special note for Slashdot: this safehouse I am referring to can be found at http://pub35.ezboard.com/bthesafehouse and Gyorg was someone who helped me.

My project: To custom build a computer as a 14 year old with no help
My financial backing: Parents who need a new computer and a need to get a new hobby for me
Specifications:

El Wire
Etched sticker
Lian li dual temperature gauges
Windows XP OS
80 GB 7200 RPM hard drive
Liteon 16x48X DVD
Liteon 40x12x48x CD-RW
Rounded IDE cables ata 133(hard drive single)
Rounded IDE cable for cd drives
Rounded floppy cables
Cold Cathode
Lian Li pc-65 usb atx case with factory installed windows
Floppy drive
Antec 480 true-blue power source
ASUS A7V8X motherboard
AMD athlon XP CPU 2200
Radeon 9700 pro
512 MB of ram 2700
Thermal take Volcano 7+
Customized keyboard

Total:

Just a note: I got the stickers at www.shatteredweb.com they did a entire custom job for me. I got the customized keyboard with blue lights, rounded blue cables, and my cold cathode at www.frozencpu.com. A real professional website and I would just like to give a shout out to them. I have all the links if you want to know where I got everything

Modifications: stickers, el wire, and cold cathode neon light. I also stealthed my CD drives so they look like a blank faceplate. Then you press the corner and then the drive pops out. I also cut a blowhole on the top and installed a 4th blue light fan.

A special thank you to Gyorg, for answering all my questions, and the rest of the safe house crew in answering my many stupid questions in the workshop.
My experience:

I received my first shipment of the power supply/motherboard/case/floppy drive and got to work

I was disappointed I couldn't just power on my power supply, and that it only worked when attached to a motherboard. This is not the power supply's fault, as this is how it is on all supplies. I took off all the sides of the case which were placed with thumb screws, and slid in the power supply from the back. After putting the face plate on backwards, I got the power supply on with no problems. After it was sitting there, I removed the motherboard tray/back side fan. After realizing I needed to use the motherboard back plate to insert the USB slots and mouse hole, I was able to get that on. I had a great deal of difficulty getting the screws in, and took me a good hour to finally get 4 or 5 screws in. I blame it on me, not the motherboard though. Putting the floppy drive in was a relatively easy task after you got done with the tiny little mounting screws. Now I just got to wait while I begged for the next fix/installment of pieces.

Next shipment(main guts)

AMD athlon XP CPU 2200
Radeon 9700 pro
512 MB of ram 2700
Thermal take Volcano 7+ heat sink
Customized keyboard

Now this one was a little tricky. This shipment was basically everything you could stick on the motherboard, and a new keyboard to keep me occupied. The ram was a little bitch to put in, and Gyorg ended up showing me the light and I put it in at an angle starting at one side and was able to squeeze it in. Then came the CPU, and that came OEM. It took all of 30 seconds to check the notches and pop it in. An easy deal. The video card again took 30 seconds, and in went my ATI. Got the volcano 7+ heat sink now. Basically there is this small copper finned base and it draws heat. Mounted on top is a fan to suck the heat out.
The heatsink was a breeze now, and all I did was pop it into the hooks of the CPU and it was on. Then I remounted the removable motherboard tray back into the computer.