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Cube Mac Folder

M

markt435

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
7,590
Lets how on how I got this machine. I work for a school district as a computer tech there and were able to snag some computers from NASA as donations. Seeing as our school district doesn't use Macs at all I was given permission to take this for personal use from my supervisor. Brought it home. Screwed around with it for a bit. Was my first dive into OSX ever.

Fast forward to now. This Mac has been sitting around for awhile. I kept wondering what I could do to it that would look cool and at least make me use it again. I thought why not take out the cube assembly from the "tissue-paper" plastic box. So I did that. But I wasn't done yet. It looked pretty plain. All white. Huge plastic vent sticking out of the top. Plus now that it was out of the tissue box air could not come in from the bottom and rise move up with the hot air that usually escaped through the top. Enter an Antec 80mm Blue LED fan and my trusty screwdriver. After an hour of work, i finally got it to fit into the bottom of the cube assembly. Now, I can lay it down with the top of the comp as the front.

Still thought it looked boring. So I get out my Black & Decker Mouse sander. As you will see it is still a work in progress but I am open to suggestions from you guys regarding color or looks for the front. This comp will be on 24/7 for the [H]orde ...anyway to the pics...

frontmac.JPG


backmac.JPG


topmac.JPG


side.JPG


light.JPG


setup.JPG


Questions and comments are welcome. If this is the wrong forum then i'm hoping it will be moved to the right one :)
 
Btw, the white cover for the power button is only held on by a dot of glue on the outer cover til i figure out what i am gonna do with the front.
 
Lucky guy, I used to work for a school district too, but they didn't allow take homes, all the gov't regs and everything. I had to actually get permissions from everyone of my 20 bosses and then some more to dig through the garbage.

I tried to find a Cube to mod a while back and actually use as my main Mac (I'm a Windows guy, but Macs are fun) to screw around with but Cubes are so damn expensive. Like $400 for a basic nearly gutted one. You don't have anymore do you?

Its hard to tell in the photos, but it looks like you just added a light to it and cut a hole in the front? Is the graphite front different? Sorry, maybe I'm just blind.
 
got anymore :) ...macs... that you dont need :) and by nasa.. do you live in florida? near cape canaveral
 
The NASA Dryden center out in cali. We got about 10 macs with the one cube in addition to the dozens of pcs we got. Even received a beast of a 21" monitor but it didn't work. Anyways, a couple of the techs took one home as well as an administrator. The rest are sitting in the comp repair shop at a school where the kids will prolly be takin them apart as part of a class.

And regarding the cube itself. The light is coming from the fan as its an Antec Blue LED fan i had laying around. If you remember what the original cube looked like, the front of this cube would be the top of the original. The vent on the original was removeable as it was a large ass piece of plastic that was stuck inside that hole. There was also this plastic mask that was over the top. Basically made it all one color which was the white. I removed the mask (which was taped on..lol..for a mac i thought it was gonna be all one piece of metal CHEAPOS). That exposed the metal on the front.

Anyways, the color you see now is metal that i sanded a bit on the front. 2 sides are sanded down (paint job was a bitch to get off). 2 I left unsanded as I had to go out and buy more sandpaper for my Mouse. Now that I have more paper i guess i should finish it huh? :p

So I was wondering, after the sanding is done, what color should I paint this thing and what type of paint should i use? I was thinking a gloss black to match the shuttle on my main desk as it also has a blue LED fan in it. Then for that hole I was gonna put a mesh screen in.
 
Nice mod!
If you are ever looking to get rid of one of those, I know of a certain college student who wouldnt mind trading a PC for a machine thats actually compatible with the computers at school. :D
 
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