In design a) the coil elements were overlapped by 10%, in both the azimuthal and axial directions, and staggered by 50%. In b) the coils were only overlapped, in c) they were separated (i.e., neither staggered nor overlapped), whereas in d) they were staggered and overlapped, but did not completely encircle the object. Staggering and overlapping the coil elements had a minor effect on coil performance, whereas SNR was severely penalized in the case of the non-fully-encircling design, especially at 7 T, where central SNR dropped by approximately 15% without a fully-encircling design. The sample had average size and electrical properties of the human body.