Cooler Master Cosmos S

[Kougar]

I'd quite agree on all points made, except #3. Case in point (pun intended), how many "normal" users spend $250+shipping on a computer case... It does not even have a power supply.

Considering the high-end enthusiast is the target market, more than four drives should not be unexpected IMHO. Of course I might be a bit biased since I was using a 4 drive RAID 10 array (+other disks) while I was chugging along under Vista.

 

[Merlin]

Going back and Forth here

I'd quite agree on all points made, except #3. Case in point (pun intended), how many "normal" users spend $250+shipping on a computer case... It does not even have a power supply.

Considering the high-end enthusiast is the target market, more than four drives should not be unexpected IMHO. Of course I might be a bit biased since I was using a 4 drive RAID 10 array (+other disks) while I was chugging along under Vista.

I would never buy a case with a power supply added....it's just me I guess.
Most mobos now had at least 6 SATA connections and even 1 to 2 eSATA connections.
LOL...you can never have too many connections.
I'm going back and forth on both cases.
One day the COSMOS S and then to the Mozart.

I really didnt plan to build two systems in one year.....but it seems I will

Merlin :techgage:

 

[Rob Williams]

I would never buy a case with a power supply added....it's just me I guess.

I agree... mostly because most of the time, the PSU is a value model that's only included to give the case more appeal. The exception might be Thermaltake, since their PSU's seem rather stable. I am not sure how great CM's PSUs are, but I'm not a PSU guru either.

 

[werty316]

I've been quite happy with using PSUs from for a while now so I have no complaints and their Real Power Pro units are quite nice.

 

[Kougar]

I see I shouldn't of even mentioned the power supply... I would not either these days... but a great number of enthusiasts base their decisions regarding cases due to the power supply since it makes a case a good value for them. I just mentioned it as an afterthought.

Even my first case purchase was made on the fact that the Antec SOHO case had a large wattage Antec PSU in it at the time, which made the high price look a good deal more reasonable. They do bundle NeoHE PSUs in some of their cases these days, and those are good power supplies.

My point still stands though... only the mid to high end enthusiast is going to splurge $250 for a mere computer case, and those are the users most likely to be using more than four drives.

 

[sbrehm72255]

Last I checked Cooler Master does sell optional drive racks, don't know if there is one out special for the Cosmos S yet or not, but I'm sure that the ones they do sell would fit. Then there's always the option of 5.25 hot swap racks, my son uses a triple in his rig and I have a single in mine.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=257&products_id=1885

The Cooler Master STB-3T4-E1 4-in-3 Device Hard Disk Drive Cooling Module allows you to convert 3 open 5.25" drive bays into 4 standard 3.5" hard drive bays. The front mounted 120mm cooling fan keeps your hard drives at lower operating temperatures which their increases the stability and reliability. The STB-3T4-E1 4-in-3 Module is designed specifically for Cooler Master's Stacker series cases. However, it can be effectively any case with perforated (ventilated) front panel covers such as Cooler Master Centurion 5, Thermaltake Armor, and other similar cases.

Features:

* Convert the 3 ×5.25” bay into a 4 ×3.5” HDD module with a low noise 12cm sleeve bearing cooling fan
* Compatible with ATX case with 3 x 5.25 drive bays
* Ideal for CM Stacker and other cases

 

[b1lk1]

I just don't agree with needing more than 4 drives. Those same enthusiasts that are spending $250+ for a case are also going to need to buy 1TB drives to continue impressing the ladies with their spending power. I don't know anyone that runs more than 4 drives unless they are stringing a bunch of small size units together in desperation of not buying a new larger drive.

 

[Greg King]

I just don't agree with needing more than 4 drives. Those same enthusiasts that are spending $250+ for a case are also going to need to buy 1TB drives to continue impressing the ladies with their spending power. I don't know anyone that runs more than 4 drives unless they are stringing a bunch of small size units together in desperation of not buying a new larger drive.

While I won't call anyone a fool for owning more than one drive, NAS is where it's at. I have a pair of 320GB in RAID 0 for my OS and all my media stored on a central NAS attached to my switch. I agree with Bill in saying that most everyone does not need that many drives.

 

[Merlin]

Well, I store movies and my photography and I have had a lot of problems with external drives ( just for storage ). My Preference is to have internal drives.
I have 1 Maxtor and two WD external drives ( 1.250 TB ) just sitting around because they work sometimes and sometimes not, even on different machines. Just not reliable in my opinion.

That could be why others also have 4 to 6 internal drives.

Some do not store and that's fine, I do.

Merlin

 

[Greg King]

Well, I store movies and my photography and I have had a lot of problems with external drives ( just for storage ). My Preference is to have internal drives.
I have 1 Maxtor and two WD external drives ( 1.250 TB ) just sitting around because they work sometimes and sometimes not, even on different machines. Just not reliable in my opinion.

That could be why others also have 4 to 6 internal drives.

Some do not store and that's fine, I do.

Merlin

If you have 3 drives totaling one and a quarter terabytes, I am assuming that they are new enough to still be covered under warranty. If they are faulty, RMA them and have the manufacturer deal with the bad drives. You could also scan them for corrupted sectors. If the tests come back clean, it could be other hardware failure or even something that you might be overlooking.

 

[sbrehm72255]

I've only got 2 internal drives, one for Windows and one for Ubuntu (Linux).

Al my important stuff (PORN) gets stored on my external drives, never had a issue with any of them so far, but then again they are not store/factory built externals either. I buy my own enclosures and install my own drive of choice. Best solution IMHO.

 

[Kougar]

I just don't agree with needing more than 4 drives. Those same enthusiasts that are spending $250+ for a case are also going to need to buy 1TB drives to continue impressing the ladies with their spending power. I don't know anyone that runs more than 4 drives unless they are stringing a bunch of small size units together in desperation of not buying a new larger drive.

Fair enough.

I would fall under that category, as I've strung 4 320GB drives together for a RAID 10. My experiences with RAID have been very good, so I bought a few extra since at $59 shipped for a Seagate 320gb the price was the lowest I'd seen to date. They perform well by themselves, but together they easily outperform a 1TB drive and cost alot less. And I get to relax a little since I don't need to worry about backing up a single 1TB drive to something else.

I'm definitely going to get a NAS at some point, right now I use my old computer as a network fileserver + F@H box however. It works fine for my needs.

External drives always held a shorter lifespan unless they are actively cooled, so I don't mess with them at all. They just cost more, and in most cases only have a single year warranty, even those Seagate externals did until the Freeagent models came along. Things do seem to be changing for the better with externals though, I will confess... but I'd never get one at the rate people have theirs dying on them.

 

[b1lk1]

4X320GB in RAID10 is not what I meant and I should have been more specific. I am talking the people putting 80GB or smaller drives in RAID0 for benchmarking purposes and complaining when they lose their data. Even you have chosen the wise route with RAID10 since it is quite safe and indeed faster than a single 1TB drive by a large margain. But my point stands firm. you have 4 drives and this case would still have plenty of built in space for your drives.

 

[sbrehm72255]

Fair enough.
External drives always held a shorter lifespan unless they are actively cooled, so I don't mess with them at all. They just cost more, and in most cases only have a single year warranty, even those Seagate externals did until the Freeagent models came along. Things do seem to be changing for the better with externals though, I will confess... but I'd never get one at the rate people have theirs dying on them.

This is why you build your own external HD with retail HD with either a 3 or 5 year warranty..................
Most quality enclosures have active cooling, so no issue there.............

All you have to do is be a little smarter than than the man..........

My main external has been in service for going on 5 years now with no problems. I've have more problem with internals lately

 

[Kougar]

Building your own external HD still means you must buy enclosures... best encolsure I've seen is the Antec MX-1, but any good encoslure would almost double the cost of 320gb drive. I'm way to cheap to do that...

Besides the 4 disk RAID I was meaning that I'd bought a few more. Once I reinstall my RAID setup I'll have five or six drives, the extras are to dual-boot other OS's and to have as a spare incase I need to rebuild the array. I had enough "interesting" things occur with Vista that I had to migrate the array a few times, and rebuild it constantly

For my needs 6 bays is minimum... for a $250 case buying a spare $25 drive cage from Cooler Master just seems like a rip off, that is just my opinion though.

 

[b1lk1]

You could easily partiton the 4 drive raid array into smaller partitions and get the same effect. It is truly my opinion, but I feel that any more than 4 drives in a system makes no sense and if you need to dual boot then multiple partitons on the same array is easy enough.

EDIT: I do agree that they should include the extra cage with the case.

 

[sbrehm72255]

Building your own external HD still means you must buy enclosures... best encolsure I've seen is the Antec MX-1, but any good encoslure would almost double the cost of 320gb drive. I'm way to cheap to do that...

Besides the 4 disk RAID I was meaning that I'd bought a few more. Once I reinstall my RAID setup I'll have five or six drives, the extras are to dual-boot other OS's and to have as a spare incase I need to rebuild the array. I had enough "interesting" things occur with Vista that I had to migrate the array a few times, and rebuild it constantly

For my needs 6 bays is minimum... for a $250 case buying a spare $25 drive cage from Cooler Master just seems like a rip off, that is just my opinion though.

You like like you're just as bad as my son when it comes to HD's, he must have at least 6 in his TT Mozart these days.

Myself, I just don't have the need............

 

[Kougar]

I don't need the insane storage, but as I tend to poke and prod things I've managed to wipe out a drive or two's worth of data before! Plan to back up everything and also start using full drive images again... I just couldn't argue the 18 cents per gb price, although I've seen even cheaper that didn't require rebates, seemed more than worth it to protect against any more self-inflicted accidents and to get a nice performance boost too.

I hadn't actually thought about mutliple partitions on the same array... neat idea. I'm still not sure if I want to mess with finding and installing a floppy drive to get XP to install onto an array though... Vista installs onto ICH7, ICH8, ICH9 RAID arrays just as if they were ordinary drives, no drivers even needed. Can just update the RAID driver after the install process is finished and go from there.

 

[MadSpec]

Just got my Cosmos S , one word ...WOW , this thing is HUGE !!! I'm replacing my Antec 900 and it looks like a midget compared to the Cosmos S . I just love it , a lot of space to work in , the cable managment is a big plus . I would of liked to have a slide out for the motherboard but theres a lot of space so not that much of a problem .

I'm running a E8400 @ 4.2 Ghz and the temps are great .

Mad

 

[jvezina]

Great review, now 2 questions:Reset Switch and Esata

This is my first attempt at a high end build.

I know the case doesn't have a reset switch. Is there any reason I can't just pull a reset cable and switch from an old computer and plug that into my motherboard? I have not tried this but it seems an easy solution, unless there is something I'm just not getting.

My other question concerns the Esata cable in the I/O. Can I connect this to my onboard SATA connectors? My motherboard does not have a specific Esata connection on it.

I appreciate your help.