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Akasa Omega

Published on 14th August 2008 by Harry Butler

The Omega Factor

Well, our testing certainly shows a case with a lot of cooling potential! With our quad Akasa amber 120mm fans fitted into the extra ventilation spots, the Akasa Omega comfortably tops our graphs as the coolest case we're yet to review at idle and GPU load, and only just loses out to the Zalman GS1000 under high CPU load by one degree. This is pretty impressive performance, despite the use of no less than six separate 120mm fans to cool the case.

However, the picture using only the stock cooling isn't so rosy, and it seems like the Omega suffers from the same underpowered cooling as the Mirage. Although the inclusion of the two new ventilation panels has obviously allowed for some extra cooling to take place and drop the CPU Delta-T value by a degree or two at both load and idle, this sadly still places the Omega's stock cooling configuration some way down our charts.

This is is pretty disappointing considering how well the case excels in other areas. While the temperatures recorded aren't high enough to cause concern for your components, we'd like to see a high-end case like this performing a little better.

However, the average thermal performance of the stock setup is the price paid for the frankly brilliant noise levels of the included 120mm fans. They are barely audible in even the quietest room, and even then only as a very very low drone. To say this case runs quiet is an enormous understatement, and you'll need the quietest PSU and CPU cooler to really appreciate just how low its noise levels are, although the lack of hard drive vibration dampening means that you'll still be able to hear your hard drives merrily clicking away.

Akasa Omega Results Analysis and Final Thoughts

Click to enlarge

Sadly, adding four Akasa Ambers into the fray somewhat spoiled silence, and are easily twice as loud as the included case fans when running at their default speed. However, even with all four extra 120mm fans fitted, the case still produced very reasonable noise levels, and was still quieter than our test system's Lancool K7.

This is pretty phenomenal when you consider the greatly superior cooling on offer from the Omega. Of course, the best setup is always based on compromise, so we also fitted a Scythe Kaze Master to the quad 120mm fan setup and running at 1,000 RPM the Ambers became just as quiet as the included case fans whilst only compromising on a dozen or so CFM.

Road Test - i34

So while its stock cooling configuration might not quite cut the mustard on a high end cooling front, fitting the case with additional cooling it can handle without modification vastly improved the performance. However, to truly get an idea of how the Omega is to live with, we decided to take it on a little road test, and where better to test a new case than the largest LAN party to ever grace the UK, i34.

Frankly, the Omega was a dream to LAN with. Due to its aluminium construction it was easily carted around from car to desk, and with the improved cooling setup kept my overclocked rig perfectly stable even under the sweltering heat of a room filled with 2,000 sweaty gamers and their PCs.

Even when some on-site repairs were needed, thanks to a USB Dictaphone causing CMOS checksum errors (Dictaphowned - Ed.), the Omega was easy to pop open and move around inside of. This was simply down to the extra large dimensions and great internal layout of the case. The only thing the Omega might have lacked was some eye catching style - it is something of a nondescript black box after all, although some modders certainly saw to that.

Value and Conclusions

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, and comes very highly recommended.