Coolermaster Cosmos S review
Author: Vedran Dakic
Date: 29 Apr 2008

It's just amazing what can a company do when it puts its mind into something. Coolermaster is just the perfect example of this logic, always pushing their own limits and raising the bar even further. Theme of this review is gonna be - how do you make something that's already pretty close to perfection even more perfect? Back in September when we reviewed the first Cosmos (check out that review here) we were already extremely happy with that case. Coolermaster obviously thought that they could do a bit better and with optional ESA support - let's see how they did.

There are two basic things that really catch the eye (and your hands) when you get close to this case. First thing and the thing everyone will notice is the fact that Cosmos S is actually black with some grey details, while the first Cosmos was mostly silver with black details. But the second and perhaps more important thing that's easily noticed is the fact that Cosmos S is a bit lighter then Cosmos. Let's go with numbers here - Cosmos is a very heavy bud - 16.9kg net, 18.9 gross weight so - by no means a light case. Cosmos S weights around 13.8kg net, or 17.8kg gross. This just might come down to the fact that Cosmos S doesn't have the front door that you can open and close - the S version doesn't have them and that just might make things a bit lighter. Also, there's one little change in that part of the case as well - it you were, for example, to install a 5.25" device, you have to "open" the "grills" from the left and right side. On the first Cosmos, you just opened these, while on the S version, you actually have to push the grill in, it does a click, and then opens. Nice.

I have to admit that I still have some doubts over the offical specs found on the Coolermaster website for Cosmos S (check it here) as far as these weight things are concerned. The S feels quite a bit more lighter and since there's a lot more plastic used (a damn fine one, if I may add) then aluminum when compared to the first Cosmos and judging by the feeling I have when I lift it up - it feels a lot more lighter then the specs show. We'll make sure that we check these a couple of more times in the next couple of days so - take this with a grain of salt. Let's just make one thing clear here - we really like the fact that Coolermaster is thinking about making products lighter which makes them more moveable.

Most of the stuff inside the case is very similar or the same - you can have waterpipes going through the back of the case if you're a watercooling fan (I most certainly am). The layout of the back side is in general the same, as well - fan, PSU on the bottom, some air intakes on the right so - all the right things are still there. Also, you get a 24-to-20-pin converter for those of you that are having problems with connecting older motherboards to newer power supplies. Very well thought, kuddos for that. It's always about little things.

So, to sum this part up - general principles haven't really changed, so this is still a very nice big tower case with built-in fans and a lot of space to do whatever you want. If you want to have ten hard drives inside, you can do that easily with this case. If you want to have access to a lot of the stuff that's mostly placed on the back of
any case, this is also a perfect case for you. Four USB ports, Firewire port, E-SATA and speaker/mic connectors are easily accessible on the front panel that's neatly hidden behind a plastic plate.

Make sure that you check the Cosmos S video here.