Lenovo LOQ, Ryzen 7 8745HX, 16GB, 1TB SSD, RTX 5060, Luna Grey

The Lenovo LOQ Tower pairs a Ryzen 7 8745HX with an RTX 5060 for solid 1080p and 1440p gaming. The 1TB NVMe SSD and Windows 11 Pro are nice inclusions, and the port selection is genuinely impressive. The 500W PSU and 16GB of RAM are the main limitations for future upgrades. It's a good buy if the price is right, especially for a ready-to-go gaming desktop.

The Ryzen 7 8745HX sits at the 72nd percentile for CPUs in our database, which puts it in the strong category. It's a mobile-derived chip, which is a bit unusual in a desktop tower, but that's not a knock against it. The Zen 4 architecture with 8 cores and 16 threads means it handles gaming and light productivity without breaking a sweat. The 5.1GHz boost clock gives it plenty of headroom for single-threaded tasks, which is where most games still live. You won't be rendering 8K video on this thing, but for gaming and everyday multitasking, it's more than enough.

The RTX 5060 with 8GB of GDDR7 is the star of the show here. It lands at the 79th percentile for GPUs, which is well above average. That 8GB of VRAM is the new baseline for modern gaming, and GDDR7 is a meaningful step up from the GDDR6 we saw in the previous generation. In real terms, you're looking at smooth 1080p gaming at high settings in pretty much anything, and 1440p is very doable if you're willing to tweak a few settings. The 16GB of DDR5 RAM is adequate, though it's the weakest link in the chain at the 47th percentile. It's fine for gaming today, but you might feel the pinch in a couple of years if you're the type who keeps 40 Chrome tabs open while gaming. The 1TB NVMe SSD is solid at the 70th percentile, giving you fast load times and enough room for a decent game library.

The most interesting comparison here is against the HP OMEN GT16-0364 and the MSI Aegis ZS2. Both of those are more established gaming desktop lines with stronger brand recognition and better social proof. The OMEN tends to offer more aggressive styling and sometimes better cooling, while the Aegis line from MSI often comes with higher-wattage PSUs that give you more upgrade headroom. The LOQ's 500W PSU is the limiting factor here. If you think you might want to drop in a more powerful GPU down the line, the MSI or HP might be the better long-term bet.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Apple Mac Studio M3 Ultra is a completely different beast. It's not a gaming machine in the traditional sense, and it's aimed at creators who need serious compute power. The LOQ's creator score of 61.8 out of 100 tells you it's not a workstation replacement. If you're doing heavy video editing or 3D rendering, the Mac Studio will run circles around this thing. But if you want to play games, the LOQ is the obvious choice. The Dell Aurora ACT1250 is another competitor worth mentioning, and it typically offers similar specs with Dell's more established support network. The LOQ's main advantage is likely price, assuming the GreatPriceTech markup isn't too steep.

Pricing on this specific config is a bit of a moving target since it's a third-party seller with custom upgrades. The LOQ line is Lenovo's budget gaming brand, so the base machines tend to be aggressively priced. The GreatPriceTech upgrades add value, but they also add cost. The included Dockztorm hub and the professional installation are nice perks, but you're paying for the convenience of not building it yourself.

Compared to something like the HP OMEN GT16 or the MSI Aegis ZS2, the LOQ is likely to come in cheaper while offering similar gaming performance. The RTX 5060 is the entry point for the new generation, so you're not paying a premium for a flagship GPU. The 500W PSU is a bit of a concern for future upgrades, but for the here and now, it's adequate. If you can find this config at a price that's lower than building it yourself, it's a decent deal. If it's marked up significantly, you might be better off waiting for a sale.

The Lenovo LOQ Tower is one of those machines that makes you do a double take when you look at the spec sheet. You've got a Ryzen 7 8745HX, an 8-core Zen 4 chip that boosts up to 5.1GHz, paired with an RTX 5060 and 8GB of GDDR7. That's a proper gaming setup in a mid-tower that won't eat your entire desk. And at 13.24kg, it's not exactly a featherweight, but it's not a monster either. This is the kind of PC you buy when you want solid 1080p and 1440p gaming without taking out a second mortgage.

The interesting wrinkle here is that this particular config comes from GreatPriceTech, a seller that opens the box and upgrades things before shipping. So you're getting a professionally modified machine with a 1TB NVMe SSD, 16GB of DDR5, and Windows 11 Pro. The included Dockztorm USB hub is a nice touch too, especially since the tower itself has a frankly ridiculous number of USB ports. We counted 6 USB-A ports and a USB-C on the chassis, plus the hub adds even more.

Who's this for? Someone who wants a gaming desktop that's ready to go out of the box, doesn't want to build their own, and appreciates having a warranty from the seller. The LOQ line is Lenovo's budget-friendly gaming brand, but this config punches above what you'd expect from the name. The RTX 5060 is the entry point for Nvidia's latest generation, and paired with that Ryzen chip, it's a capable little workhorse.

If you're planning to upgrade your GPU within the next couple of years, this probably isn't the machine for you. The 500W PSU is the bottleneck, and you'd need to swap it out before dropping in anything more power-hungry than the RTX 5060. At that point, you're better off building your own or looking at something like the MSI Aegis ZS2, which typically comes with more PSU headroom.

Content creators who need serious compute power should also look elsewhere. The creator score of 61.8 tells the story. This is a gaming machine first and foremost. If you're editing 4K video or doing 3D work, the Apple Mac Studio M3 Ultra or a higher-end desktop with more RAM and a beefier GPU will serve you much better. And if you're tight on space, the compact score of 22.1 is a red flag. This thing is 16.5 inches wide and 17.25 inches deep. It's not a small tower.

For a 1080p gaming setup, the Lenovo LOQ Tower is a solid pick. The RTX 5060 and Ryzen 7 8745HX combo will handle pretty much anything you throw at it at 1080p, and 1440p is very playable with some settings adjustments. The 1TB SSD is enough to get you started, and the port selection is genuinely impressive. If you're coming from an older machine or a laptop, this will feel like a massive upgrade.

But if you're the type who likes to tinker and upgrade, the 500W PSU and 16GB of RAM are going to feel limiting sooner rather than later. You'll probably want to bump the RAM to 32GB within a year or two, and the PSU will need replacing if you ever want a more powerful GPU. For a set-it-and-forget-it gaming PC, it's a good buy. For a platform to build on, it's a bit constrained. The weak social proof is also worth noting. There just aren't a lot of people talking about this specific config yet, so you're trusting the specs and the seller's reputation more than a track record of user experiences.