Once again, theLenovo Legionbrand delivers.
Disclaimer:This review was made possible by a review unit provided by Lenovo.
The company did not see the contents of the review before publishing.
This tower is a demanding presence on any desktop.
It also lacks an integrated graphics card, but it’s naturally paired with a beastly gaming GPU.
The most expensive configuration with the exorbitant 4090 will run you $4,019.99.
Overall, I think Lenovo has perfectly priced the Legion Tower 7i.
Whenever it’s on sale, the Legion Tower 7i (Gen 8) is practically unbeatable.
Each Legion Tower 7i also comes with 3 months ofXbox Game Pass Ultimatein the box.
I’ve seen it go on sale for as low as $2,349.99, too.
I mean, this is one chunky desktop PC.
So, while it is large, it is also roomy.
There are also larger and heavier desktop PCs out there, too.
This tower is a demanding presence on any desktop.
The layout is fantastic, too, from the placement of interior components to the rear and top ports.
It all just makes sense.
Lenovo did not pursue an outlandish design for its flagship PC, though.
What’s most important is that the construction is both intelligent and high-quality.
If I have one complaint, it’s that you don’t have full control over all the lighting.
What youcannotdo, however, is tweak the RGB lighting on the GPU.
I’m quite a fan of this design, although the offset glass side panel is mildly annoying.
Overall, I have few complaints in this department.
There’s plenty of room for any gaming keyboard or mouse you might want to hook up.
Fortunately, the Legion Tower 7i has no such limitation.
The interior is nicely laid out, with great airflow throughout the chassis.
Cable management is also fairly clean, considering the massive NVIDIA GPU cables.
The one limitation I can see is for storage.
It’s also worth mentioning potential frustrations with installing faster RAM using the four DDR5 UDIMM slots.
There are plenty of ports here, including two sneaky USB Type-A 2.0 ports near the top that I completely missed at first.
(CORRECTION)For a long while, there was no option to change this.
It’s needlessly frustrating, but at least there is an option now.
The Legion Tower 7i is an excellent performer.
When you need a quick connection, there are several USB ports lined up on the top.
Let’s roll some numbers.
There are some computers with faster SSDs, but not at this price point.
Speaking of thermal management, how does the Legion Tower 7i do?
I have zero complaints about this system.
It’s excellent all around, and I have no concerns about long-term health due to high heat.
This is an excellent thermal management system, with enough headroom to support overclocking out of the box.
I will mention that the Legion Tower 7i does support both CPU and GPU overclocking out of the box.
That configuration uses an identical cooling system, but I was unable to test it.
I mean, just look at all the RGB lights.
Even then, I still saw average framerates well over 60 FPS.
Without the fancy, experimental ray tracing options, Cyberpunk 2077 absolutely flew.
It was a similar experience with practically every other game.
BothForza Horizon 5andGears 5ran at well over 120 FPS on the absolute max parameters each game supports.
It was entirely unnoticeable, of course, and the game otherwise ran flawlessly.
Every game looked incredible, was responsive, and was able to live up to their fullest potential.
I can only imagine the RTX 4090 configuration is even more impressive with full 4K gaming.
The Lenovo Legion Tower 7i runs onWindows 11, and the experience here is great.
Everything worked, and it seems to me that this desktop’s drivers and firmware were polished and stable.
Lenovo has designed this desktop with long-term upgradeability in mind.
When it comes to preinstalled apps, Lenovo thankfully keeps the list short.
I never like to see McAfee lurking around, but it’s easy to uninstall.
Finally, there’s Lenovo Vantage.
The triple front-facing fans look cool, but they also pull in a huge amount of cool air.
Those are minor complaints, though.
Lenovo Vantage is a solid hub, too, and stands out immediately thanks to its performance.
Legion Tower 7i review: Competition
There are basically endless options for gaming desktops out there.
There are plenty of devices with faster SSDs than the Legion Tower 7i, but most people could honestly never tell the difference. This SSD is quick.(Image credit: Windows Central)
The Legion Tower 7i is a fantastic option, but there’s plenty else out there.
It’s considerably less upgradeable and significantly more expensive, however.
TheASUS ROG G22CH (DB978)is another excellent option.
A beefy multicore CPU helped the Legion Tower 7i smash Cinebench R23, besting the impressive ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 X3D.(Image credit: Windows Central)
It’s big and bold, and it has the price tag to match.
You want a great balance between quality, power, and price
This is not an affordable gaming desktop.
you could save a lot of money looking elsewhere.
ASUS' compact gaming PC barely pulled ahead here, possibly because of lower RAM speeds.(Image credit: Windows Central)
you’ve got the option to also find higher-quality or more elaborate designs in other places.
Other desktops still pack more power.
Few offer the perfect balance between those three attributes that the Legion Tower 7i does.
In Geekbench 6, the Legion Tower 7i was a very strong single-and-multi-core performer.(Image credit: Windows Central)
If you need something more compact, it’s best to look elsewhere.
Have a burning desire to crank every setting to its highest?
Planning on enjoying those games on a crisp, high-resolution gaming monitor or TV?
PCMark 10 only saw ASUS' most powerful laptop pull ahead in overall productivity.(Image credit: Windows Central)
It’s unapologetically high-end, though.
If you want that power, though, Lenovo has it.
It succeeds, too, offering an excellent overall experience no matter what you need this power for.
RGB lighting can be found everywhere, but the only blatant “gamer” design feature is this tasteful Legion logo.
The beefy GeForce RTX 4080 guarantees you never have to worry about gaming performance.
With a score of nearly 26,000, the Legion Tower 7i is our new 3DMark Time Spy champion.
A near-stock Windows 11 is augmented by the responsive Lenovo Vantage app.
Lenovo’s flagship gaming desktop towers over the almost-as-powerful Dell XPS Desktop.
This is an awesome gaming desktop, full stop.
