. . . but still slotless. 
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Fanless LCIII/ LC475?
- Thread starter beachycove
- Start date
Heh, not even close! :lol: The Cube's Video Subsystem interface can hardly be considered an expansion slot unless you count runin' the sucker headless with a useful card in there!
Can you run a Dual Head VidCard in the Cube? }
Can you run a Dual Head VidCard in the Cube? }
You can run two monitors yes, with the card from a G4 I put in mine I can run ADC an a VGA. I've seen serial ports put in place of the modem. Not sure what expansion he needs. I was just saying it would be fanless and quiet. I have an airport card in mine also and a newer combo drive out of a dead G5 in mine. Someday I hope to get an upgrade G4 processor but I'm not holding my breath.
I think it was just a case of one or two pins being rearranged, so a simple pin-pin adapter might work. Some PCMCIA cards have been shown to work without modifications, IIRC: namely Lucent Orinoco Wifi cards. Good luck getting anything else recognised in there.
The original AirPort cards were Lucent WaveLAN cards with the internal antenna hacked off and Apple's firmware flashed on in such a way that it's pretty impossible to flash it back unlike other rebranded WaveLAN cards with OEM branding. This is why Apple's own AirPort driver supported the WaveLAN cards.
You know how you get your fanless LC475? WATERCOOLING! :rambo:
You just have to use a decent size radiator positioned in a reasonable space if you want to run it passive. Though you will of course need a pump; there are many available.
The tricky thing is the waterblocks. You would have to use an adhesive to attach them to the CPU and any other chip and that brings up the issue of reversal in the future. Though you could probably just run it with a disconnected waterblock and not have any issues since these CPUs were fine with no heatsinks and only the case airflow.
An advantage is that the waterblock can be any cheap old outdated one at a good used price!
Optionally you could build a new case with mounts for a couple 120mm or larger fans. They can be incredibly quiet but still move decent air. Extra points for tossing in a fan controller to crank them up during high load.
You just have to use a decent size radiator positioned in a reasonable space if you want to run it passive. Though you will of course need a pump; there are many available.
The tricky thing is the waterblocks. You would have to use an adhesive to attach them to the CPU and any other chip and that brings up the issue of reversal in the future. Though you could probably just run it with a disconnected waterblock and not have any issues since these CPUs were fine with no heatsinks and only the case airflow.
An advantage is that the waterblock can be any cheap old outdated one at a good used price!
Optionally you could build a new case with mounts for a couple 120mm or larger fans. They can be incredibly quiet but still move decent air. Extra points for tossing in a fan controller to crank them up during high load.
The LCIII's 68030 @ 25mhz would surely not need to be cooled. Even at 33mhz the 68030 in an LCIII+ ought to be good. The 68030 runs cool.
An LC475 that has no FPU and that hasn't been overclocked should also be reasonably cool (witness the 040 PowerBooks), but I'd be less confident about using it than the LCIII. An 040 runs hotter than an 030 and consumes a good deal more power (e.g., there is a big difference between the runtime of the same Duo battery in a Duo 270c and a 280c).
What I am most concerned about, frankly, is the power supply. Mind you, there again, I suppose that a PowerBook power supply needs no fan, and it is essentially the same animal as the one in an LCIII/475, is it not?
I'll give it a try soon, once I get a spare couple of hours.
An LC475 that has no FPU and that hasn't been overclocked should also be reasonably cool (witness the 040 PowerBooks), but I'd be less confident about using it than the LCIII. An 040 runs hotter than an 030 and consumes a good deal more power (e.g., there is a big difference between the runtime of the same Duo battery in a Duo 270c and a 280c).
What I am most concerned about, frankly, is the power supply. Mind you, there again, I suppose that a PowerBook power supply needs no fan, and it is essentially the same animal as the one in an LCIII/475, is it not?
I'll give it a try soon, once I get a spare couple of hours.
Having tested it pretty thoroughly last night and today, I can report that my fanless scheme won't work as planned for either model.
Without a fan, and even with the top removed, the 33mhz LCIII+ gets very hot in a couple of spots, especially on the 68030; the slower 25mhz LCIII is a bit better, but still too hot for me to be comfortable running it fanless. The heat from the 68030 especially surprised me, as I thought that all 68030s ran cool.
The LC475's 68LC040 gets pretty hot as well, of course. I went to the lengths of spinning down the hard drive via Sleeper, installing a 33mhz 68LC040 from an LC630 board (with the thought that running it at 25mhz would keep it cool), and popping a large heatsink on the processor. I then put on the lid and went away for an hour. After an hour, the whole centre of the logic board was warm, the heatsink was distinctly hot, the PS was getting too warm -- and I figured that this was just not a good idea.
Now, were I do run the LC475 without the top on, and arrange matters so that it got convection ventilation, I suspect that all would be fine. Will ponder that as an alternative possibility. I have been wondering about trying to make myself a sort of 68040-based Cube, so maybe now is the time.
Without a fan, and even with the top removed, the 33mhz LCIII+ gets very hot in a couple of spots, especially on the 68030; the slower 25mhz LCIII is a bit better, but still too hot for me to be comfortable running it fanless. The heat from the 68030 especially surprised me, as I thought that all 68030s ran cool.
The LC475's 68LC040 gets pretty hot as well, of course. I went to the lengths of spinning down the hard drive via Sleeper, installing a 33mhz 68LC040 from an LC630 board (with the thought that running it at 25mhz would keep it cool), and popping a large heatsink on the processor. I then put on the lid and went away for an hour. After an hour, the whole centre of the logic board was warm, the heatsink was distinctly hot, the PS was getting too warm -- and I figured that this was just not a good idea.
Now, were I do run the LC475 without the top on, and arrange matters so that it got convection ventilation, I suspect that all would be fine. Will ponder that as an alternative possibility. I have been wondering about trying to make myself a sort of 68040-based Cube, so maybe now is the time.
I think you need to get some temperature readings.
maybe use a IR thermometer?
You can sit around 130 degrees F and be just fine.
Touching 130 degrees is going to hurt like hell.. but is perfectly safe for your computer, well most of it. That is a little much for the hard drive in my opinion.
but only way to know is to leave it on after an hour and get some readings.
maybe use a IR thermometer?
You can sit around 130 degrees F and be just fine.
Touching 130 degrees is going to hurt like hell.. but is perfectly safe for your computer, well most of it. That is a little much for the hard drive in my opinion.
but only way to know is to leave it on after an hour and get some readings.
Thanks for the info/ ideas.
I haven't exactly been working steadily on this, so I haven't yet sourced a thermometer to check, but on further research, 130ºF seems to be well within the maximum telerances for the 68040, which according to the Motorola datasheet is a whopping 110ºC, which is enough to burn. So fanless should still be possible.
To make things as "cool" as can be, though, I am toying now with the idea of popping the 475 logic board in the "display" of a Classic front bezel I have lying around, so making it into something computerartsy. The board would be mounted about 1.75" behind the bezel to allow for good airflow, but, you know what? In my mock-ups, it actually looks pretty darned cool. Air circulation would then deal with the heat dissipation.
I don't need the bezel and I don't need a monitor for the AppleTalk router in question — so it might just work. Drive and ps would be relocated to the rear. Doesn't even need a floppy. And no machines will be killed for the hack: I have the spare parts.
I haven't exactly been working steadily on this, so I haven't yet sourced a thermometer to check, but on further research, 130ºF seems to be well within the maximum telerances for the 68040, which according to the Motorola datasheet is a whopping 110ºC, which is enough to burn. So fanless should still be possible.
To make things as "cool" as can be, though, I am toying now with the idea of popping the 475 logic board in the "display" of a Classic front bezel I have lying around, so making it into something computerartsy. The board would be mounted about 1.75" behind the bezel to allow for good airflow, but, you know what? In my mock-ups, it actually looks pretty darned cool. Air circulation would then deal with the heat dissipation.
I don't need the bezel and I don't need a monitor for the AppleTalk router in question — so it might just work. Drive and ps would be relocated to the rear. Doesn't even need a floppy. And no machines will be killed for the hack: I have the spare parts.
