Drive bays - hard drives
The hard-disk area on the Cosmos prototype at CeBIT 2007 had an air of an Apple PowerMac desktop machine about and we were far from certain that it would reach production. Well slap wrists twice with a big stick - the version we went hands on with was even better than the one at the show!
The Cosmos has six internal bays for 3.5in drives - each in the form of a pre-fitted aluminium caddy fitted with small rubber sound-deadening grommets.
The caddies fit snugly in the base of the Cosmos and each is held in place by its own small thumb-screw. The blue clips that you see are there to keep the handle on each bay stored neatly away when it's not needed for extracting or replacing the caddy. Simple, neat and effective.
Round the other side, we get a closer look at the cable-management ports and the innards of the HDD caddies.
The particular design of the Cosmos's front panel means that there's room for fewer drives than there might otherwise have been. But six HDDs are probably enough for most buyers - and those who need more can always use some of the 5.25in external bays.
A view of the cable-management ports from the business-side of the case. These, together with the fact that the PSU is at the bottom, mean it's easy to keep the main chamber tidy.
As a final note on the HDD bays, notice that there's a perforated panel alongside the top row - and another above them. They're intended to let heat dissipate and seemed effective.
