If you want a massive, intimidating PC case that makes a bold statement, few cases will scream one better than Cooler Master's $479 Cosmos C700M.
It's the PC-chassis equivalent of entering the room with a brass band at your back, a WWF fighter at each side, and a Roman candle in each hand.
It's gigantic, with an edgy design, and when you power it up, vivid RGB LEDs steal the floor from anything in its sight lines.
It also has a modular aspect that I'll touch on near the end of this review.
This stunning-looking case has a lot to offer, but as audacious as it is, some shortcomings around build quality and installation ease give us pause.
Like a fancy but ornery supercar, with high style comes some questionable compromises.
But oh man, does it look like a beast.
This Case Is in Your Face
Given the Cooler Master Cosmos pedigree, if you're seriously considering this chassis, you know what you're getting yourself into: a hulk among hulks.
Like its predecessors, Cooler Master's Cosmos C700M is nothing like your everyday PC case.
Alongside almost any other in-market PC case, it will stand out simply because it will dwarf them all.
At 25.6 inches tall, the C700M towers (pun fully intended) over most other ATX and Extended ATX (E-ATX) chassis.
It's actually 4 inches too tall to fit in the niche of my computer desk, and close to 6 inches taller and several inches wider than any of the other cases I have in my possession at the moment.
(Check out our guide to PC case lingo for an explanation of different case form factors, and much more.)
The Cosmos C700M is also the heaviest case I've handled apart, perhaps, from some old server hardware.
It weighs in at 50 pounds without a single component in it.
It's as far from a LAN-party take-me-along as you can imagine.
Think of it more as furniture or a small child, and you'll be on the right track.
The exterior of the Cosmos C700M is all about visibility to the interior and airflow.
The overall look is an edgy, menacing one that also gives the impression of high quality.
The top of the case is covered in an elaborate array of cutouts that adds flair while improving air inflow.
Several locations around the bottom, front, and sides of the case also have openings to let air pull into the case...
Cooler Master went the extra mile with all of these air pathways, adding dust filters to help keep the inside of your case from silting up.
The boldest aspect of the exterior is the set of four metal rails that protrude from the case's corners, two at top, two at bottom, running from case front to back...
Your feelings about them may vary (mine are mixed), but they function as handles and are invaluable for moving this behemoth around.
It's still challenging to budge with them (and I hate to imagine moving it without them), so I'm glad they are there.
These bars also have a positive effect on airflow, as the lower pair holds the true bottom of the case about 1.5 inches off the desk or floor.
At first glance, this case looks made entirely of metal and glass, but upon closer inspection you'll note large portions made of plastic...
Examine the pictures here, and you'll see sections in several shades of gray.
Everything in the lightest shade is plastic, and not particularly high-grade stuff, either; it flexes easily.
That said, because it is only there for aesthetic purposes, it doesn't diminish the case's structural integrity, and presumably it reduces the weight.
(Thank goodness for that.)
The left side panel on this case is tempered glass, curved at the front and back, with metal rimming the edges where it meets the frame of the case.
Two hinges affix it to the rear of the case, which makes opening the side easy, while a magnet holds the door closed at front.
The glass is, as usual, a fingerprint attractor, but the hinge mounting eliminates the need to touch the inside of the panel.
So long as you're careful, you just need to worry about keeping the outside clean.
One odd detail I noted: The front of the panel dips by about a centimeter when you open it, so you need to lift it slightly to close the panel.
Hopefully Cooler Master can address this slight door sag in production.
The right side panel has the same mounting system as the left, but it is a lighter steel part, not glass, and it doesn't dip or droop when opened.
Otherwise there isn't much to say about it, apart from the fact that because it is opaque, it gives you a place to hide all of your cable excesses and unused connectors.
The front of the case is also on a hinge, but it opens only about 6 inches at its widest point, tipping downward.
There's little underneath this panel.
The front panel behind the door is mostly a metal mesh, but with two positions at the top of the case for optical drives.
This is a somewhat strange configuration, as there's only one spot inside for actually mounting an optical drive...
Otherwise, it's an excellent compromise versus the optical-drive situation in most cases today: either no bays (fine, if you don't need one), or a bay or two that many users don't use and that's thus a visual detraction.
This way, you don't see a drive on the outside of the case.
If you want to deploy an optical drive, the panel tips open just enough to permit the drive tray to extend.
I didn't even realize that the front opened until I was partway through the building process.
That's how subtle the front panel is; nothing indicates that it opens at all.
Ports and Lights: Deluxe All the Way
The front I/O panel is set diagonally between the front panel and the top of the case.
It's peppered with four USB 3.0 ports, a USB 3.1 Type-C port, a mic-in jack, and a headphone-style audio connector...
The USB 3.1 port connects to the motherboard using one of the new USB 3.1 Type-C headers.
(If you haven't seen one, it's a rectangular header that looks vaguely like a USB Type-A male connector that jacks into your motherboard, ironically enough.) No adapter is included, so unfortunately I couldn't connect the header to my last-gen test motherboard.
The two header cables for the USB 3.0 ports also don't come with adapters in the box, so you will need to have two USB 3.0 20-pin headers to connect all the ports to your system.
Be warned, many motherboards have just one.
The kinds of boards that do have two such headers tend to be high-end models, which, assuming you're shelling out for this chassis, I suspect you have one of, too.
The rear panel of the case is unremarkable, but it is surrounded by some removable plastic trim that's held on by magnets.
I can't see any reason to remove this panel often, so it would have been better had Cooler Master screwed on this panel instead of connecting it with magnets.
In my sample, it falls off easily when nudged, and I noticed a lot of flex on this piece...
Powering up the case illuminates lines of RGB LEDs that follow the seam between the metal portion in the middle of the case and the plastic...
The Cooler Master logo on the I/O panel also lights up with RGB LEDs.
These LEDs are exceptionally bright, and though I'm not a huge fan of these, this case is quite an eyeful when lit up.
A button on the I/O panel allows you to control the LEDs through a host of presets.
Alternately, a connector for a direct motherboard connection allows you to sync these LEDs with your board for software-based control.
Some Quibbles, and Wild Graphics Mounting
In the course of the building experience, I ran across a few issues with my sample.
Unboxing this monster, I heard the sound of a number of screws falling, and sure enough found five of them in the bottom of the box.
These screws fell off of the case's rear panel, which was held on by just two screws.
The panel had almost detached itself from the case during transport.
Chalk it up to an early sample.
Underneath the right panel is another panel, designed to contain and cover many of the wires that connect to the front I/O panel.
Ordinarily this panel is held on with screws, but the review unit came with this panel jammed in diagonally with no screws holding it on...
I had to partially remove the top portion of the case to free up the panel and was able to mount it correctly using a couple of screws from a collection of spares.
But the panel had some scratches, and the plastic was slightly damaged.
None of this would be visible with the case shut, but given this case's price...no scratches, please.
Getting into the build process, one thing I noticed right off: an unusual mounting bracket that sits directly above the power-supply mount and in front of the motherboard...
This bracket serves as a vertical mounting location for a dual-slot graphics card, letting you show off your card face-on to the transparent left side panel.
For the purposes of this review, I opted to mount my test graphics card in this location.
One unique aspect of this bracket: You can tilt the card backward from full vertical, if you like (assuming there's clearance behind it), showing it off in a sloped or reclining position.
You can also take the whole card mounting frame off and use it to mount the card longways to the right of the motherboard, extending from the top to the bottom of the chassis! I've not seen that option before.
Affixing the graphics card to this internal mounting bracket is straightforward.
You adjust the bracket into its vertical position, and then sit the card on it.
The rear panel has two holes to screw the I/O plane of the video card into place, just like you would normally, and this keeps the card reasonably secure in its position.
Nothing else holds the card in place, though, so it isn't quite as secure as mounting it straight into the motherboard.
But it should be fine; you sure won't be moving the Cosmos around much, anyway.
With the video card in place, you can then connect it to the motherboard using the PCI Express riser cable that Cooler Master includes with the case.
I appreciated that; many chassis that support vertical video-card mounting don't include the actual riser hardware, making it an extra-cost option.
(See for example the recent Daxdi review of the Lian Li Alpha 550W ($129.99 at Newegg) .) You can route your video output cable or cables from the card out the back of the case via a lined hole in the case back.
Note: You should install the GPU in the internal mount as the last step in your building process.
There's roughly 6 inches of space between the back of the mount and the motherboard, so there is plenty of space to install other PCI Express devices.
But any graphics card in the internal mount will block access to your PCI Express slots and make it difficult to install cards or attach header cables.
With the internal mount empty, the frame still creates a few minor issues for building the case.
The motherboard needs to be inserted bottom first to angle around the mount, and the bottom-left and bottom-center screw holes on a standard ATX motherboard are partially blocked by the mount.
Setting up the mount vertically, you can get around it with a small screwdriver to properly attach the motherboard; it's a minor one-time issue, overall.
You can also unscrew and remove the internal GPU mount altogether if you just want it out of your way.
Storage Mounting: Bays, More Bays, and More Options
You get nine locations where you can mount storage devices in this case.
Cooler Master supplies you with a total of seven brackets, three exclusively for 2.5-inch drives and five that can hold either a 2.5-inch drive or a 3.5-inch drive.
Two slots behind the motherboard can hold 2.5-inch drives, one of which is prefilled by a fan controller that can support six fans...
These 2.5-inch brackets can also be removed from here and mounted above the PSU compartment at the bottom of the case, so your drives would be visible from the glass side.
Mounting 2.5-inch drives on the 2.5-inch brackets uses a somewhat unconventional mounting system that works well in practice.
Instead of screwing a 2.5-inch drive directly to a bracket, you instead attach a number of small thumbscrews to the back of the SSD.
These thumbscrews extend a bit from the back of the drive and slide, snug, into rubber holes on the bracket, holding the drive firmly in place.
It's not as easy as a toolless mounting system, but it's fairly quick and painless.
The 2.5-inch drives mounted behind the motherboard are screwed on in the old-school way, as are any drives mounted to the 3.5-inch drive brackets.
No tool-free installation here, and attaching drives to the 3.5-inch mounts is actually a little tedious.
You need to remove a total of six screws: four from the bracket itself, and two more to remove the cover panel that we mentioned earlier, as it blocks access to the bracket screws.
You then need to replace all six of those screws, in addition to four more used to mount the drive.
The complexity of adding a drive is boosted by the fact that you will need to have one hand in the right side of the case holding the bracket in place as you screw it in on the left side.
(Nothing helps hold the bracket in place as you attach it.) It's as laborious a mounting procedure as I've seen in a while.
Even most basic OEM PC cases make it easier.
By default, all but one of the 3.5-inch brackets come pre-installed, with a fifth 3.5-inch bracket included in the accessories kit along with a generous amount of screws and some zip ties.
In the compartment at the bottom of the case is room to install the power supply, and two of the 3.5-inch drive brackets are down here as well...
Mounting the PSU can be a little dicey with the left panel door hanging in the way, but you'll do it just once.
Any power supply will fit down here, even the deepest 1,200- and 1,500-watt monsters.
Cable Management, Cooling, and "Chimney Mode"
Cable management is one thing that this case does rather well.
The cables that come pre-installed in the case are laid out intelligently, held in place by a few notches and Velcro ties.
The vastness of the case also makes it easy to run cables anywhere you need them to go.
And for certain: I noted the best access I have ever seen to the CPU's eight-pin power connector on the motherboard.
Usually, it's squeezed awkwardly up against the case's top edge.
Here, you've got plenty of margin.
As for the cooling options, the modular aspect of this case lets you do almost anything.
Two sets of rails let you install one or two cooling radiators up to 420mm long in the top or front positions (the longest...
