now the name of this case lends itself
to some pretty obvious jokes and just
like Logan I'm going to go for the most
obvious one hey look on the Hadron
Collider so when we open up the case the
first thing we find is an accessory box
which contains I guess a power cable
because this is a high-end case with an
integrated power supply more on that
later we've also got a manual oh and
whatever I threw over there I believe
that's an EVGA case badge and finally oh
cool we have some little like cable
management clips and some screws for
mounting a five and a quarter inch
slimline optical drive as well as a
three and a half inch slash two and a
half inch
sled and some SATA cables and finally I
like a hadron
tatoos sticker you think next up we've
got a very nice packaging nice
construction paper I mean cardboard
whatever this stuff's called on the
outside and then some nice clothes sell
soft foam to keep it nice and safe while
it's being transported and then finally
oh okay well we're gonna have to take
marks off for that they're you know
protective you know paper around the
outside of the Hadron isn't very strong
actually we're not going to take any
marks off of that whatsoever because it
is extremely well packaged which is very
unusual for a new case manufacturer
because this is EVGA 'z first computer
case they've done lots of other computer
hardware over the years but never a
chassis before a couple of small
Corrections there guys yes that was a
case badge that I threw all the way
across the room and this is for the
slimline slot-loading optical which
isn't necessarily five and a quarter
inch it's just to slim the line slot
loading optical and it goes right about
here so on the right-hand edge we've got
the spot for that as well as a headphone
and microphone jack and two USB 3.0
ports we've also got perforations along
the bottom edge of the case a
perforations along the entire bottom of
the case as well as a nice little rubber
foot at the back and then a larger more
raised metal piece at the front that
actually gives it a bit of a like an
upward tilted posture once the case is
actually put down on the desk then on
the left hand side we've got a full side
panel window that will reveal
the unexceptional cable management
characteristics of this particular case
only this side panel comes off at all
and in fact the other side panel doesn't
so all of your cable management will be
done with zip ties and just trying to
keep things you know out of the way of
each other as much as you possibly can
moving on to the top of the case the
entire top of the case is again
perforated and if there's anything EVGA
understands it's the need for airflow to
cool the other components in your system
particularly modern hot running graphics
cards so we're going to go ahead and
reveal that under that perforation which
unfortunately doesn't have dust filters
although it doesn't make that much of a
difference to me if you're using it for
exhaust oh yes to 120 millimeter fans
that are able to take air in from the
bottom of the case which is where I
showed you before there's lots of
ventilation lots of perforation and then
exhaust it out the top of the case
actually quite like this design the case
overall feels solid without feeling
heavy and this is something that again
is unusual for a first time case maker
you know you usually expect them to
cheap out on things like packaging not
understanding the importance or chief
out on the construction and the metal
quality and that hasn't happened here at
all at the back of the case we've got
two tubing holes if you want to run
external water cooling as well as two
PCI slots where you can have a single
expansion card and it'll be dual slot
because it's a graphics card and then
you're pretty much good to go finally we
end up here yes the power supply that I
mentioned before 80 plus gold efficiency
slim power supply with a 500 watt
capacity this is what is enabled EVGA to
achieve this extremely unique form
factor here because unlike Silverstone's
approach which is usually to go with sfx
the slim power supply allows them to
really control the vertical height of
the case in fact it's only about 12
inches by 12 inches by 6 inches wide so
we're going to go ahead and open it up
and discover something that has bothered
a lot of other reviewers but I
personally give exactly zero cares about
and that is the fact that the powder
coating doesn't extend to the inside in
all places you can see that there are
places where it is actually visible that
there's there's bare metal here these
are things
that you will never see especially once
you actually have a system installed in
the case and it's the kind of thing that
I really tend to not stress out about
very much at all once we're inside we
can also find all of the things that are
inside so the inside features I'm going
to start with the thing that is
devastating and terrible to me and then
we'll move on to the things that I think
are great and that is this right here
there's no CPU cut out and instead EVGA
has opted for their own proprietary
layout that's going to be compatible
with their own mitx motherboards which
quite frankly not a whole lot of people
are using so I really would have rather
seen the other side panel open up and I
would have rather had the flexibility to
install a cooler from the back there's
actually a fair amount of room in the
case for a decent sized tower cooler
although you won't be putting something
like an NHD 14 in here for drive
mounting options we have these two
caddies which are capable of holding
either a two and a half inch or a three
and a half inch drive if you got
creative you could pull these out and
you could probably cram a whole whack
ton of SATA two and a half inch drives
in there and then this third slot right
here is for that slimline optical drive
moving on down we've got the front panel
IO connectors so there's USB three I
would have loved to see a black cable
for this but I do like that it's flat
it's a ribbon cable as well as HD audio
and power switch and power LED there is
no reset switch and there is no drive
activity LED on this particular chassis
followed by the power supply wires so
these I guess the benefit of having a
custom power supply built just for your
case is that you can have all the wire
links make sense so that the cables can
be easily managed so the 24 pin for
example looks like it can be easily
checked over here you can run some twist
ties through all these perforations on
the drive cage here again another smart
touch from EVGA enabling lots of of
passive airflow to be drawn over the
drives by these fans as well as the
active airflow right up here just
absolutely love that and so you can sort
of cable tie that to that and put that
where it needs to go and then you look
by contrast at the graphics card harness
which is extremely short and obviously
designed to just plug directly into in
up to ten and a half inch graphics card
right here and you can see that they've
fought it out quite carefully SATA
connectors they provide only two because
in theory you can only really have two
SATA drives in the system but then they
give you four more auxiliary standard
for pin molex --is so you can adapt
those to whatever else you happen to
need depending on what you are doing
with the case so overall what would I
say about this it's a great first try in
fact it's a good case great first try
though they've missed a couple small
things I mean I think the powder coating
issue that other reviewers have
complained about is one thing missing
the CPU cut out is another for me but
they've also really nailed a few things
like the overall build quality the
quality of the packaging so your system
is going to arrive in one piece if you
have something pre-built with this or
even your case is going to arrive in one
piece if you order one as well as the
inclusion of an extremely high quality
power supply that can handle any mitx
system that you can put in here plus
something like a GTX 780 Ti without any
trouble I think they've got a lot going
for the Hadron air thank you for
checking out my unboxing and overview of
the Hadron air from EVGA don't forget to
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