AS CHASSIS DESIGN goes, this is the most extreme example of minimalism we’ve ever seen. There’s no frills here, no excess garnish or gaming flair, there’s no support for crazy, over-the-top liquidcooling, and you can’t make it into a glorified NAS with hundreds of TBs of storage. The reality is that the Hydra Mini is a true manifestation of pure, clean, functional style, merged with exceptional craftsmanship and an attention to detail that makes it perhaps one of the most interesting cases we’ve ever had the pleasure of reviewing. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its flaws, and we’ll cover those in due course, but despite that we can’t help but admire this thing.
So what exactly is the Hydra Mini? Well, it’s a tiny ITX SFX chassis that is built by a small Italian company called Hydra. It’s available in three different color skus (white, black, and a clear satin finish, the latter being slightly cheaper). You can buy the Mini in a bundle, which includes a Hydra-branded PCIe riser extension for your GPU, at around $112 or $105 (not including shipping/import duties), or you can go for the standard case for just $78, or $65 for the satin steel variant.
This story is from the November 2020 edition of Maximum PC.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the November 2020 edition of Maximum PC.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
2TB Crucial T500 M.2 PCle 4.0 SSD
The best budget 4.0 drive?
Hyte Y40
Traditional design meets Hyte
Lenovo Legion Go
A handheld gaming PC, just on a larger scale
Dough Spectrum One
As stunning as Dough's original glossy display
AMD Ryzen 7 8700G
1080p gaming with integrated graphics? Hell, yes
AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT
As cost-effective as an RTX 4080 Super
MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super 16G Ventus 3X
Iterative change and 4K dominance
STATE OF THE PC INTEGRATED GRAPHICS
Can you get by without a dedicated GPU?
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super
LONG AGO, before the reign of the Supers, there was a graphics card. It was bold, gauche, and built with the blood of a Titan, with gaming in mind. Its heart was near identical to the goliath it was born from, yet it lacked the memory, spirit, absolute architectural majesty, and subsequent price tag of its Titanic kin.
THE ULTIMATE PC BUILD GUIDE
Strap in as we divulge 20 more tips on how to become the next master PC builder