Coolermaster Cosmos II - questions + value?

[evanjs]

So I was looking around, comparing different cases, seeing which one would be best for this build I'm saving up for, and while I can see that the price and the weight and the dimensions are all kind of extreme... But yeah, this thing, is a beast.

So I was wondering a couple things:

1. Is the $349 price a good investment? Besides the 2 year warranty, this thing should last a pretty decent time, right?

2. Does anybody know if theres a reasonable method for installing 2.5" external drives? I have a laptop ODD that I'd love to install in the desktop I'm getting sometime in the next few months, except A. I changed it from an internal laptop drive to an external (in an external enclosure ATM) and B. I read that the Cosmos ii doesn't have brackets for 2.5" external drives.

3. Is this a good quality case, in this community's opinion? I've read a lot of reviews and the average Pros are "Beast" and the Cons are "Huge, heavy and expensive."

So, besides the usual (though it'll probably be something that's going to be said a couple times more on this thread...) Beastly huge and heavy, expensive computer case, anybody have opinions on this "Ultra Tower" Case? Answers to my questions? Value? Or should I go with something like this or similar?

Thanks guys.

 

[manofchalk]

1. For that much you should expect to last a long while. I expect it would last forever if took care not to damage it.

2. According to its specs you can fit 11 2.5" drives without any adapters. Though if for some reason you cant, its not that expensive to get 3.5" to 2.5" adapters.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811990004

3. Havent used it personally, but I know its a good case.

Investing in a nice case is a good move, that thing will most likely last a good 2 or 3 separate builds. Though whether its worth getting over something like the HAF-X (which is a good case, own one personally) will come down to what you plan to do with it.

 

[iceclock]

its a good case, ive got a friend who owns the cosmos1 and been running great for years. alot of space. and very nice asthetics.

id say if u got the money and like the case whynot.

and interesting point there manofchalk, on the adapter

and yeah if u got less money to spend, the haf-x is also a very nice buy.

 

[evanjs]

1. For that much you should expect to last a long while. I expect it would last forever if took care not to damage it.

2. According to its specs you can fit 11 2.5" drives without any adapters. Though if for some reason you cant, its not that expensive to get 3.5" to 2.5" adapters.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811990004

3. Havent used it personally, but I know its a good case.

Investing in a nice case is a good move, that thing will most likely last a good 2 or 3 separate builds. Though whether its worth getting over something like the HAF-X (which is a good case, own one personally) will come down to what you plan to do with it.

Alright, only thing I'd like to confirm now is if there's any way to get a 2.5" internal laptop optical (CD/DVD) disk drive mounted in an external drive bay on the case. And the thing with the drive is that it was an internal laptop drive, and then I removed the laptop brackets and such and mounted it in an external enclosure, and also lost the faceplate... So now, I have a faceplate-less, bracket-less, internal laptop drive that I am planning on mounting in an external drive... and I'm just confirming this is possible.

 

[iceclock]

well u could get an adapter for it, and install it within a stockbay, or get an external hard-drive box and install it and use it as an external.

those are all posibilities, also im unshur if its doable to install a hard-drive in the bay of the cosmos, im shur its possible but easy unshur of.

joseph

 

[manofchalk]

Oops, I though you meant 2.5" Hard drive, not optical.

Its probably possible through the use of adapters. Though admittedly I don't know any any that will hold a 2.5" optical.
If your buying case of this caliber than I assume it wouldn't be too cost-prohibitive to get a $20 optical drive.

I do know of some enclosures that turn a laptop optical into an external drive that can connect by USB. Might be a better option.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256083

 

[iceclock]

+1 to manchalks idea, nice i havent seen one of those before, interesting.

 

[mcnumpty23]

silverstone also do a 5.25 bay device that can hold 4 x ssd or 2.5 drives

plus a slim optical drive

though it only does slot loading optical drives

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silverstone-sst-fp58b-bay-device-525-1x-slot-loading-slim-optical-drive-and-4x-25-hdd-ssd-black

 

[evanjs]

Oops, I though you meant 2.5" Hard drive, not optical.

Its probably possible through the use of adapters. Though admittedly I don't know any any that will hold a 2.5" optical.
If your buying case of this caliber than I assume it wouldn't be too cost-prohibitive to get a $20 optical drive.

I do know of some enclosures that turn a laptop optical into an external drive that can connect by USB. Might be a better option.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256083

Yeah, that's actually my current setup with the drive, it's in an external enclosure right now, but I'm fairly sure I've stripped it down to the point where I can't really mount it in anything else now that I look at in in depth.

I'm really just trying to, for this build I'm going for, be able to use this drive as an internal/get a new one that would accomplish the same thing if the 2.5->5.25 is too unreasonable. Getting a new one, it wouldn't be very cost-prohibitive, but this is an ODD that supports CAV, which is really the only reason I have it. So unless I got something like this ( which would really only be +$40, as I was planning on getting a BD drive anyways), heh, actually, I think I'll just look at doing that. Only thing is, it says it's 5.75" x 1.63" x 6.5". Is it still a 5.25" drive ?

Edit: Just reread the wikipedia page, it says 5.25" drives are 5 3/4" in height, it was worded 3/4 so it didn't popup when I searched for "5.75" on the page. Alright then, looks like I'll just try something like the aforementioned BD drive. Thanks manofchalk!

 

[evanjs]

Best answer selected by evanjs.

 

[iceclock]

cheers mate