G4 cube mod question

[gman71882]

GO for it. Just finding ways to mount everything in there is a bit of a challenge. My boss has a Busted G4 Cube maybe he will give it to me.

ALSO: you might want to find a LOW Profile fan to xhaust out the top of the Cube tower. Maybe a USB fan or something.

With all that going in there : the computer, HD &/or another DVD Drive & a firewire Hub... its gonng get VERY HOT... youll need to xhaust the hot air out the top!

 

[skunk]

I don't think I have the technical ability to make you this spaceship. I do know that it would have really crappy aerodynamics if I made it look like a cube, though.

Tell that to the Borg.

 

[baby duck monge]

Tell that to the Borg.

They had enough assimilated knowledge to make it work regardless. Also, once in space it isn't as big a deal (and I don't know what the atmosphere of their home planet was like).

Also, gman, if your boss hooks you up with the dead cube, let me know!

 

[livingfortoday]

(and I don't know what the atmosphere of their home planet was like).

<star trek nerd>I know they have planets, but they also have numerous space facilities (like the last episode of Voyager), so I'm assuming they build their ships on those.</star trek nerd>

I actually have a Cube with a dead motherboard, and unless I can find a reasonably priced on, I might do the same thing you're thinking of doing. I'd rather see if there's a way to connect a 3.5" drive to the 2.5" IDE connector in the Mini, though, rather than use an external FW solution. I know you can hook up SATA controllers to the Intel Mini (tuaw.com had a bit about this a few days ago), but does anyone know of a similar IDE solution?

 

[baby duck monge]

I actually have a Cube with a dead motherboard, and unless I can find a reasonably priced on, I might do the same thing you're thinking of doing. I'd rather see if there's a way to connect a 3.5" drive to the 2.5" IDE connector in the Mini, though, rather than use an external FW solution. I know you can hook up SATA controllers to the Intel Mini (tuaw.com had a bit about this a few days ago), but does anyone know of a similar IDE solution?

I hadn't even thought about swapping the drive for a full-sized one. That would be good since my externals (and particularly the one that I would want to add inside the case) is a 3.5" 7200rmp drive, and it would make things a bit quicker to have that as the main drive and the original drive as a backup.

 

[disconap]

If I didn't already have the Mini, that's what I would most likely do.

Plus the Cube is far more modifiable at present time.

 

[®îçhå®?]

If necessary, just buy this.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Giga-Designs-...721217845QQcategoryZ80034QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

A 1.8GHz G4 Cube would be awesome!!

 

[dayosx]

I guess people have the most skin deep fixation on the Cube. They like the look, but not the heart. So before we trundle down to Retardo City, I'd like to appeal to your good judgement.

The Mac Mini. Not bad looking, some might argue it looks and handles a lot better than the clumsy Cube. Well I certainly think so. The advantage it has over the Cube doesn't stop here. It has the raw MHz and a good system bus. But that's all good until we come to this. Radeon 9200. 32MB VRAM. Unupgradeable. Now with a crap video such as this, people usually relegate Mac Minis to the role of a "Media Center". Although personally I fail to see what a Media Center PC can accomplish that a desktop can't, but that's just me.

Then we have the Cube. Although aged (gracefully), it can still take in upgrades such as dual G4s, Radeon up to 9800, 7200RPM HDD. Practically everything you need to go to a LAN party in style.

And you want to stuff a Mini inside a Cube? Well, it's a free country. So sure, go crazy with it.

 

[baby duck monge]

Thanks for taking the club back to that dead horse, dayosx.

What you and everyone else that have a problem with me idea are failing to pay attention to is the fact that I already have a Mac Mini, and it does not make financial sense to buy a working (or upgrade) a Cube. The Cube may still be a nice machine... but I don't really care. I don't own a Cube. The closest thing to a working Cube I may have in the near future is a Mini stuck inside its case.

I like the look of the Cube. Sometimes I like to have projects to keep myself amused. I already own a Mini. I don't want to spend a lot of money. End of story.

Thanks again for maturely referring to it as 'Retardo Lane,' as well, that was real classy

 

[livingfortoday]

I like the look of the Cube. Sometimes I like to have projects to keep myself amused. I already own a Mini. I don't want to spend a lot of money. End of story.

Ah, that's the story of all my mod projects as well. I need something to do! I know, I'll stick this computer inside of this! Brilliant!

Good luck, and post pictures if you succeed.

Oh, and the Mini drive does sort of line up with the Cube slot, you need maybe a 1/4" spacer there to get it to work.

 

[IJ Reilly]

A 1.8GHz G4 Cube would be awesome!!

I've got a 1.7 Ghz G4 Cube, so it's semi-awesome.

Well, at least some of us don't think the beauty of the Cube is only skin deep. The engineering that went into the guts of the Cube is nothing short of amazing, as anyone who's disassembled one already knows.

 

[skunk]

I've got a 1.7 Ghz G4 Cube, so it's semi-awesome.

Well, at least some of us don't think the beauty of the Cube is only skin deep. The engineering that went into the guts of the Cube is nothing short of amazing, as anyone who's disassembled one already knows.

Mine's a paltry 1.2GHz, so it hardly qualifies...

But it's got a Superdrive and 120GB Barracuda. It'll do me for at least another year.

 

[disconap]

<star trek nerd>I know they have planets, but they also have numerous space facilities (like the last episode of Voyager), so I'm assuming they build their ships on those.</star trek nerd>

Han could kick Kirk's ass.

I actually have a Cube with a dead motherboard, and unless I can find a reasonably priced on, I might do the same thing you're thinking of doing. I'd rather see if there's a way to connect a 3.5" drive to the 2.5" IDE connector in the Mini, though, rather than use an external FW solution. I know you can hook up SATA controllers to the Intel Mini (tuaw.com had a bit about this a few days ago), but does anyone know of a similar IDE solution?

Are you on the cubeowner's forums? You might be able to find a working board there, or part it out/modding tips.

http://www.cubeowner.com/forums/index.php?

 

[IJ Reilly]

Mine's a paltry 1.2GHz, so it hardly qualifies...

But it's got a Superdrive and 120GB Barracuda. It'll do me for at least another year.

Yes, I'd be embarrassed too.

Stock DVD drive and an 80 Gb Barracuda. Not to mention the dual SU carburetors.

 

[dayosx]

Beg to differ, Baby Duck. Thread's not dead, not with the last post dated only a couple of weeks back. Unless things have moved so fast in the Mac world, that a couple of weeks is counted as a couple of years.

I'm sorry I failed to read your past posts that explain your commitment to the Mac Mini. I doubt many people in the Cube community have good things to say about the latter, with the weak integrated video, although I may be wrong.

Anyway, not trying to be a jerk, but I'm really here to point out one thing. It's Retardo City, not Lane. See this entry on Urban Dictionary. Purely out of curiosity I googled for "Retardo Lane", and I got only one result.

But you're right. Why should the Cube matter, anyway? It's so passé, it's laughable. The shell looks good? I don't know. I only know that it's solid and weighs like two bricks. The structure is so strong you can drop it from a 2 storey building and it might land in one piece. The weight is such that you can kill your housecat by throwing the Cube at it. What truly boggles my mind though, is that people actually make fish tanks out of it. Personally I don't think the fish feel good being trapped in that kind of space.

Now the Mini, I thought Apple did a sterling job with the design. In fact a really good mod would be to squeeze the Cube logic board into a Mini, that's something to see.

 

[baby duck monge]

Beg to differ, Baby Duck. Thread's not dead, not with the last post dated only a couple of weeks back. Unless things have moved so fast in the Mac world, that a couple of weeks is counted as a couple of years.

I'm sorry I failed to read your past posts that explain your commitment to the Mac Mini. I doubt many people in the Cube community have good things to say about the latter, with the weak integrated video, although I may be wrong.

Anyway, not trying to be a jerk, but I'm really here to point out one thing. It's Retardo City, not Lane. See this entry on Urban Dictionary. Purely out of curiosity I googled for "Retardo Lane", and I got only one result.

But you're right. Why should the Cube matter, anyway? It's so passé, it's laughable. The shell looks good? I don't know. I only know that it's solid and weighs like two bricks. The structure is so strong you can drop it from a 2 storey building and it might land in one piece. The weight is such that you can kill your housecat by throwing the Cube at it. What truly boggles my mind though, is that people actually make fish tanks out of it. Personally I don't think the fish feel good being trapped in that kind of space.

Now the Mini, I thought Apple did a sterling job with the design. In fact a really good mod would be to squeeze the Cube logic board into a Mini, that's something to see.

It wasn't the thread that was dead, it was the notion that it's stupid to put a Mini inside a Cube's case and that the Cube is 'so much more than a pretty face.' You would have known that was played out if you had taken the time to actually read the posts from earlier in the thread (which would have also explained that I already own the Mini). If you're going to resurrect a thread that has fallen back a number of pages, at least read what it's about. It's not like it had grown to 5 pages or anything.

As for what people in the 'Cube community' have to say about the Mini - I can't say I really give a s***. I am content with the power of my Mini, my Powerbook, and my PowerMac. I could really care less that my Mini only has 32MB of VRAM and that I can't upgrade it later. I don't see why you even felt the need to bring that up, anyway.

As for the rest of your post, I really don't think it's worth much of a response. And in the future, I would prefer you stay out of this thread unless you have something mature and useful to contribute. Thanks, though...

 

[Seasought]

If you were to do this, some pictures documenting the process would be interesting to see...

Yes. And set it up in a sort of mock-Victor Frankenstein setting. Stubble, disheveled appearance, bloodshot eyes, scattered parts and the Cube on a slanted table with a white sheet sliding off. Violent electricity...(yes, yes, you can take the easy way out with Photoshop if you must).

You could even take some pics of you looking at it, wild-eyed with success.

"It's alive..."

 

[IJ Reilly]

What hump?

 

[retrolutionary]

Re: G4 Cube mod question

Been there, done that. It wasn't extremely hard, but it does take a little know how, especially if you add extra hard drives and a second optical drive to it. If you're not comfortable with reworking metal structures, you may want to get someone to do it for you. I charge $100.00 for a straight swap from your donor Mini components into your Cube inner cage. If you want it tricked out with lights, graphics on the metal inner cover, and extra hardware, it will be substantially more as you must also provide the extra gear you want installed and appropriate cables, connectors, power sources, etc. I will be selling Intel Cubes once I move into my new shop and set up an eBay store.

 

[ThunderSnake]

...With that in mind, I don't think I have the technical ability to make you this spaceship. I do know that it would have really crappy aerodynamics if I made it look like a cube

Aerodynamics don't matter in space. The cube design worked fine for these folks:

I think that's what I want my Mini to look like.

 

[retrolutionary]

G4 cube mod question

Actually, you can put quite a bit of hardware in there if you gut the Mini first. By my calculations, there's room for four extra 2.5" hard drives, allowing ample room for air flow supplied by a fan on the bottom. Apple was thoughtful enough to include an enclosure in the G4 for one, after all. You can also install a second optical drive. I'm working on a form fitting Cube enclosure to make my beast sit horizontally and look better than ever. Car crash has me strapped and disabled, so it'll be a while yet before I get it done. Still, it will be a nice addition to my collection.