Eagle-eyed readers will immediately spot that the Cosmos SE is a midsized version of Cooler Master's venerable Cosmos series of chassis. It uses the same signature rigid metal bars running along the top and bottom, both for ease of transport and to act as a sturdy stand, aided by rubber feet. It packs a considerable amount of features into a mid-sized chassis too, with plenty of space for internal storage and fans, plus brackets for radiators.
It's also easy to disassemble. The front mesh filter clips off easily, which then allows the front bottom filter to slide out as well. Removing a thumbscrew at the rear allows the inner roof section to slide out, which uses a mesh and fibre polymer filter, which is now a popular inclusion on many PC cases.
Your PSU is installed in a bracket before you slide it into place, where it rests on thick rubber stands, with a filter that’s once again easy to remove.
Meanwhile, the left-hand case panel is flat with a large window, while the other is extruded, providing space for cable management. The right side panel is extremely rigid and sturdy, but the window makes the other panel not quite as sturdy. This case caters well for cable management too, with plenty of holes placed around the inside for tucking cables out of the way, most of which have rubber grommets, although space for threading cables between the motherboard and hard disk cages is a little tight. The motherboard tray also has a large cutout for CPU-cooler backplates.
In terms of cooling, there are two 120mm intake fans, a 120mm rear exhaust fan and another 140mm exhaust fan in the roof. With four fans and a liberal use of mesh filters, the Cosmos SE offers excellent airflow. Fans can also be mounted externally, with a hole provided for sliding the power connectors through to the inside. There's plenty of room for water-cooling gear too. There's space for two radiators, with included mounting brackets for either a 240mm or 280mm radiator at the top and a 360/280/240mm radiator at the front.
There's loads of storage options as well. The three plastic optical drive covers at the front are easy to remove, and there are eight internal bays, each of which has a removable plastic tray than can support either a single 3.5in hard disk or two 2.5in drives, or you can even install additional fans in them. Although this setup almost sounds like overkill, internal space is slightly limited; with a long graphics card, you'll need to remove one of the hard disk cages, which come out in pairs, and you'll need to remove more for multi-CPU setups.
While this sounds like a limitation, a mid-sized case isn’t usually a first choice for a multi-CPU water-cooled setup anyway, and the sheer volume of bays, plus their flexibility, means there’s still plenty of space for internal storage, even if one cage is removed. This limit also explains the need for an additional pair of 2.5in bays behind the optical drive cage, in the event of removing all four drive cages. We certainly had to remove one while testing the Cosmos SE, as our test graphics card didn't quite fit.
In terms of airflow, the Cosmos SE wasn't quite as cool as the SilverStone Fortress FT05, but its CPU and CPU delta Ts of 53C and 49C respectively are still excellent for a mid-sized case.
The Cosmos SE offers great out-of-the-box cooling, plenty of extra features and flexibility, and it also has loads of room for water cooling gear, not to mention sporting a nifty design and appearance. A great all-round enthusiast case.
VERDICT
Great cooling, plenty of features and flexibility, plus a great design and appearance, make the Cosmos SE a great mid-sized case for enthusiasts.