Case
Choosing a case took more time than choosing any other component for me. I wanted something as compact as possible without sacrificing on cooling and still provide for enough room for a decent number of drives and have easily accessible fan filters. It took a while, but I finally stumbled upon the Silverstone KL06 and it met all my requirements. In particular, I liked how I would be able to mimic my old Mac Pro’s cooling; a large CPU heatsink sandwiched between 120mm intake and exhaust fans at the bottom, a 120mm fan that blows directly at the PCI-e slots, and power supply and drives situated at the top.
Aesthetically, it can best be described as boring or nondescript but that's fine for me. I like classy more than outlandish. Quality-wise, it can't compete with Apple's cases but I doubt that many, if any, can.