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Ghetto Powerlogix G4 Cube

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So this is a bit of cheating as I have already built my Cube, although as my wife recently bought a Surface Pro and has gone over to the dark side (Windows) The Prodigy build is now just sitting around so I may swap out the 2105 in my cube for the 3225 in the Prodigy. I mean why not have all of my boards and processors mismatched right? Anyway, I do have two Cubes and I was thinking of making one into a knock off of the powerlogix case. I have been tryign to get one of those cases forever - had a guy with one in LA about a year ago but he ended up flaking on me. I like the look of minihack's various acrylic builds but the one thing I didn't like about the Powerlogix even was that you lost the quick release of the handle. As I am unsure as to whether I will use the P8Z77-I Deluxe for a second cube or just use my current cube with two different cans, I like the idea of easy of removal. So I removed the can from the acrylic and am left with this. Not sure that I am crazy about it, I think it needs some work on the top to give it a more open feel, but I am a bit reluctant to go cutting acrylic for the first time only to have a mangled up case. Criticisms welcome.

58878-cube.JPG



edit: sorry for earlier terrible picture
 
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Hi Spence,

Personally I sometimes think it is a shame to cover up all the hard work inside a grey box, but it is all down to a question of what you like to see (or hide!). Anyway, it is good to try it naked every now and again. ;)

Interested to see what the difference in temps is with you just making that one change. For some builds I think that just doing what you have done so far could change things a lot for the better as the metal enclosure can trap heat and cause temp.s to rocket. I guess it is equally possible that in other builds though that temp.s could increase as air is allowed to take its' own path instead of following a channel.

Interested to see which way you go with this.
 
I think that those PowerCube cases came in clear as well as a couple of opaque colors.
 
Hi Spence,

Personally I sometimes think it is a shame to cover up all the hard work inside a grey box, but it is all down to a question of what you like to see (or hide!). Anyway, it is good to try it naked every now and again. ;)

Interested to see what the difference in temps is with you just making that one change. For some builds I think that just doing what you have done so far could change things a lot for the better as the metal enclosure can trap heat and cause temp.s to rocket. I guess it is equally possible that in other builds though that temp.s could increase as air is allowed to take its' own path instead of following a channel.

Interested to see which way you go with this.

Hey minihack,

I'm an aesthetics man myself as can be seen in my no cut Mac Pro. I hadn't even considered redoing the temps just for comparison but good idea and I will give it a try. Am also thinking of removing that front steel plate behind the apple logo. I do not have the optical drive so you would get another view into the inner workings which might be cool.
 
Hey minihack,

I'm an aesthetics man myself as can be seen in my no cut Mac Pro.

With you on that!

Some mod.s seem to be just a whole bunch of wires shoved in a box. Sometimes when you have gone the extra mile it is good to show it off.
 
So when I tried leaving the top little plastic sheet and the opaque plastic circle off of my naked Cube ( so I would just have the bare LED glowing through the top - nothing. I put the sheet and circle back in and it worked fine. I have a feeling the circle was the key not the sheet. Care to enlighten me on why this is? Is it because the little insulation raised bit inside the circle?
 
Here is the front. What do you think? I like the fact that with the front sheet of metal removed you can see the fans, but my wife said it looked weird seeing "Samsung" so prominently next to the Apple logo.

59094-photo.JPG


I now just need to work on trimming up the top piece of the can - I am thinking of cutting away the same size square area as the top plate that holds the power switch. Then just putting some perforated aluminum across the top. I think keeping the boarder of that top can piece may help a bit with stability. In fact, if I had it to do all over, I would leave a half inch of the sides of the can rather than drilling out the top.
 
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Here is the front. What do you think? I like the fact that with the front sheet of metal removed you can see the fans, but my wife said it looked weird seeing "Samsung" so prominently next to the Apple logo.

59094-photo.JPG


I now just need to work on trimming up the top piece of the can - I am thinking of cutting away the same size square area as the top plate that holds the power switch. Then just putting some perforated aluminum across the top. I think keeping the boarder of that top can piece may help a bit with stability. In fact, if I had it to do all over, I would leave a half inch of the sides of the can rather than drilling out the top.

I think it looks just fine. I would probably tidy up that Molex wire though as it will be permanently on show.

You can still if you want trim the can and fix the top back in place on it. If you don't have 4 rivets of the Apple type you can just JB it - after all, the top piece comes in from the inside of the can (if you follow me) so the JB would not be under any structural load.
 
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I think it looks just fine. I would probably tidy up that Molex wire though as it will be permanently on show...

You should be able to cut off the 4 pin molex connector and reattach the SATA connector further back to shorten up the wire.

Edit: depending how the SATA power connection is made
 
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