Power Mac G4 Cube

Introduced: August 2000
Terminated: July 2001

Description

An entirely new design, the Power Mac G4 Cube was an 8” x 8” x 8” cube held in a 10” tall enclosure made of Lucite. It ran a G4 processor at 450 or 500Mhz.  The DVD-ROM or CD-ROM loaded from a slot on the top.  It connected to external monitors via ADC or VGA connectors.  There were also two FireWire and two USB ports.  An external USB amplifier and two speakers provided the sound and there was an audio output but no audio input.  There was no fan in the G4 Cube, relying on convection-based cooling like the iMacs.

History

In spite of an innovative design, the Power Mac G4 Cube had a hard time finding its place in the market.  It was designed as a mid-range computer somewhere between an iMac G3 and the Power Mac G4, however it was more expensive than a Power Mac G4 and much less expandable.  It had a cult following, but never sold well in spite of attempts from Apple to revitalize it with bundled software and other improvements.

After it was “put on ice” by Apple, the G4 Cube got some attention in 2003 with a series of articles in Wired magazine.  The articles dealt with the Cube’s cult popularity and various upgrades.  This led to an increase in its resale value, however the release of the Mac Mini and other changes to Apple processors meant that the Cube did not return.

Photos

Specifications

Processor: PowerPC 7400 v2.9 (450/500 MHz) or 7410 v1.3 (500 MHz) (G4)
Number of Cores: 1
Processor Speed: 450 or 500 MHz
Benchmarks: 450 MHz: 285, 500 MHz: 325
Cache: 64 KB L1, 1 MB backside (1:2) L2
System Bus: 100 MHz (up to 800-MBps data throughput)
Hard Drive: 20, 30, 40, or 60 GB
Media: DVD or CD-RW
Peripherals: Apple Pro Keyboard, Apple Pro Mouse
Weight and Dimensions (US): 14 lbs., 9.8” H x 7.7” W x 7.7” D
Weight and Dimensions (Metric): 6.4 kg, 24.8 cm H x 19.5 cm W x 19.5 cm D
Original Mac OS: Mac OS 9.0.4 (Mac OS ROM 5.2.1) (DVD) or 9.1 (CD-RW)
Later Mac OS:—
Maximum Mac OS: Latest release of Mac OS X
Hardware Test: AHT (G4 Cube) v1.0 (DVD) v1.1 (CD-RW)
Firmware: Open Firmware
Firmware Update: Power Mac G4 Cube Firmware Update 4.1.9
Firmware Update URL: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75129
Logicboard RAM: None
Maximum RAM: 1.5 GB
Type of RAM Slots: 3 - PC100 3.3v, unbuffered, 8-byte, non-parity 168-pin SDRAM
Minimum RAM Speed: 125 MHz (8 ns)
Interleaving Support: No
Graphics Card: ATI Rage 128 Pro, Radeon, or NVIDIA GeForce2 MX
ATI Card Model: ATY,Rage128Pro (Rage 128 Pro), ATY,Rage6 (Radeon)
Graphics Memory: 16 MB (128 Pro) or 32 MB (GeForce/Radeon)
Built-in Display: None
Display Modes: Single display only
Display Connection: 1 - VGA, 1 - ADC
Expansion Slots: 1 - 2x AGP (Upgrading graphics card not supported by Apple)
Expansion Bays: None
Hard Drive Bus: Ultra ATA/66 (ATA-5)
Large Drive Support: No (Maximum of 128 GB per drive)
Optical Drive Bus: EIDE (ATA-3)
Backup Battery: 3.6 V 850 mAh Lithium (922-4028)
Max Watts: 225W (DVD) 205W (CD-RW)
Line Voltage: 115V AC (90V to 132V AC) or 230V AC (180V to 264V AC)
Liquid Cooling: None
AirPort: Optional AirPort card (802.11b)
Bluetooth: None
Ethernet: 10/100BASE-T or 10/100/1000BASE-T
Modem: 56k v.90
ADB: None
Serial: None
SCSI: None
USB: 2 - 12 MBit/s
FireWire: 2 - 400 MBit/s (12W total power)
Audio In: None
Audio Out: USB based output

Timeline

Introduced in August 2000, the Power Mac G4 Cube was discontinued in July 2001.
Power Mac G4 Cube

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