Thankfully, for my budget at least, my case isn't clear, so aesthetics are pointless.
When it comes to OC'ing, I think I'd prefer something out of the box that's great, and gives me the potential to make it better. BUT, and a big but, there's an above 50% chance I never touch any of the settings and keep things as they come. From what I've read, that means I shouldn't buy cheaper RAM and attempt to improve its performance; I'm better off spending a premium upfront.