Clear
Acrylic PowerCube with Aluminum Top Grille
Start with the original PowerMac G4 Cube. The Cube was
universally praised for its clean design. The new Apple
G5 machines have set new design standards as well. Take
a little bit of both, and you have the new Clear PowerCube
Enclosure from PowerLogix
The Clear PowerCube Enclosure is uniquely hand-built out
of flame polished cast acrylic. It lends itself well to
customizing into your own personal decor or style. (Take
a look at cubeowner.com for
examples of what people have done to their original Cubes
to set them apart.)
Cooling Features
Not only does the new PowerLogix Clear PowerCube Enclosure
have G5 styling cues, the slightly larger case size provides
tremendous performance benefits while retaining the classic
Cube's silent, fanless operation.
It's no secret that higher speed processors and graphics
cards generate a tremendous amount of heat - far more than
hardware from just a few years ago. The original Apple Cube
was a landmark achievement in design and engineering, but
the original fanless enclosure is simply not compatible
with today's components (for comparision, the new G5 has
no less than NINE fans.)
The design goal was to dissipate the heat generated by
the primary offenders: the processor, the graphics card,
and the DC/DC converter.
The first step we was to significantly increase the ventilated
area on the top of the Clear PowerCube. This helps ensure
the Cube processor heatsink is operating to maximum efficiency,
as well as offering maximum airflow for the other components.
The second step was to increase (by one-half inch each direction)
the footprint of the Clear PowerCube. Although this change
is quite modest and actually almost unnoticed even when
the Clear PowerCube is placed next to an original Cube,
the increase represents an enormous gain in unobstructed
air flow within the enclosure.
This relatively small increase in size also allows the
Clear PowerCube to support higher performance graphics cards,
many of which simply don't fit in the original Cube. The
Clear PowerCube provides much more free space around the
video card ...plenty of room for the heatsinks on the graphics
card to do their jobs efficiently.
The often overlooked component regarding heat generation
is the DC/DC (aka VRM) card.
The DC/DC card is used to step down the incoming 28 volts
from the external power supply to 12V, 5V, and 3.3V for
use by the various components in the Cube. The special bracket
included with the Clear PowerCube repositions the DC/DC
card into direct airflow. The result is much cooler and
safer operation - and longer life for the DC/DC card.
Finally, the Clear PowerCube is 100% identical to the original
Cube in terms of Airport wireless operation.
With the Clear PowerCube, it's now possible to operate
a fully performance-enhanced Cube using today's technology,
while retaining one of the most admired features of the
original Cube - silence.
The Clear PowerCube is only available directly from PowerLogix.
To order, click here.
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