Lenovo is definitely hitting very hard when it comes to their own custom gaming machines. They’re leveraging the entire supply chain that they control in order to produce unique, powerful machines that have exceptional form to go along with the substance they’ve put inside. The Lenovo IdeaCenter Y710 Cube is a design that fits with their mission of providing that experience, and it’s packed to the literal gills with all the components you would need for a great gaming experience. Even the handle, where such an element may usually detract or become the focus of a machine, blends into the overall fascia and is utterly unobtrusive. So what’s it like to play with and on the Y710 Cube? Quite delightful, actually.
Lenovo’s Y710 Cube is an attractive mITX pre-built option
Miniature PC’s still remain a more niche market, with the overall trend going more towards building, and having, large machines with plenty of space for cooling, storage and GPUs. Sometimes, though, you don’t need or maybe even have the room for such a build. Or perhaps your personal taste prefers something more wee, unassuming (arguably the Y710 isn’t exactly unassuming) or that can be tucked away out of sight. Such machines do not have to be less powerful than larger counterparts, aside from the number of GPUs one can connect. There are plenty of good reasons to want a small system, though personal preference generally places a large role. For those that wish a pre-built system, Lenovo offers a good looking chassis with the ability to has components that are decidedly high-end and even potentially mildly overclockable as well. Here, as with all their systems, Lenovo has applied their custom building expertise to the gaming market with a design that’s functional as well as attractive. Though cable management options seem to be lacking.
Where the Y900 was good looking, but not magnificent, the design language is simply superb when it’s scaled down to this size. The basic shape and outline seem to remind me of a Cylon from the newer Battlestar Galactica somehow. It’s sleek, it’s “gamer” but it also somehow makes an argument for being acceptable in any setting. Like business casual, except with PC hardware instead. The outer shell of the Y710 Cube is incredibly attractive, and though the handle might not get use outside of moving it around, it’s a nice touch that could fill a potential role as a mobile LAN machine. Do most gamers these days even have experience bringing massive computers to an event to play for hours with friends and strangers alike? Probably not. Regardless, Lenovo has a fantastic looking system.
Review Unit Specifications
The unit that I received still had a Skylake i7-6700 non-k revision CPU inside, though that isn’t necessarily a detriment. That and it can now bet ad with comparable Kaby Lake CPUs for even more performance. Though it is small, the Y710 Cube does not lack for power. The power supply can support non-overclocked K-series CPUs and non-overclocked GPUs up to a 1080 Ti. We’ve been provided with a Founder’s Edition GTX 1080, though there’s plenty of room for longer and slightly wider after market cards as well.
Lenovo IdeaCenter Y710 Cube |
|
|---|---|
Processor | 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-6700 Processor |
Chipset | H170 |
Operating System | Windows 10 64-bit |
Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 |
Memory | 16.0GB DDR4 2133 MHz |
Storage | 1TB 5400 RPM+128GB PCIe SSD |
Wireless Connectivity | Killer AC Wireless (2x2) |
Interface | Rear 2 x USB 3.0 2 x USB 2.0 1 x PS2 1 x Optical Audio Port Rear 2 x USB 3.0 1 x Headphone 1 x Microphone In |
| 450W | |
Dimensions | 15.48" x 9.93" x 12.38" |
Weight | 16.3 pounds |
Manufacturer Warranty | 1 Year |
Pricing | $2199.99 |
Chassis
The chassis does have an overall “gaming” look to it, though it’s actually very good looking. It’s sleek, with beautiful lines and lighting that’s not unattractive at all. I’m usually not a fan of the ostentatious use of lighting that seems to be the norm these days, but here it’s less outrageous and more an integrated feature that doesn’t outright distract. Perhaps one negative as a result of being a small form-factor design is that there’s less room for storage devices and even cooling, though you should understand that as you make the purchase. For gaming use, this isn’t an issue. The attractive design is continued on the inside with a red motherboard made by Lenovo themselves. Inside it’s easy to get around, access everything and replace storage.
Everything is user replaceable, should you so choose. Though professionally built, even the likes of Lenovo have had trouble hiding or managing the cables inside. There’s little room to hide or route cables which means they’ll inevitably simply be in your way. This doesn’t seem to negatively affect temperatures too much, though of course we’d wish for some solution on Lenovo’s part to tidy the insides up.
Connectivity
There is a wealth of connectivity options both on the rear panel and on the front panel, accessible on the front top. Two USB 3.0 ports combined with a headphone out and microphone in.
Around back we have two more USB 3.0 ports and four USB 2.- ports. For network connectivity there’s a Killer E2500 LAN. There’s also the usual collection of PS/2, VGA, DVI-D as well as an HDMI out port.
