[CUBE] Gigadesigns CPU upgrade success story

[macjedi at mac.com]

On 12/20/03 at 7:36 PM, Christian Leue <c.leue at mac.com> did send into the ether:

> Last night, I took the plunge and upgraded most of my Cube's 
> components. I replaced the 450 MHz CPU with a 1 GHz Gigadesigns CPU 
> (jumpered at a conservative 1 GHz and 1.4 v) , replaced the RagePro 128 
> with a Radeon 7500 video card

I realize the Giga upgrades are very new, but who on the list has been running
one the longest? Any sleep issues? (Not that that really matters, I suppose; I
never sleep my Cube, just the display.) I'm really hankering for the PowerLogix
1.4 GHz, but when you compare the price of that to a 1 GHz Giga, well, there is
no comparison when it comes to bang for the buck. It's Giga all the way.

I recently came in to a pair of video cards. The first, a GeForce2 MX TwinView,
is now in my Cube, replacing the original Rage 128 that went back in after my
GeForce3 started to flake. The second is an nVidia GeForce of unknown make; all
I know is that the previous owner assured me it was working out of a Quicksilver
tower, and it doesn't fit in a Cube. I think it's a GeForce2 MX, as it has only
a heatsink on it, and features ADC and SVGA connections. If anyone on list is
interested in this card for a non-Cube, please feel free to email me off-list.

> Then I reminded myself, of course, that this $900 effort just brought 
> my beloved Cube to a performance level comparable with the slowest G4 
> available at the January 2003 Macworld. So, the absolute speed is 
> nothing to write home about, as a modern machine will run circles 
> around the Cube. But I was well aware of this before, and I am pleased 
> that I can now get an additional two years of useful (silent!) life out 
> of the Cube (well, once I find and install an internal SuperDrive with 
> native OS X support that does not require patched frameworks or 
> tinkering to get it installed).

My RAM is maxed out at 1.5 GB, and I have a 100 GB hard drive installed, so the
CPU & SuperDrive upgrades are all that are left to me. Fortunately, I have
myriad G5s at my disposal at work, and my boss informs me that I will likely be
taking one home in the near future. (We're on call after normal biz hours,
support-wise.) So like you, Christian, I realize that my Cube will never come
close to touching the G5 (especially with the latter's Serial ATA; it kicks
butt), but to maximize it's usefulness for another two years is well worth the
investment.

chris
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