| Raidmax Cobra 822 ATX Case - Page 2 of 2 |
Front and Rear Panels:
The front panel of this case is very distinctive and where it derives its name. There is a door covering the 5.25 drive bays that has a Cobra design on it that lights up with blue LEDs.
The front panel also houses external USB, Firewire, and audio ports under a flip down door towards the bottom of the case.
Behind the door you find the four 5.25 drive bays, two 3.25 drive bays for floppy or zip drives, the power and reset buttons, and the power LED.
The rear panel is your standard affair with the knock out plate for the I/O panel of the mother board, two fans spots, the power supply, and AGP/PCI expansion slots.
Installation:
Putting the system into the case was a breeze. All screw holes lined up perfectly and I had no problems or hang ups at all. I added two 80mm fans in front of the Hard Drives to bring fresh air into the case.
System Specifications:
Soyo SY-K7V Dragon + mobo
Amd XP-1700+ with Senfu Cooler
512 megs Crucial PC2100 (1X512)
Gainward TI200 Video Card
20gig Quantum Fireball ATA100 7200rpm HDD
20gig Western Digital ATA100 7200rpm HDD
52X Aopen CDROM
Onboard C-Media Sound
Onboard 10/100 LAN
Cooling with the fan set up was some what marginal. These temperatures were taken with an ambient room temp of 30c/85f and with the CPU under 100% load. First on my list of modding plans is to cut out the stamped grills in front of the fans, as I think this case will really benefit from this simple mod.
As you can see by the picture above the power supply has all voltages well within specifications.
Here you can see the system all set up in the case. It was pretty easy to keep the wiring fairly tidy and you can see the pass through cables for the front audio ports. Raidmax supplies a nice PCI slot cover for the grommet on the audio cables to snap into so they stay in place and wont rub thru the insulation.
With the installation complete, you have the sharp lighting effects as shown below...
Conclusion:
The Raidmax Cobra 822 is a great bargain for a gaming case. Its paint job is superb and it has a striking appearance that is sure to stand out at any LAN party. For those who like the style of the case, but don't care for the blue paint job, no need to worry... Raidmax offers the case in other slick colors, such as silver, red, and black.
Quality of construction is on par with that of a case costing considerably more. The Raidmax Cobra is available from some familiar retailers starting at around $55 (US), including; Newegg, Chief Value, and CompuVest.
Final Rating (4.5 out of 5 stars):  
Pros:
Superb paint job
Unique appearance
No sharp edges on inside of case
LED lighting and custom side window
Front panel USB, firewire, and audio ports
Cons:
Stamped fan grills proved somewhat restrictive on airflow
Have to add case fans to improve cooling
Special thanks to Raidmax for supplying the Cobra 822 ATX case to BigBruin.Com for review!
Please drop by the BigBruin.Com forum and feel free to discuss this review.
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