Upgrade Mac Cube to G5 Look

ExCEPTION writes "This Japanese guy upgraded his Mac Cube to G5 all by himself. Well, not really an upgrade, just the case." Apple should pay (or hire) this guy.

Comments

translations

[bash_jeremy]

altavista's translation

Re:translations

[cgenman]

Yes, once making the frame applying complaint it is not it to be possible. You can enjoy and increase are high.

small

[ack154]

I just love how it's so small. Apple should market these babies and do another commercial with Yao and MiniMe (don't remember his name), only this time for the G5 instead of the PowerBook.

And yes, the buttons being in English was slightly odd.... But the guy has some serious skillz... yes, skills with a 'z'. Even the little power button added.

Impresssive

[moosesocks]

This is VERY well-done and impressive.

Based upon the final photographs, I honestly could easily mistake this for a 'real' Apple product.

This quality of this is WAY above the normal case-modding job. Not only does it add style, it adds functionality and usability by adding the handles and front USB ports.

In addition, the motherboard looks like it's UPSIDE DOWN. This could have a serious impact upon the cooling of the processor. See here for a picture of the back of the REAL cube.

A minor sidenote: How on earth did he drill the holes in the side panels? They are definitely not pre-drilled as shown by the pattern of holes around the cutouts for the power button, CD drive, and USB hub.

All in all, while I held nothing against the original design of the Cube, and I absolutely hate the design of the G5, this mod-job is very impressive, and I like it a lot. Kudos.

Re:Impresssive

[Dr Reducto]

"A minor sidenote: How on earth did he drill the holes in the side panels? They are definitely not pre-drilled as shown by the pattern of holes around the cutouts for the power button, CD drive, and USB hub."

It definitely looks like it was water-jetted, or laser cut. I am guessing waterjet, because it would be cheap to get something like this done. It's plastic, but takes a little bit of time to cut due to the number of holes.

Re:Impresssive

[Chrysophrase]

Not only impressive, but it's sooooo cute! My "want-it-now-level" went off the scale on this one...

Re:Impresssive

[gooberguy]

is there a non rotary drill ?

Yes, it's called a chisel.

Re:Impresssive

[GoRK]

There are laser drills and water jet drills and particle jet drills that are common in all types of industrial manufacturing, mining, tunneling, etc.

Wow

[Hard_Code]

Only on slashdot would we have a news item on essentially placing a small cube into a bigger cube. ;)

Re:Wow

[redJag]

We've had *much* lesser quality mods posted on Slashdot before. This mod is beautiful. I don't really see what you're problem is..

Re:slashdotted already? no!

[Dr Reducto]

" sorry, my cable (comcast) sucks."

No, you went over your bandwidth limit for the month!

Just imagine

[Artifex]

If Apple had gone to the cheese-grater look back then, they wouldn't have had to abandon the "cube" concept over such a silly thing as the clear plastic getting hairline internal cracks over time.

What with the rising popularity of SFF and Mini-ITX showing that compactness is starting to matter more to hobbyists, it would be interesting to see the market effects of a reintroduction.

ahhh, Babelfish...

[Tumbleweed]

...the people who brought you "All Your Base Are Belong To Us". :)

Its side ways: gonna roast

[goombah99]

Since the plugs that were on the bottom of the cube are now on the back side of this puppy (and the top side on-button is now on the front) its pretty clear this thing is sideways. Since the cube was cooled only by convection this thing is gonna roast.

Re:Its side ways: gonna roast

[Anonymous Coward]

You are correct that the Cube is convection cooled as shipped. However, there is a mounting point for (I believe) an 80mm fan near the bottom / below the heatsink "chimney." It is certainly possible to install this fan though I have no idea if this guy did this.

Re:Its side ways: gonna roast

[martingunnarsson]

The guy has put some thought into this:

It flows the air which the convection is done how, don't you think? is. Upgrading graphic card and CPU, the fan being attached, the person is good, however it is probably will be, therefore as for my normal itself, if no oak it is not, don't you think?. Therefore it turns with the free convection and like the light basket just it is flowing, if even the polar barely the air flows, don't you think? it probably is OK what with that.

Re:Its side ways: gonna roast

[seanmeister]

thanks for clearing that up!

Heat

[inimcus]

Someone raised this already, but I think it may need to be addressed more. I don't believe convection works very well when the heat tunnel is placed on it's side. Is there some internal fans that he neglected to show us?

I hope and pray that one day Steve and Ives get this notion of all-in-one computers out of their heads. Mini ATX PCs are really popular. The iMac could seriously benefit by having an AGP slot, processor upgradability and atleast two PCI slots.

I have an iMac DV SE now, and I love it, but I won't even consider buying another one. I love OS X and I will pony up for G5, but many first time buyers are really put off with thought of purchasing a computer that overly limits their options, even if they never would do anything to it.

Apple would hit a home run if they came out with something simular to this as the next iMac.

Re:Heat

[YouHaveSnail]

many first time buyers are really put off with thought of purchasing a computer that overly limits their options, even if they never would do anything to it.

What's your source for that lovely bit of wisdom?

It's my experience that most first time buyers don't know or care what AGP or PCI slots are, or why one might ever want or need to change the processor (whatever that is). Indeed, an essential part of the appeal of all-in-one machines like the iMac and the eMac are that, well, they're all-in-one. You don't have to make a lot of decisions about what to buy, and you don't have to worry about whether all the parts will work together. (That's one reason that Gateway and Dell tend to sell their low-end machines as bundles.)

I recognize that you could add some expansion slots and just not make a big fuss about it so as not to confuse the non-technical customers. But why increase the costs of development and manufacturing to add features that you're specifically planning not to advertise? Small, cheap, expandable: pick two.

My dad just bought an iMac. I suppose that technically he's not a first time buyer, since he bought my first two Macs back in '85 and '87. But this is the first computer he's bought for himself, and it's a perfect choice specifically because he doesn't have to know or worry about anything on the inside. He'll use e-mail, surf, and do research with it, and he'll probably be happy with it for several years to come.

My co-worker also just bought an iMac. Last night, in fact. He's anything but a first time buyer, but he thinks it's a great computer too. He got home from the store late last night and was looking forward to going to bed, but his wife wanted him to set it up. So he essentially took it out of the box and plugged it in, and he was about done. He had to create a user account for her, and plug it into his home network. But that's it. There's an awful lot to be said for that sort of convenience.

Apple would hit a home run if they came out with something simular to this as the next iMac.

Perhaps. But the cube doesn't have much in the way of expansion possibilities either, so I don't think it's really what you're wishing for.

Also, despite great engineering, fantastic presentation, and early raves from the press, the cube was rather a flop for Apple. I'd be surprised to see them do anything close to the cube in the near future.

Re:Back/Next

[dnahelix]

It is most likely because the Japanese start learning English at an early age. A lot of Japanese use English words mixed into their speech frequently, especially computer- and web-centric words. Also, all of text was not in Japanese.

Hopefully, a better translation

[Atsi Otani]

Hope this is a little better than Altavista or Babelfish.

Creating a G5-ish case for the Power Mac G4 Cube

December 1, 2003
I thought I'd like to have a cube with a Power Mac G5 design, so I started to make a case. First I measured the cube... I started to measure the dimensions with a height gauge.
Looking forward to how I'll cook up this thing...
# Huh? Why am I making a case? It's because I can't buy a G5, though people I know are calling me and telling me they bought it... (;_;) And while I was fretting over it, I heard this (http://www.powerlogix.com/products2/enclosure/) was going to be released, so I guess I was inspired by it.

December 3, 2003
First I cut out the parts for the case walls, using ABS boards. I made it a little taller than the real cube.
I'm going to put in a USB hub into the extra space, because they tend to get in the way. It actually was really inconvenient when you connected USB stuff to the Cube, because you had to be careful while laying down the Cube on its side... so that's why. Bought a slim 4-port USB hub. It's what I plan to use.
A pic of how it looks after I glue and assemble the parts I cut out. The size is a bit smaller than the real Cube.
I'm gluing thin boards on the outsides, to shield the insides and increase strength. After I finish gluing the boards, I plan to glue aluminum boards about 0.3 mm thick in the insides for shielding.
The front panel is going to be glued like this, but of course, there's going to be mesh holes because it's a pseudo G5. I'm going to draw in guides, and there's going to be holes for slot-loading and the USB hub, so I'm going to glue on the panel after I finish working on it. At this point, the size is height 193mm * width 179mm * 183mm.
I'd like to attach handles, work on the mesh, and install the USB hub tomorrow.

December 4, 2003
Built in a USB hub in the extra space in the bottom. The picture is how it looks from the bottom. When it's completed, there's supposed to be 4 USB ports lined up at the bottom of the front panel.
This is how it looks after I put in the Cube (although it's upside down). I plan to work on the front panel, open holes for slot-loading and the USB hub, make a on/off switch, and create a mesh for the front panel.
I'll work on the front panel and handles tomorrow.

December 6, 2003
I opened holes in the front of the case, so it'll look like the aluminum mesh that represents the G5. I first thought of marking off the back of the front panel to open holes, but since there were so many, I reverted to using mesh aluminum as a guide to open the holes. So many 2.9mm diameter holes... my mind goes blank.
The front panel was completed after a painstaking effort. Gawd... it's almost looks like mesh aluminum in the picture.
I put it together and glued it to the case I made yesterday. I guess I'm blowing my own horn, but it looks real nice...
I started to work on the handles. I have to bend boards in order to use them, but since it's going to be troublesome to heat the boards and bend them, I'm going to glue together two 1.5mm thick ABS boards while bending them. Unless I do this, the boards are going to try to return to their original shape after a while.
I made a guide with the same width as the case (glued V-shaped blacks to a flat table), and glued the boards while bending them in the guide.

December 7, 2003
The leg parts after the bending was completed. I glued them on after cutting and finishing them.
Glued completed legs to the case. It's starting to look more like it...
Another pic from the side. Yeah, this is more like it.
This is working out great! Got to make another set and start working on the top.

December 7, 2003
Another set of parts for the handle, after bending. Same size as the legs.
Glued the handles and finished the areas where glue was applied. Looks like a G5 all over... height 259mm * width 179mm * depth 183mm
All I have to do now is make a transparent part for the on/o

difference

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think anyone has ever taken a few days old dell and modified the case in the style of today's dell, and if someone did, I don't think anyone would care.

Crazy mac users.

Well...

[vasqzr]

The difference here is the fact that it's a Mac, not a PC.

I mean compare the two:

Laptop
Apple Dell

Desktop
Apple Dell

MP3 Player
Apple Dell

Monitor
Apple Dell

The bottom line is, most Macintosh computers are aesthetically pleasing as they are functional. Modern-day works of art, if you will. Most PC's are still plain, square, boxes. At least, for better or for worse, they're not all beige anymore.

Re:Overheating...

[Refrag]

OK, apparently he didn't actually add a G5 and I forgot that there was no stock fan in the Cube (I'm thinking of the LCD iMac), but I still think this thing is going to overheat due to the lack of a chimney effect.

Can we use this as a standard?

[BiOFH]

So no stories on lame-ass mods with neon tubes and perspex and decals and bondo from now on? If they don't approach this level of care, design and planning, then I don't wanna see em.

This is the gold standard of mods, IMHO.