**THIS IS AN UNFINISHED INSTRUCTABLE, BUT IN ITS CURRENT STATE YOU CAN FIGURE OUT THE REST**
i have tried to find instructions on how to case mod an Xbox, but so far i have not found any instructions that a normal person could do without spending a ton of cash, so i decided to try and make a workable instructable designed by a normal person, for normal people...
this is my first instructable, so if im not clear or well written on anything please let me know, and ill try to fix it.

Step 1: Materials

all you need for this project are:

a solder gun, preferably electric

a hot glue gun

electrical tape

scissors

a rotary cutting tool, either dremel or some other brand, i got mine from autozone for $20
fine and coarse sand paper

a file

a ruler

solder

LED's - i used blue straw-hat Led's because they shine 160 degrees, i got 200 for $4 from ebay, but if ordering from china beware, i waited for a month for mine to arrive on the free shipping.

and a bunch of time to waste

Step 2: Open the Console

this is easily done by first removing the face plate, this can be done by pushing your thumb through the flap that covers the usb ports, then pulling away from the console, it should easily snap off, but be careful not to pull too hard or else you may break the face plate.

second, remove the gray end pieces, make sure you have your hard drive removed then simply pull them off, there are 6 tabs on each side plate, the first time will be the hardest to remove them, but after a couple times they should come right off.

third you have to pop the back of your console open, i use a small flat head screw driver, but you can buy tools specific to opening Xbox 360's for around $8, but i did this with tools i had around and got the same results. take your selected tool and find the little tab-holes along the back of the console, there should be 2 above the power input, and then on the other side near the A/V port there should be 5 or 6, start by gently pulling the top and the bottom away from each other on the side of the power input, then at an angle towards the top piece of the xbox insert your tool into the tab-holes and you should hear a click, then continuing to pull on the top and bottom of the console move to the next tab-hole, continue towards the other end of the xbox, and it should come apart easily enough.

to get the case the rest of the way off just turn the console around, and making sure the back doesnt snap back together, undo the tabs on the front of the console and pull the bottom piece of the console off, the top one cannot be removed yet. before trying to remove the top make sure to take the disk eject button off, it can be simply pulled away from the face plate and will easily snap off.

lastly find an allan wrench that fits the six screws indicated below:

this video shows it a little differently than i described, but it will get the trick done, this is not my video, i take no credit

Step 3: Remove the Mother Board

removing the mother board is fairly simple, but be careful, as this is where you have the most chance for bricking your device. take off the area where the LED's are for the front of the xbox, this is done easily by first snapping off the white plastic piece, then removing the 3 or 4 screws on it, then simply pull it outwards.

next remove the disk drive, this can be done by simply lifting it out of the console and removing the two sets of cables running into the back side of it.

remove all the screws at the bottom of the unit, this is easily done with an allan wrench.

lastly grab onto the heat sink and lift the mother board out, but be careful not to squeeze too hard on the heat sink or else you might bend the metal pieces, if this happens and a metal piece is touching another, simply bend them apart later. there should be 4 little feet things that will either stick to the motherboard or the metal bottom, keep these, they are important.

this video should help, but make sure to take off the front piece where the running LEDs are otherewise you will not be able to remove the motherboard. this is not my video, i do not take any credit for it

Step 4: Solder Your Leads In

flip the motherboard over and under the power input you should see a series of solder points, this is industrial, lead free solder which has a very high melting point, so its best to use an electric solder gun.

the picture below is not mine, all credit here goes to QuackMasterDan, whom i based a lot of my project on.

so take a good length of thin red wire, and solder it to the yellow pin indicated by the yellow arrow, and a thin black wire to the black labled pin indicated with the black arrow, the pins have enough solder on them that you will not need to add solder to them

next insulation is needed, so simply hot glue over the leads you soldered in, and run them to the near edge of the motherboard, where the fans normally sit.

that is all that is needed, so simply reassemble the unit, making sure to run your two soldered wires into the space of the console where they can be accessed without having to remove the motherboard again.

Step 5: LED's

i used 4 parallel circuits, with 4 LED's in each circuit, totaling 16 LED's in use, i did this by cutting the leads of each LED shorter, still leaving one longer and one shorter lead, then using thin white wire i wired each LED together, keeping in mind the polarity of each LED, and then i ran a red wire from the positive end of the LED string, and a black wire to the negative end, and covered the terminals and wires soldered to the LED in hot glue to insulate them, the more the better (within reason of course). lastly match these red and black wires to the red and black leads you soldered to the motherboard.

hot glue your LED's where you want them, do not solder them to the heat sinks, and if you are hot gluing to the motherboard put down a small square of electrical tape and then hot glue on top of that, because in places the motherboard gets hot enough to melt hot glue, and that is potential for a short or worse. for LED's being glued to the metal sides that is all there is to it, simply hot glue where you want your LED's, and if it doesnt light up just how u want it, you can always just pull them off and glue them somewhere else.

thats it! your first string is done, thats a good amount of light but you will probably have to do it 2-3 more times to get sufficeint lighting, if you need more its not a problem, just simply splice a new set of LED's into the circuit.