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
Introduction
The Cooler Master Cosmos is more or less legendary among top-of-the-line enclosures. It's not hard to see why, either: it's big, it has loads of expansion, and it looks like a giant refrigerator...for your computer. That said, some time has passed since the Cosmos originally landed with very little in the way of updates. Today, Cooler Master brings us the long-awaited update, the Cosmos II. With a $349 MSRP and a shipping weight of nearly fifty pounds, this enclosure is oversized in every way. Will it retain the cachet of its predecessors, though, or have advances in the computing market since the era of the original Cosmos left the Cosmos II a shiny relic of a bygone era?
I remember when I was going to school back in 2006; a custom-painted Cosmos was on display in the local Fry's Electronics as pretty much the paragon of what a chassis could aspire to. The Cooler Master Cosmos was expensive, big, and beefy. Yet today interest in monster computers with Full ATX boards is waning somewhat. When you can get a motherboard like the ASUS Maximus IV Gene, an X79 monster with all the trimmings in a Micro-ATX form factor, the market for a case that can handle an XL-ATX board starts to shrink. More than that, when something like Rosewill's Thor v2 offers most of the same creature comforts at nearly a third of the price, it can be hard to justify shelling out $349 for an enclosure. But let's see what you get with the Cosmos II, and then we'll hit the assembly and testing and see how it all comes together.
| Cooler Master Cosmos II Specifications | ||
| Motherboard Form Factor | XL-ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX | |
| Drive Bays | External | 5x 5.25" (2x Occupied by X-Dock, supporting 3.5" drives) |
| Internal | 11x 3.5" | |
| Cooling | Front | 1x 200mm LED intake fan |
| Rear | 1x 140mm exhaust fan | |
| Top | 1x 120mm exhaust fan (supports 1x 200mm/2x 140mm/3x 120mm) | |
| Side | 2x 120mm fan mount; 2x 120mm fans on HDD cage | |
| Bottom | - | |
| Expansion Slots | 10+1 | |
| Front I/O Port | 4x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, mic and headphone jacks, eSATA | |
| Top I/O Port | Fan and LED controls, power and reset buttons | |
| Power Supply Size | ATX | |
| Clearance | 15" (Expansion Cards), 190mm (CPU HSF), 200mm (PSU) | |
| Weight | 21.5 kg / 47.3 lbs | |
| Dimensions | 13.5" x 27.7" x 26.1" (344mm x 704mm x 664mm) | |
| Price | $349 | |
When I look at the spec table, two things jump out at me. First, how am I going to move a case that's nearly fifty pounds? (Very carefully.) Second, expandability is at an all-time high. I have no trouble burning as many hard drive bays as an enclosure can give me, but the Cosmos II has me beat. It supports up to thirteen 3.5" drives, and up to eleven 2.5" drives. That's on top of having eleven expansion slots, four USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports, and a built-in LED and three-speed fan controller capable of supporting seven fans and at least as many LEDs. Like the late, great John Candy, there's a lot to love in the Cosmos II.
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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? :-)