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Gaming PCs not dead yet, says Lenovo

Lenovo's IdeaCentre K430 waves the gaming PC flag high.

Rich Brown Former Senior Editorial Director - Home and Wellness
Rich was the editorial lead for CNET's Home and Wellness sections, based in Louisville, Kentucky. Before moving to Louisville in 2013, Rich ran CNET's desktop computer review section for 10 years in New York City. He has worked as a tech journalist since 1994, covering everything from 3D printing to Z-Wave smart locks.
Expertise Smart home, Windows PCs, cooking (sometimes), woodworking tools (getting there...)
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Rich Brown

LAS VEGAS--"Although the discussion currently is centered on mobility, thin and light notebooks, and all-in-ones, the traditional desktop still hasn't entirely lost its relevance."

Lenovo takes a traditional approach with its IdeaCentre K430 gaming desktop. Lenovo

That quote comes from Lenovo's media brief for its new IdeaCentre K430 gaming desktop. While hard-core PC gamers likely never looked up long enough from Skyrim to question the health of their hobby, this system and HP's Phoenix desktop come as a surprise amid the anticipated parade of ultrabooks.

The starting price for the K430 is $599, but that's hardly the target price Lenovo has in mind. You can add a pair of AMD or Nvidia graphics cards. Memory goes up to a beefy 32GB. For hard drives, you can opt for 4TB of total storage via a pair of drives in RAID O mode, or you can mix it up with a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD).

Lenovo offers no specifics other than "Intel Core" processors. Given the May release window, and the 32GB RAM option, expect at least updated versions of Intel's four- and six-core Core i7 3000 series and accompanying X79 chipset. Ivy Bridge chips are also a possibility.