With many of the components used to build new systems dropping in price (except graphics), it’s a great time to build a new gaming PC. Going pre-built is a way forward for those who want to plug in and play without all the hassle, and there are plenty of options on the market from entry-level to high-end. One such example of bridging the gap and going in-between is Lenovo with their latest LOQ Tower 17IRB8 gaming system.
Lenovo is more prominent in its notebook offerings, but at CES 2023 it unveiled a range of pre-built Legion gaming PCs aimed at the high-end market. For those who don’t have the money but want to play his latest PC titles, Lenovo has a new game-focused series he called LOQ. Lenovo LOQ is targeting the mid-range market and has launched the first new pre-assembled gaming PC in the series, the Lenovo LOQ Tower 17IRB8.
The LOQ Tower 17IRB8 is more affordable and mid-range capable for most users, supporting up to Intel Core i7-13700 and customizable. The LOQ Tower 17IR8B doesn’t feature an overclockable K-series chip, but the slim 17-liter blue-accented black micro-ATX frame paired with more affordable parts makes for a cooling can be a problem. Alternatively, the LOQ Tower 17RB8 can choose up to Intel’s 65 W Core i7-13700 processor, paired with 32 GB of DDR4-3200 memory.
Focusing on graphics support, Lenovo touts NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 4000 series graphics, but doesn’t mention which cards it supports. This will likely be at the GeForce RTX 4070 level or around the RTX 4070 Ti. As for storage, the Lenovo LOQ 17RB8 can have up to 1 TB of PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 and two 2 TB SATA HDDs, but this adds an extra cost to the overall price.
In terms of I/O options, the Lenovo LOQ 17RB8 includes four USB 2.0, one 2.5 GbE, one HDMI 1.4b video output, and one green 3.5 mm audio output jack. The front panel has one 3.5 mm combo audio jack, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C port and two USB 3.2 Type-A ports. LOQ 17RB8 also features Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, supporting 6 GHz band and BT 5.2 devices.
Like all of Lenovo’s Legion desktops, it comes standard with Windows 11 pre-installed, and 3 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is even better. The Lenovo LOQ 17RB8 starts at $980 and won’t hit North American retailers until the fall.
