I have modded my Aria... let me tell you, this isn't like cutting into a nice thin piece of LianLi aluminum. The sides are plastic/aluminum sandwiches, which makes it a little nasty to cut into. I modded two Zalman Slim fans into the chassis, one on either side. This increases airflow quite a bit. I also cut out the card reader bay and inserted a LianLi fan controller that controls those two fans and my Zalman CPU heatsink fan. A veteran modder may find this easier, but for a novice like me it was difficult for it to be "nice" looking.
As for cables, there's not a lot of room in there. Just follow good cable management and do the best you can.