820, Geforce GTX 660, 12GB RAM and a 1TB HDD and a 128GB Samsung SSD. This is actually the aforementioned model available at All-time Buy for $1699. It'southward worth noting though that we continue to run into the non-SSD version for a promotional cost of $1290 directly from Lenovo.

Although the starting cost is $1699, information technology's possible to spend more than. The highest-end configuration sports a incomparably non-mainstream $3,999 price tag ($two,999 promo price), only boasts a beefy Intel Core i7-3970X, dual Radeon Hard disk drive 8950 graphics, 32GB of RAM, 128GB SSD and a 2TB HDD. With a GTX 660 and Radeon HD 8950 existence the only GPU options though, extreme gamers will probable sneer at Lenovo'due south tagline of "extreme-operation gaming desktop". For gamers on a budget though, the GTX 660 is a capable if aging carte even if it is a few rungs below elevation tier.

Aesthetics, Get-go Impressions, Build Quality

The start detail to catch my attending was the goofy "Engine Starting time" power push button. Innocuous as it may exist, I need to become this off my breast: tacky car-computer analogues like these are, in my opinion, blench-worthy. In the future, I hope Lenovo forgoes lightheaded contrivances similar these and chooses to go along it classy.

The Erazer X700 touts a "helmet inspired" exterior full of precipitous lines and high-gloss black plastic further accented by blue lighting and argent grayness elements. The resulting aesthetic is somewhat futuristic, sleek and hands more impressive than standard PC offerings. Simultaneously, the X700 too manages to "play it safe" by not straying also far from conventional design: It's different, only not dangerously audacious; it's modern, only not impractical; information technology's fun, but non too outlandish. Whether or not the look appeals to you though will exist strictly up to y'all, but I call back the Erazer's target audience majority will be pleased.

Lenovo Erazer X700 Gaming Desktop - $1,699

  • Intel Core i7-3820
    (3.6GHz, quad-cadre Sandy Span-Due east)
  • Lenovo X79 motherboard
    (micro-ATX, LGA 2022)
  • CPU Liquid Cooling
  • 12GB DDR3 RAM
  • MSI GeForce GTX 660 (1.5GB)
  • 128GB Samsung SSD
  • 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM HDD
  • Lenovo LED-backlit gaming keyboard
  • Lenovo L251G nine-button LED-lit gaming mouse
  • Ports (rear): two x DVI-D, 1 x HDMI, one x DisplayPort, six x USB 2.0, 2 x USB 3.0, ane 10 Gigabit LAN, CS-out, RS-out, SS-out, line-in, line-out, mic-in, 1 x optical South/PDIF out, 1 10 coaxial South/PDIF out
  • Ports (front): i 10 USB 3.0, 1 x USB 2.0, mic-in, line-out (headphones)
  • Windows 8 Professional person x64
  • 24.01 x ten.62 x 20.86 inches
  • 62 pounds

The 62-pound, 45-liter X700 is much larger than your average Lenovo PC, measuring nearly 21-inches tall, 10.half dozen-inches wide and two-feet long. Bear witness of its size was betrayed by the enormous carton it shipped in. Its higher up-average stature affords owners aplenty room for expansion, merely stops information technology short of condign an unwieldy monstrosity. The chassis' generous volume is primarily useful for actress storage options, merely a second (or longer) video bill of fare and fifty-fifty a custom cooler are all possible here.

The forepart drive trophy are curtained behind a sturdy-plenty plastic door which utilizes magnetic science-magic to remain shut. Behind the door lies a 29-in-1 card reader, standard-outcome DVD burner, two removable 3.five" drive trophy plus two additional 5.25" expansion bays.

The example's side panel is easily removed with 2 thumb screws; notwithstanding, re-attaching the side was a little more than fussy than I treat. The edge of the panel needs to be angled and aligned almost-perfectly to slip back on, simply once yous've figured information technology out, it's an easy enough fox to replicate.

The case is essentially SECC steel wrapped past plastic, just information technology feels enough sturdy. I don't believe anything hither is in danger of wearing out of breaking several months down the road, but just to nitpick, the gray plastic in the corners is easily scuffed.

Inside the Erazer X700

Internally speaking, the Erazer X700 is more than ordinary than extraordinary. The systems' innards are a kind of sturdy exercise in boring-grayness, rolled-steel pragmatism. After diving in, information technology becomes self-axiomatic that the X700 is an above-average mass-produced desktop, merely not the kind of spare-no-expense machines you might expect from boutique PC outlets like Maingear.

The mesh side-opening doesn't offer a articulate view, but peering inside reveals few signs fancy: no brilliant, coordinated colors or high-end flair. The cables are managed, simply not impressively and so. The removable drive bay inserts (two in front) feel adequate, but fall curt of the satisfyingly solid heft you lot'll encounter on the highest-end systems and cases. There is a bit of blue LED lighting, but the effect is subtly visible: merely enough to hint this is a wall-jumping, reaper-shooting, flag-capturing gaming rig equally opposed to your momma's Farmville machine. Additionally, at that place are a few precipitous edges in there besides -- an unusual thing to find on loftier-end cases.

Succinctly put, the X700'due south innards prove it is clearly not a "no-compromise" gaming PC. At $1699 though, we should expect some compromise.

Upgrades and Expansion

Lenovo doesn't offer built-to-order Erazer configs, but the company does tout "expandability" as a selling point. Despite a lack of internal whimsy, functionally speaking, the X700's bowels are roomy and easy to work within. The chassis sports an effectively toolless blueprint and four directly accessible 3.5" drive trophy in add-on to the two removable ones in the front. One thing is for sure: X700 owners will never want for more than storage options.

The chassis appears capable of accommodating a graphics carte longer than 12-inches, but with one caveat: such an addition will crave use of the bottom-front end 5.25-inch drive bays. If you're content with a unmarried optical drive, this won't be a problem.

The X700 is equipped with the watts, slots and space necessary for the addition of a second GTX 660. For well-nigh $1490 ($1290 promo + some other GTX 660) and a little elbow grease, a formidable gaming rig tin can be had if you tin forgo the SSD. Note that SLI users will have to toss out the Wi-Fi card occupying the 2nd PCI-e slot.

In add-on to storage options, X700 owners will probable never want for memory options either -- the X700's RAM is upgradeable to 32GB of DDR3. With four DIMMs and only 3 taken, there's still ane slot yearning to be filled.

Despite its spaciousness (and enough standoffs for a regular ATX board), our Erazer X700 shipped with a micro-ATX motherboard. Packed with an X79 northbridge, iv ten DIMMs and 8 10 SATA ports though, this board really only falls curt on PCI-east slots: there are merely two. Unfortunately, this precludes owners from mixing iii or more cards, such equally SLI/Crossfire graphics with Wi-Fi, professional audio, PCI-e storage options and so on. Even so though, 2 slots will meet the needs and wants of near.

Yes, Intel's X79 is an aging chipset (nearly two years onetime). However, the X79 notwithstanding has more PCI-e lanes and better bandwidth than other Intel options. This seems like a choice driven more by performance than bottom line, seeing as the X79 still doesn't come up inexpensive after all these years.

Lenovo's motherboard hosts an LGA 2022 socket capable of supporting Ivy Bridge Due east and Intel's "Extreme" varieties of Core i7 CPUs. Disappointingly, in that location are no signs of Haswell coming to this platform. For desktops, the only season of Haswell so far is LGA 1150 while future chips may skip direct to LGA 2022-3. This probable limits prospective future CPU upgrades to Ivy Bridge-Eastward.

Thankfully, the chassis is fairly standard, fugitive proprietary design elements (aside from the "Overclock" button). This means when the X700 has outlived its usefulness, it can exist gutted and retrofitted with new innards… bold you like the case, of form.