Need help cutting up a pc case

So I finally got the parts for the build from this thread:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/foru [...] _13_0.html

I've never done an htpc build before, so I didn't really consider if things would actually fit. They don't. At all. If you scroll down a bit, I listed all the conflicts for your reading and laughing-at-me purposes. Anyways, the question I have concerns one of the conflicts; the heatpipes from the freezer 64 stick out into where the 120mm fan grate on the left panel is. You can see the 120mm fan grate on the left panel in this image:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119195

The idea here is that I'd just cut a bit of the fan grate out using some tool (suggestions please), then sand it smooth so I don't kill myself any more than the incompatibility of the case has killed my spirit. If anyone has done this sort of thing, please tell me what kind of tools I would require to pull this off. The fan grate is probably 2mm thick at most, and the cuts would need to be about 5mm in length. Thanks!





For your reading pleasure, I'll describe the parts where there are conflicts:

Here's the parts:
AMD HDZ955FBGIBOX Phenom II X4, Black Edition 3.20 GHz AM3 8MB Desktop Processor Retail
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Prod [...] e=10010385

GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AMD 790X AM3 Phenom II Socket AM3 5200 MT/s PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333) ATX Motherboard Retail
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Prod [...] e=10010088

OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3RPR16004GK - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227320

PC Power and Cooling SILENCER 750W QUAD S75CF Power Supply Retail
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Prod [...] t=celebros

Cooler Master Elite 360 RC-360-KKN1-GP ATX Mid Tower/Desktop Case (Black)
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Maste [...] 861&sr=8-1

arctic cooling freezer 64 from ewiz.

Ok, here we go:
1. The arctic cooler is too tall for the cm360 case.

2. The arctic cooler can only mount in 2 possible directions, with the logical direction being one that points out the back. I usually use the thermalright ultra 120extreme, which can be mounted in any direction, so I assumed this was the case here. I was planning to push the air upwards out the 120mm top fan, but the only way was to push it out the back. The problem here is that there are no rear exhaust fans or front fans, so the airflow is stagnant. This orientation also causes problem 3.

Addendum 2a. No exhaust fans? Come on coolermaster...

3. The freezer 64 covers 2 of the ram slots (0 & 1), forcing the ocz reapers into the 2 & 3 slots. Damn those awesome looking ram heatsinks!

4. The cm360 case positions the psu where the hard drives are usually are (in the bottom, behind the front panel). This causes the length of the psu to compete with the length of the graphics card. The 8800gt and the oversized pc power 750 has no chance of coexisting in this environment. I ended up having to put a stealthxstream600 instead, which also barely fit.

Addendum 4a. The pcpower750 has way too many cables to possibly fit in this case. I just barely fit them into an antec 900.

Addendum 4b. The orientation of the psu is such that all of the power cables come out of the psu directly adjacent to the 6-pin power of the first gpu slot.

5. The positioning of the 360 drives are sideways if you stand it up like a tower (except for a lonely 3.5 incher that hugs the top of the case, which gets no airflow). This forces any hard drive that doesn't use the top bay to be mounted sideways. This wouldn't be an issue, but you need "left angle" sata power & interface cables (the opposite of the normal right angle ones)(and god knows who has these). I don't know why they would design it such that the hard drive is adjacent and coplanar to the motherboard, with only a left angel cable being the solution (damn the left-angle-sata-power-cable lobby).

Anyways, if you've read this far, you've probably forgot what the original query was. Scroll up and read that part again