iBuypower Reveals Revolt 2, SFF Gaming PC With Room For More
iBuypower announced a revision of its Revolt small form factor (SFF) gaming PC. It's the Revolt 2, featuring a completely redesigned chassis and support for full-sized ATX power supplies, up to a 280 mm liquid cooling radiator, and almost any single full-sized GPU on the market today, including graphics cards with built-in, liquid-cooling radiators.
The Revolt 2 is different from other PCs currently on the market because of its custom-designed (and quite stylish, at least to my eyes) mini-ITX chassis. The case is similar to a small mid-tower chassis in size, measuring 18 x 9 x 15 inches. However, the Revolt 2 is shorter and angular than a mid-tower chassis, resulting in much less volume. Moderately configured systems weigh around 21 pounds.
iBuypower feels it has truly outdone itself with the creation of the Revolt 2. Said an iBuypower representative:
“Our engineers wanted to create a unique PC. We asked ourselves, ‘What actually makes a gaming PC a gaming PC?’ and we all came to the conclusion that it was the GPU. So we created a unique SFF that highlights the GPU. We even impressed ourselves with how amazing this thing looks, and how crazy distinct it is from other PCs on the market."
Of course, cosmetic appeal is completely subjective, but iBuypower makes a good point: The Revolt 2 is not quite like anything else we’ve seen on the market lately, outside of the somewhat-similar Alienware X51 Triad chassis, although the latter appears to be significantly larger and designed for full-sized ATX motherboards. The Revolt 2 seems to stand alone as a SFF chassis that can support some full-sized hardware.
iBuypower said the Revolt 2 can be configured with virtually any mini-ITX motherboard, although the company hasn’t made the full list of options known yet (we asked). However, we have confirmed that the company will launch the new SFF PC with several motherboard options from popular vendors, and it will also be configurable with up to 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) of DDR4 memory. This is a huge step up from the original Revolt, which offered a maximum memory configuration of 16 GB (2 x 8 GB). The rest of the specs should see the light of day come CES, where iBuypower will be showing off its new wares, including the Revolt 2.
The original Revolt’s chassis seems quite ordinary in comparison to the new version. That one also supported liquid cooling, albeit up to a single 140 mm radiator. The new Revolt 2 is custom designed from the ground up, and can be configured with up to a 280 mm radiator or a 120/120 or 140/120 mm dual-radiator setup. This is especially useful if you want to configure the system with a liquid-cooled CPU and a GPU with a built-in radiator, such as an AMD Fury X or an EVGA Hybrid-series graphics card.
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iBuypower also intends to offer the Revolt 2 with a more robust selection of both AMD and Nvidia GPUs (the former Revolt only supported up to an AMD R7 250X or an Nvidia GTX 980). This does not include dual-GPU graphics cards at the moment, but the company may evaluate including them in the future.
In addition to the beefier graphics card options, the GPU is also prominently displayed through a window on the top of the chassis. The case can even fit 2.5 and 3-slot graphics cards. The only limitation appears to be extra-wide GPUs, such as MSI Lightning and Asus Strix-edition graphics cards. These GPUs will not fit.
The Revolt 2 has space for a 3.5-inch HDD and two 2.5-inch SSDs. Depending on the motherboard used, there could also be an M.2 slot available for an additional SSD. NVMe SSDs, such as an Intel 750-series SSD, can also be installed in the 3.5-inch bay using an M.2-to-mini SAS adapter. The two 2.5-inch SSD bays are accessible behind a hinged and windowed “visor” on the front of the chassis. These ports are fully hot swappable, with pre-wired SATA extensions built right into the case.
If that wasn’t cramming enough components into a SFF PC, the Revolt 2 can also be configured with a full-sized ATX power supply, up to about 7.5-inches in length. This is much more accommodating than the previous version of the Revolt, which was limited to FSP 1U-sized PSUs. Although it’s nice to know the new Revolt 2 can support larger and more powerful supplies, such as a Corsair 1200AX, it’s not reasonable to suggest any single-GPU mini-ITX configuration would require more than 750 watts of power, no matter what is under the hood.
The Revolt 2 will be on full display at CES. If you are seeking a unique SFF gaming PC with powerful configuration options, the Revolt 2 seems worth a look.
Derek Forrest is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom’s Hardware and Tom’s IT Pro. Follow Derek Forrest on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.
Derek Forrest was a contributing freelance writer for Tom's Hardware. He covered hardware news and reviews, focusing on gaming desktops and laptops.
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AnimeMania This case has a nice Star Wars/Sci-Fi feel to it. It seems like there is plenty of room to put the components (especially if they would have mounted the AIC so that the hoses were in the back), but they chose to squeeze everything into the tightest space possible for no reason. How is the Graphics Card fan supposed to work being sandwiched between the case and the power supply. The power supply appears to be right on top of the motherboard eliminating any air CPU cooling options. Maybe a Micro ATX power supply would be a better air flow choice for customers. I wonder if they have any plans to sell the computer case separately.Reply -
dark_lord69 Reply
Article makes it sound like liquid cooling is required for this case (including the GPU)17215960 said:This case has a nice Star Wars/Sci-Fi feel to it. It seems like there is plenty of room to put the components (especially if they would have mounted the AIC so that the hoses were in the back), but they chose to squeeze everything into the tightest space possible for no reason. How is the Graphics Card fan supposed to work being sandwiched between the case and the power supply. The power supply appears to be right on top of the motherboard eliminating any air CPU cooling options. Maybe a Micro ATX power supply would be a better air flow choice for customers. I wonder if they have any plans to sell the computer case separately.
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DrakeFS ReplyArticle makes it sound like liquid cooling is required for this case (including the GPU)
As the picture shows blower type GPU, I would say that would not be the case, for this case. -
thundervore A case like this will benefit from using the EK Predator line.Reply
Think about it, Using a mono block for the motherboard, full GPU Predator block and the 240 EK Predator radiator.
The only issue here is length of tubing as thing may get a little bulky and length of the radiator :( -
Darkbreeze I'm sorry, but God that's ugly. It looks like an older Dell unit that Aerocool got a hold of and "revised", then somebody skewed it in Photoshop.Reply -
Kenneth Barker ReplyArticle makes it sound like liquid cooling is required for this case (including the GPU)
As the picture shows blower type GPU, I would say that would not be the case, for this case.
Agreed. The blower style coolers are really the only way to go in SFF. Most cases squeeze the space above and below the card pretty tight. The blower cards give the best air flow and cooling in this design cases. That, or water cooling. -
James Mason That's a pretty cool looking case. Too bad you have to buy a prebuilt PC to get it.Reply -
VaporX ReplyAgreed. The blower style coolers are really the only way to go in SFF. Most cases squeeze the space above and below the card pretty tight. The blower cards give the best air flow and cooling in this design cases. That, or water cooling.
Open air vs blower style coolers have less impact than people think. Testing I have done in house shows the impact is usually not enough to cause throttle and the small change in overall system temp results in louder systems and hotter GPU chips. The specific case of this design either cooler will be having an issue. The window is so close to the intakes that little air will pass around the card compared to a more open design and the air that does pass around has already been heated. A near perfect mod for this design would be to replace the window with a nice mesh grill to allow the video card direct outside air flow for cooling.
The design to me looks pretty neat, I like seeing companies think outside the "box". -
James Mason Reply17221949 said:Agreed. The blower style coolers are really the only way to go in SFF. Most cases squeeze the space above and below the card pretty tight. The blower cards give the best air flow and cooling in this design cases. That, or water cooling.
Open air vs blower style coolers have less impact than people think. Testing I have done in house shows the impact is usually not enough to cause throttle and the small change in overall system temp results in louder systems and hotter GPU chips. The specific case of this design either cooler will be having an issue. The window is so close to the intakes that little air will pass around the card compared to a more open design and the air that does pass around has already been heated. A near perfect mod for this design would be to replace the window with a nice mesh grill to allow the video card direct outside air flow for cooling.
The design to me looks pretty neat, I like seeing companies think outside the "box".
Maybe if they just perforated the window, or maybe they've actually tested it and it works fine, as they designed the case afterall.