Verdict: No longer the king of cases, but still a serious contender

The YCC-6XF1 has been in the Custom PC Elite since Issue 7 in one form or another, and is distributed by various companies, including GlobalWin and SavRow. It's now sold as the Akasa Eclipse 62.

The Eclipse is 20-50mm wider than most cases, so there's a lot more room inside to build a top-spec PC. For starters, there's a large space (20 x 100 x 230mm) at the side of the internal 3.5in drive bays, which is perfect for a pump or TEC power supply.

There are four 5.25in, two external 3.5in and seven internal 3.5in drive bays. However, two of the latter are situated in a removable cage that sits above the motherboard, so if you're running a dual-processor system or have a very large CPU HSF then it will almost certainly have to be removed.

Another benefit of the huge dimensions is that you can install an E-ATX motherboard in the Eclipse. It's very easy to build any kind of system in this case, as the motherboard and expansion cards slide out of the back. And as all three panels (left, right and top) are attached with thumbscrews, access is unparalleled.

Cooling is provided by two 120mm fan mounts, although sadly neither are supplied as standard. The airflow to each fan mount is superb, and the front intake fan is protected by a removable dust filter.

Also on the front panel are two hard disk activity LEDs - perfect if your PC has a RAID controller - and an extra blanking plate, which is ideal for a fan controller or extra I/O ports. A side panel with viewing window is available for £11.74 from www.scan.co.uk

While the Eclipse is ideal for an air-cooled or dual-processor system, it's not so well configured for a high-end water-cooled PC. There's no room for a dual 120mm fan radiator, unless you cut a hole in the roof, and even then you would lose the top 5.25in drive bay. However, its huge capacity, innovative design and ease of build means it's still a great case.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008

• AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition - Processors
• Shuttle XPC SX48P2 Deluxe - Desktop PCs
• SilverStone Raven - Peripherals
• Raptor Gaming M3 Platinum - Peripherals
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 - Processors
• ATI Radeon HD 4670 - Graphics cards
• DFI Lanparty JR P45-T2RS - Motherboards