Cobra. The name kinda says it all, doesn’t it? One glance and there is no doubt where the concept of the naming came from. The front bezel, molded out of plastic, has all the qualities of the raging serpent that is its namesake. The yellow coloring brings emphasis to the details of the rearing hood and slanted eyes while the filtered front cover under the bezel lets us imagine the rest of the body writhing underneath.
Even though the front is plastic, the rest of the enclosure is a solidly built 0.7mm SECC steel enclosure that isn’t the highest quality around, but is far better than many other models that have come across my test area of late. It is also very light in weight giving the illusion of being made of aluminum. It is sturdily built and offers no movement when I sit on the case.
Opening the front door shows a standard array of available drive bays accessible from the outside of the case. You’ll be able to install a total of four optical devices and two 3.5” devices, which is basically common nowadays. Having the door to hide the drives behind negates the need to try to find matching drive faceplates for color conformity.
Moving to the bottom of the enclosure brings us to a small door. Push it in and it falls open to reveal a speaker/headphone port, a microphone port, and a pair of USB ports. There is a cutout for a Firewire port but the model being tested today does not have this option.
The window is a square shape but has an interior flash pattern that centers around a lighted side fan. In keeping with the color scheme, the lighting effect of this fan is a dual color red/orange combination instead of the common blue. It was nice to see the folks at Raidmax keep things in a constant color theme. While blue lights are nice, they are way too common and the fresh choice of colors will help set this case apart from others coming along.
The back of the enclosure is exactly what we would expect to see, but then, it can’t really be too different. If it were, it would be difficult at the least to install your motherboard.
You’ll find mounting areas for two fans (both filled), space for common motherboard loads of up to seven AGP/PCI peripherals and a standard backplate for the motherboard ports. If your board isn’t common and comes with its own special plate, you can simply remove the included one and insert the custom one for your board.
The far side panel is vented but there is no filtration in this area of the case. This means you will want to make sure you have an over pressurized cooling setup installed to include a greater amount of intake air than exhaust airflow. Otherwise you’ll be inviting all kinds of dirt and dust into your system to make component life shorter.
This photo also shows you the finish of the enclosure. You weren’t seeing things when you saw the carpet texture in the shot. The finish is very sleek and shiny. It wouldn’t be out of the question to throw a coat of car wax onto it to help protect it.
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