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Tips on improving my G4 Cube performance

California

California

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 21, 2004
3,885
90
I sold my beloved silent upgrade Mac Mini PPC G4 1.5ghz. I had it maxed out with a 100 7200rpm hd and 1 gig of ram -- I just could not handle the fact that there was only one ram slot ( I didn't know this when I purchased it!)

I always need to have two macs workable, just in case. I have a stock G4 500mhz Cube (originally purchased directly from Apple) and just bought one of those CPU upgrades to 1.2ghz. It's got 1.5 gigs of ram. I am thinking of buying a dvi video card so I can run my 23" ACD with it.

Is there anything else I can do to speed up my old Cube?

Does anyone know about the patch so I can run more than 128 gbs hard drive?

Any other speed suggestions?
 
California said:
Glad I asked... what is the 32 bit issue?
Click to expand...

I believe it is the IDE controller. It can only address about 128GB of physical addresses on a disk. After that it loops back to 0. So if you put in a 160GB drive, it would only read it as a 32GB drive.
 
I'm dumb, but I don't think the 32 bit issue is about hard drive space... it is about firewire versus internal hard drive controller read/write speeds.

I am looking for as much speed punch as I can get out of this old Cube.

Anyone know if it is faster to run an external hard drive or an internal one, ala a 32 bit issue?
 
By the time you count the cost of the 1.2GB processor, the video upgrade and an external Firewire HD, you could buy a new Intel Mini at $599.

Yes, there is a patch that can be downloaded from Apple to overcome the 128 GB barrier. The speed of your internal ATA66 5400 RPM HD is 66MBPS compared to an external Firewire 400 HD with a speed of approximately 50MBPS, but the 7200 RPM speed will make it somewhat faster than the ATA66.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/stats/powermac_g4_500_cube.html
 
Intech SpeedTools ATA Extended Capacity Driver
allows drives above 128gb to fit in the Cube.

Very limited number of video cards fit into the Cube though. There are many web sites on the G4 Cube mods.
 
I'm into the Cube for 370 at moment.

At this point, it is cheaper to keep nickel and diming myself to upgrade the Cube than to get the top of the line Mini that I want (like 800 cash plus I want more ram).
 
While a better video card would help (any Radeon or GeForce would be better than the Rage 128 or Rage 128 Pro you have now,) the Rage you have *CAN* run up to a 23" Cinema Display. You just need an ADC to DVI adapter. The ADC connection contains DVI. You just need a physical adapter.
 
ehurtley said:
While a better video card would help (any Radeon or GeForce would be better than the Rage 128 or Rage 128 Pro you have now,) the Rage you have *CAN* run up to a 23" Cinema Display. You just need an ADC to DVI adapter. The ADC connection contains DVI. You just need a physical adapter.
Click to expand...

I think the existing OEM Cube video card only has 16mb vram and I believe I need 64mb vram to run a 23" ACDisplay. At least, that's why I had the 1.5ghz silent upgrade mac mini PPC G4-- it had 64mb video ram compared to the 1.42ghz which only had 32mb vram. I'm getting a 256mb vram card for the Cube which should be everything I need... I think. I am running the display currently on a 12" Powerbook with 64 vram.
 
California said:
I'm into the Cube for 100 bucks cash I paid for it with 512 ram.
CPU upgrade I stole for 170
DVI card can be had for about 100. I have the external hd/the extra ram etc. So I'm in for 370 at moment.

At this point, it is cheaper to keep nickel and diming myself to upgrade the Cube than to get the top of the line Mini that I want (like 800 cash plus I want more ram).
Click to expand...

Sell the cube, sell the extra ram, sell the cpu upgrade, and sell the DVI card. Then you'll get out at least as much money as you put in and you can then afford a new mac mini.
 
motulist said:
Sell the cube, sell the extra ram, sell the cpu upgrade, and sell the DVI card. Then you'll get out at least as much money as you put in and you can then afford a new mac mini.
Click to expand...

First I want to play with the upgraded Cube! But okay. Good idea.
 
Full use of 48-bit LBA drives is not related to the type of IDE controller (no matter what Wikipedia says). It is related to the bootROM, and also needs OS 10.2 or later. The BootROM of Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors), Xserve, Power Mac G5, and any other model introduced after June 2002 can accommodate these larger drives.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2544?viewlocale=en_US#bootrom
 
mr666 said:
Full use of 48-bit LBA drives is not related to the type of IDE controller (no matter what Wikipedia says). It is related to the bootROM, and also needs OS 10.2 or later. The BootROM of Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors), Xserve, Power Mac G5, and any other model introduced after June 2002 can accommodate these larger drives.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2544?viewlocale=en_US#bootrom
Click to expand...


Thank you. I had planned to give up on getting the answer to this on the thread's third anniversary.
 
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