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Trying to tackle a G4 Cube hack.

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Haven't been looking at anything too seriously but here are a some:

Dell Ultrasharp 24"
ASUS 24"

Both have pretty good reviews and are 1920x1200
I own a couple of the Dell monitors (23 and 27 inch models), both great but hardly high dpi, as a comparison:

320 dpi - iPhone 4 / 4S / 5
227 dpi - MB Pro 13" (Retina)
220 dpi - MB Pro 15" (Retina)
135 dpi - MB Air 11"
128 dpi - MB Air 13"
113 dpi - MB Pro 13"
110 dpi - MB Pro 15"
95 dpi - Dell Ultrasharp 24" ( 1920x1200 24 inch )

You may be disappointed :thumbdown:
 
You may be disappointed :thumbdown:

Wow that is disappointing. Still seems better than a 'normal' computer monitor. I always thought the 15" were pretty clear and if the dell is only 15dpi less maybe that's not too bad. Maybe tonight I'll swing by a computer store and look at monitors since I'll be by stores anyways.
 
Okay I went and looked at monitors for a bit last night. None of them great. I did find a Samsung 21.5" 1080 which is a dpi of 102.46. My thought is I want to at least match the 15" MPB since those screens are usable to me. If those are 110dpi then the Samsung is pretty close.

I'm having a hard time finding anything 20" 1080p, maybe it doesn't exist? Also I'd be happy with a 1920x1200 monitor too if it's smaller to keep the dpi higher.

I just looked at my coworkers 24" Apple Cinema Display which is 1920x1200 at 94dpi. It's not that bad looking actually. I think because it's not only 1 foot from your face that it looks decent. So maybe I'd be okay with a 24" 1920x1200. Who knows.

This post seems confusing to me.

And I yesterday purchased the original G4 speakers for $33 with shipping off ebay. I'll have to cut the wires and change the plug based on MacTester57's method he used with his cube. So That will be fun and exciting!

snap45.jpg
 
Okay, I believe it was said earlier running with an i7 would most likely run into cooling issues. How crazy would it be to try the i7-3770S vs the i3-3225? I was looking at benchmark scores and that i7 looks good!

Here are the scores:
i3-3225
i7-3770S

The board says it's supported and they suspect people would be using it in a low profile case. I'm just wondering if people think it's completely crazy or it I get good enough fans it would work. There always is putting the case in a vat of mineral oil haha!

My fan thoughts were, big one on CPU, big one on bottom of case blowing into the case, 2 smaller ones on top of case blowing out. I feel like that's decent airflow. I would like it to be quiet, but I don't mind if I can hear it a little bit.

Just want some thoughts, I don't want to fry my computer or waste money on an i7 if I'm going to kill it and have to downgrade to an i3 anyways.
 
It has a Max TDP of 65 Watts, so ensure that the CPU cooler you choose can cool that much. I think the Gelid Low Profile is rated at 65, so you should be fine. Can you find one, is the next question. I couldn't, but I'm in Canada.

[EDIT: I did a little more digging and I have some concerns about heat. If you are a graphics guy and want this thing to push pixels all over Photoshop documents, and crave the power of an i7, you may be throttling this puppy at 60 to 80% and generating a significant amount of heat over a long term. The inside of a cube is a very tiny space and there is not a lot of ways to get the heat out, The bottom is perforated, but when it sits on the desk, the real opening on the bottom is about 6" x 1.5" (the opening in the lower rear of the plexiglas surround.) and the top has, of course, the grey grill opening. All the airflow has to occur through those openings, so, I fear that once this thing gets going, you are going to have your fans running pretty fast, which means loud. If you go with an i7, please consider top and bottom fans, and expect them to be noisy. Most of the modders here, when it comes to a cube, try to preserve the "fanless, noiseless" properties of the cube as it sits on the desktop near you rather than under your desk.

Anyway, just some thoughts. I don't think anyone here has put an i7 into a cube, so you could be the first, and then let us all know how the temps are. :D:D ]

chaos
 
It has a Max TDP of 65 Watts, so ensure that the CPU cooler you choose can cool that much. I think the Gelid Low Profile is rated at 65, so you should be fine. Can you find one, is the next question. I couldn't, but I'm in Canada.

chaos

Yeah I think this is the one you're talking about here on newegg and it says it's rated for 82 on the i3/i5 and everything else was 65.
 
I pulled the data from here: http://ark.intel.com/products/65524. I think it is valid. Did you read my edit above?

I just read your edit and that's what I thought too. I will have to come up with some interesting way to cool the cube then. First thing that comes to mind is more space on the bottom of the cube. I can either put spacers on the bottom that push the whole thing off the desk unless that creates stability issues. Or I could put ventilation holes on the sides. So many possible ways to do it. Once the cube is actually in my possession I can start drawing up ideas.
 
Hi,
There are plenty of mod.s on here to look at, but also do cruise over to cubeowner.com and look at other places for inspiration from the original Cube users. It is not exactly active these days, being concerend with genuine Apple Cubes, but worth looking into the forums there especially for people who pushed their original Cubes to extremes. There are some very interesting ways of getting ventilation in, including stuff like this:http://www.cubeowner.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13866&st=0 with cool video of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeG3ofauuHw
and this: http://www.cubeowner.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13874
and this: http://www.cubeowner.com/forums/uploads//post-847-1221161558.png

and then of course there is the original water cooled cube: http://macdevstudio.com/cube.html
 
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