Finally Happy With My G4 Cube

[spence4]

Just wanted to post a final couple shots of the Cube I made. All of the important parts are listed in my signature, but for your stat junkies I will include a few others. My temps are currently in the mid 50's. I know that is terrible, but I don't know what to do. I moved my 80 mm non-PWM Noctua fan from a molex adapter to the mobo sys fan header. It basically added 12 degrees to the system, but it runs silently now. According to HW Monitor it is only spinning at about 1000 rpm. I also cannot get wifi working...I have tried 4 original Apple cards from 4 different computers. I am sticking with ethernet. I got the original speakers working great and the aluminum 23 in Cinema Display. I had the original keyboard and mouse, but the new one looks better and the trackpad is so much more useful than a single button mouse. Would welcome any suggestions for getting this thing a little cooler. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, touch button works, looks nearly stock, etc. Next up is a Mac Pro 2008 case. I'm looking to go no cutting so it should take me a while to get everything sorted out.

 

[eelhead]

Awww man you can't tease us with one small pic of your cube lol
We need more!

I am currently working on my Cube and its cooling solutions as well. I will post when I am back into it.

 

[neilhart]

That is very cool. Good job and running the latest OS X. You can always add more photos.

neil

 

[beelzebozo]

Just wanted to post a final couple shots of the Cube I made. All of the important parts are listed in my signature, but for your stat junkies I will include a few others. My temps are currently in the mid 50's. I know that is terrible, but I don't know what to do. I moved my 80 mm non-PWM Noctua fan from a molex adapter to the mobo sys fan header. It basically added 12 degrees to the system, but it runs silently now. According to HW Monitor it is only spinning at about 1000 rpm. I also cannot get wifi working...I have tried 4 original Apple cards from 4 different computers. I am sticking with ethernet. I got the original speakers working great and the aluminum 23 in Cinema Display. I had the original keyboard and mouse, but the new one looks better and the trackpad is so much more useful than a single button mouse. Would welcome any suggestions for getting this thing a little cooler. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, touch button works, looks nearly stock, etc. Next up is a Mac Pro 2008 case. I'm looking to go no cutting so it should take me a while to get everything sorted out.

Do you mind explaining your speaker solution i.e., how you got them working? I also have the original cube speakers and was under the impression that the USB ports can't power them.

 

[Stork]

Upload your pictures to your Profile's Albums. Then, you can reference them in your post(s), and they'll appear in their native size and resolution.

 

[minihack]

Upload your pictures to your Profile's Albums. Then, you can reference them in your post(s), and they'll appear in their native size and resolution.

Well, you learn something everyday. Never knew we could do that!!!!

 

[minihack]

Hi Spence,
Don't be down on yourself. 50c is a little at the high side, but for a fun PC that's not in use 24/7 it's really not so bad. The Cubes are hard to cool and keep quiet. Still, you know that!
I think you have done an excellent job and look forward to reading about your next project.

 

[eelhead]

Well, you learn something everyday. Never knew we could do that!!!!

Awww man, I mentioned that in the podcast lol

 

[minihack]

There's a podcast?!?

 

[spence4]

Do you mind explaining your speaker solution i.e., how you got them working? I also have the original cube speakers and was under the impression that the USB ports can't power them.

That is just a bunch of malarkey! I hope I spelled that right. First you need a kext from 10.6.4 or something like that. I am out of town now, but when I get home tomorrow I will try to upload it here. The other thing I have done is I have them running through my Cinema Display rather than directly off the mobo. When I tried running them off the mobo I got a lot of crackling and thought that perhaps the drivers or rubber insulation was bad and I may need to take them apart. Then I tried the, in the monitor on a whim, remembering that they do need extra power and that the original cube and ADC monitors had enough juice in their ports to power them. Apparently so does the aluminum series of displays. So maybe it isn't malarkey that they cannot be powered by regular USB ports as only my cinema display ports can get them to perform properly. You could try a powered hub. Maybe one of those splitters that connect one device to two ports? Not sure if either of those double the juice, but I think the splitter might. Someone smarter than me help me out here!

Neilhart, thanks for the kind words. I certainly owe the entire functionality of the system to you as you were the first to work on this board and helped me with some kexts when I made the move to ML.

Minihack, I know these things are a pain to cool, but I just wanted dead silent idling at 30. Is that too much to ask? Apparently it is.

Will try to get some more non iPad pictures up when I get back.