Pioneer K06 @ i-tech for $159 in Syd, for example. The K06 is only supported "officially" in 10.4.6+, but as usual there are workarounds like Patchburn.

Other models are the Panasonic/Matsushita, like the UJ-845 @ Eyo for $143 in Sydney.

Poking around my Cube the other night. I realised there was a tremendous amount of room betwen the hard drive and the outside of the cage.

Enough for a second drive... though this isn't my intention. I was starting to think why Apple didn't move the HDD right to the outside of the cage, and create a larger area for the heatsink, or more room inside. Seems such a waste of space.

pipsqeek

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pipsqeek @ Jul 30 2006, 11:42 PM) [snapback]199834[/snapback]</div>Check out the dimensions of the area -- it fits (exactly) a full-size desktop optical drive. Perhaps when the Cube was being designed, high end technology (i.e. DVD burners) was only available in the full-size desktop form factor, and it was only later that slimline drives became available...

I'm pretty sure that was the case actually, i remember seeing some sort of ad or press release or something, that had a full size optical drive (tray loading) slot loading half height ones didn't exist...

Thanks for the insight into why that space is there. Such a shame though. In a tight little cube, That is quite a fair amount of space.

If the HDD went there, there would be space for a PCI slot.

if if if if if.... :P

pipsqeek

That's really interesting (the possibility of installing a 3.5" optical drive) and makes sense based on what pip is saying.

I'm currently sick as a dog (something along lines of glandular fever :P) but I've installed a fan and heatsink setup onto the OEM Radeon 7500 installed in my Cube recently. The fan was sourced from a dead Radeon 8500 and is a direct fit, and I soldered the fan cable directly onto the pads of the card's PCB. It works well and appears to expel all graphics card heat outside the case, with the only major source of heat now being the VRM. I'll post a pic when I can be fagged.

At the same time, I've overclocked the card with no residual heat problems from 270 core/200 mem to 350 core/230 mem. Makes a decent difference

JB

Here are some pictures of my video card modifications:

First up, a flashed generic 64MB Geforce 2 MX - this provided a huge performance boost from the stock Rage 128 and Quartz Extreme is silky smooth with this running, even on a 500Mhz CPU. If you ever get a Cube, this is the cheapest and best performance upgrade you can go. However, these cards do get hot and definately require a heatsink + fan setup to be installed.

The fan comes from an old Geforce 4 Ti4800 graphics card running at 7V - 12V it was ridiculously loud. The fan is mounted using some washers and two threaded bolts. The RAMsinks are Thermaltake ones I think - a good fit.



I later found a 32MB ASUS Geforce 2 MX which I could clock at higher speeds (200 core/210 mem) and it also provided better quality, cleaner video output - many early Geforce cards have poor RF filtering.

With the aquisition of an ADC Apple 17" Studio Display, I required an ADC compatible graphics card. I killed the provided ADC Geforce 2 MX removing the heatsink (it came off cleanly, but refused to work after!) so sourced an Apple OEM Radeon 7500 from eBay. A heatsink was glued to the card but it came off easily enough by putting it in the freezer for a couple of hours then 'snapping' it off using a screwdriver as a lever arm.

This card runs slightly cooler but still hot in the Cube's enclosure, so I installed some custom heatsinks and a fan onto the card:



The backplate also came up well with a bit of a go with some tin snips and a grinder:



The fan is audible but nothing like the Althon beast it sits next to. It gives peace of mind as well as the weather warms up. A mentioned before, I've also been able to overclock this card substantially.

Cheers,

JB

I'm wondering about the possibility of using a blower-style heatsink (eg. like http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/...es/cardfanb.jpg but smaller). You could then mod a small duct on the end, so that the heat is expelled directly out of the case (also assists with case ventilation overall). The only problem I can see is that the older kinds of cards which go in the cube have only small heatsinks, so fitting a larger one is going to be a big hassle with capacitors/etc. in the way.

RAM cooling would also be compromised, but I don't think this is a problem at all, as the ambient temperature around the card would be much lower.

I've thought about that too, Jaycar do sell 'blower' fans like these but they're always much too oversized and probably too loud for a Cube. There are some ghetto mods where people have shoved a fan between the GPU heatsink and mesh grill of the Cube's enclosure, but this seems fairly ineffectual.

I've found the design of the Radeon 8500 heatsink helps; it only has perforations on two sides of four on the heatsink, so air is blown outdoors (and back into the case too!). However, the card doesn't doesn't get warm at all with these mods - before it was roasting. Now I only notice most of the heat coming from the VRM (you'll notice I installed 2 x heatsinks onto the MOSFETs on the VRM). But yeah, to be really sure I reckon a small duct (perhaps a thin, U-shaped piece of plastic from a ice-cream container) would help. Ghetto but good

Wouldn't worry too much about cooling SDRAM - it doesn't get that hot.

JB

There are a few duct-type (not duck-tape) mods on CubeOwner worth noting. They'll take a bit of searching, but they're quite interesting. The most efficient way to get air out of the graphics card bay is to blow it straight out the top; most fans just force the air away from the GPU and recirculate it in the bay. This just combines the air with the heat from the VRM FETs.

Another interesting mod was to place a 'dividing' duct between the VRM and the graphics card, to isolate the VRM from the heat of the graphics card.

It's a pity CubeOwner is no longer the resource it once was. Laurie, the site operator did a fantastic job, and it was becoming the de facto hang out for all Cube types, until a turf war developed between two competing eBay flashed graphics card sellers. A lot of us regulars stopped hanging out there because every post about graphics cards was argued to death by stupid, greedy Yank mo-fos.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Edge @ Aug 4 2006, 11:42 PM) [snapback]201560[/snapback]</div>Cubeowner appears to be an excellent resource and very well implemented site. But yes, having trawled around CO and Strangedogs, the carrying on from both sides is childish. There must be a fair bit on money in graphics card flashing, that's all I can say

Edge, do you have a Giga VRM installed in your Cube - and are you still running a Radeon 9800 in there (so I recall)? I'm concerned by how much heat the stock VRM puts out - I'll install a slow RPM case fan down the track, does this help?

JB

I should clarify, CubeOwner is still an excellent resource, the FAQ is pretty good, but many of the people have stopped hanging round giving advice, so up to the minute info is a little harder to come by.

I don't have a Giga VRM installed in my Cube. It would be nice, but I nver got around to it, because my stock VRM is running fine (touch wood.) The only way I could run the 9800 permanently (I've got a 5200 in there atm) would be to buy a Powerlogix CPU with the VRM bypass. It uses the 28V DC from the power brick which would normally supply an ADC monitor (and otherwise is unused) to relieve the stress on the VRM.

My processor is the Sonnet 1.2GHz Encore ST 7455, which uses is more power (and generates more heat) than many higher clocked 7447s or 7457s. Unforunately I can't justify $500+ to upgrade the processor, much as I'd like to.

Back to your question re: a low speed base fan, it is a good idea as a general rule, but a video card bay fan is more important with a hot graphics card, if you're using the original processor. SilenX and Papst (which is what I have installed) make excellent and extremely quiet fans which keep the CPU and HD quite cool, even with an upgraded processor, but quiet?silent so it comes down to personal taste re:noise.

The latest development in Cubes is the successful flashing of the 6200, which is a good performer, but more importantly uses much less 3.3V power than a 5200. The flashing requires a 128k ROM (according to the Strangedogs who are privy to the process) and the ROM needs to be slightly tailored to certain cards (either with device IDs or clock speeds, I imagine) so the secret Strangedogs society are the only ones who can do it.

For anyone who's after a G4 Cube, I spotted this one on EBay. I'm really only after the external plastic casing of a dead one to turn into a Macquarium

ok so i have access to a cube for sale....only problem is that it dosnt come with the usb speakers/amp thingy. besides trying to source a set from ebay (or buying a set of dodgey usb speakers), what are my options in trying to hook this up to a stereo of some sort?

by the looks of it i either have to hack an audio line out or no audio for me
ideas?

Just get a Griffin iMic that has line out. It plugs in via USB and provides a line out as well as a line in. I think they are about $50-60.