- Joined
- Jun 25, 2011
- Messages
- 55
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
Hi all
So, after lurking for a number of years and tweaking all sorts of macs (used to be @auntiesolder back on AppleFritter back in the 1990s) I'm back in the world of case modding and hardware tweaks.
A little bit of background: I've worked on pretty much every mac generation made since the early 90s, and used to sell used macs on as a bit of extra money while at uni in the late 90s while I was at music school.
As well as a bit of time at Macformat in the UK, I got into hackintoshing back in 2006 with some of the first hack mods, but it was more of a hobby than anything else since I had a couple of real Macs.
Then when I became an adoptive mom in 2011, I built both my kids a customac mini -- one each -- because I wanted them to have a mac they could use for school work without letting them lose with an expensive mac. (Plus, I couldn't afford two macs)
I also helped my friend get lion running on his Lamborghini Asus laptop. (That one was a toughie, as it wouldn't boot with stock unibeast)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxyxrXWReY4&list=TLL0McJVbDxmHiReZ11ETL6zx18drzQqmC
These days, I've got two Mac Pros from 2006/7 (Which I use in a live-streaming studio setup) running 10.9, and a 2012 CustoMac Pro maxed out with an i7-3770k running at stock speed on a GA-X77UP5TH with 32GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 670, 1TB RAID 0 SSD for boot and video editing, and (gulp) 12 TB of other connected drives. (I'm a content creator these days so use a LOT of video)
I'm also a prennial tinkerer. I'm heavily into plug-in cars, and I've built my own plug-in Prius before, even if it met an untimely death
BUT
I'm a little bit of a workaholic, and I work from home, so I'm giving myself a project that isn't work that I can work on. Behold the RetroCube!
The idea
Inspired by all your excellent G4 cube mods, I'm looking for a Mini-ITX board Mac Cube build, probably the GA-H97N-WIFI. I'll either add this to a low-powered i7 (4770s probably) or a mid-spec i5, a fanless graphics card (My kids' machines have the silent 5450 silent series in them) and a coupe of SSDs.
Ideally, I'd like to have thunderbolt, but I don't see any boxes with mini-ITX and thunderbolt, so mwh.
That's part one, but I'd also like to retain the stock feel from outside, and use an emulator to drop back to a retro OS 9 boot when I feel the need to play Marathon in its original form.
Where I'm at
I've got the cube! I picked it up off ebay this week, and I've got it booting (after a fashion) in its original OS. It's the earlier 450 Mhz model with just the power unit and cube, so I'll have to keep my eyes open for keyboard and mouse.
The case itself is in pretty good condition and I've already cleaned it and reassembled. Eventually, it'll need some gentle surface cutting to bring the shine back and get rid of some of those scratches. But it'll do.
I'm firmly at the planning stage right now, so taking my time to choose the right kit. But my biggest problem right now is getting the emulated G4 Cube running on my HackPro before I gut the G4 one last time forever.
Here's the issue: I can't seem to get the G4 rom image I've grabbed to work with SheepShaver, so if you know anything about that, I'd really appreciate it. Yeah, I know that's a little OT for this forum, but I figure I'm not the first person to try and keep the original OS in virtual form...
After that, I'm going to gut the cube, and start planning final components. While this won't be a quick build, I do want to start getting components by Xmas, as I'm generally a little bit more free then.
Why Series 9? Isn't it full of woe right now?
I figure by the time I start building, the great TonyMac community will have figured out how to get Series 9 boards running really sweetly. And frankly, what's the point in going for a series 8 board when the series 9 boards are now cheaper? Sure, it may be more trouble in the short term, but I'm not intending to rebuild the cube again and again...
And since my free time is Really limited -- partly because of the kids, partly because of the business I'm running but we're also planning a move to Portland, OR next year from Bristol UK -- this is going to be a GLACIAL build.
Any whoo. Hi *waves* and what do you think?
So, after lurking for a number of years and tweaking all sorts of macs (used to be @auntiesolder back on AppleFritter back in the 1990s) I'm back in the world of case modding and hardware tweaks.
A little bit of background: I've worked on pretty much every mac generation made since the early 90s, and used to sell used macs on as a bit of extra money while at uni in the late 90s while I was at music school.
As well as a bit of time at Macformat in the UK, I got into hackintoshing back in 2006 with some of the first hack mods, but it was more of a hobby than anything else since I had a couple of real Macs.
Then when I became an adoptive mom in 2011, I built both my kids a customac mini -- one each -- because I wanted them to have a mac they could use for school work without letting them lose with an expensive mac. (Plus, I couldn't afford two macs)
I also helped my friend get lion running on his Lamborghini Asus laptop. (That one was a toughie, as it wouldn't boot with stock unibeast)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxyxrXWReY4&list=TLL0McJVbDxmHiReZ11ETL6zx18drzQqmC
These days, I've got two Mac Pros from 2006/7 (Which I use in a live-streaming studio setup) running 10.9, and a 2012 CustoMac Pro maxed out with an i7-3770k running at stock speed on a GA-X77UP5TH with 32GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 670, 1TB RAID 0 SSD for boot and video editing, and (gulp) 12 TB of other connected drives. (I'm a content creator these days so use a LOT of video)
I'm also a prennial tinkerer. I'm heavily into plug-in cars, and I've built my own plug-in Prius before, even if it met an untimely death
BUT
I'm a little bit of a workaholic, and I work from home, so I'm giving myself a project that isn't work that I can work on. Behold the RetroCube!
The idea
Inspired by all your excellent G4 cube mods, I'm looking for a Mini-ITX board Mac Cube build, probably the GA-H97N-WIFI. I'll either add this to a low-powered i7 (4770s probably) or a mid-spec i5, a fanless graphics card (My kids' machines have the silent 5450 silent series in them) and a coupe of SSDs.
Ideally, I'd like to have thunderbolt, but I don't see any boxes with mini-ITX and thunderbolt, so mwh.
That's part one, but I'd also like to retain the stock feel from outside, and use an emulator to drop back to a retro OS 9 boot when I feel the need to play Marathon in its original form.
Where I'm at
I've got the cube! I picked it up off ebay this week, and I've got it booting (after a fashion) in its original OS. It's the earlier 450 Mhz model with just the power unit and cube, so I'll have to keep my eyes open for keyboard and mouse.
The case itself is in pretty good condition and I've already cleaned it and reassembled. Eventually, it'll need some gentle surface cutting to bring the shine back and get rid of some of those scratches. But it'll do.
I'm firmly at the planning stage right now, so taking my time to choose the right kit. But my biggest problem right now is getting the emulated G4 Cube running on my HackPro before I gut the G4 one last time forever.
Here's the issue: I can't seem to get the G4 rom image I've grabbed to work with SheepShaver, so if you know anything about that, I'd really appreciate it. Yeah, I know that's a little OT for this forum, but I figure I'm not the first person to try and keep the original OS in virtual form...
After that, I'm going to gut the cube, and start planning final components. While this won't be a quick build, I do want to start getting components by Xmas, as I'm generally a little bit more free then.
Why Series 9? Isn't it full of woe right now?
I figure by the time I start building, the great TonyMac community will have figured out how to get Series 9 boards running really sweetly. And frankly, what's the point in going for a series 8 board when the series 9 boards are now cheaper? Sure, it may be more trouble in the short term, but I'm not intending to rebuild the cube again and again...
And since my free time is Really limited -- partly because of the kids, partly because of the business I'm running but we're also planning a move to Portland, OR next year from Bristol UK -- this is going to be a GLACIAL build.
Any whoo. Hi *waves* and what do you think?