Wasted Potential: Lenovo Legion 5i Pre-Built 1050 Gaming PC Review & Benchmarks
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Date: 2021-07-08
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Comments and reviews: 10
Ben
What up GN! Love this content from you guys and want to share my recent pre-built experience.
After months of trying to get my hands on a video card woke up and saw a pre-built on newegg from their ABS line. After your grudging endorsement decided to give it a shot. So i ordered it on Saturday expecting to be notified it will be delayed so they could wait for some sort of a part but surprisingly got a tracking number for the following friday and it showed up on that wednesday!
Upon opening was impressed with the overall packing, it came with halfway decent peripherals and good instructions on set up. Spent about 30 minutes looking over everything ensuring all wires were connected and everything was seated and installed correctly everything seemed to be in good working order. Brought it up into the office and disconnected my old system and connected the new one and tried to boot it up. I was greeted by fan spin and entirely too much RGB however no boot screen. Disconnected everything re-inspected it all and found no obvious issues. So now a non-techy consumer would most likely call support however i was willing to push on and solve this myself. I may have bought a pre-built but surely i could figure out what's wrong with this system and get it booted. So started with re-seating gpu / ram and trying again. No dice! Next up try the ram in every possible configuration, hour and a half down still nothin. Googled up the b2 error code and came up with maybe my motherboard needs the bios updated to recognize the new 3080ti gpu since theres no on board video i swap out the new 3080ti for my old 2070 and IT BOOTS. Ok, so we spend the next hour figuring out how to get our bios updated successfully re-swap cards and get ready for greatness. Nothing, no boot screen. Surely the brand new 3080ti cant be broken can it?! Yes... yes it can. Put it into my old rig and no boot screen. Having narrowed it down to a DOA GPU i now dread the upcoming phone call. Feeling like ive failed even with my mediocre at best PC building skills i first turn to my discord friends and convene with them. They all agree sounds like dead GPU. Now, we must confront your worse gripe with your ABS system and call newegg customer support. I charge my phone, for i know this shall not be a short call and dial that 1800 number. I get connected very quickly, under 2 minutes. Very surprised i hear a mans voice asking how can he help me. I tread slowly telling the voice on the other end my system wont boot. I know his job must suck dealing with all sorts of levels of end users either having no idea what theyre doing or much worse having to handle a customer that things they know exactly whats wrong (as i feel i do). We go over the very basics, he instructs me for a few minutes and questions how ive unpacked the product and he seems very knowledgeable. I feel comfortable with this man and after going over the basics i tell him what ive already done for the last 4-5 hours. He says wow, sounds like a bad gpu. I agree and now i fear ill have to re-package this system and mail it back however he leaves me 3 options, 1 a full refund. 2 return the product and have a new one sent, or 3 since i seem comfortable with it RMAing just the gpu. Shocked i say that would be perfect, i can use the new system with my old card until i get a replacement. He gets my email, sends me a tracking numbers for pre-paid shipping says throw it into a box with some packaging and send it back. I say thank you for the help, we part ways. All and all my phone call was 7 minutes 42 seconds.
This brings me to today. Theyve recieved my broken card (today) and i am awaiting replacement to be sent. Overall the system is running great with my old video card in it and the customer service i could not have been happier with.
Again thanks for everything you do for us GN keep up the great content. Will update if interested when they send me replacement card.
tl;dr ABS pre-built came in with a broken 3080ti, customer support kicked ass.
reply
What up GN! Love this content from you guys and want to share my recent pre-built experience.
After months of trying to get my hands on a video card woke up and saw a pre-built on newegg from their ABS line. After your grudging endorsement decided to give it a shot. So i ordered it on Saturday expecting to be notified it will be delayed so they could wait for some sort of a part but surprisingly got a tracking number for the following friday and it showed up on that wednesday!
Upon opening was impressed with the overall packing, it came with halfway decent peripherals and good instructions on set up. Spent about 30 minutes looking over everything ensuring all wires were connected and everything was seated and installed correctly everything seemed to be in good working order. Brought it up into the office and disconnected my old system and connected the new one and tried to boot it up. I was greeted by fan spin and entirely too much RGB however no boot screen. Disconnected everything re-inspected it all and found no obvious issues. So now a non-techy consumer would most likely call support however i was willing to push on and solve this myself. I may have bought a pre-built but surely i could figure out what's wrong with this system and get it booted. So started with re-seating gpu / ram and trying again. No dice! Next up try the ram in every possible configuration, hour and a half down still nothin. Googled up the b2 error code and came up with maybe my motherboard needs the bios updated to recognize the new 3080ti gpu since theres no on board video i swap out the new 3080ti for my old 2070 and IT BOOTS. Ok, so we spend the next hour figuring out how to get our bios updated successfully re-swap cards and get ready for greatness. Nothing, no boot screen. Surely the brand new 3080ti cant be broken can it?! Yes... yes it can. Put it into my old rig and no boot screen. Having narrowed it down to a DOA GPU i now dread the upcoming phone call. Feeling like ive failed even with my mediocre at best PC building skills i first turn to my discord friends and convene with them. They all agree sounds like dead GPU. Now, we must confront your worse gripe with your ABS system and call newegg customer support. I charge my phone, for i know this shall not be a short call and dial that 1800 number. I get connected very quickly, under 2 minutes. Very surprised i hear a mans voice asking how can he help me. I tread slowly telling the voice on the other end my system wont boot. I know his job must suck dealing with all sorts of levels of end users either having no idea what theyre doing or much worse having to handle a customer that things they know exactly whats wrong (as i feel i do). We go over the very basics, he instructs me for a few minutes and questions how ive unpacked the product and he seems very knowledgeable. I feel comfortable with this man and after going over the basics i tell him what ive already done for the last 4-5 hours. He says wow, sounds like a bad gpu. I agree and now i fear ill have to re-package this system and mail it back however he leaves me 3 options, 1 a full refund. 2 return the product and have a new one sent, or 3 since i seem comfortable with it RMAing just the gpu. Shocked i say that would be perfect, i can use the new system with my old card until i get a replacement. He gets my email, sends me a tracking numbers for pre-paid shipping says throw it into a box with some packaging and send it back. I say thank you for the help, we part ways. All and all my phone call was 7 minutes 42 seconds.
This brings me to today. Theyve recieved my broken card (today) and i am awaiting replacement to be sent. Overall the system is running great with my old video card in it and the customer service i could not have been happier with.
Again thanks for everything you do for us GN keep up the great content. Will update if interested when they send me replacement card.
tl;dr ABS pre-built came in with a broken 3080ti, customer support kicked ass.
reply
craigtek
It is interesting to see how different the Intel Tower 5i compares to the AMD Tower 5. I just paid 1100 for a Tower 5 with a 3700x, rtx 2060, 512gb nvme 4.0 ssd, and 16gb of RAM. The case has a mesh front, top and bottom for the power supply. Side panel is real glass too. Only gripes I have with it is it came with basically the same cpu cooler that Dell G5 had and the power supply is only 400 watts. The interesting thing about the cpu coolers in the Intel and AMD Legion towers is they mount to an Intel 115X backplate so it isn't as easy to replace the cpu coolers. I have an Artic Freezer e34 esports DUO coming today because they mount right up to the stock backplate without any issues. My 3700x was running in the low 80s while gaming with the crap cooler. Those rgb towers are a lot better Legion cpu coolers but they only come in certain models. They also cost 63 from Lenovo and are constantly on back order. Not worth it when the Artic cooker was 48 on Amazon and will work better.
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It is interesting to see how different the Intel Tower 5i compares to the AMD Tower 5. I just paid 1100 for a Tower 5 with a 3700x, rtx 2060, 512gb nvme 4.0 ssd, and 16gb of RAM. The case has a mesh front, top and bottom for the power supply. Side panel is real glass too. Only gripes I have with it is it came with basically the same cpu cooler that Dell G5 had and the power supply is only 400 watts. The interesting thing about the cpu coolers in the Intel and AMD Legion towers is they mount to an Intel 115X backplate so it isn't as easy to replace the cpu coolers. I have an Artic Freezer e34 esports DUO coming today because they mount right up to the stock backplate without any issues. My 3700x was running in the low 80s while gaming with the crap cooler. Those rgb towers are a lot better Legion cpu coolers but they only come in certain models. They also cost 63 from Lenovo and are constantly on back order. Not worth it when the Artic cooker was 48 on Amazon and will work better.
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DeeDee
The only real complains I really hear Steve abt. is the case and just 1 stick of ram and some bloatware. The case is highly debateable (I don't like it either). The LED connection is just completely nitpicking. The bloatware is easily removed including that macafee service. The Vantage software is somewhat helpful for getting some newer drivers and/or bios and showing the warranty left. I doubt changing the 650W PSU for a 500/550W or lower will make a difference in costs as Lenovo probably use them across many pre-built cases. I bet a lot of ppl. who need more ram will change it for better like a 2 stick kit 16GB ram and that is fairly easy done by anyone (there is always someway to find to help out with that). Buying ram is way cheaper than having pre-installed by any of those pre-built companies. For a first time buyer this is a decent PC built. Same counts for ABS and Cyberpower. Don't forget the whole system is highly customisable, even by the first time buyer at a later date.
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The only real complains I really hear Steve abt. is the case and just 1 stick of ram and some bloatware. The case is highly debateable (I don't like it either). The LED connection is just completely nitpicking. The bloatware is easily removed including that macafee service. The Vantage software is somewhat helpful for getting some newer drivers and/or bios and showing the warranty left. I doubt changing the 650W PSU for a 500/550W or lower will make a difference in costs as Lenovo probably use them across many pre-built cases. I bet a lot of ppl. who need more ram will change it for better like a 2 stick kit 16GB ram and that is fairly easy done by anyone (there is always someway to find to help out with that). Buying ram is way cheaper than having pre-installed by any of those pre-built companies. For a first time buyer this is a decent PC built. Same counts for ABS and Cyberpower. Don't forget the whole system is highly customisable, even by the first time buyer at a later date.
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Morten
I bought a similar Lenovo with a B550 board and a 3700x. It should never have had that 3700x. I swapped that into another ITX rig as I bought it for its GPU, CPU, ram and nvme drive, it was honestly a great machine once I got a 3600 into it. Swapped ram from 3200 c18-21-21 to 2666 jdec specced also from a Lenovo that ended up running slightly better timings at 2666. The ram from the machine ran 3600 c16-19-19 with no issues in another machine. The GPU was a MSI rtx 3070. All in all a great little matx machine. I swapped a watercooled Gtx 1080 into it and swapped the 1tb nvme for 250gb and a 3600 CPU into it and it turned into a great little machine for someone and I got some nice parts.
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I bought a similar Lenovo with a B550 board and a 3700x. It should never have had that 3700x. I swapped that into another ITX rig as I bought it for its GPU, CPU, ram and nvme drive, it was honestly a great machine once I got a 3600 into it. Swapped ram from 3200 c18-21-21 to 2666 jdec specced also from a Lenovo that ended up running slightly better timings at 2666. The ram from the machine ran 3600 c16-19-19 with no issues in another machine. The GPU was a MSI rtx 3070. All in all a great little matx machine. I swapped a watercooled Gtx 1080 into it and swapped the 1tb nvme for 250gb and a 3600 CPU into it and it turned into a great little machine for someone and I got some nice parts.
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Krydolph
I had a friend buy a Lenovo earlier this year. It was the AMD one.
It had the same CPU cooler as the Dell one you showed in the video. So I had him buy a decent towercooler too. And first thing we did was open it up and replace the CPU cooler.
Besides that, I think he is happy with it. A bit more expensive I would think though. 3700X and 3070. But it was the only way to get a GPU in any sort of resonable time, and the entire system was barely more expensive than if you had to buy a scalped GPU.
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I had a friend buy a Lenovo earlier this year. It was the AMD one.
It had the same CPU cooler as the Dell one you showed in the video. So I had him buy a decent towercooler too. And first thing we did was open it up and replace the CPU cooler.
Besides that, I think he is happy with it. A bit more expensive I would think though. 3700X and 3070. But it was the only way to get a GPU in any sort of resonable time, and the entire system was barely more expensive than if you had to buy a scalped GPU.
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gummy227
I actually have a AMD version of this system (yes with the Mesh front) and it's pretty shocking how different the AMD is to this one, Personally the Legion Tower T5 is a lot better in just the Case alone, spec wise they are pretty similar and yes the power supply is pretty weak (400 wat), but I've had no issues in the 5 months I've had it so far, and it was only about 900ish dollars so you can use the money you save to buy a second stick of ram and a better power supply over the 5i
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I actually have a AMD version of this system (yes with the Mesh front) and it's pretty shocking how different the AMD is to this one, Personally the Legion Tower T5 is a lot better in just the Case alone, spec wise they are pretty similar and yes the power supply is pretty weak (400 wat), but I've had no issues in the 5 months I've had it so far, and it was only about 900ish dollars so you can use the money you save to buy a second stick of ram and a better power supply over the 5i
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Chris
I have the Lenovo Legion 7i Tower and I absolutely love the PC. It was more than double to price of this system but it is worth every penny to me. 3 120mm intake fans on the front with a mesh panel and a 240mm AIO exhaust. This cooling setup works well with the 10900k and RTX 2080 Super and keeps temps reasonably low! Also came with 32GB of RAM (2x16), 1TB NVMe SSD and a 1TB HDD. When I bought the PC I also got a nice 15% cash back from Rakuten so it was an even better deal!!!
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I have the Lenovo Legion 7i Tower and I absolutely love the PC. It was more than double to price of this system but it is worth every penny to me. 3 120mm intake fans on the front with a mesh panel and a 240mm AIO exhaust. This cooling setup works well with the 10900k and RTX 2080 Super and keeps temps reasonably low! Also came with 32GB of RAM (2x16), 1TB NVMe SSD and a 1TB HDD. When I bought the PC I also got a nice 15% cash back from Rakuten so it was an even better deal!!!
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DebaucheryWulf
Just ordered my first custom pre-built. (Built all of my other pc s) After looking around I settled on MainGear. They had the best prices for the products. The only real downside I noticed when ordering is their cases all seem to be closed front panels so I will be transplanting the system into a new chassis immediately after initial boot and testing. Let s hope 4k gets me some good build quality and support lol. Anyway, I love this series guys, keep it up.
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Just ordered my first custom pre-built. (Built all of my other pc s) After looking around I settled on MainGear. They had the best prices for the products. The only real downside I noticed when ordering is their cases all seem to be closed front panels so I will be transplanting the system into a new chassis immediately after initial boot and testing. Let s hope 4k gets me some good build quality and support lol. Anyway, I love this series guys, keep it up.
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Greg
I've never bought a new prebuilt but I have bought used prebuilts I found deals on during this past year or so with GPUs being so high, CP 10700k/2070S, iBP 10700k/2070S & sky tech 3600/1660ti. All surprisingly good except the iBP had no air coming in, just choked off, it even had a 280mm Aio yet the CPU was reaching high 80s C, I put in different case as my friend wanted it. The sky tech was the best built all around tho. I'd like to see a sky tech tested.
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I've never bought a new prebuilt but I have bought used prebuilts I found deals on during this past year or so with GPUs being so high, CP 10700k/2070S, iBP 10700k/2070S & sky tech 3600/1660ti. All surprisingly good except the iBP had no air coming in, just choked off, it even had a 280mm Aio yet the CPU was reaching high 80s C, I put in different case as my friend wanted it. The sky tech was the best built all around tho. I'd like to see a sky tech tested.
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Steven
Fun fact for gamers nexus, the reason some cases don't have a bottom grill or opening for the power supply has to do with fire safety. The idea is that if the power supply fails and catches fire, the debris and bits that are on fire can't fall out of the case and spread the fire further, but should be contained within the case. Don't know if that was the idea philosophy here, but at least some antec cases in the past have done this.
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Fun fact for gamers nexus, the reason some cases don't have a bottom grill or opening for the power supply has to do with fire safety. The idea is that if the power supply fails and catches fire, the debris and bits that are on fire can't fall out of the case and spread the fire further, but should be contained within the case. Don't know if that was the idea philosophy here, but at least some antec cases in the past have done this.
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