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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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.