I have installed a 500MHz dual processor in my Cube. You re-use the stock Cube heatsink, as the larger one from the tower will not fit, and the Cube's heatsink is integral to the structure of the case anyway. But you'll also need a couple of spacers to make contact between the processors, which are located differently than on the stock processor card, and the heatsink. You'll see what i mean when you get at it. It's simple to do: I used some thin aluminum plate, cutting off a couple of small squares that I then buttered with heatsink compound and simply sandwiched in there. There is a stock mechanical clip that holds it all together. No problems thus far, after about a year of fairly steady use.
Having said that, I also a) raised the cube up off the desk with 4 small blocks (e.g., small lego assemblies would work) to allow more air in; and B) installed as large and as quiet a fan as I could locate underneath the whole unit (not in the case but underneath it), running from the CD/HD powerline. This forces air up through the whole assembly, including the video (Radeon 7500) and power board area — shutting off when the unit goes to sleep, yet keeping running if only the hard drive spins down. Works great, though the looks could no doubt be improved by building some sort of wooden base to hold it all....
The Cube runs noticeably cooler like this, as the volume of air coming up through ALL the vents is greatly increased. Convection is not going to cool a dual G4 with a hot video card, and the usual piddling little basefan that people install does little or nothing for the video card area, which is sealed off from the rest of the internals.
A dual 500MHz is really a huge improvement on the stock 450MHz. It's no i7 but I use it all the time for ordinary tasks under X.4.
Having said that, I also a) raised the cube up off the desk with 4 small blocks (e.g., small lego assemblies would work) to allow more air in; and B) installed as large and as quiet a fan as I could locate underneath the whole unit (not in the case but underneath it), running from the CD/HD powerline. This forces air up through the whole assembly, including the video (Radeon 7500) and power board area — shutting off when the unit goes to sleep, yet keeping running if only the hard drive spins down. Works great, though the looks could no doubt be improved by building some sort of wooden base to hold it all....
The Cube runs noticeably cooler like this, as the volume of air coming up through ALL the vents is greatly increased. Convection is not going to cool a dual G4 with a hot video card, and the usual piddling little basefan that people install does little or nothing for the video card area, which is sealed off from the rest of the internals.
A dual 500MHz is really a huge improvement on the stock 450MHz. It's no i7 but I use it all the time for ordinary tasks under X.4.