While some of our regular readers may be unfamiliar with the company, RaidMax has been in the market for quite some time, producing quality products at affordable prices. While one doesn't think much of "budget" cases, the competition is quite fierce in this segment, and to stay ahead of the competition, they've had to push it further than ever before. Their latest case may do just that...

Today we are going to talk about the RaidMax Cobra Gaming Case, which is their latest gaming chassis which can be found at a reasonable price. Despite the low pricing, the design should get you some of the spotlight at a LAN party or amaze your friends at home. For me, what makes it a good case is the special attention to detail, which I'll show you later in this review.

The case arrived well packaged with no apparent problems except a small kink on the side of the panel, I talked to RaidMax about that and they assured me delivery quality for all their customers. It's most likely a shipping problem. They replied to me quickly and took care of that inquiry right on the spot. Good service! The case also came with the standard accessories, power cable, screws, and back plate.

The case is sold in 4 different colors: Black & Yellow, Red & Black, Grey & Red, Blue & Gray. All these colors make for really good combinations. To top it all off, these cases have a good show-car paint job finish that looks really neat and clean, at least, based on the Black & Yellow combination we received.

Exterior Design

In order to hide any unsightly CDROM drives, the Cobra case features a swing door on the front bezel. Opening the door reveals the four 5.25" external bays, two 3.5" external bays, and the power and reset buttons.

For ventilation, there are three openings beneath the door, though no air filter is integrated into the bezel to keep dust out. Just under the ventilation openings is another smaller door, which can be opened by pushing the top of it. With the smaller door open, you have access to the two USB ports, the mic in and a speaker out jack.

While we have the nice paint job on the front and sides of the case, the rear is untreated. Here, we can see the included power supply, rear IO shield, the PCI shields and a couple grills for the 80mm fans.

Above we get a look at the pre-cut side panel and case window. While the case window is nice, it's the side fan and grill that caught my attention.

The side fan is a tri-lighted 80mm fan and has a nice amber/red glow to it. The grill is nicely designed, looking much like flames extending from the center of the grill.

The other side panel is nothing too noteworthy, other than it is painted black and has some ventilation slits lined up along its side. We're not certain how effective those holes will be as the motherboard tray sits behind it, but we'll be testing the cooling later on in the review.

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