iBUYPOWER LAN Warrior II: NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 590 in a Small Shell
by Dustin Sklavos on March 29, 2011 3:00 PM ESTConclusion: No Small Potatoes
While iBUYPOWER's LAN Warrior II still isn't what one would consider "small," it's certainly impressive given its relative size in comparison to other, more robust gaming towers. Carrying it isn't a joyous experience but it's not as back-breaking as moving my desktop tower around, and iBUYPOWER is able to pack an awful lot of power into this small case. They even offer the system with two GTX 590s in SLI, a veritable surfeit of performance, and I can believe they'll run safely--just remember to buy a large display (or three) to make use of all that performance potential. The massive 200mm intake fan on the side works miracles in keeping the internals very, very cool; in fact, it's practically a Christmas miracle that it runs as frosty as it does (disclaimer: review written in March).
Of course it's not all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns: while the overclock on the review unit was definitely rushed, given prior experience we have no reason to believe a retail system will be better tuned. On the one hand that can be time consuming work, but on the other hand...it's part of what we're paying the boutique for. It doesn't matter that Sandy Bridge processors are incredibly efficient even with auto voltages; thermal headroom and power savings are being left on the table when they don't need to be.
The case is also a mixed bag: while it produces excellent thermals and reasonable acoustics, and it comes with a handle, it still won't compare to higher end, higher class cases. We can get the system to start at just $533 and at that price, a $69 case doesn't seem like such a big deal. But when we start putting components we actually want inside it and the pricetag begins to swell, the value of the enclosure doesn't rise commensurate with that increased expense. It's not a bad case, but look...the Queen of England doesn't sleep in a suburban split-level either.
When all is said and done, though, the LAN Warrior II is the kind of system we do like to review here. The form factor at least makes it stand out, as does the excellent thermal design and the fact that you can cram it with an obscene amount of performance. It's the kind of machine that, like the Puget Serenity and AVADirect's Nano Gaming Cube, sets the boutique apart from their competition. The price from configuring on their website certainly isn't unreasonable, either: while it's roughly $50 north of the price we were quoted, that's not a massive difference in the grand scheme of things. Just building it yourself, we're looking at roughly $1,200 just for the video card, processor, and motherboard. Factor in the 128GB SSD, the Blu-ray writer, the 8GB of high-end DDR3, and the power supply, and the markup actually seems pretty reasonable.
iBUYPOWER's LAN Warrior II isn't a mind-blowing machine, but it's very respectable, and it's priced about right. If you're looking for a lot of power in a smaller form factor, you could do a lot worse than the LAN Warrior II.
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JMS3072 - Wednesday, March 30, 2011 - link
I have a build in the NZXT Vulcan, and I have to say, I'm very happy with it. As you mentioned, the thermals are fantastic, especially with the 200mm side fan, and all the 120mm slots loaded up. Noise is certainly a minor issue, but seriously, you're looking at a case which essentially has an open side. For the size, it has plenty of space in it. My next upgrade will be a stronger GPU than my 5770, so as to handle my new Eyefinity setup better, and I don't doubt that the Vulcan can handle it with aplomb.aguilpa1 - Friday, April 1, 2011 - link
I have to agree with you to some extent as I just went from 3 screens on 2 GTX 295's to 3 screens on a single 590. I have experienced my share of glitchiness where one or two screens are detected by the third remains dormant or at the switch of going from the desktop to gaming one screen just decides to go into power saver mode and I have to turn it off and back and then it works.However, most of these issues I experienced were with the first set of drivers. I also learned that you can't just plug in your screens to your cards nilly willy, you have to have an order to them. Your main issue is most likely the differences in your three monitors. I know Nvidia has a list of supported monitors and they recommend all three monitors be identical. My three monitors are 24" 120Hz Alienware.
When I plugged in the 590, I had zero issues, no messy flickering no disappearing monitors. It was painless and simple just as I figured it would be since now I have eliminated the 2nd card synchronization from the equation. With the release of the 3 DVI 590 I get the feeling Nvidia has known about this issue and struggled to get it under control but since it likely effects so few of us that actually have 2 cards running three screens that it is not until now that they have a valid solution.
iamezza - Saturday, April 2, 2011 - link
They should have reversed the front 120mm fan and turned it into an exhaust as was mentioned in your 6990/590 articles.With the 590 exhausting very hot air at both ends there is no way for the hot air to escape at the front and it will just circulate inside the case.
Personally I would prefer watercooling of the vid card and air cooling on the CPU. It looks like the case had room up top for a 2 x 120mm radiator. But I'm guessing waterblocks for the 590 wouldn't be available yet.
iamezza - Saturday, April 2, 2011 - link
... also they used a NON-modular PSU on a $2000 mATX PC? WTF!? hello cable spaghetti..JMS3072 - Sunday, April 3, 2011 - link
Definitely an issue. As I mentioned above, I use a Vulcan, and my PSU is a non-modular Corsair 650TX. Cable management with that is a royal pain in the you-know-what. Thankfully, the side panel behind the motherboard comes out about a half inch to allow stowing of cables.Drittz121 - 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