History
Announced in July 2000, the PowerMac G4 Cube introduced a unique new case
design. Housed in an 8"x8"x10" cube, the G4 Cube was a fully-functional PowerMac, but with the styling of Apple's consumer level machines.
While not a complete success in its target market, the PowerMac G4 Cube is still in great demand today as a real
classic collectable Mac - the excellent CubeOwner site is a must visit for anyone with a Cube in their possession.
Due to its tiny form-factor, the Cube is not as expandable as its PowerMac G4 cousins, having only a cut-down AGP slot, and no PCI slots.
Despite this, the Cube is still an upgradeable machine - processor, RAM and hard drive can all be improved.
Apple's own specifications for the PowerMac G4 Cube can be found here.
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How to Identify these Machines
The G4 Cube is the most easy machine to identify. The cube is 8 x 8 x 10 inches
in size, and is made of white and clear perspex.
The G4 Cube's ports are situated on the bottom of the unit, and the optical
drive is a top mounted slot-loading unit.
Apple's own specifications for the PowerMac G4 Cube can be found here.
If you are still unsure you can contact us on 01223 833 412 or by email for
confirmation.
If you want to upgrade but aren't happy to install your upgrades
then we can help. Simply ask our engineers for further details.
Memory Upgrades
The PowerMac G4 Cube has three memory sockets. The machines can accept up to 1.5GB in RAM, in 3 x 512MB modules. These machines will take PC100 or PC133 SDRAM DIMMs.
Any fitting information below is intended as a guide before purchase ONLY, when fitting these products you should refer to the original manual for your computer, and any instructions that come with the item. Please see this page for more information, or here for information on our fitting service.
Difficulty 2 / 5 - Easy
Turn off the Cube and remove all cables.
Invert cube upside down and release handle, then remove chassis
from outside case.
Three sockets will be visible, memory is designed so that it will only fit one way around.
If you are unsure please call or email our
team.
CD & DVD Drive Upgrades
The G4 Cube shipped from new with either a DVD-ROM or a CD-RW drive. The Cube uses a smaller, laptop style, slot loading
optical drive.
There are no optical drive upgrades available for these Macs
Difficulty 1 / 5 - Easy (external)
Install any supplied software, restart machine and connect the new device.
Internal Hard Drive Upgrades
The PowerMac G4 Cube only has space for a single 3.5" internal IDE hard drive, so any new drive will be a replacement for the existing unit. Due to the age of the IDE controller, only drives up to 120GB or lower capacity can be used internally.
If you don't want to fit a new hard drive yourself, you can take advantage of the MacUpgrades Installation Service. Add the installation service from the list below to your cart along with your chosen hard drive. We can also clone your existing hard drive onto the new one, simply add the Clone Original Hard Drive service below to your cart.
Once you have booked the service, send your machine to us, we will carry out the work and return it to you. Alternatively, we do offer a Collection Service with our courier, please see here for details.
| 1 | Professional installation recommended. |
Any fitting information below is intended as a guide before purchase ONLY, when fitting these products you should refer to the original manual for your computer, and any instructions that come with the item. Please see this page for more information, or here for information on our fitting service.
Difficulty 4 / 5 - Difficult
Due to the size and nature of the Cube, installing a new hard drive is a lot more tricky than on a standard PowerMac G4.
Mac Upgrades is unable to provide support for installing a hard drive into a Cube, and drives do not come with fitting instructions, so we only advise self-install by those who are confident they understand the procedure.
We do offer a fitting service, please call or email us for details.
Graphics Card Upgrades
Your PowerMac G4 Cube has a RAGE 128 AGP Graphics card installed. This card was designed specifically for the Cube, and is
smaller than most available cards.
Graphics cards currently on the market will not fit into the Cube without modification, and there are also issues of heat dissipation to be considered.
Modifying a card to work in the Cube will invalidate the warranty on the card, and therefore it is not something we can provide support for. If you are interested in going this route, the excellent fan-site www.cubeowner.com is probably the best place to start.
There are no graphics card upgrades available for these Macs that will work without modification.
Expansion Card Upgrades
In designing the Cube Apple decided against expandability, and opted for the ultra small compact "Super Computer."
Therefore your PowerMac G4 Cube does not have any PCI sockets for expansion card upgrades.
There are no expansion cards available for these Macs
Keyboards & Mice
The following keyboards and mice are compatible with this Mac.
Any fitting information below is intended as a guide before purchase ONLY, when fitting these products you should refer to the original manual for your computer, and any instructions that come with the item. Please see this page for more information, or here for information on our fitting service.
Difficulty 1 / 5 - Very Easy
Keyboards plug into the relevant port on your Mac. Mice can either be plugged into your keyboard, or they can be plugged directly into your Mac.
Power Supplies & Batteries
Listed below are power supplies, batteries and related products
we supply for this Mac.
Any fitting information below is intended as a guide before purchase ONLY, when fitting these products you should refer to the original manual for your computer, and any instructions that come with the item. Please see this page for more information, or here for information on our fitting service.
Cables & Tools
Listed below are power cables, tools and related products
we supply for this Mac.
Any fitting information below is intended as a guide before purchase ONLY, when fitting these products you should refer to the original manual for your computer, and any instructions that come with the item. Please see this page for more information, or here for information on our fitting service.
External Hard Drive Upgrades
This Mac can use any of the following external hard drives.
| 1 | Requires 9.2 or later or 10.1.5 or later. |
Any fitting information below is intended as a guide before purchase ONLY, when fitting these products you should refer to the original manual for your computer, and any instructions that come with the item. Please see this page for more information, or here for information on our fitting service.
Difficulty 1 / 5 - Very Easy
Install any supplied software and connect the new device.
You will need to format the drive before use. This is done with the "Drive Setup" utility, which can be found in Applications > Utilities.
