Conclusions

The Cooler Master Cosmos is a decent case, that much we were able to decide as soon as we saw it at the launch event held at Yoyotech, London a few weeks ago. The Cosmos was sat on a tabletop, surrounded by competing cases from various manufacturers and very few could rival it for design sleekness and appeal.

Checking it over with a few other journalists, we oohed and aahed at the soft sponge on the side panels and we drooled over the HDD compartments which seemed so fantastically built. Everything about the case seemed well thought out and perfectly implemented – right down to the blue clips which hold the HDD drawer handles down.

Now we’ve had a chance to go properly hands on with the Cosmos, do we still feel the same way though? Are we still that impressed?

That’s not an easy question to answer.

The build quality is through the roof and there isn’t a single part of the Cosmos which we could fault on that front – the side panels slide beautifully into place with almost no effort and the power button is the type of thing which dreams are made of if you happen to be a technology journalist obsessed with power buttons.


On the aesthetic side of things the Cosmos is also a winner, though it may not be to the tastes of everyone. Personally, I think it looks fantastic and the way that the carry handles have been incorporated on the top and bottom of the case with the bottom pair allowing increased ventilation is particularly inspired.

Not everyone is going to want to put this in their living rooms and the look isn’t as subtle or understated as, say, the Antec P190 – but it’s certainly miles ahead of most PC cases and looks a hell of a lot nicer than a Revoltec Zirconium. However, the Cosmos does have a few downfalls. The matter of the heat performance is, on reflection, minor and it would be more fair to praise the Cosmos for performing so well in the CPU and case interior areas of testing than to damn it got poor GPU heat performance.

Instead, price is the major weak point of the Cooler Master Cosmos. At £140.56 including VAT, the Cosmos is well out of range for the average PC tinkerer and is only of interest to the hardcore system builders. In the US of A things aren't a lot better and the Cosmos will set you back around $200 excluding tax and shipping.

However, once you’re into this price range it’s a matter of fact that there are other cases available which provide similar performance and a cleaner look for around half the price and for the same price it’s possible to get a Lian-Li case.

All in all, the Cosmos is a solidly built and attractive case which performs well enough in heat testing and runs near silently. This alone puts it high in the upper echelons of PC cases, but it’s price point is a little awkward and shaving just a little off the cost would instantly make it a much more attractive case. Pound signs aside though, the Cosmos is a worthy addition to the Cooler Master range and a good buy for anyone who can spare the dough.

• Build Quality
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• 9/10

• Performance
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• 8/10

• Features
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• 9/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Overall
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• 8/10

What do these scores mean?