I'm getting ready to build a new system from scratch, salvaging probably just the monitor and the inkjet from an old Pentium 120 I no longer use.  Specific desires on the new guy will be Athlon CPU (maybe around 1.4), 256 mb of 2100 DDR memory, and Romtec Trios hard drive selector (to allow me to set up three independent opsys environments w/o the partitioning headache).  Given the 3 hard drives plus other typical components, I'm leaning toward a full tower as a conservative place to start.  What I'm looking for are recommendations on motherboards, case (aluminum worth it?, any other nice-to-haves?), backup solutions (tape or whatelse?; I have a Sony external SuperStation already), any thing else.  Environment will be average office and internet, no big gaming needs; just an evolving learning system for maybe A+ and MOUS preparation.

TIA,
George

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