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Project Mac Cube: Complete (Pictures and Videos - 16/08/05)

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by Gordy, 29 Jun 2005.

  1. Gordy

    Gordy Evil Teddy

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    I'm nearly finished on Project Little Devil ( http://www.gordyhand.co.uk/main.php?page=liquidbloo ) I just have a few minor bits still to finish when I pull my finger out.

    So with that in mind I started thinking about my next project, I have two other ones on the back burner but neither of them really inspire me at the moment or suit my needs. What I really need is a fileserver that small and good looking. With this in mind I started coming up with some idea's as to what to do.

    My orginal plan was to do a smaller version of Project mini me ( http://www.gordyhand.co.uk/main.php?page=minime ) which was a shuttle flex atx sized based project. I liked this idea but I couldn't decide what to do with the externals to make it nice. The plan was to spray paint it but after Project Little Devil I've had enough paint fumes in my lungs over the last few weeks to last me a lifetime hehe.

    So I set about trying to find some other idea, I stumbled across Sun's Cobalt Qube 3 these would be great to convert into a file server. The only problem is they go for far too much money on ebay to make it worthwhile.

    Now with my current Apple switch in progress I was having a look at older mac's on ebay to see what we could sell my girlfriends Powermac G4 for. When I did this I stumbled across some mac cubes. They are Powermac g4's crammed into a cube space. These were the very first SFF computer and are still ahead of the current sff's in many ways.

    I've spent the last month or two trying to find a well priced Apple Powermac Cube and finally I found a great donor case. It was a incomplete cube with just the motherboard , cpu and psu included. This suited my needs perfectly and after a short bidding war I won the auction!

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    Some more pics of the cube (Click on the for full 800x600 shots)

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    I picked up the cube two days ago from the courier and set about taking it apart. I realised the previous owner had really abused it when removing some of the components, the inner chassis was missing some parts and others were damaged grrrrrrrr. It didn't bother me too much as I wouldn't be using most of the insides anyway.

    I started taking the cube apart which is no easy task, the cube drew blood in my battle with it but I finally got it into is components.

    The perspex has a few scratches and has some dirt so it needs work but for the most part its in excellent condition considering its age.

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    I've taken out most of the parts I won't be needing now here's the parts I will be using. including the very clever handle and locking mechanism which is going to be hard to use but worth the effort.

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    The black item in the first picture is the heatsink believe it or not! Its massive and a structural part of the chassis. So I will have to make something up to replace it as it takes up too much room!

    The orginal cube is very well built the motherboard is amazing its very nice indeed. How they shoehorned a fully working g4 in there all those years ago is amazing particularly when it was running 100% passive.

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    Here's a couple of final shots of the motheboard to compare it to the mini-itx board that will be replacing it and a shuttle motherboard for comparison.

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    The first task for me to complete was to replace the missing top chassis plate , I've started work on cutting and bending a piece of aluminium to replace this section. After that I need to find a way of replacing the huge heatsink to allow me too shoehorn 2 hard discs in there. I ideally want 500gb of storage in the cube so I will use 2 x 250gb ide hard discs along with a laptop combo drive for optical storage.

    I hope you like the project so far let me know what you think.
     
    Last edited: 15 Aug 2005
  2. maeterlinck

    maeterlinck What's a Dremel?

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    Looks like a good project, going to be interested to see how you can fit it all in to the case. some of the pictures make it look like the original hardware was squeezed! Maybe if it's a file server then you could drop the CD-ROM completely saving space..?

    What are the plans for the final look?
     
  3. Wow, sweet lookin' lil cube! :cooldude:

    If ya google windowblinds you'll find a cool app to totally skin windows and one of the thousands of skins is Mac OS X.

    This is one project I'm gonna keep my eyes on :thumb:
     
  4. Gordy

    Gordy Evil Teddy

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    I thought about this but its quite usefull to be able to add files via dvd or cd (Thats how I store stuff at present!) The orginal layout is very cramped but if I remove the huge heatsink I can fit 2 hard discs and an optical drive.

    I plan to keep it as stock looking from the outside as possible, although I'm toying with the idea of painting the inner cube black as I've seen a couple of cubes sprayed black and they look ace with the clear perspex over the top.
     
  5. Gordy

    Gordy Evil Teddy

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    Yeah I've seen them around, tbh I can't be bothered with skinning it slows the system up and is extra software that can cause issues. I've got 2 mac's running osx tiger if I want the look of os x :D (With another planned ;) )
     
  6. MrWillyWonka

    MrWillyWonka Chocolate computers galore!

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    Nice! Macs always look good! But wouldn't painting the insides black be a bad idea as black absorbs heat, so would causing heat problems?

    Look forwards to seeing the finsihed project, illumination would be cool!
     
  7. Gordy

    Gordy Evil Teddy

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    Its only running a mini itx system so not much heat and when i say inside I mean on the outside of the innner chassis, paint wouldnt make any difference there.

    I may use a couple of cathodes to give some glowing not sure yet. Bit concerned about the psu at the moment its not very big so 2 x hdd 1 optical and the mobo may be a bit much already so more stuff could be a bad idea, dunno yet hehe :D
     
  8. DreamTheEndless

    DreamTheEndless Gravity hates Bacon

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    Looks cool -

    Are you going to be running windows or linux?
     
  9. Gordy

    Gordy Evil Teddy

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    It will be windows as I've not a clue where to start on linux :D
     
  10. o0mercer0o

    o0mercer0o What's a Dremel?

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    Looks great! I was planning a similar project. I can't wait to see it finished.
     
  11. Gordy

    Gordy Evil Teddy

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    I was suprised that only two people have converted them before now, though having seen how little space there is inside I'm no longer surprised hehe :D

    :dremel:
     
  12. gebrek

    gebrek What's a Dremel?

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    if you pick up a copy of mandriva it's really easy. Almost like using Windows!

    i was looking at the pic comparing the mini-itx to the original G4 motherboard, it almost looks like the Mini-Itx is smaller. is this true?

    another question came to mind. are you going to use a slim optical drive? cause i can't see how you could fit a full sized optical drive in there...

    last one, i promise.... are you going to put some lights in the bottom to light up the whole shell? :naughty:
     
  13. maeterlinck

    maeterlinck What's a Dremel?

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    not sure about black - but a lighter, maybe pastle type colour fading between another could look really good under the outer case...
     
  14. Gordy

    Gordy Evil Teddy

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    The mac motherboard is a wee bit smaller but it does have things like modem and network ports as detachable daughterboards.

    It will have a slim laptop style combo drive as they are smallest and thats what was orginally in there

    I may use some cathodes to do lighting but not sure yet.

    I'm thinking of something like this http://www.cubeowner.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1270/size/big/sort/2/cat/503

    http://www.cubeowner.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1269/sort/2/cat/503/page/3

    Looks great doesnt it
     
  15. DickH

    DickH What's a Dremel?

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    Gordy, your stuff is always awesome, good luck!
     
  16. maeterlinck

    maeterlinck What's a Dremel?

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    Ok so it does look good :D

    I'd still be interested to see something with a bit more colour, but it's your project!!

    Looking forward to updates!
     
  17. frodo

    frodo What's a Dremel?

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    wow, this looks like it could be a pretty sweet project :D i was tempted to do this, but couldnt afford it
     
  18. Hiren

    Hiren mind control Moderator

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    Will follow this one with interet, really like your other work Gordy. Good luck with this.
     
  19. orenc17

    orenc17 What's a Dremel?

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    Looking good so far
    But can you post bigger pics

    TNX
     

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