Upgrading my Apple PowerMac Cube

About a year ago I purchased an Apple PowerMac Cube off EBay. My purchase was not driven by any need or concept of using it as a daily computer. The purchase was simply made due to the absolute beauty of the Cube‚s design. The current Mac-Mini is much smaller and more powerful then the Cube, but it can‚’t touch the shear beauty of it.

The Cube, as purchased, was stock with a 450mhz G4 CPU, a 20gb Hard Disk, a Rage 128 Video Card., and OS 9.2 loaded. I had a spare 120gb IDE Hard Drive so I installed this drive and OS X within the first couple of weeks. It has stayed in this condition for about a year but in the back of my mind I‚’ve intended to do reasonable upgrades to it.

Several weeks ago I purchased a Sonnet 1.2ghz Encore/ST G4 CPU upgrade. Then two weeks ago I received a NVIDIA GeForce3 card, that I paid much-to-much for on EBay. For the last two weeks I‚’ve wanted to install these upgrades but at the same time I‚’ve hesitated due to the complexity of the job. I saw from the hard drive upgrade that fitting that many parts (with year 2000 level integration) into such a small space can only increase the complexity of replacing or upgrading any one of them.

Last night I took the plunge!

I had originally intended to photo and document the entire process but quickly discovered that I had forgotten to recharge the battery on my digital camera. Thus, this is a narrative version of the process.

The Sonnet CPU upgrade came with a cooling fan to be in stalled in the bottom of the Cube and very well written and detailed instructions. Since I had already been inside the Cube when replacing the hard drive I was somewhat familiar with component locations. This made the process easier if not less nerve racking.

Getting to the CPU on a Cube requires the disassembly of the outer frame, removal of the video riser and graphics card, removal of the VRM, removal of any memory strips, the careful removal of the main logic board, and then the removal of the CPU board. The process of removing and replacing the main logic board is definitely the most difficult and stressful. It requires carefully measured and applied force while slowly working it loose from very tight quarters. I could just envision damaging the board!

Once I had removed all these parts I installed the cooling fan and then began to reverse the process I had just followed. This particular CPU upgrade uses the stock CPU heat sink and requires no software/firmware patches. When I got to point of the graphics card I swapped the faceplate from my stock Rage 128 card to the GeForce3 card and then installed this new card. This is the main reason I paid a higher price for the GeForce3. It fits inside the Cube using the stock faceplate and brackets with no modifications. It’s also a good graphics performer for the cube. The GeForce3 that I purchased had a small and almost silent cooling fan. The inside of a Cube is very tight and with a faster CPU and video card I felt that a video card cooling fan as well as the case cooling fan were good insurance for long life.

I completed the reassembly and lowered the Cube core back into its case, and then connected the video, keyboard/mouse, network and power connections. As I touched the power on/off touch point on top I waited to see if I’d forgotten any connections or damaged any components. It booted back to the desktop with no noted problems. The System info reflected the new hardware. Snoopy dance of joy here!!!

Performances wise the system is notably faster and can easily play most videos or run most applications with no skips or hesitations. It still would not be a good gamers machine but for office applications, medium graphics work, or Internet browsing it works well. Operational wise it is still very quiet, only a slight hum of the fans, and it seems to run cool. I would expect long life with these upgrades. Recommended.

The most important advice I could give about doing this type of upgrade is to take you time, think about each step, be sure you understand the instructions, don’t force anything beyond reason, and check and double-check that you have reconnected everything as you reassemble it. I used a anti-static wrist strap to eliminate that danger.

If you are looking for information on the Apple PowerMac Cube in general or you own one and would like to do some research on what options are available for upgrade then www.cubeowner.com is a must site.