EVGA Hadron Air Review

EVGA Hadron Air Review - Internals

The PSU occupies pretty much the entire length of the bottom of the case, with a small gap at the front that allows the extensive bottom mesh to come into play, but not a lot else. Above this there's just enough room for a dual-slot graphics card up to 267mm in length - interestingly this is the exact length of the reference GeForce GTX 780Ti but AMD's R9 290X is just too long, as are most GTX 780 Ti partner cards. Guess you'll have to 'make do' with a standard 780 Ti then - we feel your pain.


Cooling will be an interesting test - the GPU will sit pretty close to the PSU, but with a well vented lower section and two fans creating a hefty amount of negative pressure, it's anyone's guess how it will fare overall. Cooling-wise, the top two 120mm fans are the only ones included and indeed are the only fan mounts. In addition, the proximity of the drive cage and motherboard mean that all-in-one liquid coolers are a no-no too and there's absolutely no hope for a custom water cooling kit, without looping the pipes outside - a return to the original Reserator perhaps?


You'll be limited on CPU coolers too with a 140mm height clearance meaning you'll likely be limited to a low-profile or top-down cooler such as Thermalright's AXP-100, which will still outperform the stock Intel cooler by a good 20°C+ but which isn't the best you can buy. The drive cage offers two tool-free drive mounts, each able to support either a 3.5in or 2.5in drive, but if you're desperate for storage, you could mount an SSD pretty much anywhere, albeit you'd need to invest in a Molex to SATA adaptor.


Building a tidy system in the Hadron Air will be a little challenging due to the fact there's pretty much nowhere to hide cables, but thankfully, while the PSU does have a limited cable set, this comes into its own here as there are few excess bits to hide anyway. The same can't be said for a Prodigy, unless you go for a modular PSU. Installing hardware is otherwise straightforward, if a little cramped, and the PSU being so close to the GPU means getting the latter in and out can be tricky. There are no standard PCI expansion slot mounts as we know them - instead EVGA has included a single locking bracket at the rear, which was a tight fit but simple to use.