I just built my latest setup in this case and the install was a breeze. It would have been handy for a motherboard tray but oh well. The overall craftsmanship and feel of the build felt very high as I was working in it. CM did include many ties/stickies/mounts for cable management, in addition to the several motherboard panel cutouts it has been AMAZING! Best looking cable management in any build of mine yet, and with great ease.
Took it to the last LAN party and it was the talk of the place (room full of Stackers, Raven, Sniper, etc.). Very sleek looks, and easy to carry using the top handles (as far as full towers go).
Lighting accents are subtle and attractive. (granted my last case had neon blue that would shroud out LV)
Great airflow and very quiet. I've added 3 Yate Loon fan's to the case as well.
Plenty of space inside//No GTX200 series hitting your hard drives.
Qualms about the case: -Slide cover over front usb/1334 can be hard to slide back and forth, I feel like I'm going to bump the touch sensitive powerbutton as I do so.
-No reset button up top? blah.
-Again the motherboard tray would have been nice.
-I also have had a problem with aftermarket cpu coolers. Silly me I just went by case dimensions and figured the 2" listed would be safe to install Prolimatech's Megalems. The side fan hits on it, and until I figure out how to mod it (ideas appreciated) side door is off. Even so, temps of all components are lower than a clone build of friend's hardware (920,260gtx,x58) in Raven case.
-Removing psu filter is blocked when a case fan is mounted next to it.
the case looks good, it has a lot of room, it collects dust very nicely no matter how clean is your room, the negative side is that it has problems with aftermarket coolers i have a XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 and the huge side case cooler interferes with my cpu cooler and i cant close the side door unless i remove it, the other bad thing is that it doesnt have a motherboard plate or whatever is called and because of it you have to do all your work inside the case, it comes with small amount of coolers, you have to use screws to secure your hdd. no matter what this case is very good
Not really clean, all I did was place a piece of cardboard from each foot next to the airflow so the carpet does not get in the way. Either way it is not that dusty in my house and vacuum on a weekly basis.
Cable management - Is really going to be terrible with this case, unless they include 'sticky ties' or something similar. Another option would be to buy a power supply with cables that are longer than you need, and clip them to length. Personally, I would rather mod the case by cutting holes in it, or fabricating something into the case rather than mess with the power supply cable lengths. Either way, it would be a lot of effort.
Interior design - After taking one look at the outside, then afterwards looking at the inside it is obvious that cooler master does not care about the interior. It may be functional on some level sure the interior looks very similar to a $5 usd case . . . and that drive cage with fan . . . are you sure the person who designed that was not a kindergarten student using construction paper, scissors, elmers glue, and tape ? Perhaps their engineers should spend less time on the outside, making pretty shapes, and instead spend some time on decently designed interior items(so that $210 usd does not feel like a waste).
Lots of other things like the 'fan grill' on the back could have been improved by simply cutting a hole for the fan there, and buying a $.50 fan grill cover, and placing it on the outside. Water block holes ? How about still cutting the holes, putting the rubber bushing in a bag, and screwing a plate over the holes for those who do not wish to use them. Same for the bottom facing power supply 'inlet' cover it with a plate, and let the user decide if they want to use it. Maybe they could even supply a fan guard. Power supply may be on the bottom, but it is not partitioned. Motherboard tray ? Or how about just putting enough space behind the motherboard area that allows you to cleanly wire your system (Cue the Antec p182)? I could go on all day.
In the past if I wanted a no frills case I would have bought a MaPower case. Now days you can buy the cheapest Lian Li case that looks very nice/professional on the outside, pop the side door off, and still be equally impressed. Maybe these cases do not have the 'bling' the younger generation likes (gah!), but at least they look professional, and are very functional. Without having to worry about taking a finger off for whatever reason. Need I mention that even the small things sold as expansion accessories by Lian Li like bay conversion are also very nice/professional looking?
I figured that I'd follow your windy rant with a possibly windier rant of my own. So if you skipped yyrkoon's post, do yourself a favor and skip this one, too. To start, CoolerMaster does include 'sticky ties' with this case, quite a few of them, too. Not that I needed them for my build, because there was adequate space for the cables I was using (such as sata data and power cables and nearly all the front panel cables) to travel between the motherboard and the right side of the case.
Oh, and your comment on the HD cage has got to be the shoddiest attempt at a put-down I've read in a while. I don't understand the point of it. It's an HD cage, it's sturdy, provides airflow to the HDs, has vibration damping and is otherwise perfectly functional, I don't really know what more you could want from the thing. Unless you actually have more than 4 HDs, in which case, buy another HD cage from CM, problem solved. Sure, it sucks that you would have to buy it, but if you don't need it, you're probably glad you didn't have to pay for it. And why should the power supply be partitioned? With the mounting method the case uses the PSU is effectively isolated with regards to heat anyways (air intakes through dust filter on bottom of case and flows out through the back). The P182 is a completely different case designed for a different purpose, mainly low acoustics. The reason why the PSU is so isolated in that case is so the heat and noise from it don't escape into the rest of the case or into your room. A PSU at bottom of case equals less noise in the vast majority of situations because it's farther away from your ears.
It's also pretty hard to do Mid-tower, low noise, fair price, and low temperatures at the same time. The P182 is somewhat of a jack of all trades in this respect. Whereas the Cosmos S is clearly a champion of airflow, and heat doesn't have the potential to build up in the case quite like a Mid-tower design might, even one as excellent as the P182. And good luck trying to fit an extended PSU in the P182, it won't happen without removing/modding that lower chamber fan. I've tried and it could work better, its a great case, but it's no full tower.
I won't argue that a MB tray would be sweet, but this thing is already plenty heavy and plenty big (at nearly 40 pounds). And with regards to Lian Li, their cheapest Full-Tower case is still more money than this CM case at $240.
He may not have been, but apparently I was. Christoph speaks English relatively well, but his native tongue is German (and probably fluent in French too). I read through his text and dictated corrections using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, but as advertised it's only about 97-98% accurate. I didn't pay close enough attention and some errors slipped in, but they've now been squashed.
I like it. Good looking and if I had the money to build my dream system I would be probably using a case like this. I liked the 3 slots for fans on the top (to use as a radiator mount).
13 years later and I've finally got a hold of one of these classics. It's everything I could want in a modern case. Lots of HDD space. Support for 360mm AIO. Lots of filtered filtered airflow.
If you're reading this post then your thinking of getting one. Do it. Not many cases these days are so well thought out and still have space for optical and HDD's. Yeah it's a full tower and pretty large. But it's so dam good.
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SilentWOLF9 - Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - link
I just built my latest setup in this case and the install was a breeze. It would have been handy for a motherboard tray but oh well. The overall craftsmanship and feel of the build felt very high as I was working in it. CM did include many ties/stickies/mounts for cable management, in addition to the several motherboard panel cutouts it has been AMAZING! Best looking cable management in any build of mine yet, and with great ease.Took it to the last LAN party and it was the talk of the place (room full of Stackers, Raven, Sniper, etc.). Very sleek looks, and easy to carry using the top handles (as far as full towers go).
Lighting accents are subtle and attractive. (granted my last case had neon blue that would shroud out LV)
Great airflow and very quiet. I've added 3 Yate Loon fan's to the case as well.
Plenty of space inside//No GTX200 series hitting your hard drives.
Qualms about the case: -Slide cover over front usb/1334 can be hard to slide back and forth, I feel like I'm going to bump the touch sensitive powerbutton as I do so.
-No reset button up top? blah.
-Again the motherboard tray would have been nice.
-I also have had a problem with aftermarket cpu coolers. Silly me I just went by case dimensions and figured the 2" listed would be safe to install Prolimatech's Megalems. The side fan hits on it, and until I figure out how to mod it (ideas appreciated) side door is off. Even so, temps of all components are lower than a clone build of friend's hardware (920,260gtx,x58) in Raven case.
-Removing psu filter is blocked when a case fan is mounted next to it.
gamer4ever - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
the case looks good, it has a lot of room, it collects dust very nicely no matter how clean is your room, the negative side is that it has problems with aftermarket coolers i have a XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 and the huge side case cooler interferes with my cpu cooler and i cant close the side door unless i remove it, the other bad thing is that it doesnt have a motherboard plate or whatever is called and because of it you have to do all your work inside the case, it comes with small amount of coolers, you have to use screws to secure your hdd. no matter what this case is very goodgonks - Thursday, September 4, 2008 - link
you'll need to have the floor very clean, or your vga will suffer XDZstream - Friday, September 5, 2008 - link
Not really clean, all I did was place a piece of cardboard from each foot next to the airflow so the carpet does not get in the way. Either way it is not that dusty in my house and vacuum on a weekly basis.yyrkoon - Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - link
Cable management - Is really going to be terrible with this case, unless they include 'sticky ties' or something similar. Another option would be to buy a power supply with cables that are longer than you need, and clip them to length. Personally, I would rather mod the case by cutting holes in it, or fabricating something into the case rather than mess with the power supply cable lengths. Either way, it would be a lot of effort.Interior design - After taking one look at the outside, then afterwards looking at the inside it is obvious that cooler master does not care about the interior. It may be functional on some level sure the interior looks very similar to a $5 usd case . . . and that drive cage with fan . . . are you sure the person who designed that was not a kindergarten student using construction paper, scissors, elmers glue, and tape ? Perhaps their engineers should spend less time on the outside, making pretty shapes, and instead spend some time on decently designed interior items(so that $210 usd does not feel like a waste).
Lots of other things like the 'fan grill' on the back could have been improved by simply cutting a hole for the fan there, and buying a $.50 fan grill cover, and placing it on the outside. Water block holes ? How about still cutting the holes, putting the rubber bushing in a bag, and screwing a plate over the holes for those who do not wish to use them. Same for the bottom facing power supply 'inlet' cover it with a plate, and let the user decide if they want to use it. Maybe they could even supply a fan guard. Power supply may be on the bottom, but it is not partitioned. Motherboard tray ? Or how about just putting enough space behind the motherboard area that allows you to cleanly wire your system (Cue the Antec p182)? I could go on all day.
In the past if I wanted a no frills case I would have bought a MaPower case. Now days you can buy the cheapest Lian Li case that looks very nice/professional on the outside, pop the side door off, and still be equally impressed. Maybe these cases do not have the 'bling' the younger generation likes (gah!), but at least they look professional, and are very functional. Without having to worry about taking a finger off for whatever reason. Need I mention that even the small things sold as expansion accessories by Lian Li like bay conversion are also very nice/professional looking?
Dianoda - Thursday, September 4, 2008 - link
I figured that I'd follow your windy rant with a possibly windier rant of my own. So if you skipped yyrkoon's post, do yourself a favor and skip this one, too. To start, CoolerMaster does include 'sticky ties' with this case, quite a few of them, too. Not that I needed them for my build, because there was adequate space for the cables I was using (such as sata data and power cables and nearly all the front panel cables) to travel between the motherboard and the right side of the case.Oh, and your comment on the HD cage has got to be the shoddiest attempt at a put-down I've read in a while. I don't understand the point of it. It's an HD cage, it's sturdy, provides airflow to the HDs, has vibration damping and is otherwise perfectly functional, I don't really know what more you could want from the thing. Unless you actually have more than 4 HDs, in which case, buy another HD cage from CM, problem solved. Sure, it sucks that you would have to buy it, but if you don't need it, you're probably glad you didn't have to pay for it. And why should the power supply be partitioned? With the mounting method the case uses the PSU is effectively isolated with regards to heat anyways (air intakes through dust filter on bottom of case and flows out through the back). The P182 is a completely different case designed for a different purpose, mainly low acoustics. The reason why the PSU is so isolated in that case is so the heat and noise from it don't escape into the rest of the case or into your room. A PSU at bottom of case equals less noise in the vast majority of situations because it's farther away from your ears.
It's also pretty hard to do Mid-tower, low noise, fair price, and low temperatures at the same time. The P182 is somewhat of a jack of all trades in this respect. Whereas the Cosmos S is clearly a champion of airflow, and heat doesn't have the potential to build up in the case quite like a Mid-tower design might, even one as excellent as the P182. And good luck trying to fit an extended PSU in the P182, it won't happen without removing/modding that lower chamber fan. I've tried and it could work better, its a great case, but it's no full tower.
I won't argue that a MB tray would be sweet, but this thing is already plenty heavy and plenty big (at nearly 40 pounds). And with regards to Lian Li, their cheapest Full-Tower case is still more money than this CM case at $240.
icingdeath88 - Tuesday, September 2, 2008 - link
'nuff said.teohhanhui - Tuesday, September 2, 2008 - link
Were you sleepy when you were writing this article?JarredWalton - Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - link
He may not have been, but apparently I was. Christoph speaks English relatively well, but his native tongue is German (and probably fluent in French too). I read through his text and dictated corrections using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, but as advertised it's only about 97-98% accurate. I didn't pay close enough attention and some errors slipped in, but they've now been squashed.R4F43LZiN - Tuesday, September 2, 2008 - link
I like it. Good looking and if I had the money to build my dream system I would be probably using a case like this. I liked the 3 slots for fans on the top (to use as a radiator mount).Waylay00 - Tuesday, September 2, 2008 - link
The Cooler Master Stacker was released in 2004. That would make it four years, not six years.jfallen - Saturday, August 6, 2022 - link
13 years later and I've finally got a hold of one of these classics. It's everything I could want in a modern case. Lots of HDD space. Support for 360mm AIO. Lots of filtered filtered airflow.If you're reading this post then your thinking of getting one. Do it. Not many cases these days are so well thought out and still have space for optical and HDD's. Yeah it's a full tower and pretty large. But it's so dam good.
Jordan