Remember the Cosmos, the Cosmos S and how cool you thought they were. Well if you never got one of those and you still have the craving for a Cosmos then you are in luck as the newest, biggest and baddest Cosmos has arrive; the Cosmos II Full Tower Case. Sponsor: Cooler Master [hr] First Look A classy looking storage container encases the newest addition to the Cooler Master Cosmos series of computer case. This unit is a full tower and weighs in at a whopping 48lbs when empty. After putting a full system in the Cosmos II I would truly consider where you might be placing it, you desktop might not be a good place unless it is a steel desk. By the way if you look closely you can see that the side of the box was damaged. Even though it came with another protective layer of cardboard on the outside I think the delivery person was probably pissed on how much it weighed. On the opposite side of the box we are giving details and highlights about this new Cosmos II. The case comes packed with the normal foam for protection from shipping with a heavy duty plastic bag (probably 5-6mm thick) over the top of the case. The bag is to protect the finish on the case and to act as a final barrier for protection on shipping. The top handles, lower support bars, and other areas come with protective materials on them. Model RC-1200-KKN1 Available Color Midnight Black Material Exterior: Aluminum, Mesh, Synthetics;Interior: Steel-Alloy, Synthetics, Rubber Dimension (W / H / D) 344 x 704 x 664 mm / 13.5 x 27.7 x 26.1 inch Weight 22kg / 48.5 lb M/B Type Micro-ATX, ATX, E-ATX, XL-ATX, SSI CEB, SSI EEB 5.25" Drive Bay 3 3.5" Drive Bay 13 (2 from X-docking with key locks, 5 HDDs in the Middle cage, 6 HDDs in the bottom cage) 2.5"/3.5" - SATA HDDDrive Bay 11 (converted from 3.5" cages) I/O Panel USB 3.0 x 2, USB 2.0 x 4, e-SATA x 1, Audio In and Out Expansion Slots 10+1 Cooling System Front: 200mm LED fan x 1, 700 RPM, 19 dBA(converted from 120/140mm x 1) Top: 120mm black fan x 1, 1200 RPM, 17 dBA(optional: 200mm fan x 1 / 140mm fan x 2 / 120mm fan x 3) Rear: 140mm fan x 1, 1200 RPM, 19 dBA Side: 120mm fan x 2 (optional) HDD: Mid.HDD: 120x25mm fan x 1 (optional); Bottom HDD: 120mm fan x 2, 1200 RPM, 17 dBA Power Supply ATX PS2 / EPS 12V (optional) Warranty 2 years UPC Code 884102014857 A Closer Look Our video below will give you an overlook of the Cooler Master Cosmos II Full Tower Case. For a closer look and details please continue reading the review... after you watch the video. Looking at the left side panel we can see that the door panel appears to made of something different than the rest of the case. The side panel is skinned with aluminum while the rest of the door is made of high strength plastic. A horizontal brushed effect is on the door giving it a unique look and style. Taking a closer look we can also see that there are some air vents in the lower to mid section of the cases side panel. These does give the case some styling flare, but they are there for a purpose which we will talk about later. Moving our attention the forward part of the case it is noticeable that there is a cover of the upper drive bays. This cover slides down the face of the case and stop until all the lower bays are shown. Even when all the cover is all the way down the there is still plenty of air flow into the case. While still looking at the front of the case I decided to give you a look with the side panels opened up. This gives you a are view and a great reference as to where the air intake vents on the side panels are located. The lower two drive bays are for hot swappable drives that can be locked with a barrel style key (which is included) to keep wondering hands from acquiring any of the drives. The larger raised part to the left of all the drive covers is the release and locking lever. A Closer Look Continued Lets move onto the top section of the case and of course on the most important parts, the controlcenter. A retractable plastic hood covers the touch sensitive control that are on the very top front of the Cosmos II. This set of controls are used to do you normal on/off and reset, but there is also a built in fan control. Here you are able to control the fans that are located at the front, side, GPU, top, and rear of the case. Giving total control of how you want to keep the inside of the case cool. Set back and located just below the control panel is the accessories connection panel. Here you have quick and easy access to the audio ports, eSATA connection, 2- USB 3.0 ports, and four standard USBports. The sliding cover that hides the top touch sensitive extends just enough to protect the items that a plugged in, yet it gives you easy access to them when needed. Taking a look down at the top of the case reveals that there a massive amount our air that can be passed through the case at this point. Metal mess is formed over the top of a plastic skeleton that is part of the frame work for the top portion of the case. From this view point and the top cover removed you can see that there is plenty of room to add two more fans, a radiator, lights, or whatever you can think of. Removal of this cover is really easy as a single thumb screw lock it into place, a slight pull towards the back and a lift off and you have total access. A Closer Look Continued - The Rear of the Case So here we are at the working side side of the case. Everything that you need to use has something to do with this section so the detail that Cooler Master put in here is was subtle yet stylish. They have you everything that you and without clutter it up. At the top you get three grommet-ed holes that can accept a 1/2" water cooling hose with ease. If you done do water cooling then you can use them to pass cable, wires or whatever your heart desires. And yes there are a S%$* load of I/O slots; there are ten in total which should be able to accommodate anything you can throw at it and more. What we have is a close up look at the unlatching lever for the side panels. The levers are a good size and feel strong enough, even though they are made of plastic, to take years of usage. So with a simple and easy push down the side panel pop open. This angle give you a nice peak at the appearance of the case from the rear with the doors opened. In case you have not already noticed but there is something sticking out where the power supply goes. What you see is a bracket the goes on the outside of the rear of the power supply and is attached with the normal screws for a PSU. The reason that the bracket exists is that you are suppose to install the power in through the rear of the case and this allows you to attach the PSU directly to the case. It does stick out, but it does not protrude past the extended side panel covers. On the base of the case we see that a filter has been installed to make sure that the intake air to your power supply is kept clean. A small handle is on the rear of the filter ans is used to remove and reinstall the plastic filter into the proper place. A Closer Look Continued - Going Inside With the side door open you get a chance to see how the air flows in to the case from the door. The lower fans located at the bottom hard drive rack pull air in from the lower part of the door, but if you want more air flow you can add two more by mounting to the door. OK so you have seen that the doors swing out from the case like a regular door does, but how didcooler Master accomplish this. Anchoring a heavy duty metal hinge (I am so happy that they did not cheap put and try to use some sort of plastic one) to the case frame that houses some vertical grooves. These grooves are used as part of the process that the doors can be removed. Located on the door is a metal plate that has four mushroom headed pins that are the locking mechanism. When you lift the door the pins slide up the grooves and come out of the hinges. This process is reversed when you reinstall the doors. The interior of the Cosmos II is like the outer shell, all black. So what else do we see here, hmm...we see enough room that it looks like we could get two systems in here. Actually I bet you could fit a micro-ITX in to here along with a full size motherboard (now that I said that someone out there will do it). So what I have done here is take the same image from above and added some colored squares. These areas are to show you how Cooler Master has designed the case to be divided into two compartments. The upper half of case houses the motherboard and all the goodies that go along with that, while the lower half keeps the hot power supply away for the area we always want to keep cooler. Starting at the top half there is plenty of room around the hardware to allow for maximum air flow for cooling. With a 200mm fan at the front pushing in a good amount of air and with preinstalled 140mm fan at the rear and a single 120mm at the top you are given a good amount of air flow right out of the box. turning to the lower section and with the air intake for the power supply coming from the bottom of the and out the back of the PSU they are able to cut down the amount of hot air that enters the lower section of the case; add to that the cooling fans at are placed at the lower fan to cool down any drive placed there and you have plenty of air. So how do they achieve the separation from the top half and the bottom, with a plate. The plate extends from the front of the case to the rear with a few outlets that can be used to pass items through in case it might be needed. The same style of grommets are use in this plate that are used on the motherboard base. A Closer Look Continued - Deep Inside Looking up towards the top of the case we can see there is a whole lot of space here to do what ever you imagination can conjure up. A lonely 120mm cooling fans come installed for you, but why make it sit there all by itself. Two more 120mm fans can be install to create a huge amount of air to be sucked out. Now if you not into air cooling and more into water cooling well then you will like this. Cooler Master made sure that at least a 240mm radiator can be installed and I have heard that some have had luck stuffing a 360mm radiator into the space, but it might be on the top side. Hot swaps for smaller drive are pre-installed for you and are sitting at the lower part of the drive cage. As you remember the front doors to theses do have a lock and key to keep them safe. Just above the hot swaps is space for adding three 5.25 devices with quick and ease retention devices. Five drive bays are here for you enjoyment and pleasure, but NO you do what you drives here! You would rather do something else with but you stuck this it here....NOT! By removing just a few screws you can removed the left side (face towards us in the image) of the case and you now have all that space- to the other bracket- to do whatever you want, like maybe a water pump and reservoir or maybe that mini-ITX board. So now that you have that idea flowing around in your head.. but here will you put your fist load of terabytes hard drives... read on. 200mm fan has been place here to help keep your drives cool. Oh, look more fans but why here? Thats because behind this bank of fans, that are on a hinge, you get even more hard drive space! Lets see so far that is, 1,2,3,4,5 plus six more.... carry the one, divide by 3, wheres that damn calculator. OK that is a total of 11 places to slide in your drives and if you include the hot swaps that is 13! What you do not want the lower hard drive storage are and you think it is a big waste, Think Again. Like the hard drive cage above it can be taken apart and you gain all the massive space to...hmm place all your water cooling stuff here like a pump, res our how about a radiator. Me I would think about adding that mini-ITX board... Cooler Master makes it so easy to install your drives is is just silly. The caddy is made of a flexible plastic that can be bent just enough to allow you pop in your drive where the anchors are and it magically wraps itself around the drive. Slide it back in and use the lever/latch to keep it in place. A closer Look Continued - Backing Out Final Thoughts What do you want me to say here? Could blow smoke and make everyone happy and so forth, but hey why. If you read the review and you watched the video them you pretty much got all the information you need to make an informed conclusion about the Cooler Master II Ultimate Full Tower Case. BUT, in case you have not read the review, skipped the video and jumped to the final page then here you go... Is the case large, uh he#$ yeah big enough to rent out as small condo in California and ask $1000 a month for. It is heavy enough (48lbs empty), strong and ridged enough to withstand a earthquake (or a drive to a LAN in the back of your pick-up down that dirt road to the main the main highway). Seriously I am very impressed with the attention to detail and thought that Cooler Master has put in to the newest member of the Cosmos team. Every time I opened a new part of the case and explored it I became more impress with it. From the large options to the tiny things that most might not notice makes this a high caliber stylish case that you really need to look at and if you want to impress your friends then this is a MUST HAVE case. I think it will be really hard for Cooler Master to top this case with the next one, but when they do...wholly $#% I want it! Pros Cons - Can hold more hard drives than I have owned in my life so far- Bunches of options for cooling with fans and water- Bitch'in side panel doors- Comes in black, but other colors are soon to come - On the heavy side- Pricey for the none enthusiast
