At Hydra we are better known for our Hydra Desk and Hydra Mini PC cases, but our first "regular" (so to call it) case after launching the Hydra Desk was the Defcon One.
This was our first venture out of Desk Cases and into "Just Cases" and we decided to be bold about it: the case would be compact, have space for 2 GPUs on the opposite side of the motherboard and two windowed panels, to show off all of the hardware.
The very first version of this case was the most compact of them all, but the design was too "old" for it to go anywhere - the case housed mATX motherboards, ATX power supplies, up to 2 GPUs on the opposite side of the motherboard and had space for a single 120 mm liquid cooler.
We went back to the drawing board and came up with the first revision; the Mk I improved cable management, moved the PSU to the bottom and hid it under a shroud, added fan space and space for a 240 mm radiator! It was a step in the right direction, and with all the good feedback we received, we ran a crowdfunding campaign for it!
The main goal was to kickstart the product, and we did reach the target we had set - aside for sending empty cases, we also build a couple PCs (these were the top-end pledges).
I even had a Defcon One for a long time! it was quite a nifty build and had a GTX970 Zotac in it, one of the GPUs I am most fond of.
As the project took a while to be ready, times went on, and SLI configurations started to become a thing of the past, while water-cooling became a staple of high-end gaming PC and was no longer and obscure art for a few geeks.
We redesigned the case again, this time with even better water-cooling support (front and top), a bit more space and a tempered glass panel at the front. This version however never was the light and remained a prototype in renders only, as we saw the market and interest for this case fading away and moved onto other projects ourselves.
What do you think of this case? Would you like to see it come back?