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Technology (Apple) Businesses Apple Technology

Third Party Selling Upgraded G4 Cubes 82

Posted by pudge from the howzabout-an-upgraded-20th-anniversary-mac dept.
cybercyph writes "A 3rd party is selling upgraded G4 cubes. The upgraded cubes have a 1.2 GHz G4 processor, GeForce 3 card with 64 MB RAM, 1 GB RAM (upgradable to 1.5) and a 120 GB hard drive! I can't imagine this making Apple too happy..." They are asking $1879, which is comparable to a similarly equipped new G4 from Apple.
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Third Party Selling Upgraded G4 Cubes More

Third Party Selling Upgraded G4 Cubes

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  • Need a laptop? (Score:5, Informative)

    by CptChipJew ( 301983 ) * <michaelmiller AT gmail DOT com> on Sunday July 20, 2003 @04:44PM (#6486658) Journal
    If you want a third party upgraded laptop, MCE [mcetech.com] is selling iBooks equipped with DVD-R/CD-R optical drives.

    There was another company back in the day who's name skips my mind, but they also sold upgraded Macs until Apple gave them the cease and desist. So I would expect the same thing to happen here eventually.

    • Already have a Cube? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 20, 2003 @06:32PM (#6487210)
      If you already own a G4 cube there are a variety of upgrade options. I recently found them myself.

      PowerLogix and Sonnet both offer upgrade cards. Many video cards fit (and can be made to submit) inside. These upgrades usually imply removing the heat sinks and adding a fan.

      The hard drive isn't too have to upgrade - if you have a 10T Torx wrench just lying about.

      www.cubeowner.com is a great resource.

      Dav
      • I just upgraded my Cube's internal drive about two weeks ago, and I had to run to Sears to purchase a 9T Torx driver for this very thing- my 10T was too big.
      • Since Final Cut Pro 4 requires AGP, something my 550 MHz G4-equipped B&W G3 doesn't have, I'm looking to make my 450 MHz G4 Cube my video editing station. But with RT Extreme wanting at least 500 MHz, Shake 3 requiring at least 800 MHz, and who knows what DVD Studio Pro 2 will require, I've been looking at upgrading my Cube.

        However, I still have worries. PowerLogix upgrades don't work well in conjunction with sleep mode (won't wake up unless booted from CD) and Sonnet 1.2 GHz upgrades have been repor [xlr8yourmac.com]
    • I'd be wary of that, though. The G3 processor - especially at lower-end iBook speeds of 500-700 MHz - really doesn't have the oomph to reliably master a DVD. I suspect owners of these aftermarket drives end up with a lot of $2 coasters. Personally, I wouldn't burn a DVD on anything less than an 800 G4 unless I really had to. The processor just can't handle that much data that quickly. They may be available, but they're probably not a great idea unless you don't have an alternative.

      • Re:Need a laptop? (Score:3, Informative)

        by mkldev ( 219128 )
        I'd be very surprised if that were the case. An iBook 900 can easily move well over 2 megs/second between its hard drive and the optical drive. A 1x DVD-R burn only requires about 1.3 megs/second.

        Now, I wouldn't even think about actually using a G3 machine to do the encoding for obvious speed reasons, but I can't imagine such a machine not being fast enough to burn one. :-)

  • Two Thoughts (Score:4, Interesting)

    by burns210 ( 572621 ) <maburns@gmail.com> on Sunday July 20, 2003 @04:58PM (#6486748) Homepage Journal
    "The upgraded cubes have a 1.2 GHz G4 processor, GeForce 3 card with 64 MB RAM, 1 GB RAM (upgradable to 1.5) and a 120 GB hard drive!"

    This is cool and all, but why can't they have 256meg ram and a 20-40gig harddrive and shave several hundred dollars of the price?

    On a slightly offtopic rant:
    Many have said Apple needs to compete in the (more) lowend market... I would think a headless g3 would be the way to go... $500-$800, 128meg ram, 20gig hdd, etc. in a cube-like case without a monitor would be HUGE for apple, in my opinion. Even to the point shaving off the Apple markup and selling these things at a near no-profit, just to get lots of units sold.
    • sounds like you're talking about a PPC LCII [lowendmac.com]. It'd be nice. Although I suspect if they did that, people would start questioning, 'if X computer is only $500, then why is Y computer $3500, buy into the whole "macs are much more expensive than PCs" thing', and just buy a pc, rather than get a $800-1000 eMac. i'd buy one, though.

      whee.
    • Apple already sells cheap G4 systems in the form of the eMac.

      http://www.apple.com/emac/

    • Re:Two Thoughts (Score:3, Informative)

      by shaitand ( 626655 )
      ok, 256mb ram, $40, Now you've chopped $100 off the price, 120 to 40g harddrive... still about $100 so no real savings here (maybe $10?).

      So for $1700 I can get the exact same thing with 256mb ram instead of 1 gig... for $1800 it better be a hell of alot more machine than what they are already selling for me to buy it, not less.

    • That the exact spec I want... a small server appliance I can run Panther Server on.

      For $1000 I can get a iBook, an eMac or PowerMac G4. Neither quite fits what I want.

      Something like the Cobalt Qube, but running OS X Server.

      Something with

      2 ethernet ports (3 preferred)
      512Mb memory max
      30Gb disk max
      no need for keyboard/display to run, only needed for installation.
      small form factor/Cube ideal or ~iBook size that was stackable,
      limited OS X Server license (3 clients) to not compete with full
    • Because then it would suck.

  • Indeed... (Score:5, Funny)

    by =weezer= ( 180393 ) on Sunday July 20, 2003 @05:14PM (#6486824)
    "We at Kemplar.com are proud to offer the upgraded Apple Cube G4 for a limited time."

    I guess we'll see how limited . .
    • I would bet between 24-48 hours, before apple releases their hounds of war: the Apple lawyers.

      Yet, I would by one of those Cubes, if I had the money...

      I'll keep dreaming on a G5 :)

  • Dumbasses (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mjpaci ( 33725 ) on Sunday July 20, 2003 @05:23PM (#6486869) Homepage Journal
    Can anyone out there tell my why Apple would send a C&D to this company? All they're doing is buying old stock of Cubes, upgrading parts of them, and reselling them. They're not claiming that they're made by Apple. They're just being a VAR in the used market.

    --Mike

    • Re:Dumbasses (Score:2, Interesting)

      by SN74S181 ( 581549 )
      Remember, Apple was the company who tried to sue anybody who made a competing GUI product.

      If Apple had won that particular suit, you'd be paying Apple a royalty every time you installed another copy of XFree86. Luckily, Microsoft blew them away in court.

      They're litigious folk. Like the MPAA and the RIAA, much of their revenue comes from 'image' and they have to protect that image.
      • No, Microsoft was invited to work close with Apple back in the day so they could write apps for the mac. Microsoft was allowed to see the os code for reasons only known to Apple (the manager who allowed this must have been really gulable). Microsoft used this access to write windows. They also use access IBM gave them to view the code for OS/2. Windows is a combination (at least in some parts of the os) of Mac and OS/2. This is why both apple and ibm took microsoft to court. Microsoft is dominate toda
        • Apple sued in what is referred to as 'the look and feel suit' along with Lotus. They sued various other developers who produced GUI code that 'looked' like Macintosh.

          When did IBM take Microsoft to court in concert with Apple?

          And your last comment. Being anti-Microsoft means anything you assert has to be taken at face value? And anybody who doesn't agree with your Apple-marketing(?) contrived 'history' is pro-Microsoft?
          • When did IBM take Microsoft to court in concert with Apple?
            In the 80's after IBM and Microsoft stopped working on OS/2 but it was not cordinated with Apple's suit.

            As for the last statment, I don't quite understand your language but I will try to answer it. It was prohaps a bit off topic, more of me tring to explain that everyone using the same os is not the best way to do things IMHO. The computer industry would be better served with many different products allowing users to pick which one best suits
      • No, Microsoft was invited to work close with Apple back in the day so they could write apps for the mac. Microsoft was allowed to see the os code for reasons only known to Apple (the manager who allowed this must have been really gulable). Microsoft used this access to write windows. They also use access IBM gave them to view the code for OS/2. Windows is a combination (at least in some parts of the os) of Mac and OS/2. This is why both apple and ibm took microsoft to court. Microsoft is dominate today, not

  • Very Smart (Score:3, Insightful)

    by stevebob2019 ( 601185 ) on Sunday July 20, 2003 @05:29PM (#6486895) Homepage
    Apple has no way to shut them down because they don't have to go through apple retailers for the processors. Who doesn't like the cube? This is very smart business. Apple won't be very happy about this.

  • the cube is cute and all... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rollthelosindice ( 635783 ) on Sunday July 20, 2003 @05:34PM (#6486920) Homepage
    But I just got a DUAL 1.25 G4 for 1799.

    Granted it only has 512 of ram, but we all now how cheap ram is these days, and i can max out at 2 GB not 1.5.

    It's cool. It's got commodity, but its more money and less power than what apple is selling. And like someone else said, mine will definitely work with panther.

  • Great Form, So-So Function (Score:5, Interesting)

    by borkus ( 179118 ) on Sunday July 20, 2003 @05:45PM (#6486982) Homepage
    The cube is one of the most original looking systems. However, the design always struck me as a little impractical. The optical power switch on top was prone to sending the system to sleep unexpectedly. [apple.com] The USB ports, ethernet port and modem connection were on the bottom, keeping the cables in order. However it also meant that you either had to turn the system over or grope around under system to connect peripherals.

    You can just as easily get a stylish iMac [apple.com] for the same price.

  • Best of luck to 'em (Score:5, Interesting)

    by inkswamp ( 233692 ) on Sunday July 20, 2003 @05:53PM (#6487032)
    The problem with the cube at the time of its release is the same problem it has now: it's neither-nor. I don't think upgraded cubes will interest anyone, but I wish the folks doing it the best of luck. The cube's problem was that it stradled the gray area between consumer and pro machine. It's not a consumer machine because it's pricey and doesn't come with a monitor. It's not a pro machine because, while it used top-of-the-line components when it came out, it wasn't expandable enough to make pros happy. So it's a niche product within a niche market. I remember seeing an article about how Oprah Winfrey had bought a cube and loved it, and thinking "that's who they will be selling to--wealthy people who like the looks of the machine and don't care if they have to buy a monitor along with it." There are only so many people out there fitting that profile to sell these things to.

    BTW, I'm a Mac user and I thought the cube was a great looking machine so no flames for this, thankyouverymuch.

    • Re:Best of luck to 'em (Score:3, Informative)

      by Have Blue ( 616 )
      IIRC, the Cube sold about 28,000 units during its entire run. That's pretty bad considering that they sold about 127,000 desktops during the last quarter alone, when everyone was waiting for the G5s to be announced.
      • I was in the market for a college computer when the Cube came out so I spent that day deciding what to buy. I already had a monitor and was planning on a tower but since the Cube came out I check it out as well. What it came down to was for like 10% (~$200) more I got a second CPU (OS X was coming), more HD, 4 ram slots (I even used them all up), plus room for more HD's & PCI cards.

        After the price drop $1300 it was a tempting buy, but by that time it was to late. The Cube was for rich people like Opra

      • Cube sales statistics (Score:2, Informative)

        by rfovell ( 226905 )
        From the FAQ at cubeowner.com [cubeowner.com]. Click on "Miscellaneous FAQs and Figures".

        They [Apple] sold a total of 148,000 Cubes during the entire lifetime of Cube.

        It sold 12,000 units in the quarter ended in March, 2001.

        The Cube was introduced at a price of $1,799 in July 2000; the price was cut to $1,499 in January 2001.

        I got my Cube (original version) for $899 when the CD-RW equipped appeared to displace it. If Apple could have hit that price point profitably, they would have sold a whole lot more.
    • Well, there are people out there (I know some at work) that loved the Cube because it took up less desk space. Weird as it may seem, some people don't want to buy a bigger desk and wanted to keep an old, larger (than iMac) monitor, or wanted a bigger monitor than the iMac had to offer. The big problem was marketing to the right market. They started out too expensive and they marketed to them to "executive" types that wanted a "powerful" (at the time) machine that didn't take up much desk. Plus the fairl
      • (having only two USB, knowing one was automatically subtracted by the keyboard always bugged me, on all models, til they got it right with the new iMac)

        All Mac keyboards are equipped with 2-port USB hubs, so you are actually adding a port when plugging in the keyboard, not subtracting one.

    • It's not a pro machine because, while it used top-of-the-line components when it came out, it wasn't expandable enough to make pros happy.

      If that were true, how is it that these guys are selling a dramatically-upgraded cube?

      All the pissing and moaning about "pros need lots of PCI slots," has been made obsolete years ago by the built-in Gigabit ethernet, AGP video, and Firewire. Sure, old-school PC users (and people who worked in Mac-based editing shops) are accustomed to the belief that you need 1 PCI c

    • Edina Monsoon also had one shortly after their release.

  • Whoop de doo (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Xyde ( 415798 ) <slashdot@@@purrrr...net> on Sunday July 20, 2003 @06:00PM (#6487067)
    Wow, a whole 1.2GHz G4 on a 100MHz system bus!

    And all in an out of warranty cube which is already maxed (you can add a whole 512MB extra RAM and the controller is only ATA66 so no drives > 120GB for you!) out so no room for future upgrades! for $1879 it sounds like a steal to me, especially with those pokey G5's retailing for a bloated $1999.

    Get real.

    Unless you have some sort of cube fetish, really - whats the point, for $120 extra you can have yourself a 64 bit workstation that's likely 3x as powerful. With room to grow. And warranty. And new technology like bluetooth and FW800.

    I honestly can't imagine Apple caring less either way.

    • Re:Whoop de doo (Score:2, Informative)

      by andrewleung ( 48567 )
      one word: hearing

      yup, ever since i got my hearing back because of the fan less cube, i've cared less and less for higher end machines. thought about upgrading but fans drive me nuts.

      my friend was at WWDC and played with the G5... when that baby is going, you can HEAR the sucking sound. independently controlled my ass!

      anyways, i'll enjoy the music i buy from the iTunes store without the background hiss :-)
      • Guess your hearing has not fully recovered. The g5, while not silent is much quieter than the current g4 powermac.
      • No, this upgraded G4 cube will not be silent.

        The original cube had a 450mhz G4, an ATi rage 128, and (I think) a 5400 rpm hard drive. And they regularly overheated in some climates.

        Now, if you for one minute think that a G4 cube upgraded with a GeForce 3, a 7200RPM 120gb hard drive and a 1.2ghz G4 chip is going to run fanless, well, I've got a molten puddle of silicone and plastic to sell you.

        This will have a fan. A BIG one.

        • You are correct. It's not fanless anymore. My 1.2GHz, GeForce 3, 120GB HD, SuperDrive upgraded Cube has a single 80mm fan in the base (aside from the fan on the GF3.

          And my Tivo is still louder than my Cube.

          There are a good number of happy Cube owners out there who are very happy with their computer and they are well aware of what their other options are in the current Apple marketplace. My choice of computer works for me. What difference does it make to anyone else what I happen to choose?
    • I agree. Only a sentimental fool would buy an unsupported overpriced box that can't compete with a BRAND NEW MACHINE with 1 GHz FSB! Sucker born every minute.
    • I have a really nice stereo. That doesn't stop me from drooling at the local Bang & Olufsen dealer. Why? Because I can appreciate the design. For some people, the Cube has that kind of appeal.
    • Looks like someone cares. http://www.cubeowner.com/ has the following: UPDATE: July 16, 2003 - the response to these units has been overwhelming and these upgraded Cubes have SOLD OUT! Kemplar is accepting pre-orders for a new batch, which should be shipping within the next 2 weeks. If I could get something like this in Australia I'd be seriously temped.

    • Re:Whoop de doo (Score:3, Informative)

      by shawnce ( 146129 )
      Just a quick note...

      ATA66 can support greater then > 120GB drives if the controller support 48b LBAs. ATA66 was defined as part of the same standard revision that define 48b support, AFAICR it simply wasn't required.

      So having ATA66 doesn't automatically imply that you cannot use larger then 120GB drives... in the case of the Cube, to my knowledge, its controller does not support 48b LBAs (as you noted).
  • These are refurbished machines, and run with a slower bus than other more modern G4's. There are people, like William Gibson, and other VIPs who love the styling of these machines, and might buy one from time to time. Power to them.

  • G4 Cube (Score:4, Interesting)

    by iJed ( 594606 ) on Sunday July 20, 2003 @06:48PM (#6487282) Homepage
    The G4 Cube was in my opinion the best Apple system ever introduced. It was nearly totally silent since it used convection cooling, reduced cable clutter since connections were all on the bottom, near full PowerMac performance and had upgradable CPU and graphics cards. Hopefully one day Apple will introduce a new version of the Cube with a G5 (assuming the can get the thing to run cool enough!)

    • Re:G4 Cube (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Kevinv ( 21462 ) <kevin@vanhaaSLAC ... net minus distro> on Sunday July 20, 2003 @07:22PM (#6487452) Homepage
      they are nice, and apple really led charge on the small system form factor.

      downside to the cube is, personally, i don't like the connectors on the bottom, well there should be at least a usb and firewire on the front. a hub would help, but that expands the footprint.

      and repair absolutely sucks. i had to replace an ethernet card in a friends cube and it was a huge process -- you have to completely dismount the motherboard to replace it, no easy task in itself.

      wouldn't have been such a hassle if someone had a usb-ethernet driver for OS X.

      other than that they are sweet machines. i'd love to have even an old one as a wireless MP3 server and to leave permantly connected to my firewire video converter to do imports with.
    • You're pretty much alone on that because the cube was the biggest commercial flop since the next cube. Lots of thought went into it but you can't sell something for $3000 with an almost non-existant upgrade path and a cloudy target market. If you put a G5 in it, it's going to cause the same confusion that the cube originally created. Who is this machine for? Consumers? Prosumers? It certainly won't be for the high end market of the current G5. It just doesn't fit well with Apple's current offerings. With po

  • their appeal (Score:4, Insightful)

    by cybercyph ( 221022 ) on Sunday July 20, 2003 @08:44PM (#6487821)
    the basis of the appeal of this deal to me is the cube...i don't think anyone would bat an eye at this if it were an old imac refurb, but apple somehow struck a nerve with the cube. i've never heard anyone describe the cube as anything but sexy. the question then becomes: what premium are you willing to pay for sexy? many people are willing to sacrafice speed for sexiness, many others will not. personally, as a poor college student, i couln't afford either, and thus am stuck with my dual-cracked hinge ti powerbook. (because of the hinges, i have to constantly prop the display up against something. right now, a pillow...sigh...)
    • stuck with my dual-cracked hinge ti powerbook. (because of the hinges, i have to constantly prop the display up against something. right now, a pillow...sigh...)

      Suggestion-- Go pick up one of those $39 aftermarket carrying handles that screw onto the back of the TiBook. The handle mounts will physically limit the screen to tilt back only about 10 degrees from vertical, which should solve your problem.

  • Apple can't do jack about it (Score:3, Interesting)

    by HyperMac ( 691108 ) on Monday July 21, 2003 @07:51AM (#6489763)
    All these guys are doing is taking an existing Cube, upgrading it with Sonnet and/or PowerLogix upgrades, which can be purchased by anyone already, and selling the pre-upgraded unit to anyone who wants to save themselves the effort of upgrading it themselves.

    I own a few Cubes, all of which are upgraded with CPUs from PowerLogix and Sonnet, ranging from 800Mhz to 1.2Ghz. One has an internal SuperDrive from MCE. One has a Combo Drive from MCE. The other is a stock DVD-ROM. They all have upgraded video cards (GeForce 2MX, GeForce 3 and ATI Radeon 7500 for dual display). They all have 120GB Seagate HDDs.

    Point is, I could sell any one of them at any time (and have sold quite a few in the past), with all these upgrades already installed, much like Kemplar is doing. They're selling existing parts and labor, that's all.

    All that aside, taking a look at cubeowner.com [cubeowner.com], I'd say those aluminum after-market 10x10 Cube replacement enclosures are a much hotter ticket. Looks like it will enable me to put a Dual 1.2 (or better!) in there without a fan! Now that's the Cube I've been waiting for! There's no mention of who is making them, but the pictures of the alleged prototype look pretty cool. I'm not a huge fan of the dark metal shown in the picture, but a clear plastic one or a snow-white one (ala iMac G4) would rock my world, for sure.

  • What are "Spekaers"? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by beetle496 ( 677137 )
    Seriously though, the cube (with ADC monitor) has exactly ONE less cable than the new iMac. Claiming that the iMac eliminates cable clutter is a lie. I hope that Apple releases a G5 cube. IMHO the only thing bad about the cube was how the USB speakers slowed the processor. The only thing that prevented it from being a roaring success was the a price point that was a mere $200 too much.
  • A similarly eqipped G4 is $1299. The low-end G5 is only running $1999. I admire the company for reviving what I've always considered to be a sweet CPU enclosure, but c'mon ... that's a bit pricey!

  • Home media center? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Zhe Mappel ( 607548 ) on Monday July 21, 2003 @12:43PM (#6491939)
    Forget the 1990s speed - it's a home media center candidate. Existing choices in this market segment are ugly, noisy PCs. A silent beautiful Cube on the other hand...

  • Heat (Score:2, Insightful)

    by scout.finch ( 120341 )
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I imagine that the cubes were very carefully designed to remove a certain amount of heat, and all this new hotter stuff may cause serious problems?
    • The kit comes with a fan that is supposed to be very quiet, but i don't know the exact dB.
    • They surely included fans. If I remember correctly, the original cube had 0 fans (a pretty cool thing, IMHO) but it only had a 400 MHz or so G4. I'm sure they must have added at least a few to make the cube this powerful.
  • The original Cube had 0 fans. An upgraded Cube has one fan. It's a Panaflo - 12db-21db, depending on the upgrade.

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