Aura

I get tired of seeing TT Armor and Antec 900 comparisons, so upon seeing the new Cosmos I decided to match it up with another very similar case, the P182. Which would you go with?

Antec P182SE

Cooler Master Cosmos

From an outside view they appear to offer virtually the same qualities and benefits, including:
- price
- internal structure (psu location, internal hard drives, top vents, etc.)
- the overall intention of sturdy design and silent operation

The differences seem to be in minor details/features, and as such which features raise one of the cases above the other?

Personally, I would go with the Cosmos. It is a bit larger in specs and the vga duct looks promising (any word on how well it works with an 8800?); it also seems to be simply more detailed in design. Discuss.

~ Aura

Kamakazi

Well all I know is that I love my P182 (gunmetal finish), but I think that silver shiny stuff is, not very good looking.

As for the VGA duct, don't they exhaust out the back anyway, so would it really make that much difference in a case with reasonable airflow?

McHugh

The Cosmos looks nice but I've never personally used it.

I don't like the placement of the bottom fan on the P182, it too cramped for space down there with the hard drive bay. If you plan to put in a larger PSU you have to remove the bottom fan.

Kamakazi

yes you have to move it, but it fits nicely in front of the top HD bay, which just means more cooling for the important stuff (CPU and GPU)

phospholipid

p182, gunmetal for sure.

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McHugh

If you move the fan up there the video card gets some nice cooling. However the fan there blocks hard drives in the middle section. Since I have six drives, it's not a good option for me.

I have the P180 and I really like it... that fan at the bottom is the only thing that really bothers me. My other complaints about the P180 were all addressed with the P182.

Personally I would not spend the extra $$ to get the P182SE. The P182 would work just fine for me.

Aura

I decided to compare it to the Mirror edition simply for the Price similarity (and personally I like the finish). The Gunmetal version is hardly different, so compare that one if you want.

As for the duct, I haven't heard much about it, but I assume that if you could direct airflow directly into that duct it would make somewhat of a difference. if anything, it appears to keep the card separated from the heat produced by the other components.

Kamakazi

Blocks HDs? No it doesn't, not if you put it in front of the cages, I have it that way in mine, just moved the fan up so that it blows pasts the HDs and into the "main bay"

McHugh

Hummm, I didn't know the fan could be mounted in front of the cage. I'll have to look into that. Thanks for the info! + rep Kamakazi

Kamakazi

Yeah it is actually made for such a spot for it, the standard like fan "casing" that goes around the fan snaps perfectly into place up top.