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just bought a cube + studio display for $200!

LeeTom

LeeTom

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Okay, is this a great deal or what?
I just bought, off Craigslist, a G4 Cube 450MHz with 640MB of RAM and a 15" LCD Studio Display (newest type) for TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS! It came with a brand new white (newest type) Apple Pro Keyboard and the black/clear laser Pro Mouse, and the USB speakers.

Now, here's the catch:
-The DVD drive in the cube is totally broken.
-The hard drive's SMART status is failing, but it works fine (for now).
-The monitor's third leg (on the hinge) is missing, but the monitor is perfect otherwise.
-It seems to have the random sleep issue, but only when I wiggle the monitor cable, which is missing a slight bit of shielding... so I think it is somehow activating the sleep button, but again, only if I wiggle it.
-The cube isn't in the greatest cosmetic shape, but is in good shape.

Did I just get a great deal?
Lee Tom
 
LeeTom said:
Okay, is this a great deal or what?
I just bought, off Craigslist, a G4 Cube 450MHz with 640MB of RAM and a 15" LCD Studio Display (newest type) for TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS! It came with a brand new white (newest type) Apple Pro Keyboard and the black/clear laser Pro Mouse, and the USB speakers.

Now, here's the catch:
-The DVD drive in the cube is totally broken.
-The hard drive's SMART status is failing, but it works fine (for now).
-The monitor's third leg (on the hinge) is missing, but the monitor is perfect otherwise.
-It seems to have the random sleep issue, but only when I wiggle the monitor cable, which is missing a slight bit of shielding... so I think it is somehow activating the sleep button, but again, only if I wiggle it.
-The cube isn't in the greatest cosmetic shape, but is in good shape.

Did I just get a great deal?
Lee Tom
Click to expand...
I believe so. Put a dvd burner in that thing - get a new hard drive - and possibly a new switch - and use duct tape for that third leg and you got the same thing i got for 900!
 
Depends on how much you value the appearance/functionality of the cube. Sounds like a lot of small issues that would turn me off, thats for sure. But can't complain about the price.
 
You got a fixer-upper. Sometimes these end up being a bit of a money sink, to get things working all right, but the price was definitely right.
 
LeeTom said:
Okay, is this a great deal or what?
I just bought, off Craigslist, a G4 Cube 450MHz with 640MB of RAM and a 15" LCD Studio Display (newest type) for TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS! It came with a brand new white (newest type) Apple Pro Keyboard and the black/clear laser Pro Mouse, and the USB speakers.

Now, here's the catch:
-The DVD drive in the cube is totally broken.
-The hard drive's SMART status is failing, but it works fine (for now).
-The monitor's third leg (on the hinge) is missing, but the monitor is perfect otherwise.
-It seems to have the random sleep issue, but only when I wiggle the monitor cable, which is missing a slight bit of shielding... so I think it is somehow activating the sleep button, but again, only if I wiggle it.
-The cube isn't in the greatest cosmetic shape, but is in good shape.

Did I just get a great deal?
Lee Tom
Click to expand...

You got absolutely ripped off, I will take this atrocity off your hands for the same $200 though



😉 just kidding, that is an awesome deal and i envy you!
 
Open up the studio display and unhook the power button cable, and that should stop your random sleep issue. I had the same problem. Those touch switches are unreliable. Hopefully you won't have to disconnect the one inside the Cube too.

You got a great deal, IMHO. The optical and hard drive are quite easy to change. Go to cubeowner.com.
 
Good deal but change the Hard Drive ASAP. You never know when it might blow...

And the old optical drive was trash anyway. Replace it with a new one.
 
I don't know if this is possible but it would be neat if you could take off the third leg completely and wall mount the monitor.
 
It's theoreticaly possible to wallmount that studio display, but not by any official means. You'd have to construct your own mount, though I'd suggest you follow a design concept similar to the G5 iMac mount, as you'll want to be able to access the USB ports in the rear of that unit.

Other than that, it's a great deal, though it will take some investment. I bought a Cube from some guy who'd had it in our service department with some unknown problem. I paid $450 for it with an unknown video problem. We thought we'd ruled out the video card, as we'd tested a brand new card from Apple. So, I added a fan, and replaced the logic board. $200 down the hole with no fix in sight. The third time running the extended hardware test, it actually finished. It turned out to be the video card. So, i flashed my old Radeon 7000, tossed it in, and voila. I'm typing on it now.

It seems a number of people are more afraid to fix minor errors in a Cube than any other PowerMac. This is perhaps because disassembly is a bit of a pain. Nevertheless, swap out those parts, put in what you need, and you'll be sitting on a nice piece of machinery. I only wish I could have left the old video card in mine, so I could one day use the ADC port.
 
It's a good deal if you sell the cube itself for 75 bucks, and keep the display for a net 125

You can mess around with shareware in the meantime
 
cubist said:
Open up the studio display and unhook the power button cable, and that should stop your random sleep issue. I had the same problem. Those touch switches are unreliable.
Click to expand...
System Preferences...->Displays->Options->Disable power button (10.3.6)
 
Well,
I replaced the hard drive (had one laying around), put in a new battery, installed Panther via firewire target mode, and used about $5 in materials to make a third leg on the monitor. I still have some problems, but I think I'll post them at CubeOwner.com, since that's all they do. Here's the end result of my $205! I took it over to my mom's house, stuck a green ribbon on it, and set it all up for her. when she gets back for christmas, she's going to be stoked.

Lee Tom
 

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I'd get some C4 and watch the fireworks!

The system looks great. Just fine tune it and rock n' roll Apple style!!! 😀
 
TheGimp said:
It's a good deal if you sell the cube itself for 75 bucks, and keep the display for a net 125

You can mess around with shareware in the meantime
Click to expand...

sell the cube for $75 😱 i would not sell a 9600 for that much cubes are worth far more than that $350-$400 for a bare stock cube.

look on ebay for them they still go for high prices.
 
LeeTom said:
Well,
I replaced the hard drive (had one laying around), put in a new battery, installed Panther via firewire target mode, and used about $5 in materials to make a third leg on the monitor. I still have some problems, but I think I'll post them at CubeOwner.com, since that's all they do. Here's the end result of my $205! I took it over to my mom's house, stuck a green ribbon on it, and set it all up for her. when she gets back for christmas, she's going to be stoked.

Lee Tom
Click to expand...


All moms care about is the screen anyway. Some of them even think the whole computer is the screen (now that the iMac G5 is out, they're right). Mine looks at my 17" studio display and says, "that's a really nice computer".
 
It's so sad that Apple weren't able to make the Cube cheap enough to be a success and that they had to discontinue it.
 
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