Absolutely not. I definitely notice a difference between 4x and 8x, especially on particular games. It depends highly on your monitor and the resolution you're running however.
The rubber stuff is door trim, found at Walmart or most auto-parts stores. The bit on the dremel is called a reinforced cutting wheel. Beware, they go away pretty quickly so for any long cuts you'll want a hi-TPI jigsaw bit.
Yes sir. :)
Alrighty. Did most of the work to my case that I wanted to do, moved all of my components and did most of my wiring. Initially I had wanted to do the shelf, but due to the lack of the proper items and the fact that I ended up liking the way the bottom of the case looked, I won't be doing that...