Lenovo IdeaCentre Y900
Well, it’s an OK idea...
Lenovo may be the largest PC seller in the world, but it isn’t a household name as far as PC gaming is concerned. The Chinese company wants to change that, especially as it pertains to the desktop space. Enter the Ideacentre Y900. The mid-tier desktop line features an edgy and aggressive design, but doesn’t look too gaudy. A good Ideacentre or just a bad idea? Read on...
The Ideacentre Y900 uses a mid-tower chassis, and has some sharp edges, fancy red lighting and a carbon fiber aesthetic, which gives the package some pizazz.
The side doors open unconventionally, and took us a second to figure out. Not only is there a latch on the back that you have to release, but there’s an unlock button on top for the side doors. Once you open up the case, you’ll notice that the guts include an Intel Core i7-6700K CPU, 8GB RAM, and a GeForce GTX 970. While we would have preferred 16GB RAM, there are two empty DIMM slots if you want to add more. The specs also make this VR-ready.
For storage, the Y900 comes with a 2TB hybrid HDD, but there’s no SSD in this base $2,999 model. You can upgrade to a 256GB SSD (along with a GTX 980 graphics card and 4GB of RAM), but that’ll set you back an extra grand. For cooling, the Y900 uses an interesting red-glowing air cooler that we’ve never seen before, coupled with a glowing red 12cm exhaust fan at the rear of the case. Everything is powered via an 80-plus bronze certified 625-watt PSU.
When it came time to use that firepower, the Y900 performed modestly compared to our APC Labs Test system. To be fair, it has three GTX 980s and a 5960X CPU. In single-threaded CPU tests, performance was roughly on par. When it came to the multithread- heavy x264 test, however, it performed 43% slower. Ouch! But we are comparing an octa-core CPU against a quad-core one here.
In graphics, the delta was even bigger, as you’d expect. Across the board, we saw a delta of 56–68%. This means you’ll be able to max-out almost everything at 1080p, and even some games at 1440p, but it’s far from a 4K rig. For fun, we also ran the SteamVR benchmark, and the Y900 garnered a 6.4 fidelity score, which just barely puts it in the ‘high’ tier (‘very high’ is the best). This means it should be able to play most games on high in VR, but don’t expect to max-out settings.
While our unit costs $2,999, which is expensive for a system with these specs, it also came with a mechanical keyboard, gaming mouse and USB headset. The keyboard uses Kailh switches that feel like red/ brown ones; they aren’t super-loud, like blue or green switches. The headset uses a USB interface, feels super-comfortable, and sounds competent. It also glows and has a removable mic. We weren’t as enamored with the mouse, however, which is a little too bulky for our taste.
While the Y900 isn’t a bad starter kit for the aspiring PC gamer, and does come with decent peripherals.
There is a price premium to pay, especially if you have your own gaming gear, so it’s up to you whether this is what you want. This isn’t a great Ideacentre, but you could do worse.