Specs and discussion
| Midland Premier Cobra mkIII | |
|---|---|
| Chassis | Cooler Master Cosmos S Tower |
| Processor | Intel Core i7 920 (2.66GHz, 1MB L2 cache, 8MB L3 Cache, 2,400MHz QPI, LGA1366) @ 3.80GHz |
| Cooler | Corsair Hydro Cool H50 water-cooler |
| Mainboard | Gigagbyte EX58-UD5 LGA1366 |
| Memory | 6GB (3 x 2GB) OCZ Blade DDR3-1,600 @ 8-8-8-20-1T (1,520MHz) |
| Hard disk(s) | OCZ Vertex 60GB SSD Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB, 32MB cache, 7,200RPM |
| Display | None, optional extra |
| Graphics hardware | Gigabyte GeForce GTX 295
single-PCB (stock speeds) |
| Optical drive 1 | LG combination Blu-ray
writer and HD DVD-ROM drive (GGW-H20L) |
| Optical drive 2 | None, optional extra |
| Sound hardware | Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium |
| Speakers | None, optional extra |
| Modem | None |
| Networking hardware | 2x 10/100/1000, Marvell
88E8056 PCI-E |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Home Premium, 64-bit SP2 |
| PSU | Corsair HX 1000W |
| Input devices | None, optional extras |
| Additional software | BullGuard anti-virus
Gamers Edition, 3DMark 2006 Advanced
Edition, 3DMark Vantage AE, Microsoft Office 2007 trial (60-day),
PowerDVD 7 Ultra, Hi-Def suite. |
| Notable items | Pre-overclocked CPU |
| Included warranty | One-year RTB |
| Price | £1,995.00, including VAT |
| Shipping | TBC |
Midland Premier has been sensible and shunned the ultra-expensive Core
i7 975 EE and installed a D0-stepping Core i7 920 chip, cooled by a
Corsair Hydro
H50 water-cooler, and increased
clock-speed from a default 2.66GHz
to 3.80GHz. It's a decent overclock for a system that has to function
on a 24/7 basis.
Sat on top of one of the best X58-based motherboards we've come across, Gigabyte's EX58-UD5, and backed up by 6GB of triple-channel memory, running at below-rated frequencies, the ensemble is housed the performance-oriented Cooler Master Cosmos S chassis.
We like the fact that high-end systems are now shipping with SSDs as boot drives, augmented by larger-capacity mechanical models for storage. The 60GB/1TB combination works well enough. Being picky, 1.5TB drives have recently come down significantly in price - perhaps Midland should have shoehorned one in.The graphics, too, are decent, albeit not overclocked. Single-GPU GTX 295 remains the fastest card around. The beefy 1,000W PSU is good enough to handle another card at a later date, as well. In fact, looking at the specification, Midland Premier has taken some of the best-in-class hardware and put it together in a chassis that's built for expansion and cooling.
A rough 'build-it-yourself'' component cost tallies up to £1,740, including VAT. That excludes the warranty, which is basic in this case, and overclocking. The specs are good enough, so let's take a look at it in the flesh, so to speak.