A Closer Look - Outside

Out of the box, the Cosmos SE looks pretty much like its bigger brother. Cooler Master has done an excellent job in shrinking the chassis while keeping the design elements the same. The construction quality is mostly great, with the use of metal for the handle bars and base, but its plastic elements, especially the drive-bay covers, do feel a bit hollow, and spring-loaded external drive-bay covers would have been nice.


The front is out of plastic and metal mesh, while the all-black backside of the Cosmos SE features a bottom-mounted PSU bay and a few unusual design elements, but more about that in a second. The main side panel holds a window in the shape we have come to love from the Cosmos line of enclosures, while the other side comes equipped with an extrusion that is the best of its kind to date, across all the cases we have reviewed. It even fits the design perfectly, which is difficult to do. Look closely at the package the chassis come in and you will notice the main side panel out of metal mesh instead of a windowed one. The metal mesh is shaped exactly like the secondary side panel to give the chassis a symmetrical look.


The bottom half of the front consists of a metal mesh cover for the front intake fans. It is easily removed by tugging on the bottom edge. Doing so will not only reveal the two fans, but also two 2.5/3.5" hard-drive trays you have access to through the front. Interestingly enough, the fans are installed in such a way as to allow the bottom-most external 5.25" drive bay to be filled from within. One can then only fill two of the three bays out of the box even though the Cosmos SE has three external drive-bay covers. But that won't keep you from using the third bay as Cooler Master has put a lot of thought into engineering these internal drive bays.


Turning the chassis around, the PSU bay is extruded by about a centimeter and features two sets of mounting holes, which gives the user the choice of either installing the PSU with the fan facing up or down, but the major advantage of such a frame is the ability to install a PSU through the rear of the case. Above that are the seven standard motherboard expansion slots, and there are two additional vertical slots to the right of those. Cooler Master has also placed two grommet-less holes for water-cooling here. I would have liked two individual slots instead, giving users the utmost flexibility when filling this part of the chassis up. A 120 mm exhaust fan in the very top is supposed to push hot air out of the rear of the Cosmos SE. Three more openings for water-cooling allow you to route any tubing out the back as well—not that you would need to as the chassis has excellent water-cooling compatibility. Nonetheless, it is nice to have such an option right out of the box.


While the larger Cosmos had quite the elaborate top panel with moving parts, Cooler Master simplified things with the Cosmos SE. You will still get a well-rounded set of I/O, with a pair of USB 2.0 and 3.0 plugs, each, and the usual audio connectivity, but an LED on/off switch also allows you to toggle the LEDs of both 120 mm fans in the front on/off. In the back is a large air vent made out of metal mesh. It is easily removable once the screw holding it in place is gone. Below it is enough space for air- or liquid-cooling fans, which will give you more space to work with, but also holds the important benefit of allowing for a wider range of radiators to be placed there, including 280 mm units.


Two separate dust filters on the underside of the chassis keep dust out of the interior. Both are removable for easy cleaning and feature a fine weave that should even keep small particles out.