box. is a weird computer

Throughout all the Mac reviews I've done so far for this site, they have all been achieved on a PowerMac G4 Cube. I name all of my computers, my XP thin client being named Bananatech and my modern Win10 computer being called Milkcan. As for my G4 Cube, well, I just call that one "box.". Being all lowercase and having a period at the end even if it's not at the end of a sentence is integral, if you spell it as "Box" then you have spelt it wrong. Apple's design philosophy is frequently about minimalism, so I embraced that when naming this computer.

There is a lot that is very weird about box. In many ways it's emblematic of Steve Jobs' aesthetic-driven design philosophies, which often came at the cost of functionality when actually implemented physically. The G4 Cube was a commercial failure for a lot of theorised reasons, but the unique design has netted it a cult following. Its upgrade capabilities may be limited, but that sure hasn't stopped us weirdos from trying. G4 Cubes are actually pretty rare and expensive now, commonly going for over $300 on eBay for an untested unit. I, on the other hand, was lucky enough to get box. for free. My dad had a couple of them from his workplace that were no longer in use, one of which was handed over to me. It wasn't working when I first got it and it took a solid week of me banging my head against a wall trying everything to fix it before I finally got it stable, but box. has been my retro gaming Mac ever since. The only casualty was the internal CD drive, which caused the computer to crash on startup while it was plugged in. I've since replaced it thankfully, more on that later.

The G4 Cube comes with either a 450mhz or 500mhz PowerPC processor built in. Unfortunately mine is only a 450mhz model. It comes shipped with 128MB RAM, but with three RAM slots that can be upgraded all the way to 1.5GB. Graphics wise, mine came with an ATI Rage 128 Pro GPU with 16MB VRAM, though apparently others came with a 32MB Radeon GPU instead. The graphics card can be swapped out with a more powerful card, I did just that with a desktop Radeon 7000 32MB card, but not many graphics cards will fit in the Cube thanks to its unusual shape and size. For physical media there is a slot loading internal DVD drive facing upwards, so discs are slotted into the top of the computer. The original internal CD drive box. came with was broken, so broken in fact that the computer couldn't even start up without crashing while it was plugged in. I've had box. for about four years and only just recently did I finally get around to getting a new DVD drive by using an IDE to SATA adapter and a slimline laptop front loading DVD drive, held in place by a 3D printed bracket. This part in particular was especially nightmarish to install, there's only just enough room to squeeze the drive in there once the adapter is in place. In general, the Cube is a pain in the neck to upgrade, it's extremely cramped and also extremely cluttered inside there, boards stacked on top of boards with all of the components in the most hard to reach crevices surrounded by metal brackets with sharp edges you can cut yourself on.

The supposed "lack of power" is commonly attributed to the Cube underperforming sales wise, but these are actually pretty solid specs for the time, comparable to the full sized desktop PowerMacs of the time. Likewise, the price isn’t actually awful either despite that also being commonly criticised, it was still cheaper than the launch price of those same desktop PowerMacs by nearly $1000. Where the Cube falls short however is certainly in lasting power. It wasn’t pushing beyond those already ageing PowerMacs that had been on the market for nearly a year, plus upgrades are awkward to install and also require components sized small enough to even fit in the Cube, leaving upgrade options much more restrictive. And then you have a bunch of those Apple design choices where for every genuinely smart and impressive technical feat they pull off, they'll also make another design choice that is just bafflingly poorly thought out.

The biggest point to mention on the bad design choices front is the lack of any fans at all. Steve Jobs hated how noisy computers were and wanted to produce a silent computer that wouldn't have the constant whirring of a fan. He of course failed because this was the year 2000 and IDE hard drives were noisy mechanical things, plus you also had the noise of the disc reader, but for the time the Cube was a pretty quiet desktop computer. As it turns out however, having no fans in a computer results in overheating. Wild, I know. With so many parts generating heat so tightly packed together in a sealed off box with only one air vent to help let the heat escape, the Cube was prone to running so hot that the casing would crack. I've thankfully never had any issues with box. overheating, possibly because I swapped out the bulky IDE hard drive for a small IDE to MicroSD adapter that's very small and runs cold, giving the other parts more room to breathe. A bigger issue for me personally is the lack of USB ports. You've got two USB ports and two firewire ports and that's it. Not only that, but there’s no 3.5mm audio port either, nor any internal speakers, thus requiring USB speakers. So, after plugging in a mouse and keyboard and speakers, you’re already out of USB slots. Heck, you might not even be able to plug in that much if you don’t have one of the first-party Apple keyboards from the era which have USB ports built into them to plug a mouse into. A USB hub is an absolute necessity for the Cube, it’s a pain in the neck to use without one.

Regardless as to what caused the lack of sales, they ended up cutting the Cube’s legacy short. Its place in history today is mainly as a collector’s item, but honestly if you somehow luck out and end up with one as your only option for retro Mac gaming as I did, it’s really not the worst option at all and is surprisingly serviceable for games of the Mac OS 9 era. Unless you really love the Cube’s aesthetics however, you really will be better served by a desktop PowerMac G4. They’re much cheaper on the second hand market than the Cube, easier to upgrade, plus if you get one of the early Graphite models you also have the option of installing Mac OS 8.6 onto it too for even wider compatibility with older software, unlike the Cube which can only go back as far as Mac OS 9.0.4. One of these days I hope to acquire an OS 8 compatible machine, or perhaps even go back further and find a really early Power Macintosh that can even run System 7, but in the meanwhile, box. is serving me well. Godspeed you weirdo burning-hot borg cube, may you never shatter from microwaving yourself from the inside.

- Page written by MSX_POCKY, 15th August 2023