Cube questions: Graphics, heat, DVD

[didius]

Hi

Some time ago i bought a cube. And i want to max out it's capabilities. Adding RAM and airport happens in no time. But then i wanted to tweak further.

Graphics

After doing lots of research on the graphics card I noticed upgrading with Apple parts only wouldn't help its performance a lot. So I bought the Ati Radeon 7500 AGP. Installing it was rather easy and performance boosted. I originally installed it without extra cooling and without brackets (or adjusting the fence).

I'm still reading further on the subject and recently i started panicing. There are some threads on cubeowner.com about heat issues. To be able to sleep without worries I bought the spirica heatsink and I just finished installing it.

The threads on cubeowner are still worrying me, some speak of heat issues with the Cube VRM card which would be a critical card... Do I need extra cooling for that card? Do I need to relocate it? These all look like complicating procedures :-/

DVD

My cube has a dvd drive but it doesn't eject the DVD's properly, I guess i need a new DVD drive (preferably a Superdrive unit). I noticed I could buy some Pioneer drive, but then again threads say it doesn't fit the Cube brackets, and you need to buy extra brackets. And wow those brackets are expensive :O

Even more, it doesn't seem to easy to connect it to the cube, could someone clarify this for me?

Thanks!

 

[beachycove]

I have in the past had a Radeon 7500 fail in a Cube, which I assume was due to overheating. As the stock Rage card was too limiting, last year I found another 7500 card going cheap and so installed one again. At the same time, I also installed a dual 500MHz G4, which required a modest heatsink adaptation. (That was a superb upgrade.)

Being concerned about heat issues, my strategy was to place a small fan, raised on four small bolts, beneath the machine in order to force more air up through the entire assembly. This works well, and makes the machine noticeably cooler, but is a bit unsightly. So I plan to build a nice wooden box on which to place the Cube, with an integrated (larger, but slower-running) fan (to increase the airflow further), and add an air filter (which I will manufacture from a fibreglass furnace/ air conditioning filter) sometime over the winter months.

On the DVD question, I find your problem interesting, as I have similar issues with the CD-burner in my Cube. I wonder if the issue is again the heat? I haven't thought of the heat as an issue before, but it makes sense, as I take it that the trouble is most likely dry rubber rollers, which are not gripping the CD well enough to do the business.

There is, however, a product called "Rubber Renue" which can restore dry rubber, and which I have used successfully on a range of printer rollers that we no longer gripping paper after a decade or so, so it might work also on the CD drive if only one could get far enough into the thing to apply the liquid. Presumably you'd need to give it a good chance to dry before inserting a disk — or maybe the rollers are only on the label side?

 

[bizzle]

Get the fan kit for the Cube. I believe Macsales sells it still and its fairly cheap and straight forward. The Cube was designed for a fan and everything is there, including a mounting bracket with holes for screws and a connection for it on the VRM board. Apple just decided not to install a fan. I ran a 7500 in my 450mhz Cube with no additional cooling and while the GPU did run about as hot as hell, it chugged along just fine.

The cube I have now also runs with no fan, but uses the stock graphics card. It had an uptime of over 100 days before the power went out recently. It doesn't have much load on it, but it does still get hot due to where the machine is physically located but it has 0 issues. It runs Debian Linux.

http://ant.ro.lt/phpsysinfo/

edit: here ya go, http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/FANNCBKIT/

 

[beachycove]

Actually the fan kit does not direct air to the areas occupied by the graphics and VRM cards, but is physically separate from them, so it is really only good for a processor upgrade. Essentially it only succeeds in expeling air from the large CPU vent in the centre of the case, but not from the video card vent. The VRM card is right underneath the latter vent, and it is this whole area that especially needs better ventilation. One solution is a fan on the video card itself, drawing air up from below and out the top; while another is relocation of the VRM card (which is the best solution as far as cooling it goes, without a doubt); I think my solution, however, is also reasonably elegant, and it is probably easier than any of the others.

 

[Andrevas]

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/PowerLogix/CUBEKITBLK/

expensive but worth it?

 

[bizzle]

Even though the fan does not directly impact the video card area it will still help by reducing the overall inside temperature of the inside of the machine.

 

[bizzle]

Maybe it's been a while since I've been inside my cube.. but I still think it may help everything, even ever so slightly.

 

[beachycove]

Absolutely, I agree that installing a fan kit as is usually done is scarcely going to hurt and that it might help a great deal by decreasing the overall internal temperature of the machine. However, it remains the case that the air that the base fan pushes through the unit does not go directly to the video card and associated parts, and that is what the post was asking about.

I would actually like to relocate the power card in my Cube, as it would permit much better cooling of that component and allow for an even better graphics card than the 7500, but I need a bit more information on how to make the cable that is required. Everything else looks pretty straightforward.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[didius]

I would actually like to relocate the power card in my Cube, as it would permit much better cooling of that component and allow for an even better graphics card than the 7500, but I need a bit more information on how to make the cable that is required.

http://www.yourmacstore.com/shop/shopexd.asp?id=214

to bad it's out of stock

Everything else looks pretty straightforward.

:I
Another possibility is to add the Q3/Q7 MOSFETs (http://forums.mactalk.com.au/19/58496-g4-cube-appreciation-2.html)

I'm to bad at soldering though :-/ + i doens't clear room for a better graphics card...

 

[beachycove]

They are not hard to take apart and re-assemble, and are certainly much easier to work on than something like the average PowerBook. It looks intimidating, and it did so to me before I started, but there are excellent on-line guides, and I was surprised how quickly the whole procedure went.

The harder part to source is the cable, although I suppose that, were I actually to give that a try, it might not prove so difficult either....

 

[Andrevas]

http://www.yourmacstore.com/shop/shopexd.asp?id=214to bad it's out of stock

the PowerLogix Cube enclosure relocates the VRM along with providing additional ventilation space for only 20 dollars more than the kit alone at YMC...