CCL Eclipse Cobra Gaming System Review

👤by Connell Parr Comments 📅24-08-10
The Eclipse Cobra

CCL ships the Cobra system in the box of the Xigmatech Asgard, which means it is protected by polystyrene. Accompanying the full system is the box the motherboard originally came in. Included in this is a plethora of documentation and accessories, containing everything you need and possibly more! The contents of this box are:

- motherboard manual, driver disc and processor documentation
- XFX installation card, quick install guide, driver CD, XFX door hanger and Assassin’s Creed
- Titan Fenrir retention brackets for other sockets
- expansion slot blanking plates, 5.25” bay cover (removed for the DVD drive), an IDE cable, a 2x molex to 1x 6-pin connector and a Xigmatech case badge
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit DVD


Some of the included documentation and accessories


Taking the case out of the box and removing the protective plastic bag, we can see the Xigmatech Asgard in all its glory. Looking at the front, the LG DVD drive occupies the top 5.25” bay with three empty ones below as well as a spare 3.5” bay. Further down are two USB 2.0 ports with a 3.5mm headphone jack and 3.5mm microphone jack in between them. On the left of these is the reset button with the power button being on the right. Some may notice the lack of power and HDD activity LEDs but they would be wrong. Embedded in the power button is a green LED which shows up through and similarly within the reset button is a red LED indicating HDD activity. Neither LED is bright and intrusive, instead being neat in removing them from the front panel but not totally removing them. At the bottom is a mesh grill to allow air to be pulled in by the 120mm Xigmatech intake fan while keeping out dust and dirt.


The reset buttons and front panel connectors

The included intake fan


Moving round to the back we can firstly see the rear of the Cooler Master power supply. Moving down onto the fairly busy I/O plate of the motherboard, where 6 USB2.0 ports are present, gigabit Ethernet, a choice of optical or analogue audio outputs, eSATA, firewire and though unused due to the XFX HD5770 various outputs for the onboard graphics (VGA, DVI, HDMI and Display Port). To the right of this is space for a 80, 90 or 120mm exhaust fan. At the bottom are the outputs for the 5770, which has Display Port, HDMI and two DVI connectors. You can even use all four of these for an Eyefinity set-up!

As is the norm, the right hand side of the case is fairly blank apart from a few small ventilation cut outs. On the left hand side is space for two 80, 90 or 120mm fans which can aid in cooling the graphics card, though with large CPU coolers such as the Titan Fenrir this is not always possible.

Continue to the next page to see inside the Cobra...

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