Cooler Master Cosmos II: Large and in Charge
by Dustin Sklavos on January 23, 2012 3:20 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Cooler Master
- Full-Tower
Conclusion
Being the most expensive case we've yet tested by $100, the Cooler Master Cosmos II had to deliver. It had to be quieter and had to run cooler than anything else. It had to justify both its price tag and its sheer volume. Unfortunately, when you get to something this pricey, justifying the price tag and size becomes more a matter of personal preference and needs than anything that can be concretely quantified.
What can be concretely quantified is the acoustic and thermal performance. On those two fronts, the Cosmos II is arguably the best performing case we've ever tested. While the wins aren't devastating, they are measurable in nearly every discipline. It looks like a refrigerator and thankfully it pretty much performs like one, and that's before you get into all the different ways you can plug water-cooling and whatever else your enthusiast heart desires into it. The Cosmos II can support pretty much any machine you want to build inside it.
So why can't I bring myself to be more enthusiastic about it? It's my understanding the kinks in the build quality with my review unit are worked out in retail models, so that's not really a strike one can level against it. Assembling a system inside it is about as painless as you could ask for, all things considered. My issues are the price and the size.
Rosewill may not be the most beloved brand among enthusiasts, but there's no denying their Thor v2 provides comparable performance to the Cosmos II at roughly a third of the price. Sure you sacrifice five of the Cosmos II's eleven drive bays, but who needs eleven bays? And the Thor v2 doesn't look as nice and the build quality is lacking in places, but it's also smaller and lighter.
I also have to wonder who needs a tower this large anymore. For sure, the Cosmos II is a niche product with a price to match, but cases like these used to be halo products. As I mentioned before, when you can get an X79 build in a MicroATX case without sacrificing too much in the way of features or performance, who needs a machine this big?
Ultimately the Cooler Master Cosmos II isn't my cup of tea, but I think it really does come down to a matter of personal preference. It's big and some might even say beautiful; other's will just call it oversized and look for something more svelte. If you have need of or just plain want a case like the Cosmos II, you can at least rest easy knowing it's very hard to find a better performer on the market.
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tzhu07 - Monday, January 23, 2012 - link
Ridiculously large (in a very bad way) and ugly. Completely unrefined in every way. Look, I don't expect everyone to have great industrial design and precision like Apple, but this case is just tacky as hell, and you might as well label any owner of it as a person who has bad taste in aesthetic composition on a general level.Who cares about its features and performance when it looks like that monstrosity.
nevertell - Monday, January 23, 2012 - link
Well, I for one, don't care about the look. The PC will sit underneath the table, all I care about is noise and cooling. There is nothing worse than having insomnia due to lengthy file transfer because you skimped on the case a while back :(Death666Angel - Monday, January 23, 2012 - link
In the end though, the case is just the last part in determining the noise of a PC. The component choice (CPU heatsink+fans, graphics card+fans, case fans and fan control) are much more important. :-)TGressus - Monday, January 23, 2012 - link
This case is part of the Cosmos series from Cooler Master. The design should be no surprise to anyone who follows the industry.http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/category.php?categ...
The priorities you express don't align with the intended market of the product. You have wasted electricity by superfluously posting.
Death666Angel - Monday, January 23, 2012 - link
So if you don't like something you have to shut up because it was obviously not meant for you? Can you be more condescending?....Tetracycloide - Wednesday, January 25, 2012 - link
In his defense that's just returning in kind. The OP was a pretty condescending ass too. Probably more so than TGressus actually.Tetracycloide - Wednesday, January 25, 2012 - link
I see, so it's an absolutely perfect case for the people who think it's perfect. That makes total sense.Stewox - Friday, February 3, 2012 - link
pretty much what i had in mindThe Apple guy who thinks this case looks bad is probably not in this category of hardcore enthusiast PCs ...
Cooler Master made a gread job and im very pleased with the effort that went into this, just like Western Digital making those Hard Drives with a window ... it was a marvelous technological achivement , it was made for the enthusiasts who know to appreciate and see the quality, obviously those glass HDDs wouldn't bring WD tons of new customers and brand popularity, and Cooler Master in this case doing in the same way as any great company would. In this case Apple is a crap company, they put out budget shit that is sold for premium and they never make enthusiast products that push the limits of tech, they don't even design anything except the packaging, the looks and color and their software, everything under-the-hood is all customized PC or Mobile parts which are made with over 200 suppliers and assembled at suicide-infested Foxconn in china. What do you think the MAC is ... it's a console with PC hardware, a closed system, it's a disgrace in morality, PCs are supposed to be open - ofcourse people found a way to delete MAC OSX and install other systems ... but then you don't need a MAC anyways, DIY custom PC hardware part-by-part is cheaper , a lot cheaper.
I would go to the grosery store and make a hamburger:
(optimal example)
- cheapest
- modest
- medium
- great
- Best
Me: (optimal financially, not hardcore setup)
- i pick a great ham
- i pick a great chese
- i pick a great salad
- i pick a great ketchup and mayo
- i pick a medium bread
- paper bag package
- i would pay 10$
Apple: ...
- would pick the cheapest chese (GPU)
- would pick the modest ham (CPU)
- would pick the cheapest salad (RAM)
- would pick the cheapest ketchup/mayo (storage space)
- would pick the best and most expensive bread ever (ex Casing)
- would package it in a super glossy shiny flashy silver plate package
- + bonus a FREE ticket to download of your item of choice on iTunez
- attach a price for 15,99 $
Which would you eat, the manual/custom hamburger or Apple hamburger ?
It's really sad to see many newer generation people who are complete ignorants how this works and this should not even be a debate here, the debate should have been about the Case and it's total win. I have always wanted handles for a case and they just fit on this design so nicely, it's not a thrown-up thing it's really part of the design.
And i don't know what wouldn and Apple fanboy be doing here talking shit about PCs. get out and go to your own wonderland.
Stewox - Friday, February 3, 2012 - link
Who cares about an apple fanboy not having idea about PCs.If you even are a PC enthusiast, and you would not buy the a hardcore case just because how it looks, is probably a very shallow reason and excuse.
Second, Apple looks so shiny and nice to attract noobs and tech-gadged buzz people who aren't technical people at all.
If you aren't in this category of enthusiasts please stop posting useless comments and go away, plenty of people will find this case a must buy, plenty of them also hate apple as they should.
Tech people will always hate Apple, that's because we know the inside of wha Apple does, they sell overpriced shiny packaged shit.
Death666Angel - Monday, January 23, 2012 - link
With aluminum finish, you seem to just refer to the steel having texture as opposed to just being glossy/smooth, right? If that is the case and since aluminum can have a different texture as well, shouldn't you use different words? :-)