I fancy a g4 cube,i have a macbook but fancy one just for the fun of it, also think its pretty cool, But can I load the latest osx on to it???. And why was it not as popular as it should have been.
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Apple Cube G4
- Thread starter wizzerandchips
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Some thought it was quite expensive, which might be why it was unpopular. Also, it kinda came at the wrong time for Apple. Having said that, it should still run Tiger reasonably well, but make sure you deck it out with quite a bit of RAM. 
I would also love to have a cube... its limited to a 120gig hdd, and fast G4's, you can also flash a PC video card and bring a cube op to core graphics specs.. personally I think that Leopard should also run on a Cube.
My Cube runs Tiger very well, albeit without the Core Graphics stuff. Mind you, it's upgraded to 1.2GHz/1.25GB RAM/120GB Seagate. I'll probably upgrade it for Leopard, though.
I have an un-upgraded Cube, I think it's running 400 MHz and might even still only have 128 megs of RAM, but it is running Tiger and pretty decently too.
It's actually for sale, but it has a small problem which feels as if the power cable connection is loose -- bump it the wrong way and the whole machine loses power. If that doesn't bother you, make me an offer
It's actually for sale, but it has a small problem which feels as if the power cable connection is loose -- bump it the wrong way and the whole machine loses power. If that doesn't bother you, make me an offer
Cost was one issue.wizzerandchips said:
Expandability another.
What I got from my Japanese friends at the time, is that while the Cube looked cool, by the time you connected all the wires for power, internet, keyboard, mouse, speakers and such, it was a cluttered setup.
Also, they did not like the access to the expansion bus. You had to tip the Cube to get to it.
sushi said:
Well, there is no "expansion bus" on the Cube, but you do need to tip the Cube to plug in USB or Firewire devices, but this should not be necessary very often. I've heard the wires criticism before, but frankly I've never understood it. As designed, the Cube has less wires than most desktop computers. Certainly no more. I'm not sure I understand what people were expecting.
The expansion criticism is also a bit of a mystery. An iMac is even less expandable, but hardly anyone sees this as a problem. And the mini?
As for why it was discontinued, a quick examination and core removal tells the tale I think. The manufacturing costs must have been a major hurt. Engineering-wise, it was way beyond anything anyone had attempted.
notjustjay said:I have an un-upgraded Cube, I think it's running 400 MHz and might even still only have 128 megs of RAM, but it is running Tiger and pretty decently too.
It's actually for sale, but it has a small problem which feels as if the power cable connection is loose -- bump it the wrong way and the whole machine loses power. If that doesn't bother you, make me an offer
Cool. I'm not the computer-bumping type, so it appeals. How's a hundred bucks?
My bad. I should have said the ports and connectors (power, ADC, VGA, USB, FW, Ethernet and modem port) were on the underside.IJ Reilly said:
For the Japanese, the esthetics are important. Wires clutter things up. Additionally, it was a pain to access the connectors and the computer needed to be turned off to access them.
looked on ebay and they seem to be very resonablely priced, and you can up grade them i see. Might just have to get one, if only to look at the asthestic's of it.
sushi said:
Although tipping the Cube was always a pain, it wasn't really a cluttered setup. In fact, with the USB speakers, Apple Pro Keyboard and mouse, and matching ADC monitor, it was the least visually-cluttered setup I've ever had other than my all-in-ones (SE/30 back in the day, and an iMac G3 500 w/ DVD drive that I got a couple months ago for $5).
The Cube did look cool. No doubt about it. But for some reason it didn't sell very well. My guess would be some of the reasons that were mentioned before. Probably some other reasons as well.Xeem said:
I think that Apple has done well with the current iMac design. Very simple setup with minimal cables. Seems to be popular here.
Mord said:
What app would that be? Would you be able to use it on the Digital Audio PowerMac G4? Coz 120Gig max isnt that much anymore and ATA controller cards compatible with the PMG4 are a fortune.
Edit - Sorry for the slight Thread Hijack...
sushi said:
Still does.
The Cube's biggest problem was the price, not much less than a PowerMac G4, which was judged to be a steep premium for style. Apple has since more successfully pushed the limits of charging for style, even more superficially, with the black MacBook. Now they can get away with it, which is fascinating.
The Cube also had a few issues which Apple wasn't quick enough to resolve: the "cracks" in the lucite case and the touch button.
I have a 450 MHz G4 Cube with 1 GB of RAM and an 80 GB HDD, with an NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX Graphics Card. Its running Mac OS X.4.7 right now and runs great. Its actually kinda snappy for only a 450 MHz computer.
Eventually I'd like to add a SuperDrive for it (yes, they do make one for it!), and a 1.8 GHz G4 CPU.
Eventually I'd like to add a SuperDrive for it (yes, they do make one for it!), and a 1.8 GHz G4 CPU.
Couldn't one stick the guts of a mini in a Cube?
It's physically smaller. If one gutted a cube and did a little reenginering, including adding short distance m-f cables for the outputs, it should be possible. One could even get the optical drive to properly eject.
Just an idea.
It's physically smaller. If one gutted a cube and did a little reenginering, including adding short distance m-f cables for the outputs, it should be possible. One could even get the optical drive to properly eject.
Just an idea.
I think I've seen it done somewhere on the 'net but I can't remember where. It's certainly possible and from what I remember, not incredibly difficult.
You could stick the guts of a mini in any number of larger cases, but what would be the point? One of the remarkable things about the Cube is the way it was engineered. Without its unique innards, the Cube just a piece of lucite with an Apple logo on the front.