Posted in Cases/Cooling/PSUs , Cooler Master , Full-Tower Buy the CoolerMaster RC-1200-KKN1
$349.99
$349.99
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 SpecificationsMotherboard Form FactorXL-ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITXDrive BaysExternal5x 5.25" (2x Occupied by X-Dock, supporting 3.5" drives)Internal11x 3.5"CoolingFront1x 200mm LED intake fanRear1x 140mm exhaust fanTop1x 120mm exhaust fan (supports 1x 200mm/2x 140mm/3x 120mm)Side2x 120mm fan mount; 2x 120mm fans on HDD cageBottom-Expansion Slots10+1Front I/O Port4x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, mic and headphone jacks, eSATATop I/O PortFan and LED controls, power and reset buttonsPower Supply SizeATXClearance15" (Expansion Cards), 190mm (CPU HSF), 200mm (PSU)Weight21.5 kg / 47.3 lbsDimensions13.5" x 27.7" x 26.1" (344mm x 704mm x 664mm)Price$349When 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.
In and Around the Cooler Master Cosmos II
zappb Reply Nothing I'd put my components in... by Death666Angel on Monday, January 23, 2012 it just doesn't look very pleasing to me. Too much "1337 gamz0r pwn4g3".But that's just me. :-)
Death666Angel Reply RE: Nothing I'd put my components in... by ReachTheSky on Monday, January 23, 2012 I'd be proud to own that. I'm honestly getting a bit tired of minimalism. There's not a whole lot of flashy "HEY LOOK HOW BADASS I AM!" cases that are also functional. 
ReachTheSky Reply RE: Nothing I'd put my components in... by Death666Angel on Monday, January 23, 2012 Like I said, just my own opinion. Nothing more, nothing less. And "badassness" and "functionality" are also very subjective, I wouldn't give this case high marks in either category, much less so considering the price. :-) Death666Angel Reply RE: Nothing I'd put my components in... by michaelheath on Monday, January 23, 2012 Agreed. This case is aimed at the crowd of people who pay through the nose for features that accomodate the other components they paid through the nose for. As a person who lives within his means and requires no more case than what provides room for a modest gaming/entertainment machine, the Cosmos II is pretty overboard in most aspects, and I could put $350 to better use. 
michaelheath Reply RE: Nothing I'd put my components in... by aguilpa1 on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 At this price I honestly expected it to have an integrated liquid cooling radiator with dual fans not just holes for one. I like to buy high end stuff but I still expect to get my money's worth. This isn't it. 
aguilpa1 Reply RE: Nothing I'd put my components in... by ZeDestructor on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 You'd like the Lian Li PC-A71F then. Its a big, black monser of a case that I'm planning to build my next rig in, complete with dual watercooling radiators... 
ZeDestructor Reply RE: Nothing I'd put my components in... by Tetracycloide on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 The thing is, it's really not that flashy in many respects. They basically took an ostentatious design and painted it matte black. Why they wouldn't go with cleaner lines or a color scheme that better accents the lines it currently has I have no idea. I think it fails on the aesthetic front by trying to split the difference between minimalism and snazzy, never quite reaching either and attempting to appeal to two tastes that are fundamentally opposites. 
Tetracycloide Reply RE: Nothing I'd put my components in... by Tetracycloide on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 Now that I've looked at it a little more and seen some additional close up shots from other review sites I've decided to change my mind. The case is flashy but in tasteful way although the tastefulness is largely left up to the builder. The mesh areas have a unique polygonal design layered into them that's almost fractal. With the matte black brush aluminum finish and the right color backlights (blue was the wrong choice IMO) the case could be very beautiful. Personally I'm thinking amber LEDs myself. Without backlighting many of the aesthetics of the case are lost IMO and it just looks like minimalism in areas that don't make sense because the other areas aren't very interesting without lights so the minimalist areas don't contrast with them enough. If you can imagine those areas backlit with LEDs it's a completely different case. The unlit pictures don't do it justice I think. Tetracycloide Reply ? by tzhu07 on Monday, January 23, 2012 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.
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