[Lattimer]

Hello, my name is Doug, and I have a problem.

See, I just "switched" from the PC world having bought a new 15" ALbook which should arrive any day now. So, I'm researching Mac type stuff, trying to read up on as much as possible until the MidAL shows up, when I stumble across this piece of artistic computer simplicity played out to its finest.

Then I find an entire community dedicated to tinkering/upgrading/and hacking their cubes at will.

Oh dear lord, I'm in trouble now!

I love to tinker with things, and I would LOVE to tinker with the Cube!

I know that it's a little outdated, but that's what makes it so cool. I saw them a few years ago, and my "wintel" buds and I scoffed at the little cube and how it could be used for a tissue holder, etc.

So, to make a long story longer, my wife has no love for computers what so ever...and if I tell her that I want another Mac after dropping 3 g's on a laptop, she's going to lose it!

So what's a guy to do? Could I buy cube parts and build my own? I want this thing to run OS X.whatever, and have airport/superd/whatever...

They seem REALLY expensive, so I'm asking the MacNN'ers to help a switcher out and point me in the right direction. Any links, or websites, or advice you could give this insane man would be much appreciated!

Takk fyrir!
(Thank you very much in Icelandic)

[BrunoBruin]

cubeowner.com is really a good site for all things Cube-related. They often get wind of Cubes for sale. eBay is a good source but Cube prices always seem to be high. powermax.com often has used Cubes for sale.

The Cube is a bit outdated now, but it's just a processor upgrade away from keeping pace with Apple's current lineup (apart from the G5s). You can even replace the slot-loading optical drive with a SuperDrive, if you like.

I'm just waiting for a price drop on upgrade cards to bring my Cube to 1.25GHz. I've been using it for almost three years and that should extend its life quite a bit.

[euphras]

Quote:
"So what's a guy to do? Could I buy cube parts and build my own? I want this thing to run OS X.whatever, and have airport/superd/whatever..."

You cannot build Mac�s from scratch in general. The core hardware (not the graphiccard, drives, etc.) is only produced/sold by Apple. You could get used parts at ebay, but especially the cube (yet been seen as a piece of art) is mostly sold as a complete machine. And this cult-status is also the reason for the high biddings of this (in it�s original state) outdated machine.

hth

[AssassyN]

I'd actually advise straying from it. Your 15" AlBook will put a Cube's performance to shame. I bought a Cube for the same reason you did, and the glamour wore off and I had it on eBay within a week. But it's up to you of course, I'm just warning that the glitter and sparkle may fade when you feel the lag compared to your AlBook.

[Lattimer]

Originally posted by euphras:
Quote:

"You cannot build Mac�s from scratch in general. The core hardware (not the graphiccard, drives, etc.) is only produced/sold by Apple. You could get used parts at ebay, but especially the cube (yet been seen as a piece of art) is mostly sold as a complete machine. And this cult-status is also the reason for the high biddings of this (in it�s original state) outdated machine."

hth

Ok- I'm hip to the fact that Apple, in general, doesn't make computers upgradable in the way the PC is, but from what I've seen already, the cube is one of those things that people are tearing apart and upgrading (Including the core parts). Am a crazy?

You can get a board with a 1.4 G4 on it and throw a gig and a half of ram on it. Then add a AGP spacer thingy and slap on a Radeon 7500...that's some major upgrading! I can see why the Cube was short lived however, with the high price tag and limited hardware configs. Anyone else want to chime in with their .02? I'm new to the MAC game so I'm making a lot of assumptions. Enlighten me

[Lattimer]

Originally posted by AssassyN:
I'd actually advise straying from it. Your 15" AlBook will put a Cube's performance to shame. I bought a Cube for the same reason you did, and the glamour wore off and I had it on eBay within a week. But it's up to you of course, I'm just warning that the glitter and sparkle may fade when you feel the lag compared to your AlBook.

hmmm....As much as I hate to admit it, I think you are right AssassyN. I guess I'm just feeling a little inept in the mac department (if you know what I mean ), so I'm trying to compensate by buying up the history of Apple and feeling better about my lack of good judgement with my computering (good word). The Cube IS pretty cool tho IMO....

See, I knew if I posted on here, someone would talk some sense into me! It's bad when I'm left to my own devices...

You guys are better than my therapist!

[ckohler]

When you take a Mac and start replacing parts that weren't meant to be upgraded (like the CPU) you can end up running into the same kinds of compatibility issues that plauge the PC world.

Hacking a G4 Cube may sound like fun but the end result isn't likely something you'd want to use on a daily basis. Especially when you start getting Kernal Panics for no apparent reason.

[mrwalker]

I bought a Cube for the same reason you did, and the glamour wore off and I had it on eBay within a week.

I bought a cube shortly after I got my first mac - also a 15" Powerbook. I still have it, working 24/7 as a server at home. I attach my Cinema Display to it when I'm not using it with my 17" Powerbook.

I sold the small Studio Display that came with the cube, that taken into account, ebay prices for them are almost identical to when I bought it more than 12 months ago. That's pretty impressive for a modern computer!

I say go for it. They look great, work well to back things up to and compliment your higher powered portable well. There's rumors of a new 1gHz`fanless upgrade in the next month or soo too, so it might be up there with your powerbook after all.

-mrwalker

[AssassyN]

Originally posted by mrwalker:
\

I say go for it. They look great, work well to back things up to and compliment your higher powered portable well. There's rumors of a new 1gHz`fanless upgrade in the next month or soo too, so it might be up there with your powerbook after all.

-mrwalker

Nah, I thought so too initially. I popped a 800Mhz G4 upgrade w/ 2MB L3 cache and 1.12gigs of RAM into it, and it still performed sluggishly...why? A measly 100Mhz system bus, PC100 RAM, and a very slow 2x AGP slot all equal up to poor modern day performance, escp. for the insanely high eBay pricetags.

[Lattimer]

Man, I'm checking out prices, and it seems like I could buy a G5 tower for the price of a cube+upgrades...and it would still be lagging....

That's a tough sell, even though they are really cool.




BTW-check out my new sig

[AssassyN]

Yep...I'd spend the dough on something more recent rather than get a machine simply for it's coolness...it's slowness really begins to be irritating to anyone seriously using their machine.

[joe]

Lattimer:

I know exactly how you feel. I've had my Cube about 2 years now - bought it 2nd hand off half.com as it was too expensive new IMHO. I went through a period of upgrades (dual 500 hack, single 1Ghz, Radeon, GF3, Airport, etc). I love tinkering with my computers too. And the Cube allows for quite a lot of tinkering. But like Assassyn said it's not up to speed with the latest Mac hardware. So I recently sold the extras and put it back to stock to get it ready to sell on eBay. I borrowed a digicam and took some photos. But when the time came I just couldn't do it. I really like the smaller form factor. It's not as expandable as a Tower but it takes up a helluva lot less space. And unlike the i/eMacs, you can upgrade the cpu and graphics and use whatever monitor you want. That combined with the normal upgrades (RAM, HD, Airport) make it the ideal form factor for many.

So now I've got a slow (compared to my 1.5Ghz G4 Tower) 500Mhz G4 Cube sitting on the side of my desk. I know I should sell it, I could use the money to put more upgrades into my Tower - I had planned to use the money from my Cube to buy a new Radeon 9800 and more RAM. But it's so cool just doing Mail or backups over ethernet. I'm probably going to hang onto it a bit. PowerLogix has a 1.4GHz upgrade coming for the Cube and there's a rumor that Giga-Designs may have an upgrade in the works too. I may consider buying one of those (or another Sonnet). I've owned other Macs that I've sold before but it's tough to let go of this one......joe

[Link]

Originally posted by AssassyN:
Yep...I'd spend the dough on something more recent rather than get a machine simply for it's coolness...it's slowness really begins to be irritating to anyone seriously using their machine.

... coming from a person who gets rid of their macs every 2 months?

What a credible source

to you old is 6 months old

[olePigeon]

One word: eBay.

[daSilVetZ]

The cube is an awesome machine- plus it's beautiful. I love mine, and although I put it up for trade (more of an interest check really.) I doubt I'll part with it anytime soon.. especially now that Gigadesigns announced they will be coming out with a new G4 1Ghz+ upgrade card which will require no fan/cooling mods.. can't wait! Unless you need to do heavy gaming/3d rendering.. I doubt yu'll need anything much more powerful- I just don't get why some people overkill themselves with uber powerful machines they don't really need
And no, I'm not aiming anyone in particular- before someone tries to scoff at me.

[joe]

Originally posted by daSilVetZ:
I just don't get why some people overkill themselves with uber powerful machines they don't really need

I never thought I'd agree until recently. I was all set to sell my Cube. I wanted the money to buy the kick ass new Radeon 9800 for my Tower. But I just couldn't part with my Cube. Doesn't matter that it's not the latest and greatest hardware. It's a work of art, hardly takes up any space, and it's fun to mod. And with Giga-Designs joining the Cube upgrade market things just keep getting better and better .........joe

[AssassyN]

Originally posted by Link:
... coming from a person who gets rid of their macs every 2 months?

What a credible source

to you old is 6 months old

Um, no. I've had my 12" PB since June and use it daily. I'm just being honest with the guy, the Cube is *not* a speed demon of a machine, and instead of paying a crazy high price for one, he'd be better off investing that into something newer that would perform faster/better. Common sense.

[PeterKG]

My Cube and display are for sale on eBay right now and auction ends tomorrow.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2754268028

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2754270750

[PowerCube]

Looking at all these posts about the Cube being past it's prime makes me think a little. I have owned mine since new (bought right before it was discontinued, I know, still paid too much, but hey....) and have not once thought about selling it. Unless you are a professional that needs the fastest hardware around, the Cube is a fine little machine with many upgrade routes available. Mine has been hopped up with the (since discontined also) Dual 800mhz processor, 1.5 gigs ram, GeForce3 AGP, and a 120gig 8meg cache hard drive. I am telling you, this little machine is NOT slow, 100mhz bus and all. Just in everyday use, say with Office apps, it blows the 2.0 ghz d(h)ell away I have to use at work. I occasonaly use Photoshop (with a large ram disk) and it runs better than LE on the d(h)ell at work. It is stable with OSX and all my third party apps and hardware. . . It's a pleasure to look at, and I do not have to worry about where to put it, as it fits right on the desk - Actually, I don't think one would want to put it anywhere else. It all boils down to how you are going to use it, and how badly you want it. If you need professional, industrial strength power, no way, but if you are like most users, you will suprised and delighted by what this little work of art is capable of, especially after a little minor "surgery" Peace

[Lattimer]

Thanks everyone for your inputs!

Unfortunately for me, I'm still undecided about getting one. I guess if the right deal comes along I might pick it up, but my accountant will be the deciding factor in the end (my wife).

I hate loving computers!

Lattimer

[Sophus]

Originally posted by AssassyN:
Yep...I'd spend the dough on something more recent rather than get a machine simply for it's coolness...it's slowness really begins to be irritating to anyone seriously using their machine.

I bought a Cube the day I heard they were to be discontinued. I simply could not let the chance to get a cube go by. I have since then installed 1 gig of ram, a 120 gig fast and supersilent harddrive, a 1Ghz processor and a Radeon. Next upgrade is a 2X superdrive, and when the fast and cool fanless 7457 CPU upgrades comes along, I will probably install one of those.

I truly love my Cube! It's stylish, stable, compact, quiet and fast at every daily task I throw at it. With Panther coming at the end of the year, I imagine that it will get even faster.

I have never been annoyed at the above mentioned "slowness" since after Jaguar 10.2. The machine is fast! (Except when I was running OSX 10.0 with the stock Cube. But indeed, before 10.2 every mac running OSX were slow.) In fact, the Cube is outright snappy compared to my P4 2.53 Ghz with 1gig ram and a 400mhz bus. Memory management and percieved speed of the GUI system is excellent in OSX and as a result, the percieved speed of OSX is much better than that of WinXP. One drawback is that the Cube is not exactly a winner when it comes to modern 3D games, not even with a Geforce 3 installed, but that's why I have a PC and an Xbox. Anyway, the mediocre 3D perfomance is not tied to the fact that it is a Cube, but the fact that this is an old computer system. A sawtooth from that time is equally slow.

Whether you should get a Cube or not is up to you to decide. Consider that on the one side is the fact that you will have a really cool and easily upgradeable machine, on the other hand, uppgrading the Cube to a semi modern performance machine will set you back a good deal. You can get a faster and cheaper machine by just buying a new mac.


Sophus

[awcopus]

Have to chime in.

I have a Cube 450, has 1.5GB of RAM and a super quiet Seagate 40GB drive. I originally had the Radeon in there, but the fan broke and its back to using its stock ATI card. This is my fiance's computer now, I use a Dual 1.4.

She has it powering my old 22" Cinema Display, and every time I look over at her setup, I just have to smile. She's an Art Director and she just LOVES the machine. It is a beautiful piece of kit, I would say the single most beautiful desktop machine Apple has ever made. She doesn't want to upgrade, and when she does, it's been decided that we keep the Cube and use it in some way (MP3/AAC server?).

I hooked my parents up with a Cube right before they were disontinued and, of course, they just LOVE how quiet and stylish it is. All they do is surf, a little word processing, and email, and for that it's really quite perfect. They love it and don't want to part with it. I offered them my Quicksilver 933 before putting it on the market, and they only had one question: "Is your machine loud?" They didn't care about the speed difference because they're content.

Performance is not the point of the Cube. I say that the urge to own one is worth pursuing if you appreciate this simple fact. The Cube is art, folks. Functional but not high performance art.

Added: Some day micro-electronics will catch up with the aesthetics of the Cube, and that form factor will be able to contain more processing muscle and expandability than current towers.