Cube with Core i7 and dedicated GPU?

[rossi1959]

I don't want to be a naysayer, because that isn't in the modders vocabulary, But as kiwisincebirth states, power supply and thermals for those components packed inside the limited confines of the cube, as pointed out by minihack, make the build your proposing as you say, a bit optimistic. Maybe with an external PSU and Water cooling setup it would work, but thats not really practical. Sleppek may be able to shed more light on this.

Nerv,
I am pretty certain it can be done. I think I have found the formula for a high powered G4 cube with no hacking to the perspex case.

The 2 things needed are power to run the components that you listed above, and cooling.

i7 3770k = 77 watt

16 gig 1600 MHz ram = 8 watt

SSD = 2.5 watt

GF 670 = 170 watt

I have now started on a build with these components, and will be using a 300 watt PSU built into the cube. If 300 watt is not enough, then I will use a Silverstone 450 watt SFX PSU.

Starting with a SFF PSU


"WARNING" If you do not have the skills to do this mod then take to a Qualified Electrician. This is your responsibility not anyone else's, If you do this mod then the onus is on you to ensure it is done to your State/Country's Electrical Standards, because serious injury or death can occur when dealing with high voltage's.


Motherboard standoff's were used to mount the PSU's PCB to the DVD drive frame work.




"A sheet of insulation plastic must be placed between the PSU PCB and the mounting frame to ensure of no short circuits".
The input power socket and switch are mounted on the base of the cube with the Neutral & Active wires connected to the PSU PCB. "THIS MUST ALSO BE WRAPPED IN INSULATING PLASTIC"






The motherboard will be a Gigabyte GA-Z77 MiNi ITX WiFi for it's robust qualities and full sized PCIE slot. And all parts to be used excepting the case are on this link.
CustoMac Mini Deluxe (mini-ITX)

I will post more on this build as well as the other ones I have on the go,

" I must reiterate that the power supply modifications must be carried out by an Authorised , Certified and Qualified Electrician, The consequences for not doing this are incomprehensible and illegal in most States and Countries."

"The photo's herein are for illustration purposes to show sizing of components and are not of the device's final working configuration. The Insulation sheeting is not shown so as to give a clear view of components".

And as for the cooling, I can say that the tests I have done in the link below returned very good results, that should deal with the heat generated by the high powered components. http://www.tonymacx86.com/powermac-g4-cube/95189-cooling-cube.html

I must add that this build will take some time to complete due to it's complexity and costs involved.
Rossi.

"DISCLAIMER"

IN Addition to the above warnings written in bold red, I do not and will not take any responsibility for anyone that undertakes this power supply modification.
This is your responsibility to carry out any modifications within the safety and duty of care laws that apply in the state or country that you carry out the modifications in.
You must also take into consideration that if you move the modified device to another state or country then that modified device may not pass the required laws in that state or country .

"If you use this thread for instruction on the modification of any power supply unit and that said power supply unit causes injury or death to yourself or any other person, animal, or living creature.
Then this is your responsibility and or the qualified person that carried out the modification on your behalf to accept blame, as the onus is with you.

Rossi.

 

[kiwisincebirth]

Nerv, I am pretty certain it can be done. I think I have found the formula for a high powered G4 cube with no hacking to the perspex case.

It constantly amazes me the creativity and diversity of the solutions that people come up on this forum. This is inspired.

 

[ersterhernd]

Yes this'll be one to bookmark for sure.

Rossi, the red font is a great idea, perhaps you should consider a disclaimer at the bottom as well. Just a thought.


Ersterhernd

 

[neilhart]

Kiwi thanks for your input. I concur with your comments.

I took the plunge yesterday and ordered the parts for the new i7 Cube build. Will start a separate thread in near future about it.


Ersterhernd

Hey I love this taking on the challenge! Are you going to run the Intel DQ77KB or another MB with a full PCIE 16 slot?

neil

 

[ersterhernd]

Hi Neil, my new thread is underway...
Cube to the MAX.

Nothing near as elaborate as Rossi is attempting though.
It's being built to operate without external cooling of any kind and run as quiet as the i3 does.

Cheers!


Ersterhernd

 

[rossi1959]

Yes this'll be one to bookmark for sure.

Rossi, the red font is a great idea, perhaps you should consider a disclaimer at the bottom as well. Just a thought.


Ersterhernd

Thanks for the tip Ersterhernd, I thought I might have stipulated the consequences enough, but have now put in a disclaimer at the end of the thread.
Rossi.

 

[NervousTitan]

Thanks everyone for your insights. And sorry for my late reply.

Originally I hadn't thought deeply about the power necessities, however I thought that in case it would not be possible to use/put a picoPSU in the Cube, I could perhaps put a suitable PSU in the original Cube PSU housing. That would be sort of cool, too.

However, I now think that I was indeed a bit optimistic about putting that graphics card in the Cube. It's not even available here in the Netherlands as far as I know. So perhaps I will go for a slightly lower-powered graphics card. This would also make the heat-issue less err..heated. Also, I just saw Sleppek's amazing i7 with a dedicated GPU. So he actually pretty much answered my question.

Rossi, I am curious to see if your approach will work, it would be awesome if you got that much power working inside the Cube's housing. I must admit that I'm not so savvy when it comes to meddling with electronics, though this project could be a good reason to learn a thing or two in that regard.

-----------------

I have been thinking more about the usage of 3D printing for my Cube project. I had three main ideas:

· One thing I have been pondering about is designing new internal parts which make it easier to put the mobo, gpu, fans, etc. on. So basically, if I were to design this, someone else could then also use that design to build their own version. That'd be pretty cool, right?

· If I can design and get a new custom backplate printed (and possibly an internal system, described above) for the Cube, then why stop there?
What if I could design a simple wind-tunnel system for inside the Cube, to maximise the efficiency of the cooling systems/fans?
If this is successful, it could even mean that fewer fans are necessary.

· If 3D printed materials are not strong enough to make weight-bearing parts of the Cube, perhaps some custom CNC-machined parts could be made. I've found at least two companies that do this, but I'm not yet sure what the cost implications will be.

----------------

Another idea I had was that it'd be really cool if the old Cube's WiFi antenna's could be reused. Has anyone ever attempted this?
This thought might oversimplify the matter, but say you put in one of those WiFi cards that have the little plugs going out the back, what if you just took those wires and attached them to the old antenna's? Or are those antenna's technologically incompatible with modern WiFi cards?

One problem in my case would be that there wouldn't be any slots available to plug the new WiFi card in to, since the only available expansion slot would be taken up by the PCIe riser card, connected to the graphics card. Is it possible to share the bandwidth of the PCIe slot, as I imagine the WiFi module wouldn't need a lot of data through-put?

 

[minihack]

Another idea I had was that it'd be really cool if the old Cube's WiFi antenna's could be reused. Has anyone ever attempted this?
This thought might oversimplify the matter, but say you put in one of those WiFi cards that have the little plugs going out the back, what if you just took those wires and attached them to the old antenna's? Or are those antenna's technologically incompatible with modern WiFi cards?

One problem in my case would be that there wouldn't be any slots available to plug the new WiFi card in to, since the only available expansion slot would be taken up by the PCIe riser card, connected to the graphics card. Is it possible to share the bandwidth of the PCIe slot, as I imagine the WiFi module wouldn't need a lot of data through-put?

I tried re-using the original wifi antennae in mine - rewired of course - in short it just didn't work. However, there is no reason why placing a different internal antennae in the same spot will not work. You can use laptop wifi antennae there and it should be fine (worked okay for me). Good results also with antenna from an old style mac mini (intel C2D) fixed in place where the old Cube antennae were.

I'd advise getting a mobo with built in wifi so that you do not have to sacrifice a PCI-e slot. I used Zotac Z77 wifi, but most other manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon and make their Mini-ITX boards with built in wifi these days.

 

[spence4]

Rossi, I wish I had read your RED post before playing with PSUs for my Mac Pro build. I got juiced two times - because I wasn't smart enough to stop after the first time. Just because you plug it in and don't hear a sound, doesn't mean that thing isn't cooking.

Titan, have you got a 3D sketch going already for the bottom plate of the Cube? I'm doing it in Google Sketchup for now and it's my first time so I am awful.

 

[NervousTitan]

I tried re-using the original wifi antennae in mine - rewired of course - in short it just didn't work. However, there is no reason why placing a different internal antennae in the same spot will not work. You can use laptop wifi antennae there and it should be fine (worked okay for me). Good results also with antenna from an old style mac mini (intel C2D) fixed in place where the old Cube antennae were.

I'd advise getting a mobo with built in wifi so that you do not have to sacrifice a PCI-e slot. I used Zotac Z77 wifi, but most other manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon and make their Mini-ITX boards with built in wifi these days.

Thanks for that information minihack! I guess the Zotac Z77 is a good option for a Cube based build. Originally I was thinking of using the Gigabyte GA-Z77N-WiFi, but alas, I read that the WiFi module won't work on a Hackintosh. I know this is not really relevant, but I find the estethics of the Zotac board somewhat unappealing, and the Gigabyte looks really nice.

Are there any other mini ITX boards with a compatible WiFi module built in, that you can recommend? What do you think about the Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe?

Titan, have you got a 3D sketch going already for the bottom plate of the Cube? I'm doing it in Google Sketchup for now and it's my first time so I am awful.

Hi spence4, I've started on a design in Cinema 4D, as that is a tool I know how to use, though I am far from an expert at modelling.
If I go with the 3D printing option, I'll most probably use Shapeways. They recommend keeping the polycount down to 400.000, and I'm not yet sure if that will work because of the many holes in the bottom plate.

I was also thinking of looking at Google Sketchup, but don't know it either. Can your friend recommend any specific software, also with CNC in mind?