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Alright I got me a Giga Blue Fan kit ordered and on the way. Should arrive Monday.

Also semi seriously bidding on a OEM R9000 64MB. If I can get it under $50 i'll buy it. But if not, no big loss for me. Figured with how GF2s and R7500s have been going for, i'd pick up something not all Cube folk will get due to fears from a VRM move. Plus I need something I can use as a reference for the actual size I can squeeze in.

Btw, does anyone know the actual length, width, and height of the Mac R9800 128?

First mod complete. Giga blue fan installed:



As others have stated, it looks better in person and in the dark. Had light on just for the camera to get a good shot.

Btw, theres no instructions with the fan for installing. Best way to install is going thru the Optical drive bay. CubeOwner has more detailed instructions but its very simple. Take out optical and HD then slide fan into slot on bottom and plug into VRM board. I recommend removing VRM to plug the fan in, easier that way since its a tiny plug. Then just put the VRM back.

First mod complete. Giga blue fan installed:

hey thats my IM window !! 

I just ordered this:


Thermaltake Orange Orb

to replace this:


Vantec iCEBERQ 4

to cool my Cube's


GeForce3

The Iceberq is a pretty good cooler, but I had to Dremel off some of the heatsink because it interfered with the RAM heatsinks. The original fan had, after two years, started to make an incredibly annoying, loud, grinding noise, and it never felt comfortable, anyway, looked just too flimsy to properly cool a GF3 in a Cube.

The Iceberq definitely cools things down plenty to use the GeForce3 in a Cube, I had mine on 24/7 for about eight months with it. But it, too, has started making noise, which is now reason enough for me to shut down the Cube at night. Heck, I even considered swapping the old Rage 128 back in until the Orb arrives, but I couldn't find it among the mountain of spare parts in the attic.

I've taken the Iceberq apart a few times, but can't find where I should lube it, if at all possible (like with the fans on the original Cube Radeon boards). If anyone has any tips, I'll try them out and see if it makes any difference.

I'll post pictures and result when I get the Orb. Here's hoping it'll be quiter and better than the Iceberq. At least I won't have to hacksaw it to fit.

,xtG
.tsooJ

7457. 

Yeah, all there's left then is AirPort (pretty useless in a desktop system, IMHO) and a DVD-RW drive, and it'll be totally maxed out:

1.5 GHz MPC7457, 1.5 GB RAM, 120 GB WD1200JB HD, GeForce3.

,xtG
.tsooJ

Yeah, all there's left then is AirPort (pretty useless in a desktop system, IMHO)

I've got an Airport card in my G5.  Not that I rearrange my setup that often, but it's nice to not have to worry about where to put it.  Without it I'd be limited to wherever there's a cable hookup.  Not only that, but it's nice to be able to access files on it from my laptop.

NightCougar_37 wrote:

Hey Alien, be sure and check for a buzzing sound from that particular upgrade. I heard thats been one of the only issues ppl have had with it over on Cube Owner. The blue LED fan that comes with it also looks real nice at night .

Does it? I don't care much for lighting my computer up like a christmas tree. I'm glad I'll be losing the blue LED fan on the Iceberq4 when I put in the Orange Orb. In fact, I've been contemplating asking a PowerLogix or Sonnet owner to trade their Panaflo fan for the LED thingie that comes with the Giga. But I guess I can live with it.

Its not really loud. The original 20GB HD that was in mine was louder than that fan.

Loudest thing in my Cube is the GPU fan, and I have a feeling that this is not going to change anytime soon. I'm hoping the Orange Orb will be quiter than the Iceberq4, but I'm not planning any parties just yet.

Got a lot of items in that. Might want to look into getting one of those new VRM replacements Giga has coming. If they work and are real of course.

Yeah, I'm eyeing that with great interest. At least they have a working prototype, I'm just curious if it'll also allow for higher video cards to be used without relocating the VRM. But if it doesn't, I think I can cope with using the GeForce3 for a while longer. Only the newest ATI cards are faster than mine, so no worries there.

As of right now PL is the only ones to have actual upgrades with the VRM bypass stuff ready to ship. Giga is anyones guess till they get shipping.

smurf that, PowerLogix aren't ever getting any business from me. They don't deserve to be in business after the stunts they pulled over the years.

,xtG
.tsooJ

I caught a few pictures of the possible prototype VRMs finally. I was also wondering about whether they prevent higher GPUs or not. I couldnt really tell from the shots I saw. They might just have something blocking still. All it needs is parts on the VRM relocated to the other side of it. Found out when I was messing with my R9000. The 9000 is not too bad, just a few cm too tall. Lengthwise it fits. Doesn't look like i'm going to have to file off the corner but that could change once I get it fully into the slot.

*edit* Decided I couldn't wait for enough $$$ to get a PowerCube and I instead just ordered me some relocation cables . I toyed with the 9000 today, actually putting it in the slot without the VRM to see if my fan mod might work. Turned out its about a cm too tall to fit. But however, there is a possibility of mounting one elsewhere. Once the VRM is removed there is a space there.

Only other option is filing down the R9000's heatsink in the middle. I'm guessing i'd have to remove it which i've heard isnt very easy. Unless there is a way I could cut off just bits of the heatsink fins at a time safely. Anyone have an idea of what tool i'd need to do this?

Last edited by NightCougar_37 (2005-01-25 12:19 am)

Yeah i've been noticing a lot of ppl in the Cube community don't know very much, even in terms of simple matters reguarding the processor upgrades or graphics cards. I've seen ppl attempting some pretty crazy modding that didn't know half of what some of the ppl on here know or a lot of the ppl on xlr8 know.

I generally wont do anything in modding unless i've studied the issue a lot either on my own or other sites. Ya know, so i'm prepared to what i'm going to do instead of just blind modding. Was why I was thinkin about getting a PowerCube so I could just get a precut relocation cable instead of getting a 12inch cable and having to cut it myself to the size I want. I really am not nuts about the looks of the PC either.

I really didn't like what I saw in the mounting techniques ppl used for the VRM relocation. Think I saw a few picts where ppl duct taped the VRM to the inside of the Cube. Yeah I intend to use maybe some electrical tape probably on the metal cage but not as far as they went.

Really for the R9000 heatsink I just need something like toenail clippers but stronger to trim a section of the fins. I got it used off ebay so i'm not going to be out much if I fry the card. I built my custom fan and cable hook up last night and ran it. Man those V5 fans move a lot of air. Its a lil loud, but maybe I got it hooked to the wrong wires. Just spliced the fan wires into a basic 3 connector 4 pin molex setup to run directly from the drive connectors, so maybe the voltage is running a bit high. Right now it pushes a heck of a lot more air than the Giga Blue fan, course that Giga fan is rather low speed anyways to keep the noise down.

Ahhh, figured it was that. I need to do more electrical stuff, heh heh, thanks!

I'm pretty sure people have done it before in Cubes and survived.

,xtG
.tsooJ

Well I got the VRM move finished and the R9000 is working. Man took all afternoon to do it. Had to modify the heck out of the VRM extension cable. Really looking back. I shoulda just waited and bought a powercube to get the specially precut cable in it even if I wouldnt have used the enclosure. Would have been easier and saved a lot of time. Have to practically hack away 3/4 of the male 30 pin connector on the cable before the VRM seats properly. Then theres chunks out from the female part you have to hack as well. Cable wasn't exactly 12in either. More like about 11. After a lil accident with my knife, I ended up cutting off another inch so its around 10inch long. Where its mounted, you really don't want much less than that.

Then the real time consuming part was getting the VRM to fit the way I wanted to between the drives. Finally went with the paperclip method that XLR8 uses.

For the R9000, only thing I had to hack away on it was one of the lil locking bits on the ADC connector. I opted to do that rather than drill away part of the hole where the connectors go. The ADC cable holds on fine with just one side locking anyways.

I am surprised i'm not feeling a lot of hot air coming out of the AGP area. I had heard the R9000 gets really hot but it seems fine even after I did some gaming on it. Course I didn't attach any faceplate to the R9000 so there is more of an opening for airflow for that slot than before.