With a trio of heatpipe direct touch CPU cooler reviews under our belts, I can definitively say that the tech is quickly catching on and spreading like wildfire. I am standing strong behind my statement from the last review of a H.D.T. cooler that I think this is the direction most CPU heatsinks will go in the future; much like the way nearly all CPU coolers use heatpipes nowadays.

Today we are going to take a look at the HDT-SD964 from XIGMATEK. Unlike all of the Heatpipe Direct Touch (H.D.T.) coolers we have looked at thus far, this cooler does not use a 120mm fan. The HDT-SD964 uses a 92mm fan and is a little shorter than the others. This will allow the cooler to be placed in smaller enclosures like 4U server chassis’ and equal sized media center cases.

The Akasa Omega has been a pleasure to work with from start to finish, and I feel it is without a shadow of a doubt, the single easiest case to build a system into currently available. The brilliant motherboard tray design makes such a huge difference when building your system, and for those who frequently tinker inside their machines it's of enormous advantage. The build quality throughout the Omega is equally excellent, and is a breath of fresh air after so many recent cases we've reviewed have struggled to just get panels to line up properly.

However, there are some short falls, and one of them is the poor stock thermal performance. The Omega's out of the box cooling configuration is only one or two degrees better than the Mirage, and way off of other cases we've recently looked at like the Lian Li Tyr X2000. However, the stock cooling is extraordinarily quiet and as we've seen, four 120mm fans and a fanbus can happily resolve this issue, leaving you with an excellent case with high performance cooling and low noise levels.

Value is one area where the Akasa Omega does struggle a little though, especially in justifying itself over its painfully similar siblings - the Akasa Eclipse-62 and the Mirage-62. The former can still be found for around £90 and the latter for a few pennies under £100.

In comparison the Omega, with it's precut 120mm fan mounts and aluminium door sell for around £125, although while it's true you're getting less aluminium, you have to consider the time and effort it would take to cut the four 120mm fan mounts yourself, so we can see the justification for the higher cost. In comparison to other cases on the market, we feel you'd struggle to find such an adaptable and more importantly quiet aluminium case for similar money, and in this instance the Omega really is in a league of its own.

While Akasa might not have changed a great deal between the Mirage and the Omega, there wasn't a great deal that actually needed changing. With the inclusion of extra mounts for fans or water cooling radiators, Akasa has ticked almost every box for whatever setup you might want to fit into your system, and while it might not have a pre-cut case window (although they are available separately), the Omega simply oozes class and quality. In fact, it really only slips up on its stock cooling performance.

It's not showy, flashy or brash - it just gets on with the job of being your case. Simply put, the Akasa Omega is a fantastic case, and comes very highly recommended.

It IS a great sink in terms of quality, and usability. Anyone can install it, and almost anyone would appreciate it's appearance, yet it's performance and cost are found to be lacking. If you could find this heatsink on sale it would turn out to be a great buy, but otherwise... I'm not sure exactly what would motivate users to purchase it, other than an unusual fondness for Zalman, and a wee case.