This is my first experience with a case that mounts the power supply at the bottom, rather than the usual location at the top. I found that many of the cables came up a bit short, but I'm not sure if this is typical of this configuration or if the power supply I used just doesn't have long enough cables. I also noticed it was somewhat of a stretch from the motherboard to the drive bays; this case just swallows a full-sized SLI board and I'm sure would have no problems fitting an over sized dual or quad socket server board as well. As a result, it was not possible to route the main ATX cable behind the motherboard tray as Cooler Master suggests, even using the included extension. It appears as if they are pulling power for the top I/O panel from this extension as there is a yellow/black pair of wires coming off that and going to the top of the case.


Routing the cables through the slots in the motherboard tray can be tricky. The edges are not rolled and even though it is aluminum they can still be sharp enough to scrape up the jacketing or snag on nylon wrap. As I mentioned previously, there isn't a lot of room between the tray and the rear side panel, especially for power cables. As a result, the side panel bulges out and does not sit flush at the bottom unless the cables are rerouted inside the case. Sort of defeats the purpose of having the cable management slots there.


Out of the usual four or five front panel motherboard connections, only wires for the power switch and HDD LED are evident, therefore the power for the panel LEDs must be drawn from the ATX extension. There doesn't appear to be a reset switch at all. The eSATA, USB and Firewire cables are plenty long enough to reach to the bottom of the board, however my CD audio cable is too short to run behind the tray. That's typical for a full tower case though, I probably just need to get a longer cable. The hard drive cage fan and top I/O panel LEDs all light up red, although the large side panel fan and top/rear exhaust fans are standard-issue non-LED. The second blue fan mounted in the front bays and the blue light coming from the CPU cooler are not included with the Cosmos, and obviously the fan controller is an add-on as well. As it turns out, the fan controller is really unnecessary. All of the fans that come with the case can be run at full +12 voltage and still be practically silent.


With installation complete, let's wrap up with some final thoughts and conclusion.