# Mac Pro Cube !!



## Ferdinand (Dec 2, 2006)

In June Apple Announced the Mac Pro Cube at an exclusive keynote.

Specs:
Quad 2 GHz
2 GB RAM
x9200S 256 MB
1 TB
Megadrive

See this link of the keynote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohUfPtBxqrw

MP Cube announced a bit more than half way in the keybote. Doesnt look fake but nowhere on Apple's website!!?? Am I missing something??


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## ora (Dec 2, 2006)

Common... I prefer just going and looking at the spymac mockup area for fakes and guesses. The quality wasn't even any good on the audio splicing.


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## Captain Code (Dec 2, 2006)

That's soo fake.  Taken from about 10 keynotes and fake text/graphics.  Kinda funny though.


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## MacFreak (Dec 3, 2006)

Oh yes.. its fake!


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## Lt Major Burns (Dec 3, 2006)

also... wtf?  the original cube was a pointless excess without a market.  i think the only real use was product placement in tv and films.  yes they looked nice, but if you had spent that much money, you expect more.  the Mac Mini is what the cube should have been.

also, that rubbish picture that they used was for a G5 cube, another pointless idea.

seriously, who has the time to do this? it's time to start phoning people up and going outside if all you can think of doing is creating rubbish like this.

also why do people make up silly specs? like "OMG 16x core 4ghz core 4 with 4gb ram standard and 3tb NAND memory and 10 firewire 800 ports and 10 usb 2 slots and PCI express 32x with a geforce 9700GT with 2gb video ram cos nvidia PWNS radeons all ova teh place and all for just $500!!!!!!!"

this stuff is made by 26 year old's in their mums house.

however, i did smile at MegaDrive.


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## Mikuro (Dec 3, 2006)

A Cube done right could be great. The Mini isn't really the successor to the Cube, nor is it the "headless iMac" people used to cry for (although the Intel models are closer in specs than the PPC ones).

There's a hole in Apple's lineup, and there has been for years. There is no cheap, upgradeable system. The only upgradeable system Apple offers is their high-end tower, and they lose a lot of potential customers because of it.

What I want is like a cross between all of Apple's current desktop lines. Give me a headless machine with specs similar to the iMac, with easy access to parts like the Mac Pro, for a reasonable price. That's what the Cube could have been, but they forgot about the "reasonable price" bit and the sales reflected that.

Apple hasn't made a desktop machine that fit me perfectly since...errr...since before I really followed Apple's hardware offerings, I guess. I will _never_ by another all-in-one machine (because one part will always lose its worth before the rest), and a pro tower just isn't in my budget. That leaves the Mini. I did buy a Mini, because it was the best Apple offered, but it's not my dream machine. A Neo-Cube would be (if done right).

I think Apple might actually be moving further in this direction, albeit unintentionally. The Mini is getting fat on features, and I think in another generation or two they'll realize that they need a NEW low-end line, the same way they did with the iMac after it got too big for its shoes. Then the Mini will probably become more like a "headless iMac" and we'll have a nice Mac Micro to fill the void left by the G4 Mini. (But it probably still won't be upgradeable.....)


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## Ferdinand (Dec 3, 2006)

Yeah, the problem is if you want just the machine, then Apple has only either the Mac mini or the Mac Pro - nothing in between (except for the iMac). For many people a Mac mini is too slow and a Mac Pro is too strong/fast or out of budget... so a Mac Pro Cube would be good - but after some years, like Mikuro said, they'll realize this.

PS: I thought it was a bit weird/funny when they wrote "Mega Drive" because I never heard of _that_ before. And 1 TB in such a small thing? Impossible if you ask me....


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## Lt Major Burns (Dec 4, 2006)

impractical, is more the word.  

so mikuro, what you want is not a new cube, which was an overpriced indulgence, but a $900 variant of the Mac Pro, the case, but say, a single core 2 duo, an ok graphics card and a medium sized hard drive.  the components of a mac mini put inside the Tower Case?


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## ora (Dec 4, 2006)

Lt Major Burns said:


> impractical, is more the word.
> 
> so mikuro, what you want is not a new cube, which was an overpriced indulgence, but a $900 variant of the Mac Pro, the case, but say, a single core 2 duo, an ok graphics card and a medium sized hard drive.  the components of a mac mini put inside the Tower Case?



That's almost what I want. I would like a reasonable Core 2 Duo and ok GPU in a case with some bays for expansion and whole hell of a lot of ports, basically a mid range home server solution. Something i can use as a fileserver for my home network and use to play DVDs through, and that I can leave on 24/7.


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## fryke (Dec 4, 2006)

They wouldn't even have to have a GPU. Just the tower with one Core2Duo processor and integrated graphics. Since it has ports, you could add a graphics card later. But they're not _interested_ in selling those, because they can make more money on iMacs and "real" Mac Pros.


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## Mikuro (Dec 4, 2006)

Lt Major Burns said:


> impractical, is more the word.
> 
> so mikuro, what you want is not a new cube, which was an overpriced indulgence, but a $900 variant of the Mac Pro, the case, but say, a single core 2 duo, an ok graphics card and a medium sized hard drive.  the components of a mac mini put inside the Tower Case?


Pretty much. Only smaller. Shorter, mainly. More cubishly shaped, basically. 

The original Cube was like the little brother of the Power Mac G4. It was just priced too closely to the G4 towers to be relevant. I think it was a great system merely priced out of its market, and I don't assume Apple would make that same mistake if they made a new Cube (but perhaps I'm being naive).

But yes, I would be happy with a simple gutted Mac Pro. Anything with easy access to the graphics card and processor would be swell.


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## fryke (Dec 4, 2006)

Don't forget to add "cheap" to that line. Else you could simply buy that Mac Pro.


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## ora (Dec 4, 2006)

True, I know, but I can dream . I'd event take a mini with some external box you plugged in with a cable providing a couple of bays and PCI ports plu s a whole bunch of FW and USB ports.


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## sjerome (Dec 4, 2006)

Ha... low quality fake mac gossip. Yeah, spymac, is better for that sort of thing. Iwalk, anyone?


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## Lt Major Burns (Dec 4, 2006)

there is this though.  some crazy jap has modded the case for his G4 Cube to look like a G5/Mac Pro.

this is the step by step guid of how he did it, it's a babelfish translation, so bare with it.
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babe.../www.conf.co.jp/new_folder/making/cube_1.html


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## cyclyst1964 (Jan 13, 2007)

It's obvious to me that the maker of this farce was just having fun. I think it was meant to be a satire of a Macworld keynote.
I was lmao !

The problem I had with my cube ( other than it going up in smoke last week ) was that it was a slot-load computer with an odd-size video card and not enough USB ports.
It came with 2 USB 1.1 ports , one for the keyboard, one for the speakers. Once those things and the mouse was plugged in, your left with only one available port on the keyboard. I tried using a USB hub but then there wasn't enough power available to operate my peripherals.
No PCI slots, and a burner was not standard either.

Personally, I believe that if Apple would just go ahead and build a real mini-tower complete with full-size PCI slots and a replaceable/upgradable Video card featuring the processor/bus specs of even a Mini(preferably iMac) for $600-800 , I would run out and buy one right now!


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## Timotheos (Jan 15, 2007)

Why buy a half arsed Power Mac when you could save a little more and get a real one that wont be age so quickly? (atleast speed and storage wise) And if you upgraded in the future it would cost a ton more than if you just saved that little bit more in the begining.

If they brought out a cheap Tower I would be gutted, when i finnaly can buy a Power Mac, im going to be so proud to show it off and everyone know its a great computer with no chance of anyone thinking its a mid-ranged computer. Oh that will be the day


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## dlloyd (Jan 15, 2007)

cyclyst1964 said:


> The problem I had with my cube ( other than it going up in smoke last week ) was that it was a slot-load computer with an odd-size video card and not enough USB ports.



Does that mean you happen to have an old power supply sitting around gathering dust? Mine just recently self-destructed, and I need to find a new one somewhere.


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## Ifrit (Jan 22, 2007)

> Pretty much. Only smaller. Shorter, mainly. More cubishly shaped, basically.
> 
> The original Cube was like the little brother of the Power Mac G4. It was just priced too closely to the G4 towers to be relevant. I think it was a great system merely priced out of its market, and I don't assume Apple would make that same mistake if they made a new Cube (but perhaps I'm being naive).
> 
> But yes, I would be happy with a simple gutted Mac Pro. Anything with easy access to the graphics card and processor would be swell



Hm, your description reminds me of the Shuttle barebones. Current offerings have Dual core and two PCIe slots (full length) for graphics card. 

Mine is an older socket A model, has four USB 2.0 slots 2x firewire and you can even install a power hungry 7800 Geforce - AGP version without problems. 

Honestly, nowadays I don't even need more than 2 expansion slots. One for the graphics card, another for anything else (TV tuner card etc.). All of the onboard components are to notch and I can't really complain about the onboard lan and sound device in the nforce2 board. (Most components of the Macs are even better - save the mac mini G4)

A complete (+ processor +RAM, onboard graphic *HD) mid range Shuttle PC shouldn't cost more than 700 Euro. I think Apple would be capable to create something similar. - Unfortunally Apple established the "works out of the box by just turning it on" image with their system offerings, so I don't think they would go this route.


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