Overclocking and Gaming-Oriented Features

Keyboard and Mouse

Lenovo recognizes the close relationship input devices and gaming share, so the X700 ships with a keyboard and mouse that are both several cuts higher up the ones often-bundled with mainstream PCs.

The X700's 9-button mouse, the L251G, is both comfortable and extremely customizable. Our review unit didn't actually ship with the total driver suite installed, and then I grabbed information technology from Lenovo's website. With the full software, every aspect of the mouse can be tweaked. Mouse highlights include braided cabling, big depression-friction pads, upgradeable firmware, LED color and pulse customization, adjustable DPI, push remapping and weight adjustment. Yep, the L251G includes a weight kit. It seems the L251G is intended for righties; notwithstanding, information technology suited my left manus nearly equally well.

If you don't mind the absence of dedicated macro keys, Lenovo's back-lit "Black Silk" keyboard is solid for both gaming and typing. Information technology'south membrane-based, merely mechanical snobs aside, the fundamental travel is skilful and the key response is business firm. Overall, the device is solid with a satisfying size and heft. At that place aren't many bells and whistles on the Black Silk, but at that place are some tastefully-inserted media keys on the upper-right above the numpad. For those of you who aren't afraid to look carpal tunnel in the middle, in that location are also rear feet which can tilt the keyboard to one of two possible heights. Users will be pleased to find a dial which can adjust the effulgence (and turn off) of the bluish backlight, simply won't find the same level of granular configurability here as its mousey companion (e.g. near-infinite backlight colors, LED pulsing or cardinal re-mapping). The keyboard'southward backlight can exist ready to one of iii colors though: bluish, majestic or red. There is a dedicated media key that toggles between these colors.

OneKey Overclocking

I of the Erazer X700'due south primary selling points is its "OneKey" overclocking feature. With OneKey, gamers can toggle processor overclocking by pushing the big "Overclock" button located but higher up the engin… errr… power push.

The CPU in our review unit had a default multiplier x36. The one-click overclock setting, past default, raised that to x41 which yielded a 500MHz (or about 14%) bump for all CPU cores. For the more adventurous, this tin can be adjusted upward to x43 giving owners a 700MHz (~17% increase). For the record, the system remained 100% stable at x43 (4100MHz). Prissy.

While OneKey overclocking is a most welcome feature, information technology's crippled by a lack of adjustability. The multiplier can be prepare anywhere up to x43, but that's it -- in that location are no options to manually configure voltages, charabanc speeds, memory timings or a way to bypass its artificial x43 bulwark. Enthusiasts -- especially the gaming kind -- will likely find this irritating.

Overclocking on the X700 is actually controlled by the Erazer Control Center, which is a Windows-based utility that provides an elegant read-out for system information like temperatures, part numbers and speeds. The utility does what its supposed to and even looks nice doing it, but doesn't provide whatever fine-tuning outside multiplier adjustments.

In the search for more overclocking options, I discovered the system BIOS besides fails to provide much flexibility. By the mode, the organization BIOS can exist accessed past holding down the F1 fundamental while "starting the engine" (sigh) on your X700. The system does not brand this readily apparent though.

One more shortcoming to befall the overclocking push is the need to reboot between multiplier changes. As such, this is a characteristic which owners are likely set and forget. Nonetheless, having what amounts to a +700MHz turbo push button can merely be a plus, right? Right.

Note that the overclocking feature doesn't straight enhance GPU operation, which is a shame as the X700's weakest link is its Geforce GTX 660 -- a reasonably capable merely middling-tier graphics menu. Running demanding titles at loftier resolutions with their highest quality settings illustrates this deficiency: a 17-per centum crash-land in CPU performance oft shows less than one-percent difference in FPS.

Cooling and Noise

One possible reason Lenovo has comfortably embraced overclocking is the inclusion of its own maintenance-gratis liquid cooling organisation. Conceivably, a liquid cooler offers some extra oomph when it comes to shedding thermal energy quickly and the ready works well on the X700.

For airflow, Lenovo has nestled a 120mm rear frazzle fan (Model: AVC DATA1225B2S, ball-bearing) nestled behind the CPU libation'southward radiator block. Additionally, there'south a brushless 120mm intake fan up forepart and a small (40mm) fan mounted atop the CPU's voltage regulator… oh, and a pocket-size chipset fan as well.

With FurMark and Prime95 doing their matter for several hours, the X700 proved itself rock solid while overclocked to 4.1GHz. I recorded a max CPU core temp of 73C and a max GPU temp of 62C in an environment with an ambience temperature around 72F.

Subjectively, our Erazer X700 was quiet during almost activities. Around 70C though, the fans would become significantly more noticeable admitting far from unbearable. While gaming with an ambient temperature on the libation side (70F-74F), the X700 never seemed to kick on its max fan speed.

It'due south important to note that uneven and high-pitched sounds tin as well be a huge nuisance. The X700's dissonance output was largely unremarkable except at the superlative end, where it produces a louder "saw-like" sound which frequently shifted (i.e. draws your attention toward the sound) due to aggressive variable fan control. Just another nit pick.

Power Supply and Consumption

Under a relentless barrage of simultaneous burn-in testing (storage, GPU, CPU and RAM), our Erazer X700's peak power consumption was 340 watts. I should note our review machine survived an overnight torture test (about eight hours), which reflects positively on the PSU.

Our review unit of measurement shipped with a 625W ability supply from ACBel proudly donning an "80 Plus Gold" certification sticker. This should provide a comfortable margin of headroom for abuse and upgrades.

ACBel may non be a household brand, but they have a solid reputation amongst OEMs for manufacturing reliable PSUs. ACBel is also the OEM for some Cooler Primary and Gigabyte PSUs and additionally tin can be found inside diverse desktop and server systems from Apple, HP, IBM and Lenovo.

During idle, the system burned around lxxx-85 watts while low-cal usage and web browsing would crash-land that nearly 100w. Gaming and benchmark sessions were all over the identify, but 310W was common enough under typical, activity-filled gaming sessions.