Performance
With everything up and running I’m sure you are wondering how the Cosmos II performed. We are going to break the performance up into two categories, sound/cooling and usability/convenience. Not only is it important that the Cosmos II keeps everything cool and quiet, but considering its price it’s going to need to be flexible and able to adapt to new builds in the future.
I can say without a doubt that Cooler Master was successful in making the Cosmos II flexible. The large CPU access hole and multiple wire management holes will allow you to change things up in the future if you decide to change your cooling, motherboard, or add video cards. Due to its size you can run full XL-ATX motherboards with support for up to four video cards, adding a card or two in the future could be the best way to increase your performance as card prices drop. On top of that the flexibility given with the removable hard drive cages is impressive. If you decide to go with water cooling in the future you’re going to have lots of options.
So how was the cooling performance? With Cooler Master going with a design similar to the 800D that we had trouble with I was a little concerned. As it turns out those concerns where unneeded. The Cosmos II has less cooling power when compared to the HAF X but it still has more than enough to keep even the hottest rig under control. If for some reason you need more you still have two more open fan locations up top. With a mix of fans from 200mm to 120mm noise levels were not bad at all. What helped keep things even quieter was the thickness of the side panels. Using the fan controller was also very easy, every push would give you a beep to confirm, and when you reach max or min a triple beep would let you know.