my first Cube

[antony701]

Finally, I got myself a Power Mac G4 Cube.

Always wanted one since I first learned of it back in 2000. Back then, I was a poor student ;-)

It's a 450 MHz model, and only CD-ROM (not DVD), and the original power adaptor does not work (came with a working 3rd party power brick and the non-working original one). I might put some upgrades to it when I have time. Oh, the 17-inch Apple Studio Display (ADC) was included.

Apart from the ageing HDD (I will change it to a quiet one), it is remarkably quiet.

 

[macman142]

Congratulations and what a neat setup. Glad to see it has the original speakers as well as a matching Studio Display.

 

[mcdermd]

Welcome to the Cube club!

Are you looking to keep yours stock or upgrade it?

I used my brother's BTO 500MHz Cube for a few years about seven years ago. He had used it as a daily desktop since he bought it new. I ended up making a "SuperCube" out of it with a Dual 500MHz G4 from a Gigabit Ethernet PowerMac, 1.5GB RAM, 120GB HDD and a 256MB Geforce 6200.

I just recently bought one of my own. It is a 450MHz version with 1GB RAM, a 30GB HDD and a 32MB Geforce 2MX.

 

[Cosmo]

Welcome to the club of Cubes! You had the same long-waiting-desire for the Cube as i did :b&w:

The machine is just so great! Great to look at, virtually silent, powerfull enough. I see you got the speakers also, that makes the set complete and much more valuable. Those speakers are hard to come by, sometimes valued the same as the stock Cube would be. If you're lacking the airport card, those are dirt cheap in ebay, easy to upgrade too.

I had two given to me by a friend, both very stock, both worked but the PSU's were dead. It took a long time to find Dr.Botts PSU's for them (new in a box). The another Cube was given to a colleque at work. I've only upgraded the HD, combo drive and base fan in the bottom as i thought to upgrade the graphics card, wich never worked. Been looking for GeForce 6200 but no luck. Running with 1.256Mb RAM, basicly the machine is an mp3 player for me at the moment. It has to be the most beautiful Apple!

 

[beachycove]

No need to make an appointment with Dr. Bott. Dead Cube PSUs are typically caused by a single failed capacitor. I posted elsewhere on here about the fix, which is complicated only by the difficulty of disassembly -- which is not really so very bad once you know how to do it.

I also put a dual G4 500MHz in mine for a terrific upgrade.

 

[antony701]

Thanks guys.

I will upgrade it sometime. As a matter of fact, I also ordered the PowerLogix dual G4 / 1.5GHz processor upgrade card for it.

I bought some AirPort card (802.11b) cheaply from eBay. However, I am not rush to install the AirPort card as 802.11b is too slow, and for earlier version of OS X and OS 9, the WPA 2 Personal in my wireless network simply won't work. It would be a headache to change the encryption setting of my Wi-Fi.

I will upgrade the HDD to SSD first, then the CPU. As for the video and CD-RW, they have to wait.

 

[Cosmo]

Does the PowerLogix CPU card come with extra fan? If not, do install one in the bottom, there's ready made place for it already, just steal the power from using Y-cable from optical drive i.e. For more details check http://www.cubeowners.com and instructions http://homepage.mac.com/tracer302/bluecube/PhotoAlbum24.html.

Your Cube will be awesome with SSD and prosessor upgrade!

 

[antony701]

Yes, it came with a fan. I hope that fan is a silent one.