The Lenovo Erazer X315 ($799.99 as tested) is an entry-level desktop PC for budding hardcore gamers. It has the performance to play strenuous gaming titles today, with features that are usually lacking in even midrange gaming rigs, like a gaming–oriented power supply, extra memory, and a discrete graphics card. The system's mix of features, performance, future-proofing, and a nice price earns the Erazer X315( at Amazon) our Editors' Choice for budget gaming desktop PCs.

Design and Features
The black-colored, angled front panel of the Erazer X315 and matching mouse instantly communicate that this isn't a utilitarian midtower for the masses. The top, angled door covers a DVD burner, while the second pops open to give you access to a headphone jack, a microphone jack, an SD card reader, and two USB 3.0 ports (one with sleep-and-charge capability). The back panel holds surround-sound audio connectors, a DisplayPort, a DVI port, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, two USB 2.0 ports, two more USB 3.0 ports, a VGA port, and the system's external Wi-Fi antenna. The faceted and blue-backlit Power button is shaped like the start button on a sports car.

Inside the chassis, you'll find a single 2TB+8GB solid-state hybrid drive (SSHD) (the 8GB SSD cache speeds operations like wake-from-sleep and reboots), along with an empty drive bay with a tool-less drive sled for another. There are three free SATA ports to service that drive, as well as a single DIMM slot to supplement the included 12GB of system memory. There's one PCIe x1 slot free, but since the system already comes with Bluetooth 4.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and 802.11ac Wi-Fi, we're not sure what you'd need it for. This is still a much more expandable chassis than the one on the Alienware X51-R2($499.90 at Newegg), the Maingear Spark, or the former Editors' Choice entry-level gaming desktop, the iBuypower Revolt A960 (AMD A10-6800K)( at Amazon).

The system has a 450-watt power supply with two 6-pin power connectors. The included 2GB AMD Radeon R9 260 graphics card only uses one of the power connectors, which begs the question: Can you put a more powerful GPU in later down the line? The answer is yes, with caveats. Nvidia's GeForce GTX 980($569.99 at Amazon), for instance, requires two 6-pin power connectors, and a 500-watt power supply. I have a feeling that the Nvidia GTX 980 card will boot fine, but may run into power problems and clock itself down if you tax it.

The chassis is vented on both sides, but you'd hardly be able to hear the fan noise from the system, particularly after you've booted it up. The fans are much quieter than the banshee-like Maingear Spark, for example.

The SSHD has plenty of free space out of the box, but there are a few pre-loaded apps, including Daily Motion, Evernote, Google Play Music, High Tail, McAfee Security Center, Power DVD, TripAdvisor, The Weather Channel, and Zinio. Thanks to AMD, the system comes with a download code for three AAA titles like Just Cause 2, Sleeping Dogs, and Tomb Raider. Though these are aging titles, it still means you're all set to start playing pretty serious games, as long as you have an Internet connection. The system comes with a one-year warranty.

Performance
The Erazer X315 comes with a 3.7GHz AMD A10-7850K quad-core processor and the aforementioned AMD Radeon R9 260 graphics card. With this combination, the system excels at playing 3D games. It ran the Heaven test at a rock-steady 60 frames per second (fps) and the Valley test at an adequate 38fps, both at medium quality. That's smoother than the Maingear Spark (42fps on Heaven; 31fps on Valley), and splits the wins with the Alienware X51-R2 (40fps Heaven; 50fps Valley). The system also did well on the 3DMark Cloud Gate (9,332 points) and Fire Strike Extreme (1,752) compared with the competition. It's certainly faster overall on the 3D and gaming tests than the multimedia-oriented Asus A70AD-US003S.

Multimedia tests were a little slower than the competition: 3 minutes 8 seconds on the Handbrake test and 6:35 on the Photoshop CS6 test. In contrast, the Intel-powered Alienware X51-R2 was about twice as quick (1:27 on Handbrake; 3:25 on CS6), although the AMD A8-powered Maingear Spark brought up the rear by a wide margin (6:37 on Handbrake; 9:54 on CS6). The Erazer X315 was left behind on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test (2,500 points), but keep in mind that you're not buying a gaming PC to do day-to-day work. The system is sufficient for the Web surfing and file downloading that you're going to be doing before and during your game sessions.

The Lenovo Erazer X315 is a very good entry-level gaming rig with the power to run today's AAA games at moderate-quality levels. It's like a set of training wheels on a bike or the tutorial levels on a game: It's powerful enough to get you started and allows you to gauge your interest in hardcore gaming. The things that put it ahead of the competition are its nice price, extra features, and expansion room. Its list price is only $100 more than the Maingear Spark, and soundly trumps that rig on gaming performance and expandability. It's $100 less expensive than the iBuypower Revolt A960 (AMD A10-6800K), has a newer, more efficient A10 processor, twice the hard drive space, 50 percent more memory, and ultimately more space for future upgrades. With all those in its favor, the Lenovo Erazer X315 is our Editors' Choice for budget gaming desktop PCs.

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Further Reading

• Readers' Choice Awards 2020: Desktop PCs for Home and Gaming
• Business Choice Awards 2020: Desktop PCs
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• Report: Several ARM Macs Expected in 2021
• Zotac's Ultra-Thin Fanless Zbox Edge Launches