[CUBE] Dual display Cube-compatible card with ADC and DVI

[Tom Davidson]

<vze28f48 at verizon.net> Wrote:
Agreed, Tom, I wouldn't run without the "fence", but only because I'd be concerned about the solder attempting to keep the cables stiff - solder is NOT a mechanical connection.

The card wiggling loose sounds really bad - this happens in PCs all the time - but in the Cube case, that bracket gizmo at the back of the card should keep it from moving, shouldn't it?


TomD: By 'fence' I'm talking about the metal plate that the ADC/DVI connectors screw into, and 
also mounts the card to the base of the cube. 
Without it, you are relying on the friction of the AGP connector , or the green plastic clip
or maybe the mounting screw at the upper corner of your video card to hold it into place.
Not all cubes have the AGP clip, and some dont have the screw and DC-DC card stabilization brace.
Both of those help, but if the video card is pushed into the cube by pressure from the video cables,
it's going to rotate out of the AGP slot. The traces on the AGP edge connector are very close, it does
not take much misaligment to short them out.  If you dont use the Apple VGA cube adaptor, be very careful, most 
PC cables have a large shell on the cable, that transfers the weight of the cube onto the VGA port of the
video card because the connector is too long to fit under the cube.

I have a Twinview 2MX, I built a custom mounting plate for it because it was not well supported, even
with the corner screw and the AGP clip, I could still rock the card in the AGP slot by applying force
to the ADC and VGA cables when attached to the card. My cooling solution is an I-opener fan and removal of
the modem and chrome RF grille on the cube base, the card still runs at about 70C, so it still needs a 
little more work/experiments, I have 50C as my goal.