Good Things do Come in Small Packages
The Parts
The main stream of thought behing this project was to build a small system that would compete against most full size systems. Here are the parts I chose for the project.
Case Cutting
I Protected the case with Transfer tape and then used double sided tape and applied the design. I put a clear layer over the design to protect it while I worked. I Drilled holes in each of the areas I was going to cut out so I could fit the modified cutting blade in. Then I cut and cut till all the design was removed. Did some file work and light sanding and placed a brass plate behind the cut out, attached with double sided duct tape.
Assembly
I had to do some more mods to the case to fit the hardware in that I have choosen. I first removed the hard drive rails and drilled mounting holes for the 2.5" hard drives. This allowed me to fit the video card in and also get 2 drives in. I mounted the motherboard to the modified case plate and inserted the i/o shield in the back of the system. I was happy to find out I could slide the motherboard in place while connected to the back plate. I was also happy to find I was able to run the sata cable and the power in a trough beside the drive rails.
After installing the drives and video card I started to to insert the power supply. The cables for the power supply where all made to go into a standard tower. This gave me alot of cable to find homes for or to remove. I cut off the extra connectors and even used a sata Y adapter to molex to make a cleaner connection into the hard drives. The modular power supply allowed me to only include the cables needed for the system.