Thanks! I didn't know a 450MHz Cube could run it lol. Is it good? I can't find a Cube for a good price anywhere lol
Any AGP based G4 can run Leopard without issue-you really just need to bypass the 867mhz installer check. There are a couple of ways to do this, including using Leopard Assist(which tricks the computer into thinking it has a faster processor than is actually installed), pulling the hard drive the putting it in a supported Mac, or booting the computer in Target Disk Mode, connecting to a supported Mac, and running the Leopard installer from that Mac. All methods have their benefits and downfalls-I usually pull the drive or use TDM.
The limitation with Leopard in a Cube, Sawtooth, and Gigabit Ethernet is in the GPU. All of these have 2x AGP slots. Leopard really benefits from having a GPU that supports Core Image(much of the "eye candy" is handled by the GPU if CI is supported), but there is a very short list of cards that support CI and work in a 2x slot. Offhand, the only OEM one I know of is the Radeon 9800, as well as a flashed GEForce 6200(the PCI 5200 will also work in 10.4.8 and later, although obviously you need a PCI slot to use it).
@Intell will probably be along to tell me of the ones I've forgotten.
Leopard will perform decent with a higher end non-CI such as a GEForce 4MX, Radeon 8500, Radeon 9000, or GEForce 4Ti(the best card with full OS 9 compatibility, and generally a superb card).
With that said, your options in a Cube are pretty limited due to space constraints. Most Cubes come with a Rage 128, which is dismal under Leopard(although someone mentioned the other day that putting the kexts from Tiger in makes a world of difference). Among Apple OEM cards, the GEForce 2MX, GEForce 3, and Radeon 7500 are effectively drop-in replacements although the 7500 can't use the stock Cube faceplate. Certain models of flashed 6200 will fit in a Cube(and support CI), although you will need to rig up some way of supporting the card. You can move the VRM board and squeeze a fair number of other cards-I've seen 4MXs, Radeon 8500s, and Radeon 9000s-although you may also need to "clip" corners on the card to get them to fit and will need to work out mounting.
The GEForce 2MX is decent under Leopard, although its HOT. I inadvertently touched the heatsink on one a minute or so after I'd shut the computer down and it raised a blister on my finger. You want a base fan(you should have one anyway). Apple actually made a special Cube-edition 2MX with a big heatsink, although these are tough to find. The(very common) tower editions of this card stay cool(enough) in a tower, but do cook in a Cube. The 7500 also works okay and runs a bit cooler in my experience.
