Verdict: A cooling revolution, or is Cooler Master trying to reinvent the wheel?
When we saw we had two space-themed cases to review this month - the Gigabyte 3D Mercury and the even more adventurous Cooler Master Cosmos - we became very excited. While we wondered why case makers lack imagination when it comes to naming their products, we prepared our various (original 1970s) 'Star Wars' figures for some funky photography. Unfortunately, neither case has a planetary nebula painted on the side, or any cool space-type effects at all. Returning the 'Star Wars' figures to their boxes, we dismissed any thoughts of a distant galaxy, and instead put our sensible heads back on and set about examining this innovative new case.
Love it or loathe it, the silver and black colour scheme is back in force with the Cosmos, and the vast swathes of smooth silver metal that comprise the case's side panels make a strong impact. The dull, black plastic venting toward the rear of the roof of the case doesn't quite shout 'luxurious design' though - it's more Honda Civic than Mercedes S-Class and ruins the effect slightly.
The Cosmos has larger dimensions than those of Cooler Master's hulking Stacker 830, although it's sleeker and curvier. People with weak backs should take note that, as the internals are made almost entirely from steel, the Cosmos weighs in at a desk-bending 16.9kg.
The Cosmos is unique in that it has four large aluminium bars running along the length of the case. The two on the top act as sturdy handles for moving the case from A to B, while the two bars below raise the base of the case off the floor - a crucial part of the airflow system. Rather than sucking in air through the lower half of its front panel as with the vast majority of cases, cool air enters the Cosmos from the floor of the case via three vents, urged on by a 120mm intake fan. Three more traditionally placed 120mm fans - two in the roof and one on the back of the case - act as exhausts.
The design of the case's layout reflects this new cooling method, and we can't fault the logic behind it. With three exhaust fans and only one intake fan, the inside of the case will be an area of low pressure, so air from outside will naturally tend to be sucked in through the front vents, which are covered with dust filters. The six hard disk caddies slot in above the air vents, and Cooler Master obviously intends the incoming air to cool them. The intake fan blows air into the main chamber and has adjustable grilles to direct the airflow.
Noise levels were also a concern for the designers of the Cosmos. The two large side panels comprise an inner sheet of thick steel with a thinner exterior sheet of brushed aluminium, which will help to soundproof the case. The two panels are also adorned with acoustic foam. However, it's fairly insubstantial, and looks more like the foam used to deaden echoes in a sound studio or garage than anything dense enough to prevent the sound of a wailing HSF from passing through.
However, the chunky, double-sheeted side panels, general solidity of the case and pre-installed fans make for a quiet PC. When we first turned on the Cosmos after installing our test system, our relatively quiet GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card was easily the loudest thing in the case. With this fan silenced, the case was barely audible, putting the water-cooled Gigabyte 3D Mercury and its humming water pump to shame.
The case has good cooling potential too; as the main intake fan is unobstructed, and guaranteed to suck in plenty of cool air, which it blows towards the bottom right of the motherboard, and probably the graphics card heatsink and fan too. The PSU sits on the bottom of the main chamber, so the area around the CPU and voltage regulation circuits receives good airflow from the three 120mm fans arrayed around it.
This is a good job, since the case is capable of housing a beast of a system, with space for an E-ATX motherboard and two high-performance graphics cards. While we doubt that you'd want to use all of the five tool-less optical drive bays, or fill all six of the hard disk caddies, there's plenty of room for expansion. This is a particularly pertinent point, because we're slightly concerned about the ability of the hard disk caddies to provide effective cooling, as they become rather warm. Leaving a bay free between each drive and having 'only' three or four disks would be a sensible option.
Conclusion
The Cosmos is a bold attempt to redesign case cooling. The theory behind it is good: suck in cool air through the bottom and expel it through the top and rear. It's quiet too, thanks to its slow-moving fans and solid build. However, we have some concerns that Cooler Master hasn't fully addressed. The first is the case's looks: it's interesting rather than desirable, and impressive rather than attractive. There's also the heat of the hard disk bays - yes, they're meant to act as heatsinks, but we'd rather have a fan blowing over the naked disk, as happens in most other cases. Finally, there's the £140 price tag, which is a touch too steep for the product on offer.
