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Fleischs cube project with GA-H77TN

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Fleischs cube project with (GA-H77TN) zotac z77 itx wifi

Hi all! I've been dreaming about a cube hackintosh ever sine i finished my g5 quick and dirty mod...
Reading posts within this forum has already shown great possibilities (sleppek rossi neilheart mactester minihack etc)
I finally got a cube off ebay in near mint condition.

I'm aiming for a quiet system with wifi blutooth stereo sound and a display port (for cinema display). I would really like to get the prox sensor working somehow. The slim gb board seems nice but is missing powersupply for the switch. What are your thoughts on that? Do you guys think the standard mini itx is the better bet?
 
Hi all! I've been dreaming about a cube hackintosh ever sine i finished my g5 quick and dirty mod...
Reading posts within this forum has already shown great possibilities (sleppek rossi neilheart mactester minihack etc)
I finally got a cube off ebay in near mint condition.

I'm aiming for a quiet system with wifi blutooth stereo sound and a display port (for cinema display). I would really like to get the prox sensor working somehow. The slim gb board seems nice but is missing powersupply for the switch. What are your thoughts on that? Do you guys think the standard mini itx is the better bet?

Hi Fleisch,

You can run the original switch if you want to, but if there is no source of standby 5v power then you need to create one. Take a look at the "uncut" mod on this forum from iCubeFan as he is doing just that.
There are other options for a proximity sensor, such as the Edisen that Esterhernd is using (as well as Mactester) and there is another discussion thread on alternatives too.

No doubt that a slim ITX board is an easier fit and suits the Cube very well. Standard ITX also will fit in various different ways and so far all my builds have been based around them.

I love these little machines I must admit and they are a real chance to have a bit of fun with (and take up less room than a G5!).

Good luck and enjoy your modding. You'll find plenty of people on here very happy to help out.
 
Thank you for the kind welcoming words. I will have a lot of questions (of corse) as i go along. Choice of motherboard for me is the most essential, secondly the gpu if i decide to take in a dedicated one. So any suggestions regarding the two are very welcome!
Cheers Fleisch
 
Hello Fleisch,

I have to admit I was surprised when I first read the specs of the new Gigabyte slim mITX boards, as there was no 5V standby power source listed anywhere. These Cube builds depend on it as you know, to implement the proximity sensor (either original or aftermarket). I've done three Cubes now, and after following the direction of a couple of other forum members I decided to use the DQ77KB Intel board in my first Cube. It worked so well that I did the same for builds 2 and 3.

It has a 'Custom Solutions' header that contains not only a 5VSB pin, but a 3.3VSB as well. This means no picopsu is required, simply a Dell AC adapter which plugs into the board. Also present on the CS header is a 2nd power button pin and ground, so you can easily set the Cube up to use not only the proximity sensor, but the original Power/Reset buttons on the bottom as well, both on their own circuit. MacTester pioneered this and it works absolutely beautifully for full functionality of both switches.

I'd have tried the Gigabyte product in at least one of the Cube builds if it had the 5VSB wired in. The Intel board is just so perfect for a Cube build given its feature-set that I couldn't bring myself to try anything else.

Good Luck in whatever you decide. I'll be watching your progress so please keep the pics flowing!


Cheers!
 
PCI Express x4 slot (Supports 25W only)...is what i read in the specifications for the motherboard...that's bad :( not nearly enough for a decent graphics card...
 
Thank you for your Input ersterhernd!
I've been reading your cube to the max thread with great interest.
Now i'm trying to find out if the intel board can handle a decent dedicated gpu (as in sleppeks built)!?
 


Sorry fleisch, I can't speak with any authority on the subject of a dedicated card. From what I see though, that card is a 16x and you've only got a 4x slot on either the Gigabyte or the Intel to plug into. Maybe a conversion cable exists, I don't know. A question I would ask is what kind of performance will you get out of a dedicated card thats only running in a 4x slot? Any better than HD4000 in an i7 CPU? Maybe someone else can answer that. I know that sleppek's i7 and 16x dedicated card pushed out 42FPS in CineBench, and my i7/HD4000 pushes out 25, and the processor scores in the same benchmark are identical.

At 170mm in length and 18mm in height, it likely won't fit behind the motherboard (where the Cube video slot is), and even if it did, the heat that collects behind the board would likely cook it in no time flat as there's little if any airflow in there. I've placed my hand above where the top-mounted USB slots are situated on my builds and there is a significant amount of warm air rising out.

Sleppek's build put the video card more in the center of the Cube, and with the cooling configuration he used, it managed to all fit. I still don't know how he pulled that off, amazing to say the least.

There isn't much room, believe me, especially if you want top-mounted USB's, original Power/Reset switch functionality and well positioned I/O shield. With the implementation of any type of dedicated graphics card, I'd say you'd have a very difficult task of achieving some or even any of the above. (I'm assuming that your desire to use a slim mITX system board is primarily because of the aforementioned reasons)

Be very wary of heat if you're going with the i7. They ramp the temps up pretty quick when the load increases, and unrestricted airflow is critical as compared to the i3 build. That said, the Geekbench scores are nearly 60% higher with the i7 over the i3, so well worth the effort.

Hope this helps.


Ersterhernd
 
I agree with E. in all his thoughts, but I think there is a way of doing what you want perhaps. Not a project for the faint of heart though and you will have to be prepared for it to perhaps not work.

On the subject of a graphics card in the build, and wanting good performance from it you really would be squeezing the Cube format to the limit.

I don't know if you have been reading my thread where I am experimenting with getting a water cooling loop in the Cube? Well, to be honest I think that if you are seriously trying to get a GPU in there then maybe cutting the backside of the Cube and getting rid of the handle mechanism to make room for serious airflow and extra component space would be a requirement to avoid cooking. So you could borrow that idea from me with pleasure.

My build will I believe show that it is feasible to draw good amounts of air in from the bottom AND the top and eject warm air out of the back with a good sized fan combination - mine is of course 2 x 120 in push pull on a radiator, but you could get 1 x 140 even I think (need to be careful with the metal and perspex cutting though!) and if you were air cooled then instead of water then you can potentially free up - without there being any handle or heatsink in the way - a good amount of space. BUT it will be a major re-engineering project.

Without that kind of major re-work I think that the GPU and parts needed to drive it will cut down airflow to almost nothing in a conventional bottom to top system and you will fry (just my opinion).

The other question is power. Something like my Zotac board will run a good graphics card as it has a proper PCI-E 3.0 slot. It will fit in the Cube, but think about the PSU requirements. With a i7 3700k I know I can run an overclock with a 160W pico....and stay within the PSU limits. Add a GPU though and it is a different story. My GTX 660 flat out requires 150W on its own (and no that is not going in my build). You can of course use a less hungry CPU but that will not gain you enough power headroom to run a graphics card to full potential still.

You can get a in car PSU that is a bit bigger than the Pico which is capable of 250W but you'd be hard pressed to find a mains adaptor that would work that. Highest power mains adaptor I have seem is actually the Cube one which is supposed to be 205W and is coincidentally compatible with the in car PSU board (that takes up to a 30v input). I must admit that is a combo I am interested in trying in a future build.

You could in theory squeeze in a more conventional supply but that is also a heat generator and takes up space (and removes space for cooling...).

Another possibility I thought of which I have not researched (as it is too extreme for me) would be to have a regular Pico PSU for your system and then add a separate input for a 12v line of a 150W mains adaptor to exclusively plug into your GPU......

So, technically? Yes. Practically - possibly? Hard work and in the end maybe not a great idea - ......?

It would be fun to watch.:)

PS excuse the stream of consciousness reply here - just the way my brain works as I type this!
 
So I agree with E and MH you face a lot of challenges, the video card you referenced draws about 90w when idling, and about 200w under load, so probably not practical.
You could in theory squeeze in a more conventional supply but that is also a heat generator and takes up space (and removes space for cooling...).

Another possibility I thought of which I have not researched (as it is too extreme for me) would be to have a regular Pico PSU for your system and then add a separate input for a 12v line of a 150W mains adaptor to exclusively plug into your GPU......
To MH's first point, this has been tried before, maybe have a read of this #16 before going down this avenue. The post is quite informative.

To the second point on introducing a second independent PSU is not advisable because the two PSU literally compete. i.e. without single control mechanism, the PSU's are unlikely to produce the exact same output voltage. Any differences in output voltage between the two will create a current from the higher voltage PSU back into the lower voltage PSU.
 
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