Battery: These systems do not support batteries that are not genuine Lenovo-made or authorized. Systems will continue to boot, but may not charge unauthorized batteries. Attention: Lenovo has no responsibility for the performance or safety of unauthorized batteries, and provides no warranties for failures or damage arising out of their use. Battery life (and recharge times) will vary based on many factors, including system settings and usage. Despite some Lenovo branded, the otherwise no-name motherboard, RAM, and GPU componentry inside are all standard parts. Unlike an Alienware system, that means as you get more confident in your PC gamer identity you can then upgrade parts piecemeal without struggling to fit them into a proprietary system.

I compared the Legion Tower 5i to a diverse crowd of gaming desktops, both budget and high-end, for our benchmark testing. Their basic specifications are as follows. The left panel is secured by two thumb screws for toolless access. Removing it reveals a spacious interior. The rear exhaust and processor fans support RGB lighting—up to 16.7 million colors. You can choose a static color or among preset patterns such as color cycling. The interior case lighting and the Legion logo on the front of the tower are pale blue only, though you can change their brightness and effects. There's no shortage of brightness, and the lighting can be turned off. Overall, the lighting is smartly implemented. Simple, Organized Innards The wireless antennas are conveniently built into the case so you don't have to deal with the awkwardness of external ones. Priced to Compete Two of the motherboard’s four UDIMM slots for DDR4-2933 memory are populated by 8GB modules (a total of 16GB, running in dual-channel mode). The motherboard also has not one but two onboard M.2 slots. The one above the graphics card (which is almost impossible to see in our photos since it’s overshadowed by the CPU cooler) is populated by a 512GB solid-state drive loaded with Windows 10 Home. The empty slot is located under the graphics card.

Purpose built for entry level PC gaming

The Legion Tower 5i would even be usable for 4K gaming with slightly lowered detail settings. Though it's something of a moot point since the GeForce RTX 2070 Super is its top choice, I'd argue that card is the peak of value for high-fps 1080p and 1440p gaming. (Reference the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti-equipped HP's numbers to see what you get for dropping a lot more cash.) A Mid-Tower Gamer That's Easy to Recommend

Limits: Limit 5 per customer. Offers valid from Lenovo in the US only. Lenovo may increase or decrease these limits, from time to time, for certain offerings. Last but perhaps most important, we'll try some real games. We use the built-in benchmarks in Far Cry 5 (at its Ultra preset) and Rise of the Tomb Raider (at its Very High preset) at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K/UHD resolutions. Far Cry 5 uses DirectX 11, while we flip Rise of the Tomb Raider to DirectX 12. The results are measured in frames per second (fps); we look for at least 60 for smooth playability. The Legion Tower 5i’s excellent scoring continued in these tests. It had no trouble keeping pace with the 95-watt Core i9-9900K in the HP despite its Core i7-10700 being only a 65-watt part. That said, it couldn't quite match the efficiency of the 65-watt Ryzen 7 3700X in the Corsair, making me wish Lenovo offered a Ryzen version of the Legion Tower 5i.

The Legion Tower 5i nosed ahead of the others with an exemplary 7,043-point showing in PCMark 10. (Our internal reference point for high-performance PCs is 4,000 points.) Meanwhile, the PCMark 8 storage scores were a tight grouping since these desktops all employ fast solid-state boot storage. It does get a little toastie with the single fan tower CPU cooler installed in it, but I never found it got too loud during gaming or under productivity loads. The Legion Tower 5i's ample cooling power comes from two 120mm fans at the front and one at the rear.

There really isn't any excuse these days, either, with other systems either offering half terabyte drives, or even full 1TB models such as the WD Blue SN570 we've seen in the NZXT and iBuyPower rigs we've tested.The Legion Tower 5i comes standard with the latest Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5 wireless standards courtesy of an Intel AX201 card.