Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

My new cube.

appleish19

appleish19

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 4, 2014
213
107
Finally found one of my white whales.:D

Dual 500 MHz G4 cube with GeForce2mx and 1.5 GB ram. Really happy to have an upgraded CPU in this cube. It's my only PowerPC machine that runs tiger at the moment. Can't wait to see what I can do with it.

Any recommendations or suggestions?
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0476.JPG
    IMG_0476.JPG
    1.8 MB · Views: 273
  • IMG_0477.JPG
    IMG_0477.JPG
    3.5 MB · Views: 211
  • Like
Reactions: CooperBox, oneMadRssn, eyoungren and 1 other person
HFTaylor12 said:
I've always wanted a Cube. It's at the top of my list for Machines to Buy. Congratulations on getting one!

How 'bout a music player? Or a machine for photos, videos, basic video editing... iLife. Because this was back when iLife was good. :p
Click to expand...
I'm definitely thinking about an SSD upgrade because it has the original hard drive and it's quite loud. Yeah the speakers are actually really good. Definitely going to buy the driver to up the hard drive limit above 128GB.

Thinking iMovie HD 6 was last to be supported on tiger?

Looks like I might have to get a USB Wi-Fi dongle. The airport card only wants to do WEP.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AmazingHenry
flyrod said:
Congrats! I'm curious which CPU you have. Could you post pictures of the cube core from the sides? From what I've seen it could be an Apple CPU or a Sonnet. We've been talking some about the CPU upgrades available these days here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/g4-cube-450-cpu-upgrade.1320537/page-2

There are some benchmarks in there too.
Click to expand...
I can definitely do that. It'll probably take me a day or so, lots of homework right now in school. Hoping maybe in the future to even get it up higher a dual 1 GHz+.
 
flyrod said:
Congrats! I'm curious which CPU you have. Could you post pictures of the cube core from the sides? From what I've seen it could be an Apple CPU or a Sonnet. We've been talking some about the CPU upgrades available these days here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/g4-cube-450-cpu-upgrade.1320537/page-2

There are some benchmarks in there too.
Click to expand...
Hey sorry about the long wait to post a picture but I finally got one. Don't know what type of upgrade it is. Just that it is at dual 500. Hopefully it is upgraded in a way where it will be stable with the VRM

I don't know what's going on here with the blue tape like stuff. :eek: Seems to be wrapped around something to prevent contact.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0080.JPG
    IMG_0080.JPG
    1.7 MB · Views: 184
  • IMG_0081.JPG
    IMG_0081.JPG
    2.2 MB · Views: 151
Last edited:
Thanks for posting the picture. That looks like a modified OEM card out of a tower. The blue tape is extra electrical insulation around the inductor which has been laid flat.

How hot does the VRM get? The middle section supplies 5v to the CPU and would tend to get pretty hot.
 
flyrod said:
Thanks for posting the picture. That looks like a modified OEM card out of a tower. The blue tape is extra electrical insulation around the inductor which has been laid flat.

How hot does the VRM get? The middle section supplies 5v to the CPU and would tend to get pretty hot.
Click to expand...
How would I measure that? If it's not to hot would running that card be okay?
 
flyrod said:
There is some info here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/g4-cube-450-cpu-upgrade.1320537/page-2

You can run the cube outside of the plastic enclosure to check the temperature. If you can't keep your finger on it then it's probably too hot (~60 degrees). Most people who ran that card in a cube put heat sinks on the 5v part of the VRM.
Click to expand...
I read through that thread a while back and I skim through it again. What does the VRM look like? The bypass or additional cooling how does that work? Thank you for answering my many questions. Just want to make sure my cube is healthy for a long time. :oops::D
 
From that other thread, here is my post on the dual 500 CPU:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/g4-cube-450-cpu-upgrade.1320537/page-2#post-24361792

I'll repeat some of it here:

This is a dual 500MHz card modified for use in a cube:

dual1.jpg


The inductor is moved to lay flat between the cube logic board and heatsink. Compare this with your picture from the side showing blue tape wrapped around the inductor. A copper plate is sandwiched between the cpus and the cube heatsink.

dual3.jpg


The dual cpu loads the 5v section of the VRM pretty good, so a base fan should be installed in the cube and heatsinks added to the VRM:

vrm.jpg


You can also put something like 'apple cube VRM' into google images and get some ideas.
 
  • Like
Reactions: appleish19
flyrod said:
From that other thread, here is my post on the dual 500 CPU:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/g4-cube-450-cpu-upgrade.1320537/page-2#post-24361792

I'll repeat some of it here:

This is a dual 500MHz card modified for use in a cube:

dual1.jpg


The inductor is moved to lay flat between the cube logic board and heatsink. Compare this with your picture from the side showing blue tape wrapped around the inductor. A copper plate is sandwiched between the cpus and the cube heatsink.

dual3.jpg


The dual cpu loads the 5v section of the VRM pretty good, so a base fan should be installed in the cube and heatsinks added to the VRM:

vrm.jpg


You can also put something like 'apple cube VRM' into google images and get some ideas.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much I'm new to the innards of the cube and most computers.:oops: I'll have to do some extensive research :)
 
appleish19 said:
Thanks so much I'm new to the innards of the cube and most computers.:oops: I'll have to do some extensive research :)
Click to expand...

Congrats from me too on your 'new' Cube. They sure are exciting machines.
Just for info, how does your optical drive eject? i.e. correctly, slowly, poorly or not at all?
Although you don't mention it, one assumes that you have a fan installed.
This is coming to you from my own 1.2 GHz G4 Cube with 1.25 RAM memory. It's no speed-demon by any stretch of the imagination, but runs Tiger admirably together with TFF 38.6 and related user.js tweaks. Temp Monitor app shows that mine is currently running at a cool 27°C (81°F) :) So it's obviously as happy as I am!
 
  • Like
Reactions: appleish19
Nice cube :) Post a few pics of your heatsink when you get it installed ... Yanno to help those of us who need big pictures. :D

I was curious about the copper heatsink/shim. Was that just stuck on there with thermal paste? Thin thermal pads etc?
 
  • Like
Reactions: appleish19
CooperBox said:
Congrats from me too on your 'new' Cube. They sure are exciting machines.
Just for info, how does your optical drive eject? i.e. correctly, slowly, poorly or not at all?
Although you don't mention it, one assumes that you have a fan installed.
This is coming to you from my own 1.2 GHz G4 Cube with 1.25 RAM memory. It's no speed-demon by any stretch of the imagination, but runs Tiger admirably together with TFF 38.6 and related user.js tweaks. Temp Monitor app shows that mine is currently running at a cool 27°C (81°F) :) So it's obviously as happy as I am!
Click to expand...
Luckily it eject's quite forcefully and well. Not sure if it has a fan or not. Ran geekbench twice for a total of 20 minutes and the top of the grill was very mildly warm. Plus over the noise of the original 10 GB hard drive who knows.

I guess I'll really have to break it down and take it apart this weekend. Looking at a 6200 GeForce on eBay. :D

RhianB said:
Nice cube :) Post a few pics of your heatsink when you get it installed ... Yanno to help those of us who need big pictures. :D

I was curious about the copper heatsink/shim. Was that just stuck on there with thermal paste? Thin thermal pads etc?
Click to expand...
Yeah this weekend once I get a chance to take it apart I'll take stock of how the previous owner set things up with some nice pictures. :)
 
CooperBox said:
Looks like I overlooked this comment previously.
Yes Henry, I'd be pleased to hear about this 'trick'.
Click to expand...
You just set the base station to extend your existing network wirelessly, then plug an ethernet cable into the base station, and the other end into your Mac.
 
SuperKerem said:
You just set the base station to extend your existing network wirelessly, then plug an ethernet cable into the base station, and the other end into your Mac.
Click to expand...
Usually I'l set it to "join my wireless network" rather then extend. But the same idea.
CooperBox said:
Looks like I overlooked this comment previously.
Yes Henry, I'd be pleased to hear about this 'trick'.
Click to expand...
What SuperKerem said was accurate, however you need a certain model of base station. I'll PM you exactly what I sent to the OP.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back