iBuyPower Revolt System Review: Closing the Boutique and Opening the Store
by Dustin Sklavos on February 16, 2013 12:01 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Mini ITX
- iBuyPower
- Mini-Tower
Conclusion: An Important Release, But With Caveats
The iBuyPower Revolt is almost difficult to evaluate due to what it essentially represents, so we need to split our evaluation in two directions: what the Revolt signifies for the future of iBuyPower, and how the Revolt competes with the current bumper crop of smaller gaming desktops seemingly destined for the living room.
Addressing the former, the Revolt represents the first step in iBuyPower establishing itself not as another boutique, but as a full on vendor competing with the big boys. Obviously the major signal here is iBuyPower's claim that the motherboard is their own kit. In evaluating and analyzing the Revolt, there's...some truth to that claim. The board has iBuyPower's own silkscreen, and you can't buy one exactly like it. What it is, though, is a custom revision of ASRock's Z77E-ITX. The UEFI is laid out identically to ASRock's own UEFI but with an iBuyPower "theme" to it, and the board itself is just the Z77E-ITX without Virtu or display outputs. The ASRock branding on the chipset heatsink is also gone; the heatsink itself is replaced with a generic one. So while my first instinct is to go "gotcha!", the reality is a lot more mundane, because this isn't actually that much different than anything the big boys use. The Revolt continues to be valid as a demonstration of iBuyPower as a potential major player, especially as their presence in retail continues to grow.
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As for the Revolt's competitive fitness, it's really going to come down to price. iBuyPower does have a history of almost attacking prices in the time-honored tradition of Billy Mays and Mr. Popeil, with the difference being that this product is a sound one. If iBuyPower can hit $1,199 with this review configuration, they're pretty bulletproof. Their $899 model is embarrassingly skint on RAM and wastes the i5-3570K at its core with a stock cooler, but otherwise it's pretty fantastic and definitely competitive. Amusingly, if you want the most bang for your buck, going with their $649 model and then bumping the GPU to a GTX 660, the RAM to 8GB, and the PSU up to 350W results in an $819 price tag, and that's something Alienware just can't offer. If iBuyPower could offer that configuration at $799 or even $749, forget it, competition's over.
With that said, the two models on NewEgg right now are really underwhelming. The $999 model is unimpressive compared to what you can do on iBuyPower's site, and the $639 model's GeForce GT 630 (featuring a comically large 4GB of DDR3 video memory) is an embarrassment that actually undermines iBuyPower's credibility. I don't like seeing companies using sticker amounts like 4GB on crappy video cards to sucker in rubes who don't know any better, and I think it hurts iBuyPower in the long run to resort to a gimmick like that to sell units instead of just letting the product stand on its own.
So ultimately while I'm not over the moon with iBuyPower's stock configurations and think they could produce much more compelling options, and the uncertainty of our unit's price tag paints a bit of a dark cloud over the review, the Revolt is nonetheless a pretty stellar product. Anything that democratizes gaming hardware is a good thing, and iBuyPower is continuing to make gaming PCs more and more accessible. I want to see the Revolt on store shelves because it obsoletes more half-baked attempts like HP's Phoenix as well as making people who came for the Alienware X51 do a double take.
It's not going to be available until the beginning of March, but if you want to game for a good price, the Revolt is tough to beat. Just don't buy it stock.
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Dustin Sklavos - Monday, February 18, 2013 - link
The PSU is server size 1U.The GPU is a garden variety card.
The motherboard is mini-ITX.
Space is limited, but they're not using nonstandard parts.
HisDivineOrder - Sunday, February 17, 2013 - link
...seems ill advised. In a few months, a CPU designed from the ground up for this kind of low-power, low-heat, optimal performance is going to come out and make all these power/heat numbers look high.Plus, I HOPE Intel is smart enough with the GT3 configuration that they enable PC's that can run 720p/1080p at good enough to mostly match a GF630/640. At that point, if that were to happen, prices will drop out the bottom of NUC-like devices that incorporate that.
Suddenly, it won't be $1k for a HTPC that can game, it'd be $500. Sure, it won't be high end and it ain't meant to be. It'll be HTPC-level quality with the option to take console ports and put them up on the big screen at acceptable framerates, which is all the nascent HTPC industry needs to shove consoles out of the value picture altogether.
DanNeely - Monday, February 18, 2013 - link
I've seen rumors that GT3 will be a mobile only config which might slow the availability a bit; but previous generations of mobile parts have found their way onto miniITX sized boards before.ShieTar - Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - link
Somehow I doubt that the ~15W that Haswell reserves for its GPU will achieve the same performance as a 640 which can draw more than 100W under load.There is a distinct chance that Haswell manages to exceed the current A10-5800K performance, and thus get to call itself "Good enough for certain games".
I think it will be completely sufficient if Haswell can play current Console-Ports on Full-HD, and then only have Broadwell or even Skylake be as capable as the next Gen consoles.
Netscorer - Sunday, February 17, 2013 - link
To call original Xbox 360 tolerable in terms of noise pollution is an understatement of the year. The only way to drown that noise was to play games even louder. If this thing is as noisy, I personally don't want it in my living room.beepboy - Monday, February 18, 2013 - link
I think the faceplate could be improved. Matte look, or even interchangeable colors/design will greatly improve the aesthetics. The base doesn't look very stable either.jnemesh - Monday, February 18, 2013 - link
I found the Revolt to be an excellent value compared to Alienware, Falcon NW, and other "boutique" shops offering compact gaming systems! I priced out an i7 3770K, Kraken cooling, 8GB Gskill RAM, 240GB Corsair SSD, 2TB storage drive, Nvidia "Signature Edition" GTX680, 500w power supply, and Windows 7 (I'm NEVER running 8!) for just under $2000 (it was about $2100 when I added a wireless "Phantom" keyboard and mouse).I priced similar systems from Falcon NW and Alienware, and ended up paying about $500 more for a similar configuration! I also tried various shops with "standard" mini-tower case configurations, and they always were more expensive.
ibuypower seems to be offering a truly competitive price for the hardware they are including. Yes, I could build it myself and save a couple hundred dollars (with a regular case, mind you), but I doubt I would get the reliability and performance (or the warranty!) that I will get with their product. I am saving up now to buy mine! (probably pull the trigger in April)
unhappyibuypowercustomer - Tuesday, March 12, 2013 - link
DO NOT buy from ibuypower.com The absolute worst customer service, hidden clauses not allowing no cost service repairs returns. Rude customer service person on the phone, interruting, called me a liar. Unity did not work out of the box. no shipping damage. They said it went through quality control but many mars scratches, things lose inside, rattling noise. I would spend more money at wal mart if i had to in order to avoid ibuypower.comDrittz121 - Friday, February 28, 2014 - link
Just do yourself a favor. STAY AWAY from this company. Yes they look good. But when it breaks and it WILL. All they do is give you the run around. They have had my system for over 2 months trying to fix the garbage they sell. Worse company out there for support. DONT BUY