INTRODUCTION

   In the summer everything electronic stresses more compared to any other season of the year and unfortunately that includes everything in a PC, from your CPU and your graphics card to your motherboard, drives and yes, even the power supply. Now even though you can somewhat keep things in check in regards to your CPU, GPU and even your motherboard and drives (coolers, airflow levels, etc) the same can't be really said about the PSU. So, in order to have peace of mind you need to invest on a good unit and luckily compared to even just 10 years ago there are many to pick from in the market. What do you get however if you plan on powering not one but two systems housed inside the same tower? Well, if you are one such person then the Revolt X 1200W model by Phanteks is probably your best choice.

   Phanteks was founded from a group of engineers with a total of 20 years of international experience in thermal solutions. They paired up with a Dutch design team and established Phanteks in 2007. Phanteks venture into the CPU cooling industry with two goals in mind, “High-end quality and innovative products in thermal solutions.” As a relatively young company, Phanteks strives to develop top quality and superior products. The first product, PH-TC14PE, was a great success in the overclocking community. With the success made, the passionate in developing new and better innovative cooling solutions was greater than ever. Phanteks Design Team is situated in the Netherlands and consists of creative researchers, designers and developers whose only desires are to bring the latest cutting edge technology to you. Phanteks will continuously pursue excellence in developing new products to bring satisfaction to PC enthusiasts and computer users everywhere. Our goal is to be the best in the industry in all that we do and our motto is “no job is impossible.”

   The Revolt X 1200W model by Phanteks may already count almost 3+ years in the market but aside packing two 24pin motherboard ports and 3 CPU (8pin) ports it also features the 80 Plus Platinum certification (up to 92% electrical efficiency), has a peak power output of roughly 1344W and sports a single powerful +12V rail (100A) which can deliver the units entire rated output of 1200W. Needless to say the Revolt X 1200W also features a fully-modular design (future-proof (especially useful now with new power plugs being introduced for the upcoming graphics cards), active PFC, DC to DC topology, strong minor rails with a total output of 144W, 135mm FDB fan with hybrid fan mode (fanless operation up to 40% load) and high-quality Japanese manufactured capacitors. In terms of endurance/durability the Revolt X 1200W is completely shielded with over-current (OCP), over-voltage (OVP), short-circuit (SCP), over-temperature (OTP), over-power (OPP) no load and reset protections. Phanteks may not be the leading name in the PSU world but seeing that the Revolt X 1200W (and the 1KW model) is manufactured by Seasonic they cover it with a very generous 12-year limited warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKACING AND CONTENTS

For the Revolt X line Phanteks uses a black box that just has their logo at the front right over the name of the line and next to the 80 Plus Platinum logo.

Both the specifications and electrical table are located on the left side.

At the rear of the box, we find the product specifications in 8 languages right under the list of included games and the 12 year limited warranty.

Typically, the power supply is wrapped inside a cloth cover and placed between two foam spacers while the rest of the bundle is placed inside a storage pouch.

Aside the Revolt X 1200W PSU, its power cord and modular cables inside the box you’ll also find 12 cable ties, 5 cable straps, 4 mounting screws, Phanteks case badge, proper connectivity paper and the user manual.

THE REVOLT X 1200W EXTERIOR

Just like many others Phanteks went with sleeved motherboard cables and low-profile slim cables for everything else.

The black body of the Revolt X 1200W looks very nice especially thanks to the top brushed aluminum grille.

Underneath that grille we find a 135mm fluid dynamic bearing fan.

The model’s name and output are both printed on stickers located on both sides.

The electrical table can be found on a sticker placed on the belly of the enclosure.

As usual all of the modular connectors are located at the front (the 2^nd motherboard ones are covered with rubber caps).

Turning the unit around we find the typical honeycomb perforation right next to the power port, on/off switch and the hybrid fan switch.

THE REVOLT X 1200W INTERIOR

The 135mm fluid dynamic bearing fan is manufactured by Hong Hua Electronics and can reach speeds of up to 2300RPM.

The Revolt X 1200W is a rather small PSU for its power output so Seasonic obviously didn’t leave much room unused.

Both primary capacitors are made by the Japanese Nippon Chemi-Con and are certified for use up to 105 degrees Celsius.

Secondary capacitors are manufactured both by Nippon Chemi-Con and Rubycon (these are also certified for use up to 105 degrees Celsius).

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

     Using a dedicated measurement instrument such as a Chroma or a SunMoon to test power supply units is without doubt the most ideal and accurate way (not to mention the fastest) to do that currently. However, it's certainly not the only way there is and so pretty much anyone can test a power supply unit just by using a test rig. Certainly, limitations do apply and so you can't really push a 1000W power supply to its limits if your system only uses 500W at peak loads and that's why over the years we saved certain hardware components for the purpose of building a dedicated PSU test rig. True it may not be as accurate as the above mentioned solutions but it comes really close and is in fact much closer to real world usage. So as always, we ran several games with maximum graphic options enabled at a resolution of 2560x1600 in order to stress every hardware component and increase the overall power demands of the system. The Passmark BurnIn Test was also used to overstress the components in an effort to provide the most accurate results possible. As a final test we also used the latest OCCT 4.4 software and its dedicated PSU testing suite since it can really bring a power supply to its knees after inside a few minutes.

   Rail stability was checked/measured with the CPUID Hardware monitor and a Metex multimeter which also recorded the system load in idle and in load. As always try to remember that the power consumption numbers listed in the graph are the highest (Peak) ones recorded during the entire duration of the tests and not the average ones. Noise levels coming from the fan were recorded using the high precision HD600 ExTech Sound dBA Meter from the rear of the unit and at a range of no more than 5-10cm. Readings under load are recorded the exact moment we manually switch the fans of all graphics cards from full speed to almost zero, that way the fan of the power supply does not have enough time to slow its RPM and so by doing this we get very accurate noise level readings. Needless to say, in order to get 100% accurate readings, you need to have a noise isolated room for that exact purpose, something which is quite impossible unless you are working inside a real lab (some people use very small noise insulated boxes but due to their size both heat and noise exceed normal levels and so the results can't really be considered to be 100% accurate, nor realistic for that matter). Also do take into account that since all noise measurements take place from just 5-10cm away the final noise levels to reach your ears will be considerably less.

* After well over 10 years of testing PSUs the Intel Core i7-920 CPU of this rig failed and was replaced it with a Xeon X5660 (also swapped the GA-X58A-UD7 for the G1. Assassin).

TEST RESULTS

CONCLUSION

   Prior to starting my tests, I went online and did a quick search about the Revolt X 1200W model only to find some people pointing out to various incidents that owners of the Revolt X line have reported. Yes, initially that had me worried but it’s really not uncommon to find people who had issues with a product, any product for that matter. Still for my own peace of mind I repeated all tests 3 times more than with any other PSU and on top of that I used the Revolt X 1200W for 2 weeks with my primary gaming rig (11900K/Z590 Dark/3080 Ti). Yes, 2 weeks is not nearly enough to test the endurance/durability of any PSU but when you have plenty more to test there’s simply no more time (and even 2 weeks is honestly a lot for one such review). With that out of the way not much I can say about the Revolt X 1200W that you can’t already see in the charts, rail stability is rock solid, noise levels are acceptable (for a power consumption exceeding 1KW) and in terms of build quality, well it’s a Seasonic unit. As for the ability to use the Revolt X 1200W with two systems, well I didn’t really test that feature but if I wanted to place two rigs inside the same tower getting this would be a no brainer.

   Right now, the Revolt X 1200W PSU by Phanteks retails for USD249.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 269.90Euros inside the EU (Caseking.de) a price tag which is actually good for what you get in return. Of course, if you have no need for the 2^nd motherboard connectors you should be able to find models with similar specifications for less (although not for considerably less). That being said the Revolt X 1200W delivers on everything that matters and then some thanks to its second motherboard connectors and for that it gets the Platinum Award.

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality
- Solid Rail Stability
- 80 Plus Platinum Certified
- Dual Motherboard Connectivity (2x24pin / 3x8pin)
- Electrical Protections (OCP/OVP/SCP/OPP/OTP/No Load/Reset)
- 135mm Fan With Hybrid Mode
- 100A +12V Rail
- 12 Year Limited Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Available Outputs (1000/1200W)