The ATI Rage Pro is not a bad graphic card but it is not up to
date.
We want to replace it with a Radeon 7500 (32 MB) which can fit
in the Cube.
Unfortunately the faceplate of the 7500 is not really the same
as the Rage Pro's.
We have to take the saw to cut off some material.
Here is the result. The faceplate was cut and put on the Radeon
back. The card was put in the Cube, the holes were marked and then drilled.
The second problem is: cooling. The stock heatsink is very tiny
and there is no ventilation in the Cube.
(even with a bottom fan the graphic card receives no air).
We will replace the heatsink with a Zalman 17 Cu and put heatsinks
on the memory chips too.
The Zalman would fit perfectly in the Cube without that big condensator.
I cut the two top fins. It had been more elegant to cut the bottom
fins.
Final result : hopefully the Zalman was not thicker.
You can see another characteristic of my Cube : a serial port.
I had no use of the modem and I had a unused Stylewriter 2500.
So I replaced the modem card by a Griffin Cubeport, that I found
on ebay for a few bucks.
It works perfectly with OS 9.
The Stylewriter is supposed to work with OS X too, but I didn't
yet have any time to study the problem.
The Radeon 7500 gives a good boost to the Cube. Now you
can play more recent games (Halo, Quake 3, but not Quake 4).
About cooling : air coming out of the vent is hot, of course,
but nothing dramatical. The Zalman seems to make a good job.
back to Cube