[juharju]

Yeah, there it finally is. Long waited G4 cube 450MHz, 20GB hard disk, Ati rage 128 and 192MB memory. I have few questions for you cube owners.

Is there a list which Ati card is supported. I know that most of the cards are too tall like 8500 but what about 9000 or 9100? And is it difficult to replace?

Hard disk is too small so I have to replace it first before installing Panther. 80GB drives should be supported? This is my second mac, but I havent formatted these never. PC machines ofcourse but can someone help a bit how to do it. There is at the moment OSX 10.2.4 installed but I have allready bought copy of panther and I want clean install.

There should't be any problems installing panther? Can I use PC133 memory instead of PC100? I have also heard that processor could be upgraded? Difficult operation and any ideas what could cost?

And tips needed Thank for you replies!

[Justin216]

You can natively use up to 137gb, so personally I'd op for a 120gig HD.

[Luca Rescigno]

The graphics cards that I KNOW will fit without a hitch are the Rage 128 (which you have), the original Radeon AGP, the GeForce 2MX, the Radeon 7500, and the GeForce 3. All of them other than the Rage 128 support Quartz Extreme, so you'll want to get one of them. Unfortunately, Radeon 7500s and GeForce 3s are very rare, and VERY expensive these days. I'd suggest the original Radeon for the best value, or the GeForce 2MX for fanless operation. It should be easy to replace the graphics card - it's finding one for a good price that's the tricky part.

As Justin said, the largest hard drive you can get is 137 GB. There aren't any 137 GB hard drives out, so the biggest one you can use without losing any is 120 GB. Seagate is known for its quiet drives, so if you want to preserve the quietness of your Cube, get one of their drives. Also, make sure you get one with an 8 MB buffer, as it actually does help quite a bit. It's worth the extra few bucks.

PC133 RAM should work fine. Some of the newer PC133 uses high-density chips which don't work, but I haven't had any problems with my PowerMac.

And yes, the Cube can take processor upgrades. They can be pretty expensive (a few hundred dollars), but often times the speed boost you'll get from going to 800 MHz, 1 GHz, 1.2 GHz or even 1.4 GHz is really worth it. I am quite sure PowerLogix has Cube upgrades. I don't know about the other processor upgrade companies (Sonnet, Gigadesigns, Other World Computing).

[belldandy]

Visit www.cubeowner.com for a detail FAQ. Please read FAQ on cubeowner before posting on cubeowner forum since every question u can think of about upgrading the cube is listed in FAQ in details. =D

Happy Cube-ing

[JCT]

I agree with belldandy, head on over to cubeowner and read through the FAQ. There are also some very long (but informative) discussions on upgrading the Cube (especially the video card and CPU).

My first desktop Mac was (is) a stock Cube my husband bought from smalldog (cool Valentine's Day gift).

Since I've been self-building PCs for years I just had to try my hand at upgrading the Cube, so, armed with all the info I got on Cubeowner I turned my stock Cube:

450Mhz
64 MB Ram
Ati Rage 128
20 GB HDD

into:

800 Mhz (sonnet 800, GREAT bang for the buck)
1.5 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 7000 AGP
80 GB Seagate Barracuda


Runs 10.3.3 like a champ, no problems whatsoever. Took me 2-3 hours on a snowy Sunday afternoon. Has solidified my decision to go for the full-scale switch in the Fall.

Enjoy.

JT

[Waragainstsleep]

Check out the 'Macintosh Desktops' folder at www.macdebate.com. There is a report and links on someone else modifying his cube.

PC133 RAM is usually backward compatible, so should be fine in PC100 territory.

If you have trouble finding Mac graphics cards, and you know what you're doing, some PC graphics cards con be converted to Mac by flashing the firmware. (Much cheaper than buying Mac originals, and they are otherwise the same).
You'll have to do your own homework about flashing graphics cards, as I don't recall where I was reading about it. Possibly it was linked at Macdebate as mentioned above, or you might try www.xlr8yourmac.com. Maybe that cube site mentioned by someone else can help you with this. You'll just have to see.
I can tell you that a PC is usually required to flash the graphics card.

[Waragainstsleep]

This is posted on Cubeowner (By the guy I mentioned who posted on Macdebate):

http://cubeowner.com/kbase/index.php...id=157&c=2

He uses a flashed Radeon 7000
Heres one from xlr8 about the Geforce2MX:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/...X_in_Cube.html

[velodev]

You will need to apply a firmware patch before installing Panther.

The best bets for video cards are the Nvidia cards coming out the Powermacs. They are Geforece 2MX and I believe 3MX. They require no flashing, but they can be costly. They fit perfect, you get dual head, and there is no modification needed to the cube.

I also suggest reading the forums at www.cubeowner.com. Laurie, the mod, can sometimes run a tight ship but the wealth of info is pretty valuable.

[juharju]

Velodev:

You mentioned something about firmware patch? How can I be sure if it is allready installed? The cube had osx 10.2.4 installed but today I changed hard disk (seagate 120Gb 80€) and it seems to work fine. Allthought I haven't installed Panther yet because that firmware.

Next I want to try put Radeon 7000 video card in. I have located new r7000 agp (pc cards) as low as 30€. Hopefully firmware update pc to mac goes right . Just one question is in my mind. Do I have to use some patch program in Mac when I have updated mac's bios in the card? Or is it just so siply that afer succesfull update I take it away from my pc and put it to Cube?

[cenutrio]

Got a Cube 2 months ago (same spects than yours), loving it.

So far, I got a Seagate barracuda 120 GB, 8 MB buffer, 7,200 rpm ($95). Bought a used 17" Apple display for $360. So far so good.

I may in the future upgrade processor, DVD unit, and video card (when prices go down, if they do), but speed with panther is not an issue unless I edit video. For anything else the cube behaves as a champ (640 MB RAM).

[juharju]

Yeah, Cube seems to be perfect worker for me Hmm My friend bought same specs cube than I have + he got 15" Apple TFT with it and the whole system costed 750€

Next upgrade will be Apple's TFT. It is just so hard to find a used display. At least here in Finland. And I don't know any retailer which has wordwide shipping. And new 17" Studio Display cost 853€ in Applestore. Any ideas where to buy?

[Waragainstsleep]

You mention you can get these, no flashing required but they are costly.
You miss my point.
If you buy the PC version it is very cheap. If you then flash it, you have a Mac version. Its the only difference. Except the price tag.

This does NOT apply to all graphics cards.

[juharju]

Waragainstsleep:

My english is so bad that I can be easy misunderstood . I ment that I can get PC Radeon 7000-8500 cards for a very low price. I have decided to give a try change firmware to Radeon 7000. Hopefully everything goes right. My only concern or question is what about succesfull firmware upgrade? Now it should work in Mac or do I need another program or something?

[velodev]

Originally posted by juharju:
Velodev:

You mentioned something about firmware patch? How can I be sure if it is allready installed? The cube had osx 10.2.4 installed...

You just answered your own question. My post mentions that in order to install X on it, you need to have the firmware 4.1.9 (or something like that). If you have X, it aleady had the firmware applied.

When I bought my Cube, the OS was simply 9.2 so I needed to flash the firmware.

[Waragainstsleep]

Velodev is referring to a firmware update for the Cube itself.
You can (I assume) download it from Apple Support. You already have 10.2.4 so you don't need this one.
The Radeon should work once it has been flashed. Apple include graphics drivers with OS X, so you shouldn't need another driver.

[cenutrio]

Originally posted by juharju:
And new 17" Studio Display cost 853€ in Applestore. Any ideas where to buy?

If you know of anybody who goes to the US, ask him/her to get it for you. Educational prices and deals for the 17" is $599. A fair price.

[ybalx]

I second the hurrahs for Laurie's good work keeping us cubes alive. Couldn't imagine life without cubeowner.com (and macnn too!)

Hail to Laurie ;]

[freakboy2]

might not want to get an apple LCD, b/c it draws power from the cubes power brick.. and it doesn't have much juice to go around.

better to get a non apple lcd with its own power supply.

fb

[ybalx]

On the Apple Cinema display and cube concern:

I've been running the 15" ADC Apple Cinema Display with loads of other firewire and usb devices without heat or power issues on the VRM. I'm waiting like a vulture to buy a larger one once Apple unveils the new G5 inspired displays and lowers the market prices for the older cinemas.

From time to time I do read reports from people who have some of the monster 20-23" displays worrying about wattage overload on the cube. I'm skeptical because the cube was designed when the old monitors around where the big CRT srudio displays which used more energy... If you want to you can make some modifications to the VRM or add a fan.

[juharju]

Hello again. Good news I today purchased Apple Studio Display 17" monitor for 470€. I hope my powersupply will handle this. It should be here tomorrow. Just one problem. If I change my video card to for example Pc radeon 7000 model witch has different connection (D-sub/dvi) is there adapter for Apple's tft? So I could use norman D-sub connection isntead of ADC? But now cube is working really nice.

[Luca Rescigno]

Originally posted by juharju:
Hello again. Good news I today purchased Apple Studio Display 17" monitor for 470€. I hope my powersupply will handle this. It should be here tomorrow. Just one problem. If I change my video card to for example Pc radeon 7000 model witch has different connection (D-sub/dvi) is there adapter for Apple's tft? So I could use norman D-sub connection isntead of ADC? But now cube is working really nice.

The 17" Studio Display uses ADC. Only Mac-specific graphics cards have ADC, and even then, only some Mac-specific grpahics cards have them. The only way to use a 17" Studio Display LCD on a video card that doesn't have ADC (for instance, a flashed PC Radeon 7000) is to buy a $100 DVI to ADC adapter. For that kind of money, it's worth it to just bite the bullet and buy a more expensive Mac graphics card, like a GeForce 2MX, Radeon, or Radeon 7500. The Radeon 7000 might be cheap, but you have to add $100 in order to use the LCD, and it's a very slow graphics card. Even the original Radeon is significantly better.