Preliminary graphs up for heat output
I've got some preliminary graphs out about heat output with various mods to the cube, actually just the GeForce 3 and the custom cooled ATI 7500, so far. The graphs show that the GeForce 3 is one hot performer, heat output after 30 min of Quake 3 hit 160 degrees F, that's 20 degrees hotter than the ATI. You can also see that the cube's core is affected by the addtional heat output by the GeForce 3, about 5 degrees F, also confirmed by ThermoinDock which indicated a 7 degree increase. Videocard discharge air temperature also increased about 40 degrees, which keeps it consistent with the other readings. I hope to have a better page up to show how I'm doing the testing soon. I'll be on vacation the week after next so I'll have some time on my hands to finish this series of testing and move on to my next which will probably be the sound output testing with my sound level meter. That's it for now.
Reference URL: http://homepage.mac.com/tracer302/bluecube/PhotoAlbum30.html
Last Modified On: 2002-12-07 23:55:37 -0500
| More cube testing: sound level output w/ various mods
I cold front came in last week and interfered with more cube heat testing. So instead I decided to do some sound testing. I mentioned in a previous entry about buying a sound level meter from radio shack. This weekend to got a chance to try it out. I measure sound coming from the cube in 3 different places: #1 top of the cube close the the optical drive. #2 pointing toward the videocard vent. #3 underneath the cube. Here are the readings that I have gotten so far. Setup, nVidia GeForce 3: position #1 63 db position #2 59 db and position #3 62 db. Setup, ATI 7500 without custom cooling fan, position #1 52 db, position #2 <50 db, position #3 54 db. From the results you can see that the Geforce 3 is about 10 db louder than the 7500 normally has no fan, which is quite significant. Well it's quite late and I need sleepy, good night.
Reference URL:
Last Modified On: 2002-12-02 00:24:27 -0500
| A new blog entry, Finally!!!
Hello all, sorry about the infrequent updates here, it's been a week. I've been busy at work and it's funny how the later you leave work, the MUCH later you get home, I swear it's exponential and not linear. It's been taking me about an hour to get home now, usually it's about 35-40min. Anyway, enough about traffic, lets get on with the good stuff. In the weeks time since my last update, its warmed up a bit so I could perform additonal heat testing with the same parameters as before. Here's the latest results, the only change I made was switching to the nVidia GeForce 3 video card, all other system parameters remained the same. Results are as follows:
Ambient Room Temperature: 84 F
Thermodock after system startup: 68 F
Cube core temperature after startup: 88 F
Core temperature after 30 min idle/surfing/email:100 F
Video card temperature after 30 min idle/etc: 149 F
Video card air discharge temperature after 30 min idle/etc: 131 F
Core temperature after 30 min Quake 3: 105 F
Video card temperature after 30 min Quake 3: 160 F
Video card air discharge temperature after 30 min Quake 3: 142 F
Thermodock after Quake 3: 82 F
Sorry about all this info being in a paragrahph, its a limitation in the blog software I'm using. I will have all the data posted on my homepage soon with pretty graphs to show all the data nicely. That's it for now, have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Reference URL:
Last Modified On: 2002-11-27 22:28:49 -0500
| Response from Deal Express
I finally got a response from deal express about the cube case and chassis. Basically, it comes down to this: Because I paid significantly less than the price they sell it for on their web site($199), I'm NOT entitled to get what was described. So, if you're a lucky person to win an item for less than what it normally sells for, you don't deserve to get what was described. They are willing to refund my money which is interesting because they do clearly state that there are no refunds for any reason. The moral of this story is, stay away from deal express's ebay auctions, because if it doesn't end $$$high enough$$$ then you don't get what was described.
Reference URL:
Last Modified On: 2002-11-21 21:31:15 -0500
| Deal Express Disappointment
I recently won an eBay auction for a G4 Cube Enclosure and Chassis from a company called deal express. My intention was to use it as reference for my various cube mods(it beats taking my cube apart over and over). That being said my intentions for its condition was not that high. The description of the case according the deal express is as follows: "The are some small, light scratches on top and sides of the case". The received the case on Friday while I was on vacation. I opened it late Sunday after getting back from my trip. To my GREAT disappointment two sides of the case had big chunks missing from them. It looks horrible, check out my referenced link below for pictures. I e-mailed deal express yesterday and got no response today. I also sent another e-mail today to another person there. I'm hoping they will be a responsible company and exchange the case for what was described in the auction. I'll even pay for the shipping back for the case that I have. If only they had accurately described what was on auction, I would have never bid on it. So far it doesn't look good, so until I hear from them, if I ever do, STAY AWAY from deal express for cube cases. Anyone else deal with this company? Drop me a note at tracer302@mac.com
Reference URL: http://homepage.mac.com/tracer302/bluecube/PhotoAlbum31.html
Last Modified On: 2002-11-19 21:39:27 -0500
| I'm back from vacation
Hello all, I'm back from vacation. It was a very nice time, although it rained all day saturday and sunday morning. I did manage to get about an 1hrs worth of sunlight on friday before the cold front came in. Speaking of cold front, now that its about 48 F during the morning and currently 79 F in my room, I'll continue the heat testing when it warms back up so I can keep the test conditions the same. Ambient temp makes a big difference, my cube's core is currently running at 84 F, not the usual 90 F according to the thermometer. Progress on the next great mod is going so so. I'm having slight difficulty mounting the said mod part(see previous post). I thought I had it figured out but the cube wouldn't cooperate. I'll have to brain storm while I sleep tonight :) Speaking of sleep, it's that time, good night.
Reference URL:
Last Modified On: 2002-11-18 22:25:53 -0500
| Going on Vacation!!!
Hello all, I'm going on vacation! I'll be leaving shortly to the beautiful Marco Island, FL and will be back late Sunday. But before I go, I've started some testing of the heat output by the cube. Here's some info to chew on til I get back to change the setup to do more testing. Check out the referenced link to see pictures of the test equipment
Setup is as follows: 450mhz G4 Cube with 512MB ram, 80mm panaflo base fan running at reduced voltage(approx 8-9v), ATI 7500 with custom cooling fan(also reduced voltage), running Mac OS 10.2.2.
Ambient Room Temperature: 85 F
Cube Off Core Temperature: 88 F
ThermoinDock after startup: 68 F
Cube Core Temperature after 30 min idle and emailing: 93 F
Videocard Temperature after 30 min idle and emailing: 124 F
Air Temperature of discharged air from videocard: 113 F
Cube Core Temperature after 30 min Quake III: 100 F
Videocard Temperature after 30 min Quake III: 140 F
Air Temperature of discharged air from videocard: 123 F
ThermoinDock after 30 min Quake III: 75 F
Reference URL: http://homepage.mac.com/tracer302/bluecube/PhotoAlbum30.html
Last Modified On: 2002-11-14 14:47:45 -0500
| Installed Mac OS 10.2.2
Today after work I installed OS 10.2.2 update on both my Cube and Powerbook G4. Everything went very smooth. I did run permission verify and repair on both computers and restarted in single user mode(holding cmd s, after the chime) to run /sbin/fsck -y at the command prompt. Both hd's were ok so I went ahead and upgraded. So far everything is good on both computers, I haven't been using them to much tonight, but initial impression seems good. There appears to be some people having trouble with the upgrade as noted by howwow over at cubeowner.com forum, I've referenced the link below. That's if for tonight, good night to all.
Reference URL: http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?128@202.W0QgaavAd7I.8@.3bbbf864
Last Modified On: 2002-11-13 06:43:59 -0500
| Mac OS 10.2.2 Update Released
Mac OS 10.2.2 Update Released last night weighing in at a cool 24.4 MB
Reference URL: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107140
Last Modified On: 2002-11-12 06:33:51 -0500
| Next Great Mod
Delivered to my doorstep today is my next great mod to the cube. More details to come during the next few weeks if I can get it to work properly. I did some preliminary testing tonight and it looks promising but space issues in the cube may pose a problem. I would like to do it without any major modifications.
Reference URL:
Last Modified On: 2002-11-11 21:46:38 -0500
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