Project Mac Cube: Complete (Pictures and Videos - 16/08/05)
I'm nearly finished on Project Little Devil ( http://www.gordyhand.co.uk/main.php?page=liquidbloo ) I just have a few minor bits still to finish when I pull my finger out.
So with that in mind I started thinking about my next project, I have two other ones on the back burner but neither of them really inspire me at the moment or suit my needs. What I really need is a fileserver that small and good looking. With this in mind I started coming up with some idea's as to what to do.
My orginal plan was to do a smaller version of Project mini me ( http://www.gordyhand.co.uk/main.php?page=minime ) which was a shuttle flex atx sized based project. I liked this idea but I couldn't decide what to do with the externals to make it nice. The plan was to spray paint it but after Project Little Devil I've had enough paint fumes in my lungs over the last few weeks to last me a lifetime hehe.
So I set about trying to find some other idea, I stumbled across Sun's Cobalt Qube 3 these would be great to convert into a file server. The only problem is they go for far too much money on ebay to make it worthwhile.
Now with my current Apple switch in progress I was having a look at older mac's on ebay to see what we could sell my girlfriends Powermac G4 for. When I did this I stumbled across some mac cubes. They are Powermac g4's crammed into a cube space. These were the very first SFF computer and are still ahead of the current sff's in many ways.
I've spent the last month or two trying to find a well priced Apple Powermac Cube and finally I found a great donor case. It was a incomplete cube with just the motherboard , cpu and psu included. This suited my needs perfectly and after a short bidding war I won the auction!
http://www.gordyhand.co.uk/albums/maccube/DSCF1719.jpg
Some more pics of the cube (Click on the for full 800x600 shots)
http://www.gordyhand.co.uk/albums/ma...1718.thumb.jpg
http://www.gordyhand.co.uk/albums/ma...1720.thumb.jpg
http://www.gordyhand.co.uk/albums/ma...1721.thumb.jpg
I picked up the cube two days ago from the courier and set about taking it apart. I realised the previous owner had really abused it when removing some of the components, the inner chassis was missing some parts and others were damaged grrrrrrrr. It didn't bother me too much as I wouldn't be using most of the insides anyway.
I started taking the cube apart which is no easy task, the cube drew blood in my battle with it but I finally got it into is components.
The perspex has a few scratches and has some dirt so it needs work but for the most part its in excellent condition considering its age.
http://www.gordyhand.co.uk/albums/ma...1716.thumb.jpg
http://www.gordyhand.co.uk/albums/ma...1717.thumb.jpg