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Upgrade G4 Cube

whats the voltage setting on the Dual 1.8Ghz 7448 upgrade?

the Max safe voltage of a 7448 is 1.4V so if your current voltage is only 1.3V you could try bump the voltage to 1.35V and see if 2Ghz becomes stable :)
 
appleintelcube said:
You mean the ‘on off on on’ some sort jumpers?
Click to expand...

the sort that use IDE Slave master type jumpers

although in the case of the CPU card I gifted @bunnspecial the card used IDE type jumpers for CPU multiplier selection

and smaller "SCSI ID" Jumpers for VCore selection

if you are not sure how to set the vCore exactly, i dont recommend messing with the VCore jumpers, as if you set one wrong you could fry your CPUs
 
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LightBulbFun said:
the sort that use IDE Slave master type jumpers

although in the case of the CPU card I gifted @bunnspecial the card used IDE type jumpers for CPU multiplier selection

and smaller "SCSI ID" Jumpers for VCore selection

if you are not sure how to set the vCore exactly, i dont recommend messing with the VCore jumpers, as if you set one wrong you could fry your CPUs
Click to expand...
Thank you very much
As you know, PL or NT 7447,7448 cpus usually have clock jumpers so can adjust the clocks. Otherwise, I don’t know we’ll about the voltage adjustments
 
appleintelcube said:
Actually I’m using a G4 cube with PL 7448 Dual 1.8 GHz
Click to expand...
Hmm, nice you have the best Cube CPU upgrade on the planet...but sad, it doesn't run to it's specifications :(

There have been rumors around of 7448s even beeing able to run up to 2.4Ghz. So this might be just rumors? 1.6 is what even most of the 74as can handle.

Yes! 6200s have sleep-issues sometimes. But as far as i remember this hasn't been the card itself but some software constellation. But i cannot really remember what caused it. Removing the hardware sensor kext from the extensions might help. But you won't get temperature readouts after.
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LightBulbFun said:
if you are not sure how to set the vCore exactly, i dont recommend messing with the VCore jumpers, as if you set one wrong you could fry your CPUs
Click to expand...
Yes, there are dipswitches for that on my dual-card too. But with the settings not even documented in the manual, for an overclock of not even 10% i left them alone.
 
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Wouter3 said:
On ebay there are many Geforce card available, but for PC only
Click to expand...
Okay, PC-Card too!

...but the without any doubt best and strongest GPU, which can safely be used in a Cube for everyday use inside the stock plexiglas case and without any power issues, is available on ebay again!

This one is not Club 3D, but has the exact same board layout and (most important) the 400Mhz ram, making it overclockable up to 430/450Mhz. Anybody looking for the vidcard for his Cube, get this card! ;)
 
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Hi Guys,

I had a blown VRM in my Cube. I tried to replace the burned MOSFETs but to no avail. Then I bought a new VRM through the Japanese firm ARTMIX. I finally arrived after some mail troubles. I installed the new VRM but it shows the same problems in my Cube. Green LED on the VRM and a Red LED on my logic board. I have replaced my new faster CPU daughter board with the original 450 MHz CPU board. Still the same . My Cube doesn't start up and it shows a green light on the VRM and a red LED light on the Cube logic board. So my logic has been damaged.
Would anyone of you how or where to get another Cube logic board, or is this end of story for the Cube?
 
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jmilan0302 said:
It literally says "Including Cooling Internal FAN" on the website. I still would not buy the VRM, because as I said, it's possible your logic board is gone too. Also the connector is still not a standard one. I'd just not bother with a fan until it actually works.
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I tried to replace the burned MOSFETs but to no avail. Then I bought a new VRM through the Japanese firm ARTMIX. I finally arrived after some mail troubles. I installed the new VRM but it shows the same problems in my Cube. Green LED on the VRM and a Red LED on my logic board. I have replaced my new faster CPU daughter board with the original 450 MHz CPU board. Still the same . My Cube doesn't start up and it shows a green light on the VRM and a red LED light on the Cube logic board. So my logic has been damaged.
Would anyone of you how or where to get another Cube logic board, or is this end of story for the Cube?
 
I didn't see any obviously fried transistors on the logic board. Wonder whether it could be the circuit that is attached to the on/off button? The light of the button dims after a short while
 
jmilan0302 said:
@Wouter3
https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageApple/comments/7jpv99
This guy fixed it with a PMU rest, I would also try removing/changing the PRAM battery. Also maybe try changing out the RAM if you haven't already.
Click to expand...
Thank you for pointing this out. I tried the reset earlier and have done it now again, but to no avail. The PRAM battery I already renewed and the RAM has been changed several times.
I was hoping that it might be the circuit on the little board that is attached to the on/off switch. But when I switch the Cube on, the light turns white, the led on the motherboard turns red and my fan starts to spin. The fan gets its power from the 4 wire Molex cable as the harddisk/ODD. So I assume that switch passes on the power correctly. The harddisk is not spinning so that is an action from the motherboard that is not performed. I do not know what to look for on the motherboard that could cause this, so I am actively looking for a replacement logic board. It is not the little daughterboard with the CPU as I have put the old 450 MHz CPU back, and have still the same result. :-(
 
WhoNet said:
why upgrade... Why not keep it original ?
Click to expand...

I have a bunch of Cubes-5 total. Some are pretty much as shipped(aside from an upgraded GPU, since the one they shipped can be miserable under OS X). One of these is 450mhz, and the other 500mhz. The other three are upgraded in some fashion. My favorite one has an 800mhz 7450 with a Geforce 3. I have 1.5ghz and 1.8ghz also.

The Cube was a handicapped computer from the beginning even compared to the towers that were selling at the same time. The contemporary towers were single 450mhz, dual 450, or dual 500 while the Cube was only 450mhz or 500mhz(single). Some mild upgrades make the computer a fair bit more usable both for ~2004 tasks and for today.

My 800mhz that I mentioned above runs OS 9 almost exclusively. It has the beautiful 17" ADC CRT attached to it, and among other things it's a great little compact gaming system that handles what I want to play on it(Civ II/III, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, a few others) a lot better than a stock system could. So, it sits on my desk both looking great and serving those particular needs well.
 
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Wouter3 said:
I have bought the Sonnet board and will buy a 8 cm fan
I have been looking at the install video for a Powerlogicboard (https://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/powermac_g4_cube_acc_powerforce/), where they also refer to updating the firmware to version 4.1.9. Where can I find documentation on how to do this?
Further in the video, during installation, they talk about connecting the VRM bypass wiring for the logic and graphics board. Is this bypass wiring only needed for the Powerlogic (7447/7457) board or would I need this as well for the Sonnet board.
Click to expand...
Hi, my old VRM blew up the motherboard and the 1GHz processor board. I managed to get another motherboard and installed the box 450 MHz processor board. It works again, but I am looking again at processor upgrades.

Would this Sonnet board work in my Cube: https://www.ebay.com/itm/124011374285?ul_noapp=true

According the the Sonnet documentation it does not work in my Cube. Do you guys have any experience with this board?
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bunnspecial said:
Not a Cube, but I have a Giga Designs dual 7447A that has been passed around to a few members of this forum before I ended up with it. It has jumpers to both set the multiplier and the voltage. Officially, it was advertised at 1.8, but with jumper settings up to 2.0.

I have it running now at a nice, stable, reliable 1.6ghz, and got it there after polishing/lapping the heatsink(which had milling marks from the factory deep enough you could feel with your hand). I forget what the previous owner had it running at-I think maybe a bit faster than 1.6, but it was rather cantankerous and he also had a crazy cooling set up in his Quicksilver case to get it there. Initially, I had trouble going past 1.4(I actually found an undocumented 1.33 setting that was nice and stable) but there again lapping the heatsinks got it there without any trouble.

On the other hand, I have a Sonnet dual 1.8, and it's a totally different story. It's as rock stable as a factory processor. I've been known to call it "possibly the fastest OS 9 machine in existence" since I primarily run OS 9 on it. As it's in a tower with 4x AGP, I can take advantage of a lot of other GPU options, although it current has a Geforce 4Ti.
Click to expand...
Hi, my old VRM blew up the motherboard and the 1GHz processor board. I managed to get another motherboard and re-installed the box 450 MHz processor board. It works again, but I am looking again at processor upgrades.

Would this Sonnet board with 1.8 GHz processor work in my Cube: https://www.ebay.com/itm/124011374285?ul_noapp=true

According the the Sonnet documentation it does not work in my Cube. Do you have any experience with this board?
 
Wouter3 said:
Would this Sonnet board with 1.8 GHz processor work in my Cube: https://www.ebay.com/itm/124011374285?ul_noapp=true
According the the Sonnet documentation it does not work in my Cube. Do you have any experience with this board?
Click to expand...
FWIW, I bought a Gigadesigns 1.6GHz Cube upgrade CPU. It came with a special heatsink and a base fan as far as I remember. Depending upon the heat generated by that Sonnet board, I would wonder about the thermals. I know that dual processors require an upgraded VRM but my single processor coexists happily with the stock VRM.
 
flyproductions said:
As they say: Just no! All of these Sonnets get way too hot for the Cube.

And also i don't think they would fit to the Cube's heat spreader plate.
Click to expand...
And what about this one:
www.ebay.nl

Sonnet Encore ST G4 1400/2M Upgrade CPU for Apple Power Mac AGP Quicksilver Cube | eBay

Sonnet Encore ST G4 1400/2M Upgrade CPU for Apple Power Mac AGP Quicksilver Cube | Computers/Tablets & Networking, Vintage Computing, Vintage Computers & Mainframes | eBay!
www.ebay.nl

The vendor claims it fits the Cube heatsink and it is 1.4 Ghz and runs probably not as hot as the 1.8.

I also found this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/293383643939
which is a 1.4 GHz Powerlogic. Would this be a good solution?
 
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Sadly both of them will not work too. As all of the 7451/55-based upgrades above 1.0 GHz.

You have to look for something based on 7447a/48 cpus which are natively notebook processors and run way cooler than the above mentioned. These are mostely Powerlogix- or NewerTechnology-branded and at least the 7447a models, which are far more common, only have 512 MB cache per cpu.
 
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