11/20/02
NVIDIA Graphics Card Firmware
Update for people who want to use a Cinema HD display.
Apple has posted a NVIDIA
Graphics Card Firmware Update .This firmware
update is for customers using Mac OS X version 10.2
(Jaguar) or later with an Apple Cinema HD Display
and a Power Mac G4 with one of the following NVIDIA
graphics cards: GeForce2 MX, GeForce2 MX TwinView,
GeForce3, or GeForce4 MX. These cards require the
update to support the high resolution of the Cinema
HD Display.
The update is required only for customers
using Mac OS X 10.2 or later. If you are using Mac
OS 9.2.2, or earlier versions of Mac OS X (version
10.1.x), you can use the Apple Display Software on
the CD provided with the Cinema HD Display. You should
update the graphics card firmware (using this update
or the Apple Display Software) before you connect
your Apple Cinema HD Display to your computer.
11/16/02
Cube chat on iChat
We are currently running a Cube chat
on iChat. Just connect to the "cube" chat
room and talk with us!
Update : the chat is now over
(at least for us.. but you can still meet in the chatroom).
We'll have a new one soon!
11/15/02
Cheap GeForce 3 cards for the
G4 Cube and AGP G4 PowerMacs.
Allmac.com
has some GeForce3 cards in stock. They work in G4
Cubes and other AGP PowerMac G4. AllMac
is selling those cards for $249.95. However,
Cube Zone readers will have a $10 discount
if they mention the Cube-Zone in the comments section
of the order form (Be sure to do that or you won't
have any discount!!!). Hurry! Allmac only has a few
cards and all the other resellers are sold out!
11/08/02
A Pentium in a G4 Cube Case.
Some people recyle their Cube in a strange
way. Wookie
has just created a Pentium Cube with a VIA Mini ITX
motherboard. If you need a good Linux Server but can't
find a real Cube, that's the way to go!
11/01/02
PowerLogix temporarily suspends
shipments of the Dual 800MHz cards for the Cube
PowerLogix has temporarily suspended
shipments of the PowerForce Dual G4 Series 100 800MHz
for PowerMac G4 Cube. This is due to a small number
(3 to be exact) of failures of the Apple Cube DC/DC
power supply card. PowerLogix is currently putting
the finishing touches on a more robust DC/DC replacement
card for PowerMac Cubes, that will be able to easily
support the added power demands of dual processors.
This will also allow PowerLogix to offer faster dual
processors for Cube systems, so Dual 1GHz will be
a reality for Cube owners.
The PowerLogix DC/DC board will also
be available separately. Current Dual 800 owners will
be provided the stronger DC/DC card at no charge when
it becomes available. The stronger DC/DC card is not
required for single CPU models of the PowerForce G4
Series 100 although it would not be a bad insurance
policy as the Cube ages. The card will also be much
cheaper than Apple's replacement part cost. Customers
who currently own or acquire a single 800MHz or 1GHz
PowerForce G4 will be able to upgrade to dual models
through the Trade-up program. This means Cube owners
can upgrade their systems now for a tremendous speed
boost, and upgrade again later for even more speed
without a price penalty. Even though the PowerMac
Cube was not a big seller for Apple, it is a big part
of the Powerlogix product offering. A stronger, more
robust DC/DC card combined with a PowerForce G4 CPU
upgrade will enable owners to enjoy both high performance
and long life from from their Cube.
Robert Jagitsch, Powerlogix
10/30/02
Review of the Powerlogix dual
800 card for the Cube.
Tobias J, who has just installed dual
800 card in its Cube gives us a sense of what to expect
with the Powerlogix dual 800:
Last week there was a posting on xlr8yourmac
that the dual G4 cards from PowerLogix are in stock
at OWC. I instantly placed my order there and received
the card 4 days later on Monday. I am living in Germany,
shipping was $30. There is no dealer here already
having the cards in stock and the price could not
be much lower and I could not wait any longer.
Taxes are 135Euro here in Germany which
have to be added to the $790 and $30 shipping. German
law gives the consumer a two year warranty, not so
in general in the US. I was pleased to see that PowerLogix
offers a 2 year warranty on their products. I would
have waited for a german dealer if there only was
a 90 days warranty at PL. I waited nearly a year for
a CPU upgrade for my cube. I ordered a single cpu
upgrade from Sonnet before, but they were delayed.
Once I heard the rumor about a dual card I canceled
my order and decided to wait for that. Several months
have now passed. Well the wait is over folks and 20min
after FedEx dropped the parcel here I had implanted
2 new hearts in my beloved Cube.
Installation is easy if you have ever
opened the cube before and possible for everybody
who can handle a screwdriver. Beside the CPU card,
there are also 2 small heatsinks for the power supply
card and a 80mm fan for the bottom of the cube. The
instruction video on DVD is really helpful for somebody
who has never opened the Cube before. The manual does
not say anything about thermal grease when putting
in the new card, it is not included either. Since
the surface of the stock heatsink (nearly 90x90mm!)
was not clean enough (residues from the old cpu card
sticky stuff), I cleaned it with a razorblade and
applied a thin film of arctic silver thermal grease
to the surface of the CPU module sink. I would recommend
that to everybody. Getting rid of the heat is the
most important thing in the Cube. Without cleaning
the surfaces might not have enough contact.
So much for install, booted up and installed
the PL cache tool to enable backside cache. (I suggest
that you get a bottle of champagne and hold a small
speech when booting the first time) I now have a dual
800 Cube with 1.5gig Ram and a GForce3 card. Talking
just about benchmarks and numbers is not too much
my thing and I believe that it is more important on
how the machine feels than the actual speedup. The
cube here is not used for 24/7 3d rendering or graphics,
its just the average office/surf and sometimes game
machine. I occasionally do some video cutting and
compressing. But I like to have multiple apps open.
Mail, Browser, ichat and others at once clogged my
old 450 cpu totally. Everything is heavily faster
than before. There are no more delays when you open
multiple apps, window resizing is really fun even
under load.
OS X does an extremely good job
at using both CPUs. Most of the time they are used
quite evenly. Some apps make more some less use. Folding@home
i.e. seems not to be optimized enough, SETI is. Having
SETI running I can continue to work, with 450 it clogged
my machine up. The machine is simply smooth and I
now can work without any waits. The avarage speedup
feels like 2-3 times. Medal of honor (just as I reference)
is now playable with all settings max and 1280x1024
res. With 450Mhz I had maybe 4-5fps, now nearly smooth.
Virtual PC does not seem to make much use of both
cpus but is nearly 2 times faster. The Terminal starts
in 2 sec, before I waited at least 6 seconds. Other
apps start nearly twice as fast. Warcraft III ? Same
like MoH. All settings to max and 1280, runs great
! Before, it was unplayable with these settings. With
450Mhz my old cpu was often at 100% use when starting
someting up or doing 2 things at a time. Now the average
load is 50% or less doing much more.
OS9: I checked OS9 just short,
since I dont need to use it any longer. 9 doesnt make
sense with 2 cpus, its not much faster, just the 450
to 800Mhz move, that is all. For 9 I personally would
go for a single G4. I have not encountered a freeze
or any cpu related problem yet.
There are 2 drawbacks: The fan
is too loud. I have a fan on the video card which
is quite OK, but the new fan makes the cube really
noisy. Still far from new towers, but too loud for
me. Heat. The fan moves a lot of warm air out which
tells us that 2 cpus are really generating a lot of
heat. The air at the top vent has about 35¡C, so lets
assume that the CPUs are running at least 20¡C hotter.
There is no software temp gauge for the 7455, so I
have no readings. I had my cube running SETI and folding@home
for 2 hours (SETI alone does not suck 100% cpu time
:-) , then shut if off and removed the core. The center
heatsink gets warm but not hot, which is fine. I expected
more heat here. The HD is not affected, but the videocard
and powersupply card are too hot to touch, they are
over 50¡C. My opinion is that this will greatly reduce
the life span of these components. The motherboard
surely will also get hotter. The GForce3 generates
enough heat alone, with the dual G4 card theres too
much and there is no real airflow at this section
of the cube. A Rage128 would be better but much slower
and not usable under X or for games or QE. Even a
radeon is too slow. The GF3 (or something faster)
is a MUST, even when the CPU/bus is still the bottleneck,
not the card. After all I am extremely pleased with
the speed increase, working with the Cube is now fun
again. It does not double or triple everything, but
it has enough speed reserves for future tasks. My
next investment will be a faster internal HD, since
X uses the HD a lot. Total silence cannot be achieved
any more, so a faster 7200rpm HD with fluid bearings
will go in. PowerLogix did a great job with this product.
I did not even dream about a dual card for the cube,
since upgrades were nearly dead in general for a long
time and we all questioned if there ever will be upgrade
cards again. They are back ! Dual thumbs up !
Tobias J
10/22/02
Apple,why
don't you use OS X for your Web servers? It is time
to switch!
Apple wants PC owners to switch to Macs.
That's the best idea ever for all those people using
those crappy PCs... However, after checking what Apple
uses for its web servers, we think it is time for
Cupertino to upgrade :-)
Here are some of the Apple domain names
and the Web servers hardware and software used :
