Cooler Master Cosmos SE Mid-Tower Chassis Review

Final Thoughts

Price

At around £148 here in the UK at Scan Computers, and a little under $200 in the US, the Cosmos SE certainly isn’t cheap, but given that this is a premium product and targeted at the high-end and even enthusiast system building market, it is competitively priced. At time of writing the chassis is only available at Scan Computers, but we expect it to show up no later than mid November at other major retailers.

Conclusion

Overall I have been simply blown away by the Cosmos SE, having gotten a sneak peek at the case a few weeks ago at the Target Open Day I was keen to get the chassis in for review and put it through its paces, but it has exceeded all my expectations in doing so. Now I’m not going to go off on a range and proclaim this is the base case ever, but speaking personally it’s certainly one of all time top 5.

First off I think I have to go through the down sides of this chassis and while I do love it, there are a couple of tiny issues I noticed. The first one would be the length of the chassis, The PSU extends out at the back to provide more room on the interior, but with the HDD bays in place I noticed that our GTX 560 was awfully close to the left wall of the HDD bays. Of course this is quickly fixable because the HDD bays are modular from top to bottom, but should you wish to use all 18 hard drive mounts (unlikely I know) then you’re going to need a card no bigger than our MSI GTX 560 Ti.

That is literally the only thing I can find wrong with the case. Build quality is beyond exceptional, the whole thing feels reinforced, rigid, rattle free, precision cut and all the movable components slide, click and lock into place perfectly. The side panels are thick cut and this will help keep vibration and noise to a minimum.

The mesh panel does look great, but the side panel edition we got here today looks even better and it’s begging for a custom lighting setup to bring the chassis interior to life. Add to that the funky blue lighting of the front panel and the bundled fans, a mixture of stealthy black and aluminium highlights and you’ve got one of the coolest looking cases on the market today.

Compatibility is high with extensive storage capabilities, highly modular storage bays to allow for extra water cooling setups that can include 1 x 120mm radiator in the back, 1 x up to 280mm in the top and an up to 360mm radiator in the front, with room to spare for a reservoir, plenty of cable routing and water tubing space. Not forgetting of course that Cooler Master have already included four high quality cooling fans (3 x 120mm + 1 x 140mm).

As I said before, I do think this is one of the best looking and performing cases I have ever reviewed and while £130 isn’t exactly cheap, you do get every bit of what you pay for.

If you’re on the market for a premium grade chassis and want a no compromise high performance build, then look no further than the Cosmos SE. While it may not have the “ultra extreme” edge of the Cosmos II, it does provide many of the thrills at a fraction of the price of its bigger brother.

Pros

• Premium grade build quality and materials throughout
• Holds an impressive 18 hard drives
• Unique “Cosmos” design
• Includes four high quality fans
• Room for high-end custom loop water cooling setups

Cons

• Extra large graphics cards could cause issues for those wanting to use all hard drive bays

Thank you Cooler Master for providing us with this sample.