Lenovo Legion T730 review: Core i7-8700K and Nvidia GTX graphics at a reasonable price (2023)

Like the rest of this year's Lenovo Legion lineup, the T730 is built withTower Zeszłoroczny Legion Y720The new design has advantages and disadvantages. It now has a clear panel on the side so you can see the RGB lights inside the unit, but it has fewer USB ports on the front and is harder to service (to be clear, it's not hard to remove, but last year's model had a toolless design).

The kit Lenovo sent me included an Intel Core i7-8700K processor and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card. I've found this to be more than enough for almost any task I do (more on that in the performance section) but if that doesn't is enough, you can handle it with a Core i9-9900K processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 graphics. No, there is no middle ground.

In my time with it, I found the Legion T730 to be an excellent value machine. Here is our review.

Glasses

As I mentioned, there is a model with a Core i9-9900K and GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card for $2359.99. It comes with a 625W PSU and 130W liquid cooling, everything else being the same.

Work

The Lenovo Legion T730 is a big change from last year's Legion Y720 Tower (yes, the naming scheme has changed too). One of last year's biggest strengths was toolless fixes and upgrades, and this year that idea has been dropped. The side panels are removed with two thumbs, and almost everything inside, except storage, is held in place with Philips Phillips head screws.

I really have no problem with this idea. After all, if you're ever going to take your computer apart, you probably have a screwdriver. It's just a major design change as it was the headliner last year.

Another thing I would add about expandability is that there are only two RAM slots. The machine supports 64GB DDR4 but only comes with 16GB. If you want to get the most out of it, you'll want to ditch the RAM that comes with it and get two 32GB sticks.

One design change I don't care for is that there are only two USB Type-A ports on the front of the device, down from four last year. Both ports are USB 3.1 Gen 1, and it should be noted that last year's Y720 had two ports on the front that were USB 2.0. I don't mind giving up USB 2.0, but I'd rather have four USB 3.1 ports than get rid of the other two altogether. The ports on the front of your computer can be used to connect peripherals, and if you already have an Xbox controller and a USB headset plugged in, there's no room for anything else.

Lenovo has also ditched the SD card slot, leaving only a 3.5mm headphone port and a 3.5mm microphone jack.

On the back, you'll find six more USB Type-A ports, two of which are USB 2.0 and the other four are USB 3.1 Gen 1 with 5Gbps support. There's also an RJ-45 Ethernet port and a 3.5mm audio output. On the GTX 1060 graphics card there are three ports DisplayPort, HDMI and DVI.

Below is a bar designed for cable management. Simply unroll the strap and cover it with the cable. Personally, I'm an under-the-desk guy when it comes to towers, so all my cables run through my desk anyway.

There is a handle on the top of the machine for easy transport. The whole kit weighs just over 26kg, so feel free to take it with you if you want. It is quite light.

The coolest part of the design is the transparent bezel on the side and the grill on the front that lets you see the RGB lighting effects inside the machine. This is definitely one of the more interesting design features. When you turn off the lights in a room, it looks like a light show is going on.

performance and price

My main desktop has an Intel Core i7-7700 processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card, and 48GB of DDR4 RAM. Stepping up to a GTX 1060 and 16GB of RAM might not seem appealing, but I was pleasantly surprised by the performance. The Legion T730 handled almost everything I threw at it, it just choked a bit when I tried to edit 4K 60fps video.

The included Core i7-8700K processor is a hexa-core processor with a TDP of 95W, higher than the quad-core processor of the previous generation. The "K" suffix means you can overclock it and feel the performance improvement.

If you're wondering whether you should build your own computer or buy one, the CPU costs around $370 and you'll also need to spend around $100 for the motherboard. Also, a 16GB DDR4 2666 unit costs about $130, while Nvidia's GTX 1060 costs $299. You can get a 128GB PCIe SSD for less than $40 (although you might want a larger SSD) and a 1TB hard drive for around $50. All for less than $1,000, and that's not counting the extras Lenovo shipped with the computer.

The main games I play on the Legion T730 are:Forza Horizon 4because that's what I like right now and it handles 4K 75 fps well. I have played similar games tooStar Trek onlineIQuantum break, each time I increased the resolution and frame rate to maximum. The monitors connected are a 27-inch Acer Nitro 1080p monitor and a 27-inch LG 4K monitor, both connected via DisplayPort.

Of course, I also use it for work as it has been my main desktop for the past few weeks. This means simple work in Photoshop, video editing in Premiere Pro, and even dubbing video in Adobe Media Encoder while editing more video in Premiere. As I said before, with the exception of 4K 60fps video processing, it works like a dream in most cases andespeciallyWhile editing and dubbing 4K 60 fps video at the same time. It takes about an hour to create a 20 minute 4K 60fps video, compared to about half an hour on my average computer.

For benchmarking, I used PCMark 8, which has three tests: Home, Creativity, and Work. Home tests test common tasks like web browsing, video chatting, casual gaming, and more.

As you can see, the Legion T730 performs quite well compared to others on the market. The next step is a creative test that tests GPU-intensive tasks such as video editing and popular games.

Finally, job tests test productivity tasks such as typing and spreadsheets.

The Lenovo Legion T730 performs well in benchmark tests, but what really counts is real-world performance. I can say that I am completely satisfied with the performance as it has been used for everything for several weeks.

software

In the last year or so, Lenovo has consolidated all of its proprietary software into one application called Lenovo Vantage. There used to be apps for updating drivers, Lenovo Nerve Center for changing hardware settings, etc. Now you can use Vantage to update drivers, change RGB lighting, overclock your CPU and more.

As you might expect, there are plenty of options in the lighting department. You can choose from six preset colors or choose a custom color. You can set the lights to blink, "breathe," "wave" and more.

Another thing about the Lenovo Vantage app isNew Lenovo Legion Play storeThe company says it will review games thoroughly so you don't have to pay for an "incomplete, failed" demo. The Legion Gaming Store is also online so you can play purchased games on all devices, not just Legion Gaming PCs.

The Legion T730 also offers Dolby Atmos for any device plugged into the 3.5mm audio jack (sorry USB headphone users), which means there's a Dolby Atmos app. You can set it to optimize for movies, music, games and speech, or give it custom settings. There's also a dynamic option that tries to decide what you're doing and optimizes it.

Another app to look out for is Nvidia GeForce Experience. You can download the latest Nvidia GeForce drivers here.

Mouse and keyboard

Like almost all gaming PCs, the Legion T730 comes with a mouse and keyboard. These appear to be the same units that shipped with last year's Legion Y720 turret.

The peripherals are wired, which is exactly what you'd expect from a gaming PC. After all, even a momentary Bluetooth connection delay is excessive when playing games, and if the connection drops, it can cause serious problems.

It's all pretty basic, and if you're a serious gamer, you'll probably want to buy a new mouse and keyboard. In fact, the keyboard isn't even backlit, so you can forget about any RGB lighting. In general use, I found typing to be okay, but the keys were a little too stiff for comfort.

when last yearI reviewed the Legion Y920 tower, which comes with a mechanical switch keyboard and a Legion Gaming Precision mouse, both high-end gaming peripherals. When Lenovo introduced this year's Legion PCs, it omitted the 900 series, which may be coming later, though it appears to have been replaced by the 700 series offered in high-end SKUs.

Note that the Legion T730 only has two SKUs. One has a Core i7-8700K processor and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, and the other has a Core i9-9900K processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080. The latter model can be thought of as the T930. I'm wondering if there are other models with a different peripheral and I'm trying to get Lenovo to send me one. He looks like a beast.

But the good news is that the Legion T730 is very affordable, so it's no problem if the peripherals in the box aren't that exciting. There are many third party device markets to choose from.

at the end

The Lenovo Legion T730 is a mix of improvements and returns to last year's Y720 Tower model. All in all, this is a great machine with great performance and value for money. The lighting feature definitely has a feel-good factor and comes with common sense features like straps and carrying handles for cable management.

I don't really care about the front of the ports my computer chooses, as I often use those ports for peripherals that I don't plug in all the time, as well as charging devices. I also miss the SD card reader, because it's an easy way to transfer photos from the camera. As for expandability, I wish it had more than two RAM slots. With four slots, you can buy cheaper 16GB memory cards and go up.

However, when it comes to desktop computers, especially those designed for gaming, performance is paramount. This thing should work right out of the box; otherwise there is no point in buying a ready-made machine. It really works like a champ. I think $1429.99 is a good deal and you can always start with what you have and upgrade parts later.