| Cooler Master Cosmos II Computer Case |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | |
| Written by David Ramsey | |
| Tuesday, 03 January 2012 | |
|
Page 6 of 7
Building a SystemThe Cooler Master Cosmos II doesn't have a removable motherboard tray, but there's so much space that building a system is pretty easy anyway. The dramatic swooping rails at the top and bottom of the case, though, mean that it won't lie flat on its side; it will rock a little front-to-back as you work in it. A standard ATX motherboard (an ASUS P8Z68-V Pro) shows how much room is available in this case. Like the Cooler Master Storm Trooper, the Cosmos II has a couple of pre-installed motherboard standoffs with little lips machined into them. These fit into the corresponding holes on the motherboard to precisely locate it so all the other motherboard mounting holes are aligned exactly over their standoffs, and putting the remaining screws in is very easy.
A huge cutout, about as large as is possible without encroaching on the motherboard standoff mounting points, means you should never have a problem mounting third-party coolers with back plates.
With everything installed, the build looks reasonably neat from this side. Note how much room there is between the end of the video card (an NVIDIA GTX280) and the drive bays. There's 15.1" between the back of the case and the drive cages, which is more than enough for the very longest graphics cards. 
In the previous image, note how short the power supply looks. This is because about 1" of it protrudes from the rear of the case, as shown below. In fact, the power supply is installed through the rear of the case after attaching it to the mounting shell; the shell is then secured to the case with four thumbscrews.
There's about 3/4" of cable clearance behind the motherboard tray. I prefer an inch of clearance when I can get it, but this will be enough if you're careful with your layout. 
At the rear, things aren't as neat. The problem is the morass of fan wiring: with nine separate cables each for fan power and LED, plus a power connector, there are 19 fan-related cables to deal with. I used three of the nine possible fan power connectors (front fan and two lower side fans), and one of the LED connectors (for the front fan, which is the only LED fan delivered with the system). The rear and top fans were connected to fan headers on the motherboard. This left 15 rather long cables to tie up and stuff somewhere out of the way. Despite the bulging wad of cables you can see here, the right side panel closed and latched with no problem. 
With the system powered on, lights on the top panel illuminate the various controls. Note that the FRONT and GPU fan speeds are set to their lowest (blue) setting, while the HDD fan is set to medium (purple) and the TOP fan is set to high (red). These speed controls are illuminated and functional even when no fans are connected, as is the case with the TOP and GPU fan headers. The power button looks as if its icon should be illuminated, but the power light is actually the tiny lightning bolt below it; the HDD activity light is visible just to its left. You can slide the top panel down to cover these switches. 
In the next section I'll go into my final thoughts and conclusion about the Cooler Master Cosmos II.
|
|
Comments
Cosmos 2 is a great case no doubt, but I feel it is a bit on the bulky side. HAF-X is a very good case itself. HAF-X to Cosmos-2 could be a good upgrade only if u plan to buy an XL-ATX board with 240/360 liquid rad cooling or use 3-4 graphics cards.
Overall, though, I think the Blackhawk Ultra would win in the cooling department: it comes with many more (and larger) fans than does the Cosmos II, and there's enough room to mount a thicker 3x120mm radiator at the top (or bottom, if you mount the power supply at the top) than the Cosmos II can handle.
In stock form the Cosmos II would probably be quieter due to its thick plastic side panels.
Either case is a great choice for high-end rigs; the Blackhawk Ultra gives you a lot more bang for the buck at the expense of a very pedestrian appearance.
"At the rear, things aren't as neat. The problem is the morass of fan wiring: with nine separate cables each for fan power and LED, plus a power connector, there are 19 fan-related cables to deal with."
That's another thing I'm at a loos to understand with such a huge case--why not bigger and less fans? This thing should have all 230mm fans in it, except perhaps for the CPU exhaust. Less fans also makes for a cleaner case, and a quieter case too.
I really like this case. Other than the Level 10 I think this is the best Cooler Master case I've seen yet. I would like to point out though that, although I really like the looks of this case, I don't particularly like the two large tubes running front to back on the top. I guess they're supposed to be handles, but I find they really look silly.
It's too bad they didn't put a window on the top half of the left side panel. I know some people don't like Windows, and I didn't used to like them either. However after spending so much money on my most recent build, and talking to some customers about it, I was swayed and purchased a window for my personal computer. I have changed my mind and can see why some people like windows so much.
Personally, I wish case manufacturers would get out of the fan controller business (or make them optional). I prefer a controller that has more data (like RPMs and temps) but I realize many people like built-in controllers and they cannot please everyone (also there may not be enough external bays in this case if one wanted an aftermarket fan controller). However, an expensive case with a poor fan controller does not look good on the manufacturer.
I also wish companies would start making a bay for slim DVD burners. With just a very small space in the PC for a slim drive, the front 5 1/4" bays could be used for more important things (especially considering there are so few of them in this particular case). I also don't understand why there is so much emphasis on hard drive bays these days. With drives being so big, I don't see many people with more than 4 drives. What is it, 13 drives? I think they may have given up a lot of other possible options for so many drive bays that most people wouldn't use anyway (options like more external bays, dedicated 2.5" bays and perhaps a space dedicated to mounting an internal res of some type since this is clearly aimed at the water cooling faction). I'm sure others could come up with more ideas.
However, this is a pretty sweet case and congrats to Cooler Master for putting so much effort into it.
A window in the side panel would require some work since the side panels are so thick, and comprised of multiple layers. But I'd like to see one too.
I wondered if the case would be better if all the upper 3.5" drive bays were removed and the space used for more 5.25" bays, leaving the lower 6 bays for 3.5" drives. Of course that would remove the option to use the lower bay area for a radiator. It's all about choices in configuration, and while I might not agree with all the decisions Cooler Master made for this case, at least you do have a lot of choices.
#benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=808&Itemid=61
For the rig I am running this case was perfect.
Able to fit the biggest dual proc motherboard and multiple video cards without any space problems.
Needed tons of drives (old Cosmos I case only had like 7 total) so this worked as a good upgrade.
Cooling was great even with a ton of stuff in the case (supplemented with additional 120mm and 140mm fans (except on the door - too annoying to service). Not 'quiet' but well within tolerable levels.
Thanks again for the review.
Problems - you cannot use the bottom hard drive bays coz when you use them the cables from the power pack prevent to the door from closing.
I tried to put nearly every cable at the back, letting only 1 cable, the 24 pin cable, to infiltrate the area ( the top side of the motherboard )
A modular power supply helps, too.
It's like the SUVs that so many people use as daily drivers: on one hand, it can hold 5 kids and their soccer equipment and a weeks' worth of groceries. On the other hand it's a # to park and gets terrible mileage.
I'm getting ready for a major build to and I have a cool master H.A.F.
full size tower witch i love they work great and if I need new one 6.00 for a bag of 12