[AlanApple]

What are the upgrade options for a Cube for:

*Graphics card (is there anything beyond 32mb?)

*Hard disk

*Processors - just saw Powerlogix announcement which is good news.

*How easy is it to get ram for a Cube?

Cheers

[voth]

AlanApple,

CPU
Prologix suggest the PowerForce 100 - 800Mhz, 1000Mhz - single thus far, they are testing dual 800Mhz, and the dual 1000Mhz models currently.

You may also want to look into the Sonnet Technologies cpu upgrades as well, they may the same type of product but for a little less money.

Link
Sonnet Technologies 800/1000Mhz upgrade CPU
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/encore_stg4.html

Powerlogix
http://www.powerlogix.com/products2/pfg4100/index.html

Video Card
NVIDA GeForce 3 Apple OEM 64mb

For the memory portion of your question after you've unscrewed the proper screws and lifted the chasis out of the enclosure, memory is a snap to replace along with replacing/upgrading your hard drive.

[driven]

Originally posted by voth:
AlanApple,

CPU
Prologix suggest the PowerForce 100 - 800Mhz, 1000Mhz - single thus far, they are testing dual 800Mhz, and the dual 1000Mhz models currently.

You may also want to look into the Sonnet Technologies cpu upgrades as well, they may the same type of product but for a little less money.

Link
Sonnet Technologies 800/1000Mhz upgrade CPU
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/encore_stg4.html

Powerlogix
http://www.powerlogix.com/products2/pfg4100/index.html

Video Card
NVIDA GeForce 3 Apple OEM 64mb

For the memory portion of your question after you've unscrewed the proper screws and lifted the chasis out of the enclosure, memory is a snap to replace along with replacing/upgrading your hard drive.

Actually the memory requires NO screws. <SMILE>

It takes SDRAM 100Mhz (133 will also work fine.) You can install up to 1.5 Gigs in the little box.

Also check out:
www.cubeowner.com
www.cube-zone.com

[jrramsey]

Originally posted by AlanApple:
What are the upgrade options for a Cube for:

*Graphics card (is there anything beyond 32mb?)

*Hard disk

*Processors - just saw Powerlogix announcement which is good news.

*How easy is it to get ram for a Cube?

Cheers

Hi Driven,

My G450 has been upgraded with the following...

Memory: 3x PC100 256MB
Harddrive: 80 GB Seagate Baracuda
Graphics: Apple OEM GeForce 3 (64MB DDR)
OS: Jaguar

Everything works great (especially the graphics) and are fairly inexpensive. I'm still using the G4 450 stock and it seems to work fine now that I have the graphics board.

[voth]

Driven,

I was mainly commenting on the fact that you take screws out in order to access the machine in a whole, to add mem, hdd, vid card, etc.

jrramsey: where did you locate that OEM NVIDIA GeForce3 64mb DDR card, what online store if any still stocks them?


voth

[driven]

Originally posted by voth:
Driven,

I was mainly commenting on the fact that you take screws out in order to access the machine in a whole, to add mem, hdd, vid card, etc.

jrramsey: where did you locate that OEM NVIDIA GeForce3 64mb DDR card, what online store if any still stocks them?


voth

Actually you don't have to take any screws out to access the memory.

The video card and hard disk do require screwing though.

[driven]

Originally posted by jrramsey:


Hi Driven,

My G450 has been upgraded with the following...

Memory: 3x PC100 256MB
Harddrive: 80 GB Seagate Baracuda
Graphics: Apple OEM GeForce 3 (64MB DDR)
OS: Jaguar

Everything works great (especially the graphics) and are fairly inexpensive. I'm still using the G4 450 stock and it seems to work fine now that I have the graphics board.

I love mine.
I'm running:

G4 500 (DVD model)
896MB RAM
80GB Western Digital HDD (8MB Cache)
GeForce2MX w/ 17" Apple LCD (ACD)
External CDRW (40X)
External 30GB Hard Disk (This was the original internal drive)
Wireless Logitech mouse ...
Jag

I might do the dual processor upgrade at some future point. (Actually I've already decided .. I *WILL* do this.) I know that I'll have to part with the Cube at some point, but if I can get another year or two out of her that will make me a happy camper.

Now if iDVD would only work with an external superdrive ....

[voth]

Driven,

Are you saying you don't need to unscrew anything in order to access the memory (i.e. the enclosure/chasis)?

Funny, I didn't know the memory was on the outside of the case.

voth

[driven]

Originally posted by voth:
Driven,

Are you saying you don't need to unscrew anything in order to access the memory (i.e. the enclosure/chasis)?

Funny, I didn't know the memory was on the outside of the case.

voth

I'll ignore the sarcasm as you apparently have not seen a cube.

You do NOT have to unscrew anything in order to access the memory.

The cube has a pretty neat enclosure whereas the core "pops out" after you release a handle. Once you pull the core out you simply add your memory and put it all back together.

No screws. Trust me. Relax a bit.

[joe]

Originally posted by AlanApple:
What are the upgrade options for a Cube for:

*Graphics card (is there anything beyond 32mb?)

There are 2 64meg cards - The OEM GeForce3 and the OEM dual head GeForce2MX. I have the OEM GeForce3 in my Cube If you're a gamer, the GF3 is the card to get. It's a simple swap - no hacking needed.

If you're the adventurous type and don't need ADC, check out a recent article at xlr8yourmac for a Radeon 8500 hack for the Cube. You have to relocate the Cube's DC to DC converter board and nibble a chunk of the PCB <gasp> from the 8500 card (risky). I believe gaming performance is about the same between the GF3 and Radeon 8500. But you get TruForm with the 8500 - a VERY nice feature!

*Hard disk

IIRC, you can install up to roughly a 130meg hard drive on Apple's ATA 66 bus. I have a 100 gig 7200rpm WD hard drive (8meg jumbo buffer) in my Cube. WD has since come out with a larger 120meg JB hard drive which has been installed in the Cube and other ATA/66 Macs. This may be the best option so far. The combination of 7200rpm and the 8meg jumbo buffer improves performance with the OSX swap file (and OS9 VM file).

*Processors - just saw Powerlogix announcement which is good news.

Hell yeah! However, unlike the graphics card and drive swaps, the processor upgrade is very involved. PL's instructions are excellent - so if you take you're time, you shouldn't have any problem. I hacked in a Sonnet dual 500 G4 in my Cube last Spring. There are also hacks to install Apple dual 450 and dual 500 G4 cpus. They're unsupported though (the PL upgrades are supported). The performance increase is excellent with my dual 500 Sonnet. I expect the PL dual 800 G4 upgrade will be even better!!! Sonnet is planning G4 upgrades to compete with Power Logix later this month. Thus far Power Logix offers the ONLY dual G4 Cube upgrades.

*How easy is it to get ram for a Cube?

It's common PC100 memory - easy to find and easy to install. You can have up to 1.5gigs using 512meg memory modules. CL2 memory (or 2-2-2) will be slightly faster. I have 1.1gigs of CL2 RAM in mine.

FWIW, you can also swap optical drives if you want. Personally, I think the DVD models are ideal because of Apple DVD player support and you can very easily hook up external burners. I use an external bus powered Lacie Firewire 16x10x32x CDrw. It's very small and no power cord Rumor has it that the DVD/CDrw combo drive used in recent G4 PowerBooks might be able to work in the Cube. It is the only slot load combo drive made. But limited availability and expense have kept it from being tested in the Cube so far. regards.....joe (Cube fanatic)

[mrwalker]

Hey Joe,

You seem to be the guy with all the cube answers around here!

Following the dual gig upgrade announcement, I'm about to secure myself a used cube & TFT display.

When you say the RAM is standard PC100, will any off the self 512mb PC133 module do? I live in Edinburgh, here's the RAM page at my local cheapo computer shop:

http://www.silicon-group.co.uk/

Will the 512mb PC133 do?


-mrwalker

[G4ME]

133mhz will be only clocked at 100 once you put it in, there is no advantage of other then the fact that it can have a higher bus speed. make sure you get class 333 ibelive isn't that the beter of the two or is it 322 can't remember.

[voth]

Anyone actually running a PM G4 Cube 450/500 with 1.5GB memory?

Where are you ppl finding these OEM GeForce 64mb cards for these cubes?

I just purchased a cube, its not the fastest thing (450mhz) but it will make a nice game/dev box. It's comming with the OEM ATI 16MB card and 30GB HDD and 512MB mem.

Just wondering, other than e-bay where are you finding these cards.

[jrramsey]

Vouth: I got my on ebay.

[voth]

Personally I think the prices of the items that are sold on e-bay are over priced.

There is no way in hell I would pay over a $100USD for a old OEM card not even from Apple itself.

The card is atleast 2-3yrs old. If there is another way to upgrade from the stock ATI 128 Pro 16mb card I will do it....Just not for 100USD

voth

[jrramsey]

Good Luck. All I know is mine installed easy, work perfectly, and the performance is outstanding. 64MB DDR's not bad with both ADC and VGA.

If you can do it on the cheap, let me know.

[joe]

Originally posted by voth:
If there is another way to upgrade from the stock ATI 128 Pro 16mb card I will do it....Just not for 100USD

You could always try flashing a PC graphics card. There's more risk involved (especially for a Cube) and you'll have to make modifications. I'm certainly not recommending you go this route. But you're sure to get one for under 100USD.......joe

[TiDual]

I'm planning a similar overhaul of my cube, so that I can use it to replace my (far too noisy) dual 800 (which I'll keep asleep, except for when I need the extra horsepower).

Plan:
a) 120MB WD disk (8MB cache) ... I'm hoping this drive isn't too noisy.

b) Sonnet 1Ghz upgrade ... I wanted the dual 800 from PL, but I'm keen to avoid the fan. Also, my supplier tells me PL have stopped distribution in Germany, due to serious heat issues.

c) And here's my question: I'd like to swap the GF2mx TwinView out of my dual 800 (my server, not the workstation mentioned above) with the stock ATI card in the Cube ... I can't see why this wouldn't work, but please let me know if there might be problems!

comments welcome

[lx]

Originally posted by voth:
Anyone actually running a PM G4 Cube 450/500 with 1.5GB memory?

Where are you ppl finding these OEM GeForce 64mb cards for these cubes?

I just purchased a cube, its not the fastest thing (450mhz) but it will make a nice game/dev box. It's comming with the OEM ATI 16MB card and 30GB HDD and 512MB mem.

Just wondering, other than e-bay where are you finding these cards.

Yup..... here's my spec

Cube (originally 450MHz)
Powerlogix 1 GHz G4
1.5 GB RAM (PC133)
nVidia GeForce 3 (OEM)
Seagate Barracuda 80GB (w/ sound deadening foam)
Jagwire OS

Of course before the Powerlogix and GF3 arrived, the machine was completely silent. Now, it hums slightly, but it's utterly inaudible due to the other machines in the room (there are a couple of Intel dual processor servers, a printer/fax, etc)

As standard, the Cube is still the coolest computer. With all the upgrades, it's amazing. Yeah it's not as fast as a decent x86 PC, but I don't care

As to equipment sources:
Powerlogix CPU: OWC
RAM: Crucial
Graphics Card: OWC
Hard Disk: Dabs.com

I'm from the UK so OWC's service for export was very welcome indeed!

cheers
LX

[joe]

Originally posted by lx:


Yup..... here's my spec

Cube (originally 450MHz)
Powerlogix 1 GHz G4
1.5 GB RAM (PC133)
nVidia GeForce 3 (OEM)

Is that one of the late model GHz upgrades with 2meg L3 cache? If so, would you mind running some Quake3 benchmarks for us? Mike over at xlr8yourmac has a thourough run down of the original PowerLogix GHz upgrade with 1meg L3 cache in his OEM GF3 Cube. I'm mainly interested in Quake3 benchmarks to compare with Mike's. Thanx....joe

[olli_g]

what is OWC? where is their webpage? i search a GF3 for my cube...

greets
olli_g

[voth]

Still unable to locate a Apple OEM Nvidia GeForce3 64MB DDR, anyone have a link with some please post.

voth



olli_g
OWC
http://eshop.macsales.com/

[G4ME]

I belive they sold out of their suply a while ago but i may be wrong i cn't seem to find them on the site

[lx]

Originally posted by joe:


Is that one of the late model GHz upgrades with 2meg L3 cache? If so, would you mind running some Quake3 benchmarks for us? Mike over at xlr8yourmac has a thourough run down of the original PowerLogix GHz upgrade with 1meg L3 cache in his OEM GF3 Cube. I'm mainly interested in Quake3 benchmarks to compare with Mike's. Thanx....joe

Sorry, but I don't have Quake 3 on it.... and I know how sensitive the various Quakes can be to setup. Does Mike have a bunch of standard setup files (q3config.cfg?) - if he's got all that on his site then I could download them and get some benchmarks, it'd be good comparison.

I prefer single player - Quake 2 on my Cube runs around 120-130 fps with max detail on 1280x1024. Plenty enough for me on an LCD screen

I'm very happy with the powerlogix chip - only problem I have with it is that the temperature gauge seems to be bust, none of the usual tools (either Powerlogix's cache utility or ThermoInDock) seem to show temperature. This is a real pain as my Cube is fairly souped up and I don't want it overheating. I lost an OEM Radeon due to heat, I don't want the GF3 failing as you can bet your arse that they're even harder to find now.

[driven]

Originally posted by mrwalker:
Hey Joe,

You seem to be the guy with all the cube answers around here!

Following the dual gig upgrade announcement, I'm about to secure myself a used cube & TFT display.

When you say the RAM is standard PC100, will any off the self 512mb PC133 module do? I live in Edinburgh, here's the RAM page at my local cheapo computer shop:

http://www.silicon-group.co.uk/

Will the 512mb PC133 do?


-mrwalker

Yes ... 133 works fine. It only runs at 100 though.

Now get this: When I was buying memory upgrades I found that the 133 was actually cheaper. ( And I can probably keep it around longer and use it in a system that requires 133 ... so it's a better by overall.)

[driven]

Originally posted by voth:
Anyone actually running a PM G4 Cube 450/500 with 1.5GB memory?

Where are you ppl finding these OEM GeForce 64mb cards for these cubes?

I just purchased a cube, its not the fastest thing (450mhz) but it will make a nice game/dev box. It's comming with the OEM ATI 16MB card and 30GB HDD and 512MB mem.

Just wondering, other than e-bay where are you finding these cards.

Check OWC. They get them in on occasion.

[driven]

Originally posted by voth:
Personally I think the prices of the items that are sold on e-bay are over priced.

There is no way in hell I would pay over a $100USD for a old OEM card not even from Apple itself.

The card is atleast 2-3yrs old. If there is another way to upgrade from the stock ATI 128 Pro 16mb card I will do it....Just not for 100USD

voth

In it's defense, it's a rare item (due to the short life of the Cube's production run) AND it sold for like $695 from Apple when it was new.

So .... with THAT perspective $250-$300 isn't that bad.
(That said I have a GeForce2MX in mine that I got for $189 or so.) I know .. the same card for the PC is $49 ... but the PC version doesn't have the ADC connector which I require.

[PowerCube]

I'm glad I waited and didn't do the dual 500 hack! Now we can have a dual gig! Well, mabey. I am more than happy with the performance of my Cube with the stock 500mhz, so I cannot wait for the gigger! I guess it's true, Unix / OSX loves memory. And now with X.2.x installed, and the GF3, WOOO-HOOO. I still think the Cube is an awesome machine. Can't be upgraded my A$$!

[joe]

oops - looks like I missed a few replies - sorry about that.

mrwalker: I've never tried PC133 in my Cube. But from what I've read, G4ME and driven are right. PC133 DIMMs will work but only at the slower 100MHz speed. So there's no performance benefit. But if PC133 is all you can find, you should be OK.

lx: Yes, Mike has a link to the official "demo4.dem" file that is used to benchmark Quake3 on Mac, PC, and Linux. However, Quake3 has been around a while now so the freebie Quake3 demo is OS9 only! You need the full commercial version and the v1.31b5 update to run in OSX. Why bother? Because unlike the more recent games, Quake3 actually performs VERY much faster in OSX than OS9. For reference, my dual 500MHz Cube (GF3) does around 55fps in OS9, 63fps in OSX single processor, and 104fps in OSX with dual processors. And that's at 1024*768 res with all graphics settings at max (higher than HQ). Even if you hate the Quake3 game itself, you have to admit it's a very well written / optimized app. It definitely takes full advantage of your available hardware (on ALL platforms). That's probably the reason it's the most commonly used gaming benchmark. FWIW, I'm a huge Quake fan and also own the Mac versions of Q1 and Q2

The 7450 and 7455 G4 chips do not have a temperature senser. That's why you're not seeing any readings. The G4 temp senser was always highly inaccurate even in the 7400/7410. So Moto simply dropped the feature for more recent G4 chips.

PowerCube: No regrets on my dual 500 Cube hack. It's been rock solid and reliable since April. Also, looking at the gaming benchmarks that Mike ran with the 1GHz board (with a GF3 Cube like mine), the gaming scores were a bit low. Of course, his tests were with with the original GHz board with 1meg of L3 cache. PowerLogix has since upgraded the GHz board to have a full 2megs of L3 cache which may help. All I can tell you is that both my dual 500/GF3 Cube and Mike's dual 500/GF3 Cube SOUNDLY trash the original GHz upgrade in Quake3. And it's not by a few fps either. It's like 78fps (1GHz) vs 106fps (dual 500). In fact, that's the reason I asked lx if he could run the Q3 benchmark. lx has the updated GHz board with 2megs of L3 cache and I was hoping that the gaming benchmarks would improve.

Oddly, the low scores with the original 1meg L3 GHz board were only with games. Mike's benchmarks show the it to be faster than the dual 500 at everything else. Hopefully someone will post Q3 benchmarks with the 2megL3 GHz boards soon .......joe

[smeegs]

Originally posted by mrwalker:
I live in Edinburgh, here's the RAM page at my local cheapo computer shop:

http://www.silicon-group.co.uk/

Will the 512mb PC133 do?


-mrwalker

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! don't buy stuff from Silicon, I've had some really bad experiences with them. Instead buy from
crucial, i always buy from them, and you usually get next day delivery. Alternatively if you don't want to buy online, or are simply too impatient to wait for it to come through the post, then try Ideal Computing its located on Bruntsfield Place opposite Bruntsfield Links.

Cheers

smeegs

[mrwalker]

Originally posted by smeegs:


NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! don't buy stuff from Silicon, I've had some really bad experiences with them. Instead buy from
crucial, i always buy from them, and you usually get next day delivery. Alternatively if you don't want to buy online, or are simply too impatient to wait for it to come through the post, then try Ideal Computing its located on Bruntsfield Place opposite Bruntsfield Links.

Cheers

smeegs

Hi there,

I've had bad experiences with Silicon & ideal too. Looks like I'm going to buy online in the future.

I'm about to buy a cube with the following spec: G4 450, 192mb (128+64), 20gb, standard graphics card, 10.2.1. It looks like I'm only going to have enough to upgrade one feature this month, which would you do first?

I was going to dump the 64mb RAM & put in 2x512. I've seen a mac radeon for about the same money though, else I could fit a 120gb hd.

Until I have enough for the dual 800, the cube is mainly going to be for web browsing & act as my email server. My main machine will continue to be my DVI powerbook.

What do you think, RAM first?

-mrwalker

[PowerCube]

Memory, Memory, Memory, Memory, ad nauseum! OSX (Unix)loves memory!