HYTE Revolt 3 Premium mITX Case Review

The HYTE Revolt 3 is marketed as a premium mITX case providing personalization and high performance. With its compact size and fully recessed carrying handle, it screams, “Take me anywhere.” There’s a lot to like about the Revolt 3, and in this review, we’ll cover every aspect of what’s good and not so good.

Before we get started, many of you may be wondering who is HYTE? HYTE is a newly formed sister-brand of iBuypower, the pre-build gaming PC experts for the last 20 years. So while HYTE may be new to the PC world, they bring along a major powerhouse. With the pedigree of iBuypower behind the scenes, let’s find out if the Revolt 3 is all HYTE or all HYPE.

Features and Specifications

The HYTE Revolt 3’s compact size and recessed carrying handle make it a perfect chassis for gamers, content creators, or professionals who need or desire portability without compromising performance. Its ability to house a triple slot GPU with a length of over 400 millimeters is just one example of this. Ventilation is maximized by fully filtered and removable side and top panels. The toolless removable panels also create unobstructed access to internal components creating an environment that is easy to work with.

Two concealed accessory posts extend to keep headphones or VR headsets within an arm’s reach. User connectivity is fast and convenient. The front interface features both Type-C and Type-A ports and also includes a hybrid HD audio port.

The Revolt 3 is available in black or white and with or without a small form factor power supply. The optional power supply is a 700 Watt gold-rated unit capable of powering some of the most power-hungry builds.

Here’s a list of the specifications per HYTE.

We have also included a list of features from the HYTE website.

HYTE Revolt 3 Features
	GOES WHERE YOU GO Our built-in handle sits flush to the case and pops out when needed, so you can take your PC anywhere.
	KEEP IT TOGETHER Two pop-out accessory holders can store headsets and other gear when you need to. Or, keep them flush for an ultra-clean look.
	MAKE CONNECTIONS Our front I/O has ports for the latest USB types, audio, and microphone for the ultimate sleek setup.
	NO LIMITS All of our tool-less panels and mesh inserts are removable, so you can get at your components from any angle.
	PERFORMANCE FOR DAYS Triple-slot compatibility means you can put even the largest GPUs in their place. No riser cable needed.
	OPEN AND SHUT CASE Our hinged door supports up to 280mm liquid cooling radiators. Swing it out of the way to make easy upgrades!

Packaging

The Revolt 3 is packaged in a bold yellow cardboard box with quality chassis images printed on three sides. If the unique styling of the case doesn’t get your attention, the packaging will. Also printed on the box is a specifications table, much like the one listed above.  The Revolt 3 is nestled comfortably between two soft foam cushions with a third resting on top inside the box. The chassis is also protected inside of a plastic bag. Loosely placed inside the box is an equally colorful user’s manual.

Exterior At A Glance

One of the significant aesthetic highlights of the Revolt 3 is a matrix of square ventilation holes encompassing the entirety of the chassis. This provides a simple, clean look that can be mesmerizing if you look too long. The recessed handle and accessory posts complement the look of the chassis rather than drawing your attention away from it. There is enough steel to make this chassis surprisingly hefty, weighing 14 pounds (including the power supply) for its small size.

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Contents

Included with this case are a small cardboard box and the manual. The manual is useful and explains the many nuances of the Revolt 3. Unlike most chassis, you should read through this guide before installing your build. I can assure you that there are many tips on assembling the components and failure to follow these tips will lead to frustration. Inside the cardboard box, we find a standard assortment of accessories:

• Bag of screws
• (2) vented expansion slot covers
• (10) cable ties
• Audio Y-adapter
• Power cord

Note: Any review sample purchased with the power supply (like our sample) includes a power cord.

Contents Box

Manual

Contents

A Closer Look

So far, we’re impressed with the look and feel of the Revolt 3. Both fit and finish are high quality, but now it is time to dig deeper. In this section, we examine every aspect of the chassis, one side at a time.

Left

The side panels are each retained by four steel posts and are removed easily with a gentle tug. Removable magnetic mesh filters for the left, right, rear and top panels allow easy maintenance. If you look at the top center of the left side, we see a round silver piece. When pressed, this releases the left side headphone retaining post. We’ll cover these more in-depth later on. Located toward the rear of the chassis is a mounting plate for up to two 120mm or 140 mm fans or an All-In-One CPU liquid cooler. After removing the four retaining screws, the mounting plate swings open, granting access to the motherboard tray. At the very bottom of the left side is a muted HYTE logo.

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With the mounting plate swung open, we can now discuss the main chamber. At the top is the PSU and HDD bay and is easily discernable by the ventilation holes. Towards the front of the left side is a small removable plate that keeps the GPU cables from interfering when closing the side panel. At the bottom of the left side, we find the motherboard I/O opening and three expansion slots. The motherboard layout in this chassis is rotated 90° to the left from what a standard case would use. This allows easy hiding of the rear cables, but it also makes accessing the motherboard’s rear I/O quite tricky. With a discrete graphics card installed, the GPU mounts so that it intakes cool air directly from the front of the chassis.

Front

At the bottom of the front panel is the front interface. From left to right are the USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (10Gbps), USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (5 Gbps), illuminated (white) power button, a second USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (5 Gbps), and finally, a combo HD audio port. These USB ports will come in handy as you lose easy access to the rear motherboard USB ports. The front panel is removed the same as all the other panels, with a gentle tug.

A close inspection reveals the black inner mesh filter with smaller square holes. The front internal mesh filter is not removable, surprisingly. With the GPU taking in cool air here, a fine removable mesh magnetic filter would be a better choice. With the front panel removed, we get a clear image of the front opening devoid of fan mounts. At the top, we see another ventilated cover plate. This one hides the power supply cables and when longer GPUs are installed is essential for keeping the wires from applying pressure onto the GPU.

Right

Removing the right-side panel provides access to the two SSD mounting locations. Between these is an opening for routing the SATA power and data cables. To the rear of the chassis is the pre-installed power supply. Below the power supply is the large opening to assist with the installation of the CPU cooler. HYTE recommends installing the cooler after managing all the cables and found it’s a good idea to follow this recommendation. We don’t find cable routing options on the right side of the case because it’s managed in the main compartment of the chassis. We will discuss further when we start the build process.

Rear

Starting at the top, the rear of the case, we find the back of the power supply and HDD bay. Like most mITX chassis with an internally mounted PSU, the Revolt 3 includes a 90° power supply cable extension. The opening at the bottom conveniently gathers the rear motherboard cables into a small bundle keeping your desk space tidy.

Top

The top panel is retained by four screws that are accessed from the right and left sides. Similar to the side panels, magnetic strips hold a removable dust filter in place. With the chassis laying on its right side, we find an opening for a pair of top-mounted exhaust fans. The removable fan mount can house two 80 mm x 15 mm fans. This is not a common size and searching online did not turn up many premium options.

Bottom

Rotating 180° takes us to the bottom of the chassis. Here we find the front panel I/O cables. Included is a front panel, 20-pin USB 3.2 Gen1 motherboard connector, rear-panel USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C pass-through connector, standard HD Audio plug, and a convenient front-panel connector. Also located here are several cable tie points. Four rectangular rubber pads safely secure the chassis to the desktop and absorb minor vibrations created within the case.

Power Supply

This case review features an included power supply. While this is not a review of the power supply itself, we should cover the basics here. This is an iBuypower model number SFXL-A700GD-IBP. It’s a 700 Watt unit featuring a single 12 Volt rail with an 80 Plus Gold rating and has an automatic switching ability to allow it to run on 110 Volts or 240 Volts. Being fully modular enables the user to install only the cables needed to complete the build. The all-black connectors included with this power supply are EPS 4+4 CPU, dual 6+2-pin PCIe, single 6+2-pin PCIe, 20+4 pin motherboard, dual SATA power, and dual SATA power with 4-pin Molex cables. During this review the power supply performed well and produced very little noise compared to the installed components.

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The Builds

Building in this small case is a challenge and there’s no denying that. HYTE has done everything they can to make this chore easier. In this section, we cover the process of assembling a running system, highlighting a few final features before testing the Revolt 3’s thermal capabilities.

Cable Routing

There are over 20 cable tie points strategically located throughout this case. The cables provided with the power supply are shorter than standard cables, and while that commonly would be viewed as a negative, you don’t want to store extra wiring in this scenario. The bulk of the cable routing happens directly below the power supply, with only the SSD SATA power cables routing to the right side of the case. We have packed this case will every possible storage option, and the cable management was nearly impossible. The PSU cover plate is bulging out from all the cables packed behind it, but it is possible. There is also the option of using a shorter SFX power supply over the SFX-L included with this chassis. This will increase the amount of space for cable storage and help with cable management.

Storage

Behind the motherboard tray, you’ll find two 2.5″ SSD drive bays and a 3.5″ HDD bay located to the PSU bay’s left. It’s my recommendation not to load the case up like this unless you have no other choice. In an ideal situation, install a large M.2 drive and avoid the traditional 2.5″ and 3.5″ drives altogether.

Water Cooled Build

We usually highlight a case’s ability to install custom water cooling components, however, the Revolt isn’t designed for such a task. Put simply, there’s not enough room for a typical pump/resivoir. It is capable of installing a 240 mm or 280 mm All-In-One cooling system. In this mockup build, we’ve used a 240 mm radiator with a set of fans along with a water block to show the clearances available. The radiator we use is 35 mm thick and there is just enough room for it to fit. You might notice when you install a 3.5″ HDD, a portion of the radiator will be blocked, but remember there are ventilation holes in the hard drive bay that allows a radiator to breathe properly when the HDD bay is empty.

Air Cooled Build

If you follow our case reviews at Overclockers.com you know we use a be quiet! Dark Rock 4. Due to a lack of clearance, we were forced to use a smaller device in the Ryzen Wraith Prism stock air cooler. The Wraith Prism measures 96.3 mm tall, leaving approximately 45 mm of space above it. Since there are no fans included with the Revolt 3, we installed a pair of 140 mm be quiet! Pure Wings 2 to provide airflow inside the case. If additional airflow is desired, a pair of slim 80 mm fans can be mounted directly above the GPU to aid in removing heat.

Headset Posts

This is an excellent time to focus on how convenient the headset posts can be with the build complete. Here we demonstrate the use of both posts with HyperX Cloud II and Occulus Rift S VR headsets. This setup could make for a powerful, compact, and mobile gaming system, perfect for LAN parties or just when you’re on the go.

Thermal Testing Procedure

The last aspect of testing is whether the Revolt 3 is capable of keeping the internal components cool. Since this case does not come with fans, we added a pair of be quiet! Pure Wings 2 140 mm fans to the left side as intake. Typically, an overclock would be applied to the CPU and GPU for this test to maximize the internal case temperatures. Since we are using a stock CPU cooler, we instead allow the Ryzen CPU to overclock itself and will enable the CPU temperature to regulate the clock speeds. This will still ensure the maximum temperatures with the available cooling. The case fans, CPU fan, and GPU fans are all set at full speed for the entirety of these tests.

Aida64 Extreme and 3D Mark Firestrike are run together until the maximum temperature plateaus  (generally about 20 minutes) to apply a load to the CPU and GPU. We record the peak temperature before removing the side panels and continue for another full run of Firestrike, measuring the new maximum temperature. If the case is getting proper airflow with the sides on, the case temperatures will remain within a few degrees of the original result. If there is a significant temperature drop with the side panels removed, the case is starving for fresh, cool air.

The HYTE Revolt 3 can keep a decently powerful system cool under heavy loads with the appropriate fans. Naturally, higher speed fans would only improve on the cooling. A 2.6°C temperature drop is negligible and compares reasonably well to the MSI Gungnir 110R as far as thermals are concerned. Keep in mind it is also possible to install two 80 mm x 15 mm fans at the top of the chassis if you desire more cooling.

HYTE xP Rewards

Since HYTE is a new company, let’s quickly mention the xP Rewards system. Simply by making an account at HYTE.com you begin gaining xP to redeem for some pretty fun gear. There are several ways of gaining xP. For instance, for every dollar you spend, you receive five xP. You’ll also receive 200 xP each year on your birthday and even more by being active on social media. You can redeem the points for items such as a large gaming mat or HYTE T-shirt. Click here to open your HYTE account.

Conclusion

The HYTE Revolt 3 is a premium mITX chassis that packs a lot of features in a super-compact footprint. It doesn’t have the fancy RGB lighting or glass side panels, but it provides a highly mobile, competent chassis for nearly any build. Air cooling is slightly limited due to the maximum CPU cooler height of 140 mm but makes up for this with the ability to house 240 mm or 280 mm AIO water coolers. The tool-less side panels make working in the chassis much easier than other mITX cases I’ve worked in, and the cable management system is excellent. The convenience of the stowaway carrying handle and headset posts are a welcomed addition. Finally, the Revolt 3’s ability to house a 3-slot GPU means you can install some of the largest GPUs on the market today. For an mITX chassis, that’s a bold statement.

If we were to nit-pick, the only negatives about the case are the lack of fine mesh for its filters and the odd fan sizes at the top. Utilizing a fine mesh filter at the intake locations (left side and front) would aid in keeping the case cleaner, and if the chassis were only 10 mm taller, a pair of standard 80×25 mm fans would be possible. These are minor issues and not something a user should be overly concerned about. The quality of this case is excellent, and that is far more important.

HYTE lists the Revolt 3 for $249 with the power supply included or $129 without it.  When comparing the Revolt 3 to other mITX cases one thing is clear: at this price, it is easy to recommend this chassis to anyone.

-John Nester (Blaylock)

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