Hi, I've been looking into buying me a G4 PM lately, and I've found a (pretty) good candidate: The Powermac Cube. I just have some questions before I Buy it.
1.The spec sheet states that the graphics card is installed in a dedicated AGP 2X Slot... do you know if this card can be replaced w/ a slightly better one? (maybe the original 32MB Radeon?)
2. Is it worth to go for a proc. upgrade on these machines or should I buy a newer PM? I was thinking a PowerForce47 single 1.8GHz or Dual 1.5GHz. Is it very difficult to do the upgrade? (ive only worked on Powerbooks,iBooks and PC's)
I know I would be better off with a newer G4 but I have limited desk space and really like the cube.So if performance (w/upgrades) would be similar to a newer PM, i'd go for it. Can you tell me what it would compare to once it's upgraded? (1.8 Ghz G4 or dual 1.5 ghz G4, -which is better?-, and with 1.5GB RAM and maybe an 80GB HD-they are IDE 3.5" HD's, right? ;))
Daniel
well... on the size front, my mac mini (1.42ghz) cant be beat, and with a 7200RPM laptop drive and 1gb ram it handles garageband, logic, and (very slowly) Final Cut Pro... and if you get the newer one off of apples web site that are shipping at 1.5ghz g4, 5400 rpm drives and 64mb VRAM versus 32.
However, the cube is more upgradeable (but has a slower front side bus, if i am correct... cant remember enough off of the top of my head to say for sure though...)
So can I remove that graphics card and install a new one? If so, I guess its gotta be a 2X AGP Card....are there any good ones out there with more than 32 megs of VRAM? I also looked at the mini, but I kinda need more ram and slightly faster proc. speed. Is the HD a standard 3.5" or is it a laptop drive? (for the cube i mean)
check this out: http://www.aiyamicro.com/pc-parts-peripherals/computer-parts-video-cards-agp-gainward.htm
so there seems to be quite a variety of AGP 2X Cards...for PCs at least. I would need a mac edition GP, right? that is if the card in the AGP Slot is removable..
Visit the Cube Owner forums for all your cube-related answers.
dan k
Remember, with a Cube there's certain things you're going to have to accept you'll *never* have. USB 2.0 ports, for example. (Which means, for instance, no new iPod for you, ever.)
In that light, a Cube starts looking like a pretty lousy deal compared to either a Mini or a Power Mac tower: It's going to cost substantially more then a Mini once you've added upgrades to make it comparable to one (And remember, no USB 2.0), it's bigger, and, well, it's five years old. If it blows a motherboard you'll be spending another good chunk of a Mini to replace it. Compared to a Power Mac, well, it's smaller, but it'll cost about as much, and the only slot you get is an AGP slot. (Which only certain cards will fit, the best of which in most cases are only marginally better then that built into a Mini.)
To be fair, an upgraded Cube *can* be faster then a Mini, but thats mostly due to the use of 3.5 inch hard drives rather then 2.5 inch laptop drives. Don't forget it has the 128GB interface limit.
Well, yes I just realized there are few GC's that fit the AGP Slot, the Radeon 9000 being one of the latest. Also, they don't have USB 2.0, or PCI slots to add them, so I think I'm gonna have to pass on this one (the iPod being one of the reasons-how could we live w/o our iPods?
). I also saw the PM MDD DUal 1.42GHz Model, for about 900-1100, which is a pretty sweet deal considering you get a better grpahics card, PCI Slots,faster Proc., and a 120GB 7200RPM HD AND 512-1GB ram... all for about the same cost of an upgraded cube. Thanks everybody for your help...
Daniel
PS. The cube does look awesome though...
actually you could fit certain larger radeon cards in especially I'm sure I've seen the 9200's and maybe there were higher's too.
and umm....forward the cube system to me for a price? hehe
/rant to self/
me can't quite understand why people are too fussy about not using legal cds/dvds for musics but then decides to just ignore that
/end/
The cube, along with the imac g4, is one of the classic macs that will be worth having years from now.. long after the minis are used as door stops and put out on curbs.
So yep go with the cube (but not if you are using it for a main computer).
For the Cube: Will boot into OS 9 - can take CPU and video upgrades all the way up to faster than the Mini ($$$ and may need larger case).
For the Mini: Faster to start with - can be hacked to take 3.5" drives (in a larger case - do a search on this forum, or Google, for "mac-mini centris" or "mac-mini 3.5" for more info)
Against: as others have mentioned above.
my web site www.kinstle.com is hosted on my dual processor cube running 10.4 server. The biggest limitation is the hard drive limit of 128GB.
Which reminds me, that it's the only smaller-than-tower Mac that can do dual processors, if that's your thing. I doubt Apple will ever release a dual processor, or even dual core, Mini or iMac.
I'm keeping a cube stored in the closet just for that, as soon as I can justify the money. I'd like to go duallie, but I don't feel like having giant towers anymore. Especially since I've moved to So Cal and square footage is at a premium!
Installing that card wasn't trivial, though I understand the 3rd party upgrades are easier.
Certainly. I had a gigabit ethernet dual card installed on my Cube, but I had it sitting on a table running out in the open air for a month while I was getting my monitor situation settled for a Color Classic install. Then Real Life™ got in the way (wife got a job in California) and the Cube had to be reassembled for packing and moving. Would have been nice to keep the duallie on there, but it would have been too much work considering everything else I had to do.
The gigabit ethernet module I have in my cube has performance problems. It can keep up with the hard drive pretty well, but not much above 40MB/s
Hey, considering how lucky you are to have that rare module, I wouldn't be complaining!
I actually have 2 of them. I personally tested that module when I was working at Apple. We even paid ten grand for a big HP gigabit HP switch to test them with because in those days the BCM5400 would only talk to hardware f the same type.