The way that I built my enclosure was a case of asking myself some questions and then seeing if I could meet the needs of what I had in mind.
1) How big would I like the enclosure.
2) Is it big enough for my best buddy in the world to grow and be happy in.
3) Do I have the space that is needed for the size I want to build it.
Once I had the answers to those questions & I was able to meet those needs then I had to ask how much money I wanted to spend on either buying a pre built enclosure or building one for the funds I had available.
E.g I knew that I wanted to build a 4'x2'x2' and at the point in time I couldn't find a enclosure that was prebuilt in glass so I started to look at ones made from wood with glass and I did find some that I loved the look of but wasn't prepared to pay the prices that some of the companies wanted as I thought they was way to much.
So I then set of to lowes, home depot & local hardware stores to price up the things I wanted or needed to build the enclosure with. (needless to say my wife hates hardware stores now :lol: )
For me I bought 1 15mm 8'x4' ply from lowes in the end I could have probably gotten away with buying a thinner sheet of ply but I wanted a smooth clean look with no timber beams for joins so I had to buy it thick enough so that I could screw into the middle of the boards without them splitting.
If you have access to hand tools / drills, Drill bits, sand paper & wood filler then thats all you really need oh and 2 paint brushes which you can buy a pack for at Dollar tree for staining / sealing the wood. I had to go out and buy my own tools as I didn't have access to anything apart from a 10" table saw and a jigsaw but I hate wavey lines so I did it all on the table saw :lol: .
I had a check on google for the XL Zilla cage price but couldn't find it on there the closest thing I found was the one below it which was about $130.00 I know that with me buying the wood and the screws, wood stain, sealer & a very big bit of plexiglass I only spent about $120.00, The plexiglass was $64.00 on its own if i remember right.
The Zilla cage I 1st bought Izzie was no where near big enough and I know that when I went into petco to see how much a tank/enclosure was for the closest size I could find to 4'x2'x2' it was about $350.00 so that was a no no.
I find Izzie's enclosure easy to clean and Izzie has enough room to run around & jump like a lunatic.
Alot of it comes down to personal preference, money & if you want to spend the time building an enclosure, personally if I had to do it all again I would as I really enjoyed building the enclosure for my little buddy and had a great sense of achivement at the end of it as I am no craftsman.
As for the Exo terra background I personally like the look of them as for how good they are I couldn't say.
Good Luck in your quest and if you want to see how I built Izzie's enclosure then let me know I can post it up for you.
This is Izzies tank with the old Zilla 30"x12"x12" below it.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a364/busbyeie/Izzie/13072010649.jpg