LCD monitor for cube

[johntommybob]

The 17" CRT studio display on my Cube bit the dust. I thought it was the Cube but an apple tech said the cube worked on a LCD monitor. So I am looking for a LCD Monitor for it but I don't know which ones will work. or how it hooks up. Didn't think to ask him.

What am I looking for?

 

[Intell]

If you still have the stock video card in there, nearly any VGA LCD or other monitor will work. You may not want to get one that's too big or the Cube will have some trouble driving it well. You could also get a contemporary Apple Studio Display. Those are the clear acrylic LCD displays that Apple sold during the time they sold the Cube. They came in sizes of 15", 17", 20", 22", and 23". Unless you have the better of the stock video cards, the 23" will not work properly with your Cube. Do you know which video card your Cube currently has in it?

 

[johntommybob]

If you still have the stock video card in there, nearly any VGA LCD or other monitor will work. You may not want to get one that's too big or the Cube will have some trouble driving it well. You could also get a contemporary Apple Studio Display. Those are the clear acrylic LCD displays that Apple sold during the time they sold the Cube. They came in sizes of 15", 17", 20", 22", and 23". Unless you have the better of the stock video cards, the 23" will not work properly with your Cube. Do you know which video card your Cube currently has in it?

I have no idea, or even if it had one, though I bought it new. I guess it has whatever they were shipped with, if any.

 

[Intell]

In that case it may have the entry level ATI Rage 128. Those cannot drive the clear acrylic 23" Apple Cinema HD display. They can drive the 20" and 22" models, but not overly well. I'd suggest looking for a 17" Apple Studio Display. They're price has dropped a lot over the past few years. You'd have to buy one used. If you don't want to buy a used one, you can use nearly any standard VGA monitor with your Cube.

 

[johntommybob]

I have no idea, or even if it had one, though I bought it new. I guess it has whatever they were shipped with, if any.

I guess I do know it has one or the apple tech guy could not have done what he did.

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In that case it may have the entry level ATI Rage 128. Those cannot drive the clear acrylic 23" Apple Cinema HD display. They can drive the 20" and 22" models, but not overly well. I'd suggest looking for a 17" Apple Studio Display. They're price has dropped a lot over the past few years. You'd have to buy one used. If you don't want to buy a used one, you can use nearly any standard VGA monitor with your Cube.

Used does not bother me if it works. Do they have a more or less standard cable?

And thanks,

 

[Intell]

Apple Studio displays have an Apple Desktop Connection (ADC) cord. If you flip your Cube over, you can see your Cube's ADC port. It looks like a rounded off DVI port. Mostly only Apple PowerMac G4 and G5 machines have that port for those displays. Apple did release an ADC to DVI adapter for those who want to use an ADC monitor with a non-ADC computer such as a Powerbook.

 

[jido]

Apple Studio displays have an Apple Desktop Connection (ADC) cord. If you flip your Cube over, you can see your Cube's ADC port. It looks like a rounded off DVI port. Mostly only Apple PowerMac G4 and G5 machines have that port for those displays. Apple did release an ADC to DVI adapter for those who want to use an ADC monitor with a non-ADC computer such as a Powerbook.

Yep, the Cube works with an ADC to DVI adaptor and a DVI display. The simplest is to use a VGA cable though. By the way, there is a forum dedicated to the Cube: cubeowner dot com.

 

[Thejrace]

In that case it may have the entry level ATI Rage 128. Those cannot drive the clear acrylic 23" Apple Cinema HD display. They can drive the 20" and 22" models, but not overly well. I'd suggest looking for a 17" Apple Studio Display. They're price has dropped a lot over the past few years. You'd have to buy one used. If you don't want to buy a used one, you can use nearly any standard VGA monitor with your Cube.

Sorry to barge in on this thread, but I saw one of those 20" for sale locally for $30. I really like the look of it and think it'd go quite nicely with my macbook. Think it'd be worth getting? And how would one connect that to a macbook? Haha.

 

[bunnspecial]

Sorry to barge in on this thread, but I saw one of those 20" for sale locally for $30. I really like the look of it and think it'd go quite nicely with my macbook. Think it'd be worth getting? And how would one connect that to a macbook? Haha.

$30 is a very good price provided that it's all in good shape and working. Personally, I'd snap it up.

With that said, I paid $40 for one a few months back and ended up returning it because of pressure marks on the screen.

As for connecting it to your Macbook-it's doable but you'll need a small collection of cables and adapters to make it work. For your Macbook, you'll need either a Minidisplay port or Mini-DVI(depending on the generation Macbook) to DVI adapter. This will be cheap and easy to find.

The difficult part is the "brick" adapter that lets you connect the ADC connector on the 20" to a standard DVI output. In their original set-up, these ADC monitors were designed to be powered by the computer power supply and thus only have one cable coming out of the back of them. The "brick" adapter looks a lot like an Apple laptop charger. It has a power cable that plugs into the wall, a DVI and USB cable that connect to your computer, and a port that the ADC monitor plugs into. These are available, but generally bring $50-100 on Ebay.

I love ADC monitors and use them with my older Powermacs that have ADC ports. Unless you're absolutely sold on the pinstripe and acrylic aesthetics of them, though, a new 20" LED monitor would likely cost you about the same if not less than the adapter to use an ADC monitor with a non-ADC computer.

 

[Intell]

Sorry to barge in on this thread, but I saw one of those 20" for sale locally for $30. I really like the look of it and think it'd go quite nicely with my macbook. Think it'd be worth getting? And how would one connect that to a macbook? Haha.

bunnspecial covered most of the details above. But note that starting with the late-2012 Mac Mini those displays no longer work and they are not supported in 10.9 without reinstalling certain kexts.

 

[havokalien]

problem likely

the original video card was not meant to push anything over the 15 inch monitor ADC wise. So if it gave up the ghost I would suspect weak power supply or fried video card. A regular LCD will work as it does not pull power 28 volts from the cube at that point. If you use it that way just be ready for power supply or video card replacement later. Just FYI so you know.

 

[Intell]

The stock ATI Rage 128 in a G4 Cube can output to the 22" Cinema Display's 1600x1024 resolution without a problem and was designed to do so.

 

[bunnspecial]

Although I don't have a Cube, I do have some experience with the Rage 128, including the ADC/VGA version in a PM G4 tower. Although I don't have a 22" Studio Display, it had zero issues driving a generic 23" 1600x1024 LCD through the VGA port in my experience. It only gave me troubles when I tried to step up to a 1920x1080.

 

[havokalien]

I may have said that wrong but the power supply is weak and driving anything but the 15" ADC suppling 28 volts through the cube VRM which is also weak will lead to issues now. Take it any way you want it on the cube web site it talks way more about how weak the VRM and Power supply are. I have put a new dvd writer from a mac G5 in mine and a fan and put new caps in it so hopefully it will last for another computer lifetime.

 

[Intell]

The VRM board doesn't touch the 28 volts for the display. It's on a passtough trace that goes right to the video card riser to power the display. The VRM board may pull some power from the 28 volt rail, but it doesn't up or down convert to it for the display. Hence why you can still get the trickle 28 volts on the ADC power tab with the VRM board removed. The VRM board may be poorly designed, but as long as using the OEM parts, a G4 upgrade VRM bypass circuitry, and a lower power video card, it is in low risk of burning out. Cube power supplies were designed to power the large 17" CRT ADC Studio Displays that draw 113 watts in operation. That's 43 more watts than the 23" ADC display. Those 17" CRT ADC displays were the default purchase option when buying a Cube. The 15" ADC display's power requirements are higher than the 17" LCD ADC display's, 50 watts for the 15" and 40 watts for the 17".