Question Looking for a prebuilt gaming PC, which is a better deal?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
J

jvolk01

Honorable
Dec 20, 2017
15
2
10,515
I found 2 prebuilt gaming PCs and I was just wondering what you guys think about them and which one is better?

This Lenova Legion is $1583.99 after coupon.

Legion Tower 5 Gen 8 (AMD) with RTX 4070 Ti

ww-single-model-gaming-desktops-default
www.lenovo.com

This Skytech PC is $1749.99


It looks like the Lenovo Legion is the better deal as it has a better processor and DDR5 ram and is cheaper. The thing I am worried about is cooling, I dont plan on overclocking my PC but I dont have air conditioning in the room I game in and it can get hot in the summer. The Skytech looks like it has 4 fans and 360mm AIO vs the Lenovo Legion which only has 3 fans.

I am leaning towards the Lenovo but what do you all think?
 
The Lenovo case looks smaller and I think the motherboard is only a microATX, which means less room for upgrades. This would not be my first choice. The 7700X is certainly faster than the 5800X.

The Skytech case looks bigger and the motherboard might be full ATX with two additional PCIe x16 slots (albeit probably at x8 or x4). This looks a slightly better system. Do Skytech allow you to choose a 7700X?

Both machines have only 16GB RAM (2x8GB) which I regard as a bit low. Don't worry about the difference between 4,800MHz and 5,200MHz RAM. It won't make much difference. Far better to upgrade to 32GB RAM. Check your games to see how much RAM they recommend.

I'd be much happier if I knew the manufacturers' part numbers for the motherboard and PSU. Prebuilt system manufacturers "cheap out" on these components to keep the price down. Lenovo cites "850W" as the full specification for the PSU, so goodness knows what they fit. Skytech is hardly better with "850W Gold". They don't inspire confidence and could both be junk PSUs which will endanger your system.

Are there any specialist builder companies in your location who itemize all the components in their systems and allow you to choose exactly what goes into the build? You don't need to be an expert to use their services.

You should be able to put together a similar specced build to Lenovo or Skytech, but with far better quality components and the confidence of knowing exactly what's inside. A specialist company will be only too happy to offer advice and you'll end up with a more future proof system. With care, the price should be similar.
 
Last edited:
I think Lenovo generally has better designed systems.
Actually a more compact system can have more efficient airflow for cooling.

If you live in a hot room cooling is going to be the same issue with aio or air; they both use room air for cooling.
Open your window when gaming or your room will get hot.
 
I don't have AC in my house so when the weather gets hot, I close the windows and the curtains. Downstairs the temperature can be 5 to 8 Celsius cooler than outside. When it cools down at night, I open the windows.

The number of fans inside a computer is not always a good indicator of cooling. A single high CFM fan will shift the same amount of air as two lesser fans.

Careful placement of intake and exhaust fans, plus free air flow through the case is important. Cheap fans cost a few dollars, more efficient quality fans as favoured by enthusiasts can be ten times the price.
 
It does not take long for a pc to heat up the room.
Once that happens you need to get such heated air out of the room for the pc coolers to do their job.
You might want to use an exhaust window fan that will draw up cooler downstairs air.

True, the number of fans is not an indicator of cooling, but it is an indicator of airflow.
To that end, larger fans push more air at lower rpm and are quieter.
I favor 140mm vs. 120mm fans when possible.

Is a room window A/C a possibility??
 
geofelt said:
It does not take long for a pc to heat up the room.
Once that happens you need to get such heated air out of the room for the pc coolers to do their job.
You might want to use an exhaust window fan that will draw up cooler downstairs air.

True, the number of fans is not an indicator of cooling, but it is an indicator of airflow.
To that end, larger fans push more air at lower rpm and are quieter.
I favor 140mm vs. 120mm fans when possible.

Is a room window A/C a possibility??
Click to expand...
My computer room is only 200 sq feet so I might get a 5000 BTU air conditioner and it shouldn't cost to much to run it.
 
Misgar said:
The Lenovo case looks smaller and I think the motherboard is only a microATX, which means less room for upgrades. This would not be my first choice. The 7700X is certainly faster than the 5800X.

The Skytech case looks bigger and the motherboard might be full ATX with two additional PCIe x16 slots (albeit probably at x8 or x4). This looks a slightly better system. Do Skytech allow you to choose a 7700X?

Both machines have only 16GB RAM (2x8GB) which I regard as a bit low. Don't worry about the difference between 4,800MHz and 5,200MHz RAM. It won't make much difference. Far better to upgrade to 32GB RAM. Check your games to see how much RAM they recommend.

I'd be much happier if I knew the manufacturers' part numbers for the motherboard and PSU. Prebuilt system manufacturers "cheap out" on these components to keep the price down. Lenovo cites "850W" as the full specification for the PSU, so goodness knows what they fit. Skytech is hardly better with "850W Gold". They don't inspire confidence and could both be junk PSUs which will endanger your system.

Are there any specialist builder companies in your location who itemize all the components in their systems and allow you to choose exactly what goes into the build? You don't need to be an expert to use their services.

You should be able to put together a similar specced build to Lenovo or Skytech, but with far better quality components and the confidence of knowing exactly what's inside. A specialist company will be only too happy to offer advice and you'll end up with a more future proof system. With care, the price should be similar.
Click to expand...
My current PC has a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700 CPU @ 3.60GHz, 16 GB ram and a GTX 1070. This PC looks like it would be a pretty good upgrade. I live in a rural area so I don't see any specialist companies near me. I am not to worry about upgrading the PC as I usually just buy a new one when my PC gets to old and with a AMD Ryzen™ 7 7700X and 4070 TI I imagine it will last me awhile. The Lenovo also says it has 4 slots for ram so I could upgrade to 32 GB down the line. Do you think its a good price if I am not worried about upgrading?
 
jvolk01 said:
My computer room is only 200 sq feet so I might get a 5000 BTU air conditioner and it shouldn't cost to much to run it.
Click to expand...
An AC unit is an excellent thing to do.
Think about it. It is like a cooler for your pc. The a/c unit takes in warm room air, removes the heat from the inside air, exhausting the heat to the outside and keeps returning cooler air to the room , providing your pc coolers with fresh air.
 
jvolk01 said:
1440p
Click to expand...
That 120mm Arctic fan goes inside the back of that case for a rear exhaust fan.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i5-13600KF 3.5 GHz 14-Core Processor ($289.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: *Deepcool AG620 BK ARGB 67.88 CFM CPU Cooler ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: *MSI B760 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: *G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: *Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: *Gigabyte WINDFORCE OC GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB Video Card ($799.99 @ Best Buy)
Case: *Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB ATX Mid Tower Case ($53.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: *Asus TUF Gaming 850G 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: *Microsoft Windows 11 Home OEM - DVD 64-bit ($117.98 @ Other World Computing)
Case Fan: *ARCTIC P12 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan ($9.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1826.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-07-02 19:09 EDT-0400

A better look at those components.

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B760-GAMING-PLUS-WIFI

https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...-24m-cache-up-to-5-10-ghz/specifications.html

https://www.deepcool.com/products/C...al-Tower-CPU-Cooler-1700-AM5/2022/16082.shtml

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/focus/focus-2/rgb-black-tg-clear-tint/

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIG4vFQbDn4
 
  • Like
Reactions: jvolk01
Why_Me said:
That 120mm Arctic fan goes inside the back of that case for a rear exhaust fan.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i5-13600KF 3.5 GHz 14-Core Processor ($289.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: *Deepcool AG620 BK ARGB 67.88 CFM CPU Cooler ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: *MSI B760 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: *G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: *Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: *Gigabyte WINDFORCE OC GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB Video Card ($799.99 @ Best Buy)
Case: *Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB ATX Mid Tower Case ($53.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: *Asus TUF Gaming 850G 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: *Microsoft Windows 11 Home OEM - DVD 64-bit ($117.98 @ Other World Computing)
Case Fan: *ARCTIC P12 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan ($9.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1826.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-07-02 19:09 EDT-0400

A better look at those components.

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B760-GAMING-PLUS-WIFI

https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...-24m-cache-up-to-5-10-ghz/specifications.html

https://www.deepcool.com/products/C...al-Tower-CPU-Cooler-1700-AM5/2022/16082.shtml

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/focus/focus-2/rgb-black-tg-clear-tint/

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIG4vFQbDn4
Click to expand...
That motherboard is crazy the heatsinks on it are amazing. Looks like a solid build now I might have to buy the parts and see if there is someone who can build it for me. I built on PC awhile back but had some trouble shooting issues with it and it was a pain. The closest micro center near me is 100 miles though =(.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Why_Me
jvolk01 said:
That motherboard is crazy the heatsinks on it are amazing. Looks like a solid build now I might have to buy the parts and see if there is someone who can build it for me. I built on PC awhile back but had some trouble shooting issues with it and it was a pain. The closest micro center near me is 100 miles though =(.
Click to expand...
Usually a local mom & pop PC / laptop repair shop will build it for you for a small fee if you bring them down the components.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom