Cosmos S case

Coolermaster ups the ante on its Cosmos range, and David Hollingworth is in on the game.

We’ve long been a fan of the Coolermaster Cosmos series, though we’ve had our gripes. For one thing, while those curving support arms might look weight bearing, the truth is they’re about as strong as Woody Allen in a room full of adopted kids. The new Storm series, of which the Cosmos S is the flagship, fixes that problem right up – we were easily able to lift this new Cosmos out of its box by the arms, and we’ve been promised that they’ll support even a fully laden case with oodles of gear.

We look forward to properly testing this theory, but it looks to be a goer – you can immediately feel just how much more solid the case is, and not just in terms of those arms snapping off.

Our highly technical rattle test elicited barely any noise or vibration with or without the case sides attached. Externally, the case is a spare compromise between ventilation and black brushed aluminium that immediately had us considering words like ‘sleek’, ‘handsome’ and ‘wow I really like this case’. Okay, that last is not a word, but you get the idea. The mesh covers the front fascia and the top, broken only by a smooth area that houses the IO ports and button-less power spot. Flip out two thin doors at front and you easily pop each mesh bay cover off.

There’s a goodly number of fans inside the case, and that has also impacted on the external design, though not altogether negatively. The right side of the case is home to an impressive 200mm fan that could easily see the Cosmos hovering over your desktop, and so that case panel has a racing-car-like mesh intake to accommodate the airflow. Of all the Cosmos’ design elements, this is the one that only your individual taste can judge.

As we said, airflow is a big feature of this case, with the aforementioned 200mm fan, plus 120mm fans at the front, top and rear. There’s also mounting space for two more fans undereneath, and another two up top. With all the mesh present in the fascia, the Cosmos can suck in a large volume of air. Alternately the top ventilation area can easily accommodate a radiator grill, and the case’s rear houses two sturdy rubber grommets for just that eventuality.

The internal build is just as you would expect. Rounded edges prevail and you get a whopping seven 5.25in drive bays and four 3.5in bays to have your wicked storage way with. What’s more, eight of the bays utilise a screw-less, push button design that makes swapping drives in and out as easy, as, well, pushing a button. The PSU sits at the bottom of the case, as well, making for a roomy environment for the motherboard and associated bits and bobs, and there are many holes and recesses for anally retentive cable management practices.

This is a great choice of case for any computer enthusiast, whether they be upgrade-aholics or overclocking fiends. And it looks great too; not that we’re shallow or anything...