G4 Cube Enthusiast - GREAT forum, new project for ya!

[ersterhernd]

Phil those are some aggressive objectives for the confined space of the G4 Cube. Heat rapidly builds up in the small enclosure, very rapidly.

When any of the lower TDP coolers ramp up, they get obtrusively loud. My 65W i7-3770S Cube (same cpu as kiwi) even pushes my Gelid cooler hard when stressed. An overclocked 4770K will be some 30% hotter yet. Combined with a dedicated gpu and internal psu, the system may likely be so noisy that using it won't be enjoyable due to elevated noise levels. My i3 cube, although slower, is never noisy, ever. One literally has to hold his hand over the exhaust vent to tell if its even running.

In my opinion, I say that the most pleasant use of any system is in silence. I've got an overclocked 3770K water cooled Powermac G5 build that pushes high teens Geekbench performance in total silence. If I'd packed it all into a G4 cube it'd have required earplugs to use. Once spoiled by a silent machine, anything other is downright annoying for me.

Before you spend your money on this, beware that effective heat dissipation is noisy when using smallish fans that will fit in the Cube. I'm not sure what your goals entail, but felt this was worth mentioning.

Keep posting, pushing the mod envelope is what makes this forum a great place.


Cheers,

Ersterhernd

 

[neilhart]

Phil,

As others have advised about cooling a CPU in the G4 Cube configuration, it is not advisable to use an air cooled i7-4770K (84W).

In the Cube you encounter what I term as heat soak where the structure is heated by the CPU and becomes nearly impossible to run the system under any kind of load. I have experienced thermal shut-down in some of my past Cube hacks using older i7s.

But it is not all bad news. Intel’s newer CPUs are higher performance and lower power devices. The key to a pleasant Cube conversion experience is the selection of an appropriate CPU and Motherboard.

I suggest the Intel “T” version CPU. See this comparison: http://ark.intel.com/compare/75123,75125,80809

OBTW I own two i7-4770K CPUs and one i7-4770T CPU and the “T” provides a very respectable level of performance. See the bottom of post #2 at this link: http://www.tonymacx86.com/powermac-g4-cube/150747-maybe-another-cube-project-just-idea-point.html

Another option is water cooling as minihack has documented here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/powermac-g4-cube/98231-water-cooled-cube.html

As and aside, I use Prime95 Torture Test as my thermal acceptance test of CPU cooling. Thermal shut-down is a “no-go fail”. My standard is one hour in the torture test without reaching the TDP (see the Intel specs). And I strive to have max CPU temps in the low 70’s.

A well done G4 Cube hack can be a rewarding experience or it can be a nightmare.

Good modding,
neil

 

[phildirado]

Haha You guys are the BEST! I appreciate all the advice. With Neil's advice, looking at the 4th Gen processors I think it can really help my situation here by definitely going with a "T" model. The performance comparison is indeed very respectable, if not very similar. Specifically the i7-4785T at 35w TDP or the i7-4790T at 45w TDP. The question between the two, is the juice worth the squeeze (35w (3.2 GHz) vs. 45w (3.9 GHz)).

I see new supported GPU's are starting to pour in..Looks like we may have a winner with the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 Mini ITX Overclocked 4GB!

 

[neilhart]

Just a word of caution on the GTX 970 and or any Maxwell cards at this point.

It is my opinion that these cards have issues and present a risk to the OS X hack stability.

Those that are having success with these GPUs will scoff at this. However the support is not in OS X and the community is depending on quality kexts from Nvidia.

So as I climb down off the soap box, if you want a small form factor good performer GPU, go take a look at the MSI GTX 760 ITX. I now own two of these cards and they work well on Mavericks and Yosemite (with support for 4 displays concurrently).

Good modding,
neil