[CUBE] To fan or not to fan, that is the question

[Joseph B. Gurman]

     Rick Rodman opined:

>IMHO, fanless operation is unwise, even for the original 450MHz cubes. 
>The heat will shorten component life.
>
>On Saturday, September 6, 2003, at 03:05 PM, Gregory P. Perez wrote:
>
>>  Anyone here running a Powerlogix 800MHz upgraded cube without a fan?
>>
>>  I'd like to return my cube to its' intended silent state, but only if
>  > others have found it safe to do. (800Mhz, 1.5GB, 100GB,airport)

     I beg to differ, on purely empirical grounds, at least for 
systems with the original, ATI Rage 128 video cards: we have a 450 
that's 2.5 years old, fanless, and happy as a (cool) clam.

     We upgraded a three-year-old 500 with the PL 1 GHz card, and thus 
a low-power, relatively slow fan, and it, too, is quite happy, but 
the air coming out of the chimney is clearly warmer than that rising 
out out of the fanless 450.

     Since Apple is on the line for spare parts or replacement for 
five years after they stop making something, I think you can assume 
that it's more than 50% likely they chose components that stand up to 
the expected thermal load for that long. Needless to say, all 
warranties express or implied are off if you upgrade your machine to 
improve CPU speed.... and heat output.

     In any case, here's hoping there's an upgrade in the Cube's 
future that features a 7457.... running at 1.3 GHz, of course.

						Joe Gurman

P.S. The other day, I viewed a QuickTime movie of presentations on 
the G5 CPU, machine architecture, and thermal design (originally 
given at the WWDC). In the last one, the product manager mentioned 
that when the CPU is largely idle, the fans turn very slowly indeed, 
and really don't need to be running at all --- i.e., when the power 
management turns the clock down to 1.3 GHz. So.... how hard would it 
be to build a 1.3 GHz G5 Cube? It would have to be larger than the G4 
Cube, to allow for an exhaust fan for when everything (video, disk, 
and CPU) was cranking as fast as it could, but the fan might still be 
off the time. Or so I speculate.
-- 
"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by."
                                                             - Douglas 
Adams, 1952 - 2001

Joseph B. Gurman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Solar Physics
Branch, Greenbelt MD 20771 USA