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
Noise and Thermal Testing, Stock
I've maintained, for better or worse, that the only way you're going to get excellent cooling performance and acoustics in the same package is by spending up. That's not to take away from awesome budget performers like the Bitfenix Shinobi, but in my experience behemoths like the Cooler Master Cosmos II can usually at least justify their high price tags by offering the best of both worlds. Let's see if the Cosmos II can live up to that standard.
So far so good. The Cosmos II is the most expensive case we've tested, but it also generally offers the best cooling performance. Despite that, pay attention to how it trades blows with Rosewill's Thor v2 and keep in mind that the Thor v2 is more than $200 cheaper. Also interesting is how the Lo/Med/Hi results bounce around a bit, though we'll see how that changes when we hit the higher demands of our overclocked testing.
The Cosmos II's medium fan setting turns out to be just the right balance between performance and noise. Moving up from low to medium doesn't change much in the way of noise, but produces an appreciable decrease in temperatures, while high produces a jump in noise without really justifying itself.
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Xajel - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - link
This is one of the best designs I saw !!but I'm seeing it as very huge !!. I hope CM will make a smaller version of it... but not too small... the original Cosmos was the biggest I can think of as a case, so same size will be nice..
dac7nco - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - link
Jesus Christ you are a pussy. Go to the gym or something. In every review you comment about being frail, small or skinny. Review servers, eat pasta-roni and gain some bulk.Daimon
dac7nco - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - link
I love your case reviews, by the way... I am just a jerk. I bought a TJ-08 because of you.Daimon
fausto412 - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - link
This case is HUGE and PRICEY. I wouldn't buy this but if someone game me one for free I would use it.tecwiz816 - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - link
I have the original Cosmos X for the past 4 years now and I love it.ven - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - link
first of all very massive case,and i think instead of having this much amount of 3.5 drive bays CM could have left some place there with mounts so that a 360mm radiator can be fitted there vertically i would prefer for obsidian 800D.And as pointed out earlier with previous cosmos line the handle gives the case a alien species look but it's look nice. a windowed side panel(or door in these case) will also be nice update feature.Etern205 - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - link
The massive size of this case even makes that ATX board look like a mini.Still have the very first Cosmos RC1000 and I still remember the day when it arrived in that gigantic
card board box. But I could of sworn it didn't look that big in the picture.
Cooler Master even let you build the original yourself (paper craft version) :)
http://www.coolermaster.com/microsite/Cosmos/
Stas - Wednesday, January 25, 2012 - link
As an owner of the original Cosmos, I must say - this is disheartening on CM's part.CM Cosmos was large, quiet and beautiful; very elegant and easy on the eyes. I admit, it did lack in cooling performance for large video cards (I ran 5 HDDs in it and a volt-moded HD3870). When Cosmos S came out, I thought it was the perfection in its class - all of the great things from the Cosmos + cooling tweaks. Unfortunately, the "S" lost the padded side panels :(
This is very different from what I would want to see in CM's classy flagship. Flashy, unrefined, almost pretentious. Yes, it has performance to back it up, and surely quality, too. But it just doesn't have that sophistication of the former model. Besides, I paid $220 for my case... wtf did extra $130 go? A couple of extra fans? o.O
johnpombrio - Thursday, January 26, 2012 - link
I believe that the reason for a separate LED power connector going to the mobo is to use it to FLASH the LED when the computer is in sleep mode. Don't be so quick to diss something that I find extremely useful.Captain Zero - Monday, January 30, 2012 - link
This reviewer is an embarrassment. What did he expect to be reviewing, an ipad? Of course it's big. The Cosmos is the tractor trailer of cases, not a Mini Cooper but he complains that it doesn't perform like a spots car. Moron. The comments here are equally dippy. These cases are large and exceedingly well-built and worth every penny. No self-respecting builder would put top-tier components in a cardboard box or complain about price. If you want a solid, robust case that's outrageously versatile with room to grow, you can't best the Cosmos line of cases.And for you pussies that think it's heavy, go ask your mom for help.