So Many Choices, So Much Fun: Selecting The Parts, Continued
Next, we needed to select a computer case for our beautiful build. Since we didn't want to introduce custom painting into the equation, we opted for a black case. We felt that the design of this system was one of simplicity, and that we didn't want to add case color into the mix. We wanted an aluminum case, as we were looking for something that would look good when dressed up with our UV reactive setup.
We selected the Kingwin KT-424-WM-BK. This black beauty recently won a THG Editor's Choice award in our Summer Case Review. We felt that the KT-424-WM-BK's large, clear window - coupled with the clean, black finish on the outside of the case - would present a nice balance for the glowing UV reactive parts on the inside of the case. In addition, we felt that the polished finish of the interior of the case would create a nice reflection bounce, thus giving this case a "killer" look. Since this case is not particularly large, we felt that we would only need to include a minimum of lighting to accentuate the UV inside the case.
As for the drives and storage in the UV PC, we selected a variety of products: a 52X CD-ROM from Asus; a DVD-RW +/- Combo drive from NEC; two 250 GB Western Digital JB Series Hard Drives with the 8 MB cache; and a Mitsumi floppy for good measure.
By selecting the KT-242-WM black case, we also did not have to worry about painting the bezels to match the case. We selected the new black version of the Asus 52X CD-ROM drive; the NEC ND-1300A Multi-Format DVD +/- RW Writer; and a black Mitsumi floppy to complete optical storage needs. Since the DFI NFII Ultra includes a parallel RAID controller, rather than the SATA controllers that many of the new motherboards use, we chose a whopping 500 GB with two WD2500JB 250 GB Western Digital JB Series ATA hard drives with 8 MB cache. While it is a little on the "overkill" side, since we had opted for the DVD writer in this system, we wanted to make sure that we had adequate storage to support the DVD writer.
In order to keep things clean, we elected all 10" UV reactive rounded single ended IDE cables that were purchased from FrozenCPU.com. We did wind up cutting the tags off prior to installation because we just simply didn't like them on the cables. The Lanparty motherboard includes a UV reactive floppy cable, as well as two UV reactive two device IDE cables. Since we wanted shorter cables and the ability to put everything on separate channels for better performance, we elected to not use the bundled cables.
