Speedy G4 Cube 1.8ghz Sonnet card

[cpc6128]

If this sonnet cpu will work on my cube - will i need to upgrade my VRM? or is it just the heatsink and fan i need to worry about. Also i have a 7500 ATi card already in the cube.

Would like to see what the cube heatsink actually looks like and the dimensions etc..
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I purchased one that has a 1.7 GHz G4 dual processor already installed with the VRM bypass. It runs extremely cool and geekbenches around 1100-1200. I can get some pictures tomorrow.

The heat sink is definitely custom and the top grill is removed to make room for it it also has a base fan. Going to stick a GeForce 6200 in there as well. Really a beautiful machine that is quite capable.

I think any upgrade makes the Cube a beautiful machine to work on even in 2017.

Did you upgrade your VRM or is it stock?

 

[appleish19]

If this sonnet cpu will work on my cube - will i need to upgrade my VRM? or is it just the heatsink and fan i need to worry about. Also i have a 7500 ATi card already in the cube.

Would like to see what the cube heatsink actually looks like and the dimensions etc..
[doublepost=1511476145][/doublepost]

Did you upgrade your VRM or is it stock?

It it came with a VRM that was specifically designed to run the CPU board off of the power adapter bypassing the VRM.

And as promised here are some photos of the heat sink. I can take more after Thanksgiving dinner of course.

 

[LightBulbFun]

its worth noting that I do not believe Sonnet CPUs need any sort of fiddling with the VRM, so as long as you sort out the heatsink and fan thing, a sonnet CPU should drop right in

Appleish19 has a non sonnet CPU (notice the red PCB) so his requirements will be different.

of course if you have the means a beefier VRM is always a good thing to have

 

[appleish19]

its worth noting that I do not believe Sonnet CPUs need any sort of fiddling with the VRM, so as long as you sort out the heatsink and fan thing, a sonnet CPU should drop right in

Appleish19 has a non sonnet CPU (notice the red PCB) so his requirements will be different.

of course if you have the means a beefier VRM is always a good thing to have

Definitely. The VRM bypass and base fan is ideal for a adding a really good gfx card and using the system daily and for gaming (IMO).

 

[cpc6128]

thanks for that.. it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to find a heatsink easily..

Is it possible to modify the standard heatsink? Any suggestion?

Cheers

 

[California]

Hi all, I know it’s an old post but wondering if anybody here can give me some advice.

I’ve got a Encore/st 1.8ghz sitting here (Part No. SG4-1800) With the larger heatsink which is suitable for some g4 and quicksilver.

Now I’ve looked it up on sonnet site and from what I can tell the 1.8gbz board itself is the exact same as the cube version except the cube has correct heatsink and fan. (From reading the sonnet 1.8ghz non-heatsink model PDF manual).. Was wondering if anyone can confirm this?

Thanks

It's the exact same board. Call Sonnet to see if they might have some old Cube fans in stock, they had them as recently as about 2012.

 

[cpc6128]

It's the exact same board. Call Sonnet to see if they might have some old Cube fans in stock, they had them as recently as about 2012.

Thanks California - I tried that last week, but unfortunately they weren't able to help.

 

[starmax]

Hey Guys, digging up this old thread.

I recently bought a 1.8Ghz Sonnet Encore/ST for my Cube, but I have not been able to get it to boot. I reset the PMU, replaced the PRAM battery, taken it apart multiple times, checked the firmware is up to date, but every time I try to boot, the DVD drive makes a squeak noise (always does this on power up), LED light on the top lights for a second then nothing. If I pop my 500 Mhz OEM cpu back in, it works. I suppose the Sonnet card could be bad (ebay purchase, but seller swears it was working for him), but is there any other trick you guys can think of?

thanks!

 

[Raging Dufus]

Hey Guys, digging up this old thread.

I recently bought a 1.8Ghz Sonnet Encore/ST for my Cube, but I have not been able to get it to boot. I reset the PMU, replaced the PRAM battery, taken it apart multiple times, checked the firmware is up to date, but every time I try to boot, the DVD drive makes a squeak noise (always does this on power up), LED light on the top lights for a second then nothing. If I pop my 500 Mhz OEM cpu back in, it works. I suppose the Sonnet card could be bad (ebay purchase, but seller swears it was working for him), but is there any other trick you guys can think of?

thanks!

Are you sure you have the right Sonnet card for a Cube? The manual for the 1.8 GHz Encore/ST says upfront the Cube is not supported. Doesn't mean it won't work, some upgrades work with the Cube and some don't, but Sonnet at least wouldn't support the installation of what you've got into a Cube. If you want to test the Encore, you could pop it into a Sawtooth/Mystic/Digital Audio/Quicksilver Power Mac G4 (if you happen to have any of those) and see if it works.

-- OR --

Perhaps you need to run Sonnet's firmware patch. That 1.8GHz will have a 7447A chip, and it's not enough to simply have Apple's firmware updated, it requires a further patch. The patch you need depends on the OS you're trying to run; Panther and Tiger use one, Leopard uses another. Both are here.

My money's on the first one. If the seller certified that upgrade to work with a Cube, you might want to try and get your money back.

 

[Amethyst1]

The manual for the 1.8 GHz Encore/ST says upfront the Cube is not supported.

I once had two of these 1.8ers which were explicitly compatible with the Cube (said so right on the packaging), so there may be two versions of them.

 

[Raging Dufus]

I once had two of these 1.8ers which were explicitly compatible with the Cube (said so right on the packaging), so there may be two versions of them.

Yeah, I figured that must be the case. I've never owned a Cube, so I wasn't sure, but I can't recall ever seeing a CPU upgrade by any manufacturer that would work in the G4 towers and the Cube. Seems like it was one or the other.

 

[starmax]

Perhaps you need to run Sonnet's firmware patch. That 1.8GHz will have a 7447A chip, and it's not enough to simply have Apple's firmware updated, it requires a further patch. The patch you need depends on the OS you're trying to run; Panther and Tiger use one, Leopard uses another. Both are here.

My money's on the first one. If the seller certified that upgrade to work with a Cube, you might want to try and get your money back.

Thanks for the replies guys, turns out I am a moron! I was using an install guide for a Sonnet Cube G4 7455 CPU upgrade, which doesn't require the Firmware patch. Once I figured out I needed to patch the firmware, I was able to do that and successfully install and boot the 7447. I am now up and running at 1.8Ghz on Tiger. OS9 hangs on startup, but I haven't spent much time pursuing that yet as I am a bit rusty with OS9 troubleshooting, but I am pretty sure there's some Sonnet/Cache extension I need to install.

This has been my latest side project, I now have a great condition G4 Cube with 1.5GB RAM, SATA SSD (with IDE to SATA adapter), Sonnet G4 1.8 CPU, 80mm x 25mm base fan, Radeon 7500 GPU and a 15" Apple Display. Last step is going to be replacing the cube's speaker foam with some replacement rings I found on eBay.

 

[1042686]

Thanks for the replies guys, turns out I am a moron! I was using an install guide for a Sonnet Cube G4 7455 CPU upgrade, which doesn't require the Firmware patch. Once I figured out I needed to patch the firmware, I was able to do that and successfully install and boot the 7447. I am now up and running at 1.8Ghz on Tiger. OS9 hangs on startup, but I haven't spent much time pursuing that yet as I am a bit rusty with OS9 troubleshooting, but I am pretty sure there's some Sonnet/Cache extension I need to install.

This has been my latest side project, I now have a great condition G4 Cube with 1.5GB RAM, SATA SSD (with IDE to SATA adapter), Sonnet G4 1.8 CPU, 80mm x 25mm base fan, Radeon 7500 GPU and a 15" Apple Display. Last step is going to be replacing the cube's speaker foam with some replacement rings I found on eBay.

Out of curiosity, does the original CPU work after the firmware update?

Nice Cube!

 

[starmax]

Out of curiosity, does the original CPU work after the firmware update?

Nice Cube!

Thanks, I haven't tried it yet, but what I have read is that the Sonnet Firmware patch tricks the hardware to see a 7447 CPU as a 7455 CPU, that's it.

 

[LightBulbFun]

Thanks for the replies guys, turns out I am a moron! I was using an install guide for a Sonnet Cube G4 7455 CPU upgrade, which doesn't require the Firmware patch. Once I figured out I needed to patch the firmware, I was able to do that and successfully install and boot the 7447. I am now up and running at 1.8Ghz on Tiger. OS9 hangs on startup, but I haven't spent much time pursuing that yet as I am a bit rusty with OS9 troubleshooting, but I am pretty sure there's some Sonnet/Cache extension I need to install.

This has been my latest side project, I now have a great condition G4 Cube with 1.5GB RAM, SATA SSD (with IDE to SATA adapter), Sonnet G4 1.8 CPU, 80mm x 25mm base fan, Radeon 7500 GPU and a 15" Apple Display. Last step is going to be replacing the cube's speaker foam with some replacement rings I found on eBay.

depending on where its hanging if you nuke the multi-processor extension/folder in the OS 9 system folder that should get it booting OS 9

 

[starmax]

depending on where its hanging if you nuke the multi-processor extension/folder in the OS 9 system folder that should get it booting OS 9

That fixed it for me, thank you!

 

[starmax]

Geekbench 2 Results: 😄

Stock 500 (Tiger): 274

Power Macintosh G4 500 Cube - Geekbench

Benchmark results for a PowerMac5,1 with a PowerPC processor.

browser.geekbench.com

Sonnet 1.8 (Leopard): 924

Power Macintosh G4 1.8 Sonnet Cube - Geekbench

Benchmark results for a PowerMac5,1 with a PowerPC G4 (7445/7455) processor.

browser.geekbench.com

 

[cosmichobo]

Reading the above got me wondering just how well my Cube's 1.5GHz Sonnet card compares against a 1.8 - and against the stock CPU. I'm sure I would have tested it when purchased in '16, but can't find any save files, or results posted in my usual haunts. So I just fired the Cube up for first time in ages, and ran Geekbench v2.2:

Sonnet 1.5 (Leopard): 691
https://browser.geekbench.com/geekbench2/2689748

Not super impressive in comparison to above! It is also maxed out with 1.5 GB of RAM, running 10.5.8, but I believe has the original HDD.

I originally had hopes of using the Cube as a HTPC (despite plenty of warnings that it wouldn't cope, particularly with HD video, no matter what upgrades I may add, due I believe to the limited system bus). Instead, I found some original Harmon Kardon Sound Sticks, and was going to use the Cube as an MP3/CD player and "live" photo frame (with my 17" Studio Display). I had to splice the USB cable to get the Sticks to work - never got around to soldering the connection though, so the Cube mostly just sits idle. But my kids do love seeing the family photos on it...

Only real issue - because of the Sonnet card's fan, it's not exactly unobtrusive sitting there on the book case in the foyer. I'm almost tempted to source an original logicboard and downgrade it so can go silent running.

Pic as originally received with Apple Pro speakers:

(Sorry - love talking Cube...)