Hiper Osiris

Hiper Osiris

Manufacturer: Hiper
UK Price (as reviewed): £79.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): $159.99 (exc. Tax)

It seems that every week recently we’ve had a big name case come across our desks. In the last few alone we’ve looked at the excellent Akasa Omega, along with the innovative but flawed X2000 and XB01 from Lian Li.

Today though we felt it was time to look at a case from one of the less well known manufacturers, Hiper, who had a great entry into the market with the Anubis case which Joe reviewed back last autumn. Joe liked this case so much that not only did he award it a 9/10, he also took it home and put his own system into - high praise indeed!

Hiper is a company still associated more with PSUs than cases, but actually offers a surprising variety of kit, ranging from keyboards to CPU coolers and of course cases, an area that the company seems very keen to expand into, with the Osiris--the case we're looking at today--as its new flag ship model as well as a few HTPC offerings as well.

With the excellent pedigree of the Anubis, can the Osiris repeat the feat of coming from nowhere to win the right to play host to bit-tech’s revered home systems? Let’s find out!

Exterior

As Hiper's flagship case, the Osiris certainly doesn’t waste any time making an impression with its one hundred percent 6063-T5 Alloy construction. Every single piece of exterior panelling, including every part of the front fascia, is made of this high quality “military grade” alloy, and it is seriously nice stuff, although we doubt Hiper pinched it from an F22 Raptor or the like.

Recently we've seen plenty of cases made from aluminium, but these have a common tendency to become finger print magnets, which can become a real pain to clean and keep looking pristine, but the Osiris’ material is light, smooth, tough and finger print free. It's good to see a company being innovative with their construction materials and finishes, and the Osiris certainly benefits in a big way from this.

The review sample we received was the silver edition of the Osiris, but Hiper has also released a version of the case in black. Other than the exterior finish though, the two different models are identical.

The completed alloy front fascia is certainly a highlight and gives a wonderful feeling of consistency to the design, with all the drive bay blanking plates made of the same material. Hiper has really paid a lot of attention to the front panel, and includes two stealthed drive bay hatches to hide your DVD drives and a 3.5” to 5.25” adapter plate for any exterior 3.5” devices you might have (like floppy drives, fan controllers and the like). However, if you’ve only got one 5.25” drive, there aren’t any spares to go around.


The entire fascia pops off with a firm tug thanks to a push pin mounting system, and pops back on with just enough force to let you know that it’s securely in place without having to hammer it back on. The front fascia also plays host to a rather funky set of hieroglyphics, as well as a chrome fan cover for the front 120mm intake fan; sadly, this lacks any sort of removable dust filter.

However, what’s most important about the Osiris’ front fascia is that it’s just that - a fascia. There’s no door and no hinges or needless bits to get in the way – just a smooth rounded classically styled front end, and it looks fantastic for it. Take note case manufacturers, we don’t all want cases with doors!