cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Asus Gold Corsair 900D Unforgiven - The Metallica Build

onevoicewild
Level 9
Unforgiven The Metallica Build

Our Sponsors

























This Tribute to Metallica was Originally Inspired by this emblem.







My name is Michael Kaiser - onevoicewild my great friend Sam do until loopy in the UK did all the incredible rendering and the design of the case. My job is to build a case that matches or exceeds the original design. We actually started working on this 2 months before the 900D was available. While waiting for the delayed cases arrival, we fine tuned the design and worked on some of the bling that would go on the case. We were actually the first ones to do any major mod's on a 900D, But because I do all most all of my work by hand crafting pieces I am still finalizing the case. I hope that you will agree that our take on the case is worth the wait.



This is known as the standard version










Now that looks pretty nice, but this is Metallica - hair on fire at 200 miles per hour and that will never do!





May I introduce you to the Heavy Metal Version











You will see renderings of may different products. Fortunately we never set most of the components in stone. When we started this build, Haswel, GTX 700 series and the incredible Gold Asus mother boards were not available. Now I know most of you Rouge faithful are not to sure about the new color, but as you will see, it is the perfect match for this build. The only gold Mother Boards before that would never be used in one of my builds. Hey It's an Asus so hold on and let me show you just what these boards can look like in the right build.



This Is know as the spiky thing, It drew enough blood while I was making it to earn it's name.



















I used rusting and paint splotching techniques to get the look I needed. I was extremely happy that I could pull this off using basic hand tools. This was the most complex object I had ever crafted, up to this point. If I'd only know what was to come, I might have taken my own life to avoid the pain that is about to come! Dx just kidding - I think?













Sam made some renders of my sound card, I think they look better than the real thing! he needs to add dust. He he









128,309 Views
53 REPLIES 53

HiVizMan
Level 40
Very nice build mate.
To help us help you - please provide as much information about your system and the problem as possible.

onevoicewild
Level 9
I originally planned to use 2 - 200mm fans and grills on the front bezel. Bill Owen of MnpcTech made me custom nautilus OverKill grills that are the first ones ever made in this size. They are monstrous, I will be adding mini saw blades to a lot of the fans on this build to go with the theme.


















Sam kept pushing for a 360 OverKill grill on the front and I finally gave in. It turned out to be the right choice for this build. I had the
needed grill on my Corsair 800D so I had to rob it from that case to see what I could do with it to match this build.







I really love this grill! the first time I ever saw one I knew I had to have it. So I have to ask myself, why do I have a sanding block in my hand?
As Modders we want something unique and we have the audacity to think ( hope ) we can make it better than the way it is from the factory.







There is a reason that people anodize parts. It is very tuff and also very hard to sand off. This is going to turn out to be lucky for me. The only wet sand cloth I has was 600 grit or finer, so it was coming off very slowly. The plan was to flat sand the top and polish it, like I had done to the 200mm grills. A pattern started to appear as I was sanding so I decided to work with the pattern to see what I could do.


I almost wish I had stopped where I was in the picture below, but that wasn't the plan.







Once I got it where I wanted it, I polished it with Mothers Mag and Aluminum polish and I was amazed on how great it looked.



















That's what I needed, a one of a kind that enhances the look I'm going for.



Sam can render much faster than I can build, so he continued to work on some things to see how the case would look in an office setting.







Hey Metallica has to have an office some where? I never imagined it being this clean, but maybe the groupies needed something to do between shows.






This is a night shot to test lighting.







Originally we were going to use this orange colored Mother Board. Sam took the time to render it so I feel obligated to post it.
Once Asus started making the new Gold Boards, I bought one and never looked back!







This is the actual mother board that is in the Metallica Build. Thank you Asus! you made the perfect Board for this Case Mod.





One word, AMAZING! :cool:


onevoicewild wrote:




Hey Metallica has to have an office some where? I never imagined it being this clean, but maybe the groupies needed something to do between shows.






This is a night shot to test lighting.


oh yeah & I love the office. 😄

onevoicewild
Level 9
We were still waiting on the case to be available, so I continued to work on the front emblem. This piece will be made from thick copper that I repurposed from a 27 pound sheet of Copper that had an Acid etching on the other side. It was a bear to get most of the scratches out of it that had accumulated over the years.

















These parts look terrible partway through, But I like to show just how i it did it. I learned to hand craft these objects from another builder that didn't just show before and after, but the in between where all the work is.































I was extremely happy with how this came out. To tell you the truth, I wasn't even sure if I could do something like this by hand. This took about a week of two to three hours a night to do. When you don't have a CNC you work with what you have and there is a great satisfaction in doing things with basic tools.





A little something Sam made up for some of our Sponsors and the parts that we might possible be using.



I wanted to get the front grill mounted up so the case could finally start resembling our design. I had to cut very carefully, because no replacement parts were available yet. This isn't going to be the final outer surface, but you have to start somewhere.






I drilled and Tapped all the holes so the grill could be attached directly to the fan cover, this will be key to what I plan to do to the front bezel.













This is an extremely abbreviated build log. I just noticed these pictures are a little out of order. I'll fill you in on some of the things that I haven't shown yet. If you would like to see more details, visit some of my sponsors forums.







Here's what I missed - This 480 OverKill ring grill is a one of a kind and was made by MnpcTech especially for the Metallica Build.



















I wanted to hand craft an EK emblem in appreciation of their sponsorship.

























The reflections off of these highly polished objects can be interesting. They are really moody, depending on the light.































At the time we started this we were going to use 2 water cooled GTX 680's fortunately newer cards have come out before we got around to buying the cards. Here Is one of Sam's original renderings.













This render is amazingly close to what the case actually looks like.

onevoicewild
Level 9
It was time to make the Copper window frame now. This takes up a big section of the sheet I have so it is a one time shot, that I can't afford to mess up. The current price if a sheet of Copper this big is $$$$$.














It's just a straight line right. Every little wiggle I make in these cut's would cause me endless sanding and filling. I have never cut lines so straight in my life! This is the best trick I have ever learned!!! To smooth out and square edges , especially long straight ones. Take a belt sander belt, cut and glue it to a straight board. I screwed it to my work bench. Now you just run your piece back and forth and it sands the whole surface at the same time. I have used this 40 plus times on this build. I almost question if I would have been able to do this at all with out this sanding strip!

























I really made it hard on myself polishing some of the final scratches out of the window frame. I would use some courser sand cloth, which actually puts new finer scratches in the metal. You only know if the original deeper scratches are gone when you progress thru finer sanding grits. Then you find out that there are still some there. rinse and repeat/ rinse and repeat. I did this for about a week. I should have been much more aggressive at first and I would have eliminated a lot of pain. Lesson learned.





















Some of the people on the 900D forums were complaining about how reflective the new smoked black windows are. This is a no win deal. Companies make clear windows and the people want colored windows, so they make colored windows and the people want clear windows? can't win I tell you! I thought I would make the first clear window for a 900D just to see what it would look like. They are a little tricky, because they are mounted on male studs and some of them are extremely close to the edge of the glass. I had consigned myself that it was going to crack while drilling it. I used new brad point bits and progressed through several sizes and I was rewarded with no cracks.


















As it turns out the clear glass has just as much reflections as the smoked window. When the cases have components in them the reflections are less pronounces and depending on the amount of light makes a big difference. the first picture is the smoked window and the following ones are with the clear window.



















As I said Sam lives in London and this particular night I think he might have been in the Guinness a little to much when he came up with these. Dx
actually I really like the Skelly and might consider using it on the back side of the case.









Myk_SilentShado
Level 15
I am in LOVE with this build!!! and hey, you should get Sam drunk more often, that Skeleton is deadly wicked!! amazing job to the both of you 🙂 :cool:

Myk SilentShadow wrote:
I am in LOVE with this build!!! and hey, you should get Sam drunk more often, that Skeleton is deadly wicked!! amazing job to the both of you 🙂 :cool:


I know I've considered buying him beer, but he has expensive tastes. The effects are worth the cost though. Thanks everyone for your kind words. I wasn't even aware there was a Modding section to this forum until they started the Rush for Gold contest. I thought how convenient! I already have one of those boards in my case. Hopefully this build will do well, there are a few other real nice builds there. I wish I had some better pictures to put in the contest, but when it started, I had the case in pieces fixing some issues with the water cooling fit. when you do all this crazy modding things don't always fit like you planned and you just have to work it out. It wouldn't be any fun if it was easy! I'll post more tonight, I just got home. Thanks again guys!

abvolt
Level 11
I've never seen any build this amazing really great work, awesome man.
Current: MSI Xpower Gaming Titanium | 7700K | G Skill Ripjaws V 3000 16Gb | 960 EVO 500Gb | Intel 730 480Gb | Seasonic 1000 Platinum |
NZXT X62 | Acer XB270HU | EVGA 1080 ti FTW3

Secondary: R4BE | 4930K | G.SKILL 2400 16GB | Corsair AX 1500i
Intel 730 240GB + 480GB | EVGA GTX780 ti sli kpe | Custom H20

ganji
Level 13
Really nice build, Well done! 😄