We’re kicking things off in 2012 with a look at one of the soon to be hottest cases of this year. Back in 2007, Cooler Master had one of the hottest cases of that year called the Cosmos 1000. We reviewed that case and found that we still loved it even though it had some nagging issues like being too hot and being hard to cable manage. Today, we’re going to be looking at the true successor to that case called the Cosmos II Ultra-Tower. If you thought the original was really big and really heavy, this one is about 20% larger and weighs over 50lbs without a single component inside. Check out our video above (or directly on YouTube) for all you need to know about this awesome case launching today!
One thing that we missed showing you was the fact that the top mesh panel actually pops off with a single thumb screw. Our sample actually had an issue where the thumb screw was cross threaded and we couldn’t get it to budge during filming. We’ve since corrected that and it comes off easily without issue. Popping it open gives you access to the filter allowing easy cleaning and replacement, just like the original Cosmos 1000. The other thing we missed showing you was that the top hard drive cage is removable, allowing you to fit large video cards up to any size currently on the market. But if you have to leave it in, then you can bring more fresh air in by mounting an additional 120mm fan on the back of the drive cage, facing the back of PCI slots. There is a top and bottom mounting position.
There were a few imperfections that we noticed. For example, the top panel that slid to cover the touch controls had a bulge in it that looked like the glue was coming unstuck. The same issue was noticed on the touch fan control. We believe that this may be due to the speed in which we received our review samples, leaving not much time for the glue to cure. Our feedback did lead Cooler Master to do some additional quality assurance to ensure your Cosmos II doesn’t have the same issue.
Like we prefaced in the video, it really is love at first sight with this case. It’s just striking from every angle. And with an MSRP of $349 US, our preliminary thoughts say it’s a winner. But of course, cooler heads prevail so we’ll wait till the honeymoon period is over till we put our official seal of approval on it. We still need to carefully install a system into it to look for any quirks and issues and we’ll need to take some temperature and noise measurements to ensure that it won’t roast your hardware or wake your neighbours. Stay tuned!