Apple Cube G4

[Lord Blackadder]

But with 2 fans in there, I dont usually see temps over 32-34. That usually only occurs when pushing it with video encoding, photoshop, etc.

That's nice and cool...after a 3D gaming session (and with the ambient temperature at 58F/14C), the GeForce 6800GT in my G4 tower will hit about 67C. During the summer (with the ambient temperature at 80F) I've had it trigger the alarm at 85C.

It still has its stock cooler though, I could probably drop the temps by 10C with an aftermarket cooler.

 

[Duffman]

That's nice and cool...after a 3D gaming session (and with the ambient temperature at 58F/14C), the GeForce 6800GT in my G4 tower will hit about 67C. During the summer (with the ambient temperature at 80F) I've had it trigger the alarm at 85C.

It still has its stock cooler though, I could probably drop the temps by 10C with an aftermarket cooler.

Yikes! That's meltdown territory! Evacuate the people and call in HazMat and the fire department! I think the most I've ever seen out of my Cube was upper 40's, and that was when the A/C was busted in my place last summer. I have heard of Cubes getting into the upper 80s and even 90's, and once that happens, there is not much left but an RMA'd 7447 Card from Powerlogix. I believe this was actually the reason that they stopped selling the Dual 1.7 upgrades.

I recently acquired a Quicksilver from a mate and I'm waiting for a 9800 to arrive, and I'm a bit concerned about what kind of temps that will put out. The Quicksilver is pretty well loaded up with 3 HD's all spinning at 7200RPM, a 1.8GhZ upgrade, and maxed ram...I need to hit that with a thermometer as soon as I get that card in there. Are the GeForce 6800GT cards notorious for that kind of heat?

 

[livingfortoday]

I have heard of Cubes getting into the upper 80s and even 90's, and once that happens, there is not much left but an RMA'd 7447 Card from Powerlogix. I believe this was actually the reason that they stopped selling the Dual 1.7 upgrades.

Yeah, when I had a Dual-1.5Ghz in my Cube, it was hitting the 80's even with a pretty strong base fan. I ended up running it out of the case, with two fans blowing on the CPU + heatsink, and I'd still hit the 70's when using the CPU at 100%. Had to RMA two processors, and just sold off the third one I got!

 

[IJ Reilly]

Yes, I too should probably add that I do not recommend attempting upgrades while drinking beer. (Even though I did.)

I was hoping the beer can was in the photos just for scale...

 

[Lord Blackadder]

I recently acquired a Quicksilver from a mate and I'm waiting for a 9800 to arrive, and I'm a bit concerned about what kind of temps that will put out. The Quicksilver is pretty well loaded up with 3 HD's all spinning at 7200RPM, a 1.8GhZ upgrade, and maxed ram...I need to hit that with a thermometer as soon as I get that card in there. Are the GeForce 6800GT cards notorious for that kind of heat?

The 6800 series are hot-running cards, but are also known to tolerate high temps to a certain degree. Depending on the ambient temperature, my 6800GT idles at 60-70C, with the fan always running at 100%. Safe, but on the hot end of safe. part of the issue is the thermally-challenged G4 case and lack of fan control - in a well-cooled case (like G5) it would probably idle in the 50s.

It's a flashed XFX 6800GS card soft-modded into a 6800GT. I've been running it since January in my Digital Audio G4 tower that also contains an OWC 1.4GHz (1.33GHz factory overclocked 7455) CPU. Despite the high temps, I've never had any artifacts, even that time it hit 85C. If you search PC forums you'll see that overclockers routinely take 6800s beyond 70C under load without issues - but it pays to keep an eye on temps. I do.

I don't have any experience with 7447 CPUs, but in my experience 7451 (my original 2x533MHz CPUs) and 7455 CPUs run much cooler than my GeForce (just by touching them - my 1.4GHz CPU's temp sensor doesn't work for some reason).

The 9800 is a hot card too, but I doubt it will bother the machine - anyway it should run cooler than my 6800GT!

I just bought a Radeon X850 PRO that I'm going to flash...I'm curious to see if it runs cooler in my G4...I like the GeForce 'cause it's dual DVI, but if the Radeon is much cooler I'll put up with VGA.

 

[Duffman]

Yeah, when I had a Dual-1.5Ghz in my Cube, it was hitting the 80's even with a pretty strong base fan. I ended up running it out of the case, with two fans blowing on the CPU + heatsink, and I'd still hit the 70's when using the CPU at 100%. Had to RMA two processors, and just sold off the third one I got!

What a waste, huh? The duals for the Cube are totally hit or miss. I've never really had any problems with mine, but there seem to be an awful lot of people that have. Getting into the 80's (especially in such a small enclosure) is just insane. At that point, I think it's merely a matter of time before the processor goes. Apparently the Dual 1.6 cards are rather cool, or at least I have heard. I've got a good base fan in there right now, and I think I have heatsinked every thing in the Cube that can be heatsinked (Ram, Video card, various transistors that get hot, etc.) so that seems to keep the temps under control...or I am just not reading them right (Scary thought!!!) But I keep an eye on the SMART temps in the menu bar and I have a thermometer actually fed down through the top grill and the heat sink, and both are relatively similar in temperature, so I guess that gives me a fair degree of accuracy. (I hope!)

 

[Duffman]

I was hoping the beer can was in the photos just for scale...

Regrettably, no...wait, sure, why not. For scale.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Regrettably, no...wait, sure, why not. For scale.

After a couple of them you feel a lot larger?

 

[Duffman]

The 6800 series are hot-running cards, but are also known to tolerate high temps to a certain degree. Depending on the ambient temperature, my 6800GT idles at 60-70C, with the fan always running at 100%. Safe, but on the hot end of safe. part of the issue is the thermally-challenged G4 case and lack of fan control - in a well-cooled case (like G5) it would probably idle in the 50s.

It's a flashed XFX 6800GS card soft-modded into a 6800GT. I've been running it since January in my Digital Audio G4 tower that also contains an OWC 1.4GHz (1.33GHz factory overclocked 7455) CPU. Despite the high temps, I've never had any artifacts, even that time it hit 85C. If you search PC forums you'll see that overclockers routinely take 6800s beyond 70C under load without issues - but it pays to keep an eye on temps. I do.

I don't have any experience with 7447 CPUs, but in my experience 7451 (my original 2x533MHz CPUs) and 7455 CPUs run much cooler than my GeForce (just by touching them - my 1.4GHz CPU's temp sensor doesn't work for some reason).

The 9800 is a hot card too, but I doubt it will bother the machine - anyway it should run cooler than my 6800GT!

I just bought a Radeon X850 PRO that I'm going to flash...I'm curious to see if it runs cooler in my G4...I like the GeForce 'cause it's dual DVI, but if the Radeon is much cooler I'll put up with VGA.

Geez that's pretty hot! It seems a bit unnatural, but I guess that if the card is meant to run hot, then no worries, huh. The flashing and overclocking business kind of scares me, so I tend to stay away from it. I would like to learn a bit more about it, but I don't really even know where to start. It seems a bit ballsy, too...I've heard that flashing it incorrectly can toast the card! There are a lot of Cubers who have flash cards in a constant attempt to max out the video, including people that have somehow managed to stuff 9600/9800s and high end GeForce cards into the Cube (with a Powerlogix enclosure).

Good to know that the 9800 will do alright in the Quicksilver. I love the G4 case, but much like the Cube, it really is an oven. I've considered cutting a portion out of the side of the case for a fan, but that may be another project for another time. I've got another HD that I want to throw in there, but I am afraid that 4 Hard drives + a PCI HD controller card, USB 2.0 card, CPU upgrade, Superdrive, and a Radeon 9800 may tax the Power source too much.

 

[Duffman]

After a couple of them you feel a lot larger?

Great taste, less filling!

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Geez that's pretty hot! It seems a bit unnatural, but I guess that if the card is meant to run hot, then no worries, huh. The flashing and overclocking business kind of scares me, so I tend to stay away from it. I would like to learn a bit more about it, but I don't really even know where to start. It seems a bit ballsy, too...I've heard that flashing it incorrectly can toast the card!

I don't overclock my cards either - frankly I don't think it's worth the risk. As for flashing risks, it's unlikely that you'll burn a card trying to flash it (although it can be done). The biggest danger is that you'll flash the card improperly and the ROM will be corrupt, meaning the card will be invisible to any computer and you'd have to solder on a new ROM to get it functioning.

There are a lot of Cubers who have flash cards in a constant attempt to max out the video, including people that have somehow managed to stuff 9600/9800s and high end GeForce cards into the Cube (with a Powerlogix enclosure).

Good to know that the 9800 will do alright in the Quicksilver. I love the G4 case, but much like the Cube, it really is an oven. I've considered cutting a portion out of the side of the case for a fan, but that may be another project for another time. I've got another HD that I want to throw in there, but I am afraid that 4 Hard drives + a PCI HD controller card, USB 2.0 card, CPU upgrade, Superdrive, and a Radeon 9800 may tax the Power source too much.

The best card for the cube is probably the GeForce 6200 series. It runs cool and is much more powerful than the 5200/5500. Unfortunately the modded ROM is not publicly available - but I think you can get one of the Strangedogs forum guys to mod one for you.

I have 3 hard drives, a SATA card, a USB 2.0 card, new SuperDrive, 1GB RAM, OC'd CPU and the GeForce all in my case running off the original power supply. So far I've not had any problems, so I wouldn't be worried, just keep an eye on temps and unusual behavior (like frequent crashing).

Take a look at this site, the guy's a strangedogs (video card flashing forum) member and has done a lot of cooling and flashing mods to G4s.

Beer and Mac upgrades - sounds good to me!