Knight's Rest-Knight Rider 30th Anniversary PC

I swear, some days I should have stayed in bed.

So work called this morning. Said I had a new PC to build, and gave me some specs. I don't think this stuff exists in the real world. Said it was for the Foundation for Law and Government. One of those hush-hush outfits. I've built mil-spec before, but this looks positively aerospace-or black project. I was about to pass when Michael Knight called me up and asked me to do it. He said it was for an old friend. He's helped me in the past, so I agreed, for him. He promised me what I didn't have, they'd send. He seemed to be very interested in this getup. I never pegged Michael as the type to care about a PC though. I didn't hear his buddy either. I wonder if he's OK?

(As you can guess, this log will have fiction writing too, but it's only fair-I'm a writer. This is my final build-my hands are becoming too arthritic to keep going for much longer. After this, I may repair, and if someone wants to sponsor me fully, I'll consider it, but later this year my wife and I are building our dream home, and I'm going to concentrate on finishing my novel, other stories I have to tell, and I may take up painting again. I'm not tired of PCs, per se-I'm tired of constant rebuilds and cheap components exploding. I'm taking my time and sourcing some out of this world equipment, so I can have a nice break.

Why Knight Rider? Mostly, the influence of my wife. She remarked about how much I loved it, and when I said the fans would eat me alive, she reminded me that letting my OCD have fun with this might just prevent that from happening. We're both children of the 80s-1981 for me, 1982 for her-and we both loved it immensely. I tried to add Super Pursuit mode to my Big Wheel-I injured five people plus myself. Didn't stop me from trying again.

This is also a cover for the fact that this PC is a text-to-speech setup for me so I can continue to work with failing hands and eyesight. What better way to deal with a computer than treating it like one of the most beloved AIs in creative history? A speaker setup in the drive bays along with a good microphone and I'll be able to "talk to KITT" as well as use Dragon for dictation purposes. It'll help on the days where the pills aren't enough.

But you came for pictures. Pictures you shall receive!)

For reference, a lot of these pics were taken in tornado preparation mode-we had a pretty messed up floor from all the rains when I brought the case in (under a tornado warning that didn't expire for 10 more hours. You'll see lots of jugs of water and general mess as we got everything inside and backup supplies ready.)

Case, and board/proc ready to go in case. It's an Alienware Area-51 setup. I wanted something with bold lines to base the system on. The dent in the door is how I was able to acquire this. It wasn't easy.

Side view-those panels aren't plastic, either. They're electrostatically painted aluminum.

Rear view. You can see the PSU there-it's a 1100W Delta setup. Server grade. Modular (in a way) as well.

Case with door up. It's extremely big too.

Lower side panel ejection setup.

Board and processor installed. Processor is an i7-2600K.

Testing the hot-swap bays with a dead drive. I'm going to interface these with a storage controller initially. I have other ideas, but that will have to do for now.

Temporary RAM and hard drive installed. That's all I have that functions in the house. At least it still functions.

There it is dwarfing my 24" monitor.

Can you tell what's impressive about this shot?

How about now?

A bit blurry (and pill-strewn) but the other side and front/top are active as well.

You try catching moving vents with a still camera.

The moveable vents are active...

But that is most definitely not Dell hardware.

For my first miracle, I completely interfaced a Dell ESA setup from an Area 51 with an ASUS board, and told the software and firmware it was cool. I have full control over fans, pumps (when I get them,) lights, and servos. I also can use the ASUS thermal probes to control the fans and servos. It's a lot like an Arduino, if an Arduino came with a hefty 12V connection that could run 38mm Nidecs.

After proof of concept, next comes disassembly and modding. There's a lot of that to come. And I mean a LOT.

See you next time. Whenever that may be.

Post some specs of what you think it would be if he REALLY asked you!

You know, I do 3d modeling. Some of that hardware looks sci-fi. I can use more than 16GB of RAM. Just remember that as this goes on.

...and I'm helping on this one... Serving up some laser cut goodies. This is going to be an epic build, well worth watching. So far I'm loving the look of the case. Definitely a great starting point for this build. Of course, that alien logo is the first thing I'd peel off of it.

200 feet of furryletters Clean-Cut Techflex. Looks like a lot, huh? It's really not.

Battery compartment and interior trim piece gone...

PCI fan gone as well, they hid a lot of junk back here.

Big finger-chopping Nidec in there.

Vent trim piece removed.

Radiator bracket under the vent assembly...

Only took eight hours and the technician's manual to get there.

More angles, showing just how much was in there.

What's underneath the hard drive bays...

Yeah, took a lot off this thing to get here.

That was yesterday's work. Today, I sleeved. I'm not halfway through, and I used 100 feet of sleeving today, with no wasted pieces. There's just that much wiring in this thing. And I'm not done adding wires.

This piece needs to be redone, as it's too bulky, but you can see it's sleeved, then laced with waxed tape to keep the individual wires together. It's a NASA trick, as well as military, telephone lines and some custom cars. I did a lot of this to PBX lines back in my working days. It just fits the theme. Also, no zip ties whatsoever.

Another shot, showing that it really is too thick to be routed properly.

More wires sleeved and laced...

And more. This bundle runs the top of the case-all of them. So yeah, I've got a long ways to go. Most of the lines that have to be sleeved by themselves are done, though.

Also, this thing came in. Wonder what it does...

More whenever I can get to it, I overdid it today. Need some time to rest.

I'll just toss this here. It's an idea. Gonna need to change it up for the rad covers though.

This is one of three ambient temp sensors. It's a bit tough to see, but it's a Dallas one-wire. Best stuff out there.

A little better shot of it. The bracket around it attaches it to the case.

The MIO board and its three ambient temp sensors. As an aside, it's made by MSI. Who knew?

Arthritic or no, I'm still able to do the impossible. That was shrunk with a lighter, BTW.

I've finally finished all the sleeving for the case except for one ultrastrange connector that'll be getting split Techflex as I don't even know where to find or buy the tool to depin it, and it's double and triple-crimped anyway. I've partially completed the PSU braid, but it's a complex proprietary system developed by Delta for Dell, and it's VERY complex. There are lots of common lines and no colors are what they really ought to be. Still, I'm making progress. I'll probably have to wrap the base of the monolithic modular connector with self-welding tape, but we did that when prototyping anyway. What did you expect when adapting an 1100W T7500 workstation PSU?

Hopefully tomorrow I'll finish the sleeving and get started laying out the changes to the exterior panels. I'm doing the most tedious stuff first, so it gets done.

Also, I have to test my 470, my cat killed the waterblock on it by knocking it off my desk. The top can be replaced with a new slab of acrylic, but I have fears the card died with it, which would necessitate me giving the client my 470. If so, I'll be on the hunt for a video card, as I have no more. Not a fun place to be. The 470 had other issues, though-heat and power draw. Possibly, this is just an opportunity to remedy those issues.

Time to shift a bit of metal...

Doesn't look like much, but that lip turns into a hanging corner, stopping a rad from going there.

Repeated on the other side...

Removing the spring steel drive holders... I have a right angle drill that will be removing the interior welds.

And the last one. It doesn't look like much, but honestly every one of these cuts took a long time to plan out, to make sure I didn't remove something else important and didn't compromise case integrity. I'm proceeding slowly, to make sure each thing I do is the proper thing to do. It's not always a simple thing.

The rad bracket received similar cuts and I'll do final filing on it tomorrow. Most of the shell is ready for either primer or powder, depends on what I can find the money for.

Sleeving proceeds apace...

I'm doing away with the Kensington lock slot to make one uninterrupted piece. The hexes are going away too-there's simply too few of them.

Metal-filled epoxy in the hole. There's excess to allow me to file it to shape.

Removing the lock slot's hardware on the case itself...

Rivets drilled out...

And lock bar removed.

Now back to the fully hardened filler...

The extra is cut off and the top scored up for filler...

Yeah. Filler.

A little thick but workable. Some time later...

And with the addition of these...

First coat done. Most of the hexes filled in just fine. High build primer and spot filler ought to do the rest. And gouges will be dotted with filler before I shoot primer for this. But all in all, a success.

Weather had to turn bad on me today. Tomorrow is a doctor day for the little one, so progress should pick back up on Tuesday.

Details, details... looking good. Applause given.

Another day, another coat of Bondo...

And sanded... This is about all I can do without a guide coat.

Instead, I spent my day doing this...

The only problem is, I have no drives to attach to it.

You know you have a good RAID controller when A: It's watercooled, B: It has a replaceable/upgradeable RAM card.

Intel SRCSAS18E, it's a rebadged LSI MegaRAID 8408-E. I'm still looking for the final pieces of it.

I have that raid card. Its awesome!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmEv

You know you have a good RAID controller when A: It's watercooled, B: It has a replaceable/upgradeable RAM card.

---

I concur


First thought, What is a water-block doing on such a ****ty looking GPU...... holy **** that's a RAID card and that's upgradeable RAM........ I want :D

What's so special about this tray?

Polished zinc?

Yeah, polished zinc. I have my work cut out for me getting the rest of the skeleton to match, huh...

Kayin, this is looking great so far! I too am a child of the 80's, and grew up watching Knight Rider. I think this is a fantastic idea, and I love that Area51 case, I had no idea it was so complex under the outer panels.....

I'd like to announce a new sponsor!

120mm Overkill Billet Fan Grills

3M Di-Noc Carbon Fiber Sheet

Thanks to MNPCtech for the Overkill billet fan grille and the Di-Noc Carbon Fiber vinyl they're sponsoring!

Some more work today...

This is the polished vs bare in sunlight. Much more evident.

Another shot. The demarcation is evident.

Can you tell what's missing?

From this angle maybe? The floppy bay at the top has been completely removed to help with rad and SFX clearance.

Motherboard tray pulled, getting ready for polishing...

And some artsy pics of wire clips, because I need to know where they go back after I dye them black.

Enjoy, I'm off to doctors with the little one today(tomorrow, whatever) but I've got more polishing and such ahead of me.

You told people what year I was born....If they can math, which I'm sure they can....Ack! You never tell a lady's age.

However, I do fully support this build so I suppose I should let you off the hook. By the way, I never tried to make mine do Super Pursuit Mode, but I sure ran over and/or into a lot of people in my KITT.

This looks cool Kayin! I grew up on KR, my dream as a kid was quite simple. I would drive Kitt to work, Airwolf for long commutes, and beat the crap out of bad guys like David Carradine. I missed the mark on that dream a tad, but looks like you are keeping it alive. I really like the idea of using a classic themed man and machine partnership for your Dragon station, clever!
If I may make a suggestion... Now that you have worn your joints down to a nub sleeving all that cable, just for a thought I would consider a more automotive looking sleeve and try to model the PC interior like an engine compartment (such as Boss FX-57). Cableorganizer.org carries some wicked cool cable sleeves and I would be happy to approach them for you at some point. Check some of these out...

I honestly looked at Aeroquip stuff for the cooling (as they do make adapters to watercooling threads) but the cost was enormous.

If you know of any people who would like to sponsor any kind of storage or memory, I can use it. I've got a new card coming that will solve the heat issue, but I'm now searching for memory and storage, as all I have is borrowed memory and a scavenged 5400 RPM laptop drive I'm trying to offload to get some money for storage. The sponsorship e-mails I'm sending out for the most part are not coming back with anything. The list I've got? Yeah, you should see the list I started with.

The interior is mostly planned out, with NASA cable lacing to secure the bundles of wires and the wire clips should get dyed black this week. The rest of the insides are classified (as far as aesthetics) but I should start applying the tank armor soon.

Yes, tank armor, and no, it's not fake.

*drool*

Getting some real modding done...

This is the PCI fan mount, that's situated to blow over the southbridge, video and RAID card.

Attacked with Dremel...

MNPCtech billet grille in place... This will get cleaned up and repainted when I start painting, and when my airflow straightener gets in, it'll go in this.

There it is in place. The cover that goes over it isn't in place yet, I'm taking a look at what I can do differently.

And, an update as to what I'm working on now...

As you can see, someone tried to get into this package before it got to me.

What is it? Well, it's 1000 denier Kevlar-5.6 oz. And it's a fairly large amount-36"x70".

Along with carbon fiber cloth.

KITT was supposed to be waterproof, fire proof, bulletproof and explosionproof. Let's see just how far we can get with today's tech.

This wasn't expected to show up at all, but it did. Yay me!

What's in the box?

Cat! No, she's just resting after tearing through the house. Knocking over floor tiles, stuff like that. You know, cat things.

Hexagonal armor tiles. Almost every piece is in place, and one piece is something that has to be made, not acquired.

I'm reviewing the directions for my resin to decide if I can do it inside or if I have to be outdoors. I'm also looking at a few other ideas to make sure that when I put this together it's gonna stay together and work as intended. No sense in rushing, this stuff while not expensive is honestly just too nice to go and mess up.

This mod is starting to turn more VIPER than Knight Rider.

You won't be able to see the hexes when it's all assembled. Because there's no real chemical like the MBS from the series, I have to get a bit more creative. This isn't the first armor I've made, though this will be the thinnest I've built. I'm shooting for roughly 1 inch thick. The last prototype stopped a shotgun at 6 feet (12 gauge, 00 buckshot) and I have high hopes for these panel, I think I'm gonna get a blasting cap or two to test the test panel I'm making.

I'm not going to shoot the real panels. I'm going to make up a test panel (12"x12") that I plan to shoot with various guns-I have lined up a simple .22, the 12 gauge, 9mm handgun, AK-74 and an SKS. We're planning to shoot video, before anyone asks.

Laying out the panels so I know how everything's gonna fit...

Both sides are set, still have to cut the Kevlar and CF for them.

Also, this arrived.

ASUS HD6950 DirectCUII 2GB. Luthien is testing it in Skyrim for me. Looks great so far...

Small steps, but when they're like this I can make sure I'm not messing something up.

Stiffening the side panels first, carbon cloth cut to size and laid inside to test fit.

Resin poured (keep those fast food plastic items for stuff like this...)

Add hardener (methyl ethyl ketone peroxide)

Here you can see the bottom piece is completely wetted, and the top one is next.

With both pieces wetted, the tiles are laid in place...

And though it's kind of hard to see, resin is spread over the top and scraped between the tiles. This setup is repeated for the other side. The panels are then set aside for three days for the resin to fully cure.

Later I'll start to make the next layer of armor. It's different compositionally from the first part with the CF and ceramic tiles. While this layer is there to stop high-speed projectiles (by destroying the gas jet they use to penetrate, as well as shattering projectiles on the hard ceramic surface) the next layer is designed to entrap any bullets or bullet fragments left, as well as survive gross puncture attempts. The first part imparts rigidity, the second imparts the bulk of the defense.

I'll probably update again when I get started on the materials for the second layer.

Won't be updating progress for a day or so. Yesterday I had an anaphylactic reaction while my wife was gone with her mother. I was able to get myself to help in time, obviously, but I really just don't feel well. I responded perfectly well to medication, but it doesn't change the fact that that is VERY hard on your body. So I'm being lazy, cutting Kevlar while watching movies and such.

I'll be back in a day or so with progress, but I just didn't want people wondering if I HAD died.

So, I'm back, like I said I would be.

Fair bit of progress so far...

Heating up primer/surfacer to spray this piece to show mw where i need to apply glazing putty...

Looks straighter here than it is. A good bit of time will have to be spent with this.

What am I doing with this? Mostly, it'll be my wife's new case, but I'm cutting a piece or two for myself...

Just because I can.

The initial form of the cowl induction scoop...

Shaped roughly and ready for bondo...

During the application...

What's this? You'll see...

Kevlar cloth laid out. I have a piece 36" by 70", and it took me over an hour to cut it in half down the middle. This stuff is extremely tough.

Why isn't there more progress? This.

That's a size 13 shoe for a concept of scale. Really nasty hailstorm, damaged cars and our house. We've got hailstones in the freezer nearly the size of baseballs.

A little preview of the progress I've made since then...

Collected work, again...

Working on test fitting parts. Looking to see how routing will have to go.

Case is wide, but not especially tall. Makes some stuff very interesting.

You can see two of the Dallas one-wire sensors there in the front, I'm thinking about moving one to the lower side intake.

As you can see, lots of wires to figure out how to rout.

Even with the stiffening rail at the top of the card, it's still flexing. Gonna have to engineer something to fix that.

More cutting work on the Bondo. It's gonna take a long time to get this built up from nothing, but it's all worth it. It's doing quite a bit better already.

Just a single coat more of primer/surfacer and it already looks so much better.

Friend of mine had "leak tested" this rad with a garden hose and a plug.

This is after I hammered the bung back down.

And after silver soldering it back on.

I think my help is all tired out, what do you think?

And a coat of primer/surfacer, getting it ready for a nice paint job. Black, but better than it came with.

Stuff's drying, I need new Bondo spreaders, and my hands are shaking again, so I'll be back with more when one of the abovementioned issues is dealt with.

These are the sides to the front. They're vacuum metalized (very well I might add) but they need to be black. They also need those holes filled in. As filler doesn't adhere well to vacuum metalized parts, I'll hit them with some primer/surfacer.

Like so.

Since I'm out here, I sanded and sprayed more filler on the hood scoop. It's getting there, really needs just a bit more filler and some glazing putty. Thinking about swapping fillers, though with proper sandpaper (like when I found my stash that I had put away) even the junk I have isn't too bad. It's more a functionality of doing it right than doing it fast. Slow down, enjoy the work, realize that the end result is worth it and relax.

It's cleaning up, though I still need to drop filler in those two gouges.

Where it stood when I stopped working today. Weather was a bit cool to get primer to dry.

These are the lower panels to the case. They're being reshaped with the foam to change the lines of the case and add a bit more "carlike" feel to it.

First they're roughed out, as above. Next I paint it with a water-based paint (I used Polycrylic, you can even use latex house paint) because I learned my lesson with both filler and primer on the hood scoop. After that, I primed both panels before filler, so as to add another layer of protection in.

I know they're rough. They have no filler at all yet. This is all prep, to make it easier when I start to put filler down. The snafu with the scoop showed me that this stuff is very unforgiving.

Here's where I am now. I may pick up some more spreaders tomorrow when the little one goes to the doctor and I pick up more pills. If so, I'll probably lay down some filler and start shaping them.

Back with more updates, though these are of a more... indoor variety.

So what's with filling the holes where the screws go? Well, at the bottom of each of those holes is a powerful neodymium magnet. The filler is to keep the magnet from skittering away, as well as to even the surface for epoxy and CF cloth. When finished, this will hopefully have no holes where the screws once were. Still need to fit lenses for the hard drive lights.

You can see just how small they are, yet they hold just fine. These are for the side trim pieces that cover the sides of the top louvers.

Just keep this view in mind, it'll change in a second. Also, apologies, my camera is starting to give out.

The ESA's bluetooth module, however, it's very dead. Didn't know till I tried to pair my new mouse.

Wire clips, in original whitish and new and improved black. I tossed them in a dye bath. Works real good.

This horribly crappy picture show's KITT's alpha circuit, or the ESA board. They perform the same role-they allow KITT to control the car (or computer.) Right now it can ramp up and down fans, pumps, lighting, and open and close the top automatically depending on the conditions in effect.

Can you spot the difference?

The difference is subtle in the last picture, but you'll notice the purple-black coloration of these metal pieces? I created my own MBS formula for galvanized steel. Doesn't rub or wash off. Also, it shows the Widmaenstatten lines in steel just like an acid etch. This shot shows the lining on this piece.

A much better shot, showing the trays with the MBS applied and installed. Don't worry, when the sun comes back out I'm gonna reshoot all this.

Rewiring the beast after polishing the chassis and installing a multitude of sensors. This was a real pain.

A trim piece, with its magnetic fasteners visible during mock-up.

Wiring the back bays to the front for HDD access.

And she lives, though I'm far from content with some things. The VGA power connection is temporary, for one. The ESA interface with the cooling system beside the motherboard needs more holes drilled and tapped, and I have to put some ties down for some of the wiring. But, I'm now able to start focusing on the aesthetics of the inside, as well as creating the front panel setup.

Very little of this besides my proprietary MBS colorant formula is groundbreaking. From here on out, I intend to change that. I'm sure none of you have a complaint with that.

Good stuff so far. :up:

We remember leaving off here...

Looks worse, feels smoother. It's getting there (found my bondo damaged the foam chemically, though I've now sorted a solution for that and I shouldn't have any more collapses.)

Moving forward with reshaping the lower panels...

It'll take some shaping yet, but I think another skim coat is in order...

Same with its twin.

Should be the last run of glazing putty, one more prime and it'll need to be sprayed. Then comes the fun of wetsanding.

That skim coat I mentioned...

Other side as well...

Started using an orbital sander (hands can't take manual much any more) as well as working on the gap that used to exist between paint and vacuum metalization. Plan for that is that it disappears completely when I'm done.

Other side is prepped like this as well. You can see that there's less and less to fill each time-exactly what we want.

While it looks a horrid hodgepodge of colors, they help me to determine what's not right yet. Also, we're getting ever closer.

A bit shaky (as was I) but the primer smoothed out a LOT of that.

And both sides are now missing that gap around the edge of the panel.

Tomorrow should see me bring out the unmodded side panel and fix a long, annoying seam on it. Should be just a bit of glazing putty and a coat or two of primer, a bit of a sand to knock down the roughness, and I'll start getting the interior of the panel prepped for paint as well as upholstery.

It's slow, but I like the progress. It's very fun, to be back working like I did with my father. I still need to get my rad out and spray it, now that I think of it.

she's coming along nicely!

The flat case panel, coated in high-build red oxide primer. Still needs gaps filled and the armor sealed into the back. But they're coming along.

$14 dollar Harbor Freight sander, primer, sandpaper and... Polycrylic? What gives? Well, it's a great sealer for the pink insulation foam. Otherwise, paint and bondo eat it and it collapses. Hence the holes I fought with the hood scoop earlier.

There's a coat of it drying on that parti-colored hood scoop. It doesn't look it, but it's almost done. Another run of primer and a bit of sanding on spot putty and I should be ready for paint. More on that in a bit.

That's the back bezel of the case. It's in its last primer coat, and I resculpted a fair few of the lines with the sander and a rasp. Too many straight edges, KITT had some but not that many. Looks better to me this way.

Everything in primer, waiting for sanding with 150 to remove orange peel from the primer before proceeding. The lower panels are MUCH straighter than before, but they're not 100% finished yet. Another run of putty and primer, and they'll be there.

First paint applied, and I'm gonna choke someone. I wanted the deep, deep black that KITT was, instead I got black metallic. This will have to be sanded off and redone.

The hood scoop is finally hole-free and almost 100% level. Gonna have to find a can of REAL black to test that with though. Once I'm content with the primer coat.

I'm looking around at what my options are. Right now, I'm honestly thinking of brushing on a self-leveling paint and then wetsanding that out like a regular finish. It would have the added bonus effect of not choking me with fumes since my lung function continues to fall (my chest deformity is now visible with the naked eye, fun.) I'm looking at paints, we'll see what happens. I do know I'm not gonna get all this way and then paint with the wrong color. Saw an old show car that was brush painted, it was indistinguishable from a sprayed finish. Foam brush for no brush strokes and I might be on to something.

Wave goodbye to the 6950, it's going across the room to my wife's PC. She's sold her pair of 5770s, and I need to go back to the green team for the ESA integration. Whatever I get has to be able to max out GW2 on a 1900x1200 screen, and possibly higher if I replace this monitor. I may also be replacing my board and processor with a Z77 Sabertooth and some undecided 1155 processor, possibly a 3570K. I've even got a pair of hexacore processors sat here on my desk, but it's a radical change to move to that. Not that I don't know how to make duallies work, and they're Phenom II class processors. Basically a pair of downclocked Thubans.

When the outside is done, then I'll turn my attention to the inside and start stealthing components, as well as adding KITT's power source and working on the permanent cooling system. Lots to do, but I'm about to be over a major hurdle.

Yeah! Looking nice. Now it starts getting down to the detailed bits!