Apple Cube 2.0 - i5-2500T - GA-H67N-USB3-B3 - 16GB RAM - SSD

[sleppek]

I notice that your Samuel 17 oops like it is about to where the heat sink would be had you not removed it. Is this so?

I remove the complete cooling fins. That's all I reused which is only the holding mechanism:

The Samuel 17 fits nearly perfekt. Just a few fins needed to be shortened a little bit as you can see here:

It is my understanding that the Samuel is 45 mm tall. Would the Sctthe Kozuti which is 40 mm be a better bet?

Correct. It is 45mm tall and all the space is used for the cooling fins. The Scythe Kozuti should also work but the fins are smaller because the space between the baseplate and cooling fins is needed for the 80mm fan. I think the Samuel 17 is the better choise.

Also, what is the top of the Samuel like? I would plan to leave off the fan and have it in direct contact with the Cube heatsink. Is the top flush?

The top is not flush and therefore not really good for heat transfer to the original heatsink.

Would it make good enough contact to transfer the heat? Is this a terrible idea?

I don't think so! But you can try to take a big thermal pad.

The space between the two parts of the holding mechanism is 920mm. Perfect for a low noise fan (e.g. bequiet):

 

[beelzebozo]

Can you explain how you mounted your motherboard?

Thanks.

 

[slv335i]

Can you explain how you mounted your motherboard?

Thanks.

Almost looks like the motherboard stand off is glued or JB welded to the two posts.

 

[sleppek]

Almost looks like the motherboard stand off is glued or JB welded to the two posts.

I removed the screw thread from these mainboard hexagonal bolt things for the upper two holes for connection (no welding) with the two posts. The board get's the stability from the big Samuel 17 which is directly connected with the metal part of the holding mechanism:

 

[frisco]

Love your build. I am planning on doing the same build except I will get core i5 3570k/t paired with GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s. I am not going to have a dedicated graphic card, the on the ivy bridge is enough, so do you think the pico power supply is sufficient enough for the build? For the AC to DC adapter, do you use the one that came with the cube? Thanks man.

 

[slv335i]

Love your build. I am planning on doing the same build except I will get core i5 3570k/t paired with GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s. I am not going to have a dedicated graphic card, the on the ivy bridge is enough, so do you think the pico power supply is sufficient enough for the build? For the AC to DC adapter, do you use the one that came with the cube? Thanks man.

As of right now i dont think the intel hd4000 isn't supported. I could be wrong.

 

[psydafke]

Nope, correct.
Until Apple releases Ivy Bridge Macs, there isn't any support for HD4000 yet.

 

[sleppek]

I am planning on doing the same build except I will get core i5 3570k/t paired with GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s

The GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 board is too big for the small cube case. You need a Mini-ITX board! The only available Ivy-Bridge supported Gigabyte board is the GA-H61N-USB3. But it has only SATA II and two ports. Maybe they are showing some new 1155 board on the Computex next week.

I am not going to have a dedicated graphic card, the on the ivy bridge is enough, so do you think the pico power supply is sufficient enough for the build? For the AC to DC adapter, do you use the one that came with the cube? Thanks man.

I'm using a CPU with 45W TDP. The Intel Core i5-3570T or Intel Core i7-3770T with 45W should also work but they are not yet supported in Lion (as already said). The Pico PSU with 160W should be enough. I'm using a DVD, SDD, 2x HDD and a graphics card. So, yes. No problem!

 

[frisco]

Love your build. I am planning on doing the same build except I will get core i5 3570k/t paired with GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s. I am not going to have a dedicated graphic card, the on the ivy bridge is enough, so do you think the pico power supply is sufficient enough for the build? For the AC to DC adapter, do you use the one that came with the cube? Thanks man.

As of right now i dont think the intel hd4000 isn't supported. I could be wrong.

You are right. I was planning on waiting until it is supported. In the mean time I might just run windows in it. Thank for the heads up.

 

[frisco]

The GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 board is too big for the small cube case. You need a Mini-ITX board! The only available Ivy-Bridge supported Gigabyte board is the GA-H61N-USB3. But it has only SATA II and two ports. Maybe they are showing some new 1155 board on the Computex next week.

I just realized that. I did not pay attention to the size, I thought the all Micro-ATX board have the same size. Fortunately, I have not purchased the mobo yet. But, I just purchased the case yesterday and its on the way right know. I guess I will wait for the computex and if there is none then GA-H61N-USB3 might just do fine for me.

I'm using a CPU with 45W TDP. The Intel Core i5-3570T or Intel Core i7-3770T with 45W should also work but they are not yet supported in Lion (as already said). The Pico PSU with 160W should be enough. I'm using a DVD, SDD, 2x HDD and a graphics card. So, yes. No problem!

What I meant is the power brick (AC to DC) the one that you plug the wall and the pico unit, did you purchase the pico psu that comes with the power adaptor or do you use the power adapter from the old cube system?

Thanks so much for the guide man, I really appreciate it. This is my first build so I want to make sure I got everything working and you are really helpful.