Do you think my Cube is still a relatively good machine?

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Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I have a G4 Cube 450

Radeon 32 Mb graphics card

192 Mb ram

DVD

20 gig hd

OS X and OS 9



I need it to last me until college. Do you think it will gt the job done for 2.5 more years? Aesthetically it will still be tops in 5 years.

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    I don't see why it wouldn't be fine for 2.5 years. It's a great machine. I'd take a Cube over my 500MHz iBook.
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  • Reply 2 of 23
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    the cube is still a great machine, and the only thing that held me back from trading in my imac as a down payment for the cube was it's shortened video slot (in order to fit in the 8" cube), which meant that vendors would have to make a special short-card to fit in there -- plus, apple flat-out said they wouldn't support upgrading the video... and i just didn't get any warm-fuzzies from either ati or nvidia about supporting the cube long-term. but the 16mb ati rage pro is two years old in last-generation's g4 towers, and it does everything i need it to at work, plus decent games... so yeah, it should be fine, i would think.



    [ 11-29-2001: Message edited by: rok ]</p>
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  • Reply 2 of 23
    Funny, I would take the iBook over my Cube. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
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  • Reply 4 of 23
    leonisleonis Posts: 3,427member
    Three years from now the cube's case can be used as a fancy tissue box



    just kidding



    You may think about adding some RAM. 192MB is still kind of at the low side....
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  • Reply 5 of 23
    Good idea Leonis, I think I need to add some ram. I want about 512 total.
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  • Reply 6 of 23
    groveratgroverat Posts: 10,872member
    No, it sucks. Mail it to me for burial.
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  • Reply 7 of 23
    LOL, groverat!
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  • Reply 8 of 23
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    [quote]Originally posted by Macintosh:

    <strong>Funny, I would take the iBook over my Cube. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Really? I'd much rather have the G4 processor than the G3 in the iBook.
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  • Reply 9 of 23
    The iBook 600 would be nearly as fast as my Cube in even altivec enhanced apps, wouldnt it?



    I like portability more than desktops becasue high school can be an unorganized place.
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  • Reply 10 of 23
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    [quote]Originally posted by Macintosh:

    <strong>The iBook 600 would be nearly as fast as my Cube in even altivec enhanced apps, wouldnt it?



    I like portability more than desktops becasue high school can be an unorganized place. </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Yeah, you're right, but I'm stuck with the 500MHz one so I'm not lucky.
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  • Reply 11 of 23
    The Cube will last just fine. As long as 3D games aren't your thing.
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  • Reply 12 of 23
    cubitcubit Posts: 846member
    Are you kidding? The Cube is a great machine and its G4 will certainly get you through until the form factor is revived down the line. I've got 2 Cubes, one a silent 450 with 386 MB at school with a 15" Studio and one fast and slightly noiser one 500 with 1.5 Megs RAM at home hooked up to a Cinema display. You will find all the memory you can pack in helpful, but I would take it up in as large a block as you can afford. The 1.5 config seems to prevent use of virtual memory though. <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
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  • Reply 13 of 23
    I have a Cube ... specs are:

    450Mhz G4

    1.5Gb Ram

    Nivida GeForce2 Mx400

    80Gig Seagate Barracuda IV Disk



    Its a nice machine! However, in OSX, it seems to be a bit laggy... But that may be more OSX's fault than the computer, it seems speedy enough in 9, but I don't use OS9 ... .



    I think it will last the 2 years you need it to ... but don't think you couldn't upgrade the video card ... my geforce is a PC geforce (so you can't use an apple flat panel, but it has regular VGA out), but it works fine in OSX/9 using the apple nvidia drivers, and even sleeps just fine with it.



    However, for me ... I think i need a G5 or dual proc G4 . I'll still keep the cube though, it would make a nice server, or maybe even backup or something ...
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  • Reply 14 of 23
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    My Cube's humming along nicely (450MHz, RADEON, 1GB RAM). I'm thinking of swapping out the HD for a larger one, and then I expect several years of loyal service from the gorgeous little machine.



    If a friend of mine didn't need a Mac for his studio, I'd still have my 8600/200. So this machine is gravy.
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  • Reply 15 of 23
    satchmosatchmo Posts: 2,699member
    Your Cube should be okay for quite a few

    years depending on your applications. Most can get by with machines in the 300-400mHz range.



    But it's value will probably drop in January if a LCD iMac is introduced. That would create an all in one product which is "luggable"(like the Cube) but without the need for a separate monitor.



    Mind you, aesthetically the Cube is still a piece of art and will probably be inducted in the Smithsonian.
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  • Reply 16 of 23
    [quote]Originally posted by stepson:

    <strong>

    However, for me ... I think i need a G5 or dual proc G4 . I'll still keep the cube though, it would make a nice server, or maybe even backup or something ...</strong><hr></blockquote>



    See the dual 450 hack on this board for the ultimate Cube. I'll be going there as soon as some DP sawtooth's come up for sale (when the G5 ships)
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  • Reply 17 of 23
    cdhostagecdhostage Posts: 1,038member
    Get more memory. Then get a larger monitor. Heck, while you're spending all this money, get the next revision G4.
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  • Reply 18 of 23
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    Your G4 cube is a collector, so be proud to own one;

    A radeon video card is far better than the video of an i book. So i think excepting Geforce 3 video card, your computer is a very good Mac's game machine.

    One advice get more memory, prize are very low for the moment and in the future it would be hard to find 100 mhz SDRAM.
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  • Reply 19 of 23
    enderender Posts: 353member
    ... But the price of PC100 RAM doesn't matter much, if at all. Just use the (already) cheaper PC133 RAM and it will scale down to work with your 100 MHz bus. I've found that <a href="http://www.datamem.com"; target="_blank">www.datamem.com</a> has very competitive prices, and they only ship quality RAM. You pay a few bucks for reliability, worth it to me at least.



    Just pick up any of the PC133 RAM, but always buy the 512 MB chips. This way you don't have to take one out to add more RAM should you run out of RAM slots (i.e., if you have 3 128 MB chips and want to boost your memory to 1 GB, you have to take one chip out and replace it with a bigger one. This is wasteful).



    -Ender
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  • Reply 20 of 23
    These guys are right, it should be fine for 2 and a half more years.
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