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Great Week for Conquests

geeko

Well-known member
Well, I have been waiting a few years to get a G4 Cube, and now I have 2. Well... middle of last week I was looking around on craigslist when I saw a listing that said "ASUS netbook and apple cube-$50" so I clicked on it, wondering how much the cube would be (most of the time I see idiots who think things like broken ibooks are worth $300, so I did not have much hope). Turns out this guy 'knew' that the only person interested in a cube would want it for some kind of collection/give it a good home, so he priced it a $10. So an hour's drive later, and I get a cube, 450MHZ, 1GB RAM.

The second Cube is part of a much larger conquest, a trip to the electronic recyclers yesterday. I got:

> Cube internal skeleton- somebody drilled through the HDD, and that I understand, but they also decided to drill a hole through the optical drive (and IDE cable)
vent.gif
but the computer itself still works. I also found to go with it a Sawtooth DP 500MHZ, which I took the Dual CPU to put it in my Cube. (If anybody can direct me to a thorough mod guide or has input regarding the mod, please let me know).

> 2x Macintosh SE, both work, When I dig out my keyboard and mouse I'll play with them more. Finally I have some working compacts.

> 2x (3x) Apple LCD Displays, a 15" and a 17", the 15" has the back leg broken off, and the 17" is 'well used', but both seem to work OK. I also fixed a B&W (blue, not black) Apple LCD I had for a little while, it didn't have a power adapter, I had an broken iBook adapter which had the same specs for power, a little splicing, and away we go.

> TiBook 867MHZ- somebody hit the HDD with a hammer- while it was still in the computer- so it is a little smashed up, but the LCD is dead anyway, so I may use it for parts (will the Optical Drive work in a Cube? ;) )

> Powerbook 12" 867MHZ and eMac 1.42GHZ- both are now fixed, and I'll see if I can give them to needy people in my community

> TiBook 500MHZ- works great, but has a broken hinge- I'm fixing it for the Center, and really don't know how to fix it (JB Weld?)

> B&W G4- It was sitting in a junk pile, so I decided to look inside, see if I could take the Video Card or ram, and low and behold: Purple Heat Sink 8-o . So I took it home, and It turns out it has an 800MHZ G4 Upgrade card.

> Last but certainly not least- Apple IIGS Woz edition. I have no idea how to use it, but this is my second IIGS, but this one just seems more 'special'

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
Nice finds! It's heartening to see that MacUsers are finally wising up to security issues . . .

. . . but the technical level of their countermeasures appears to be just a little bit on the Neolithic side! :O :eek:)

. . . but effective . . . not to mention quick-n-easy! }:)

 

beachycove

Well-known member
I have installed a 500MHz dual processor in my Cube. You re-use the stock Cube heatsink, as the larger one from the tower will not fit, and the Cube's heatsink is integral to the structure of the case anyway. But you'll also need a couple of spacers to make contact between the processors, which are located differently than on the stock processor card, and the heatsink. You'll see what i mean when you get at it. It's simple to do: I used some thin aluminum plate, cutting off a couple of small squares that I then buttered with heatsink compound and simply sandwiched in there. There is a stock mechanical clip that holds it all together. No problems thus far, after about a year of fairly steady use.

Having said that, I also a) raised the cube up off the desk with 4 small blocks (e.g., small lego assemblies would work) to allow more air in; and B) installed as large and as quiet a fan as I could locate underneath the whole unit (not in the case but underneath it), running from the CD/HD powerline. This forces air up through the whole assembly, including the video (Radeon 7500) and power board area — shutting off when the unit goes to sleep, yet keeping running if only the hard drive spins down. Works great, though the looks could no doubt be improved by building some sort of wooden base to hold it all....

The Cube runs noticeably cooler like this, as the volume of air coming up through ALL the vents is greatly increased. Convection is not going to cool a dual G4 with a hot video card, and the usual piddling little basefan that people install does little or nothing for the video card area, which is sealed off from the rest of the internals.

A dual 500MHz is really a huge improvement on the stock 450MHz. It's no i7 but I use it all the time for ordinary tasks under X.4.

 
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geeko

Well-known member
ok, I am that far, and I just have to cut out a couple spacers, but how did you deal with the huge coil sticking up off the CPU board?

 

beachycove

Well-known member
Ah yes, I forgot that. It has to be moved. I added a couple of wire "extenders," desoldering the coil and resoldering it to these two wires (I used something like 2x8" pieces of wire from household wiring), and relocated the thing into some empty space in the internals. I wrapped it in electrical tape. It doesn't get hot, so that is safe to do.

 

jruschme

Well-known member
Q: What are you planning to do with the rest of the Sawtooth? If you decide to recycle it, can I get the motherboard? I'd love to find a DP-compatible one for mine.

John

 

geeko

Well-known member
the electrical wires can be 8" long? I heard that if it was that far away the computer would become unstable.

I'll take a look at the sawtooth in the next couple days and let you know.

 

beachycove

Well-known member
I'm not sure what the length was, but 6 to 8 inches are pretty much needed to relocate the coil to another area. I have had absolutely no problems with the modded machine.

It's not all that hard to disassemble and reassemble a Cube, compared with many a laptop for instance, so if it doesn't work, go back and try again. ;)

 

Byrd

Well-known member
That's a really good week of haulage - I'd be pretty stoked finding that lot :) What with the B&W G3 having such a nice upgrade, did the IIGS come with any nice cards inside?

JB

 
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