Dell 70XX / 90XX front I/O panel mod (not a bypass)

[The Jaalbatross]

Hey guys,

To get it out of the way in the beginning, I am NOT looking for tips and tricks to bypass the error message. I know those are everywhere, and that's not what I'm thinking of.

Anyway. I've transplanted the guts of a 7020 I bought into an old full tower case that I already had and like. Because I had the space, I modified the front panel to fit an optical bay slot (well... I modified an I/O panel from a T1700 because I thought it would be a little easier, and I had it on hand from another build I was working on, but anyway...). It works as intended but it looks a bit sub-optimal. Not horrible, but I think I can do better. At the moment I'm thinking of picking up the I/O panel and bezel from a SFF 70XX or 90XX and modifying that. From what I've seen that version looks like it's almost exactly the same size as a standard optical bay (If anyone has one I'd be grateful for confirmation or refutation). Should be reasonably easy, but I'm sure the USB 3.0 header will not reach in my case. I haven't seen any great images of a (complete) exposed board, but can anyone tell me if the USB 3.0 is just a standard plug that can be swapped, or would doing this require cutting the cables and re-soldering them? Eyeballing it, I think the USB 2.0/ audio should reach. 

 

Thanks for your time.