Project: NeXT Cube

A few years ago I came into possession of an old (circa 1988) NeXT Cube. It was only the case not the cutting edge 25 MHz, 256K computer. I've been skulling for about a year now on how to properly mod this thing and I think I've come up with a plan. I've been wanting to do a tribute to my favorite game mod, Natural Selection, so I figured I'd combine the two.

First, here's what we have to work with:

The brainchild of Steve Jobs. A one foot cube made of magnesium alloy. Big optical drive hole in front, but I have ideas for that already... Well, there's nothing on the inside that could be used for any sort of modern attachments.

So now it's time to make a sub frame for all the components. For this I turn to my old friends the table saw and router and make a MDF form. Then I cut a slightly oversize piece of tinted Lexan and clamped it to the form:


Then added heat:


After being bent, it was trimmed on the table saw and an end piece was added:


Next it was time to turn my attention to the back panel. There were four narrow slots in the back that were probably meant for I/O to line up with circuit boards. Too narrow for my use, so I cut out the middle piece:


There are small slots in the back that held metal plates over the slots through friction. I found that a piece of thin plexi 2 1/4" wide could could fit. Tabs were bent to fit in the slots and that problem was solved. And the magnesium alloy cuts like butter.

Of course, I'm gonna watercool this beast, so I got this heater core from Danger Den:


But they were very lazy and just soldered in barbs to the end of the existing tubes. In this cube, space is at a premium and this just won't do. Plus, I feel the need to mod just about everything, so I de-soldered the fittings. DD had expanded one of the tubes to fit the fitting, so I did the next best thing. Mr. fitting met Mr Angle Grinder and viola:


Now they were just re-soldered into place, and a newer low profile heater core is ready:


Next, I cut a hole in the sub frame and bent a tab to form a ledge:


So that the radiator fits like this:


Fitting everything in this will be TOUGH. I tried about 50 permutations before I settled on a final design. There are about four or five different items all fighting for the same space. Move one and it blocks another. Move that one and it blocks a third. Finally, I arrived at what I think is the best compromise between all the issues and still allowing everything to be removed.

I made a drive cage out of Lexan and installed it:


More to come soon.....

oh man, thats awesome!!! I wish i had come across this sooner! I have my work log going with my custom water case... i ended up using MDF.. but i had thought about lexan.. is that just a regular piece of lexan from like a Home Depot? I did not realize it was so easy to bend. How did you connect the back piece? Expoy/glue? Could I use a Hair dryer, od would i need something hotter to bend it? And lastly, is it easy to dill into.. and cut with different saws? Skill saw, etc

I may have to create a second box for my wifes adventually water system.

keep up the good work! What exactly is going in this?

isn't there another NeXT cube that's been modded? It was polished or plated or something.

You are correct a few years ago Cold Dog did a complete modification on two of them. The worklog used to reside on the Pheaton Forums but has long been removed.

this looks to be a very interesting modification. will the component holder just slide into the cube rather than mounting stuff to the cube itself?

bradyapba said:

oh man, thats awesome!!! I wish i had come across this sooner! I have my work log going with my custom water case... i ended up using MDF.. but i had thought about lexan.. is that just a regular piece of lexan from like a Home Depot? I did not realize it was so easy to bend. How did you connect the back piece? Expoy/glue? Could I use a Hair dryer, od would i need something hotter to bend it? And lastly, is it easy to dill into.. and cut with different saws? Skill saw, etc

I may have to create a second box for my wifes adventually water system.

keep up the good work! What exactly is going in this?

Click to expand...

Lexan came from Home Depot or Lowes, I don't remember which.

Bending plexi/lexan is pretty easy. I use a heat gun, it gets hotter than a hair dryer and is relatively inexpensive. I try to always use a form to bend, it just ensures your bends come out more exact. There are several tutorial pages that can show you better than I, but it only takes about 5 minutes per bend, depending on the size. To make large cuts, I use a table saw with a 80 tooth blade. Niiiiiice cuts. Smaller stuff I will score and break or use the Dremel. Slower and messier, but good for small detail work. You could use a jigsaw with a fine tooth blade, but for me the table saw is just as easy and more accurate. To drill I bought a set of three drills from craftics.com (they're right across town from me so I ended up talking to the guy in charge there - good people). They have a sharper angle on the tips (60 degrees) made just for plastic. I also bought some Weld-On #4 - this is the glue to use for lexan/acrylic. Apply with a squeeze bottle and needle tip applicator and it forms a great bond, but you need well matching surfaces first. Use a thicker glue for edges that aren't so clean.

rogue_jedi said:

this looks to be a very interesting modification. will the component holder just slide into the cube rather than mounting stuff to the cube itself?

Click to expand...

Yes, there's really no internal mounting places for anything. There are a few threaded holes on the inside of the front, but those will be used for holding the sub-frame in place.

Kudos on a very imaginative project! When I saw the word NeXT I was thrown back into the days of the jaw-dropping GUI that made Windows 1.1 look like a calculator. And this was over 15 years ago

I can't wait to see the final product! Best of luck to you!

bradyapba said:

keep up the good work! What exactly is going in this?

Click to expand...

Well, you've seen the radiator. That will fill the large square hole in the front of the case. I'm on a bit of a budget here and have been collecting hardware for the past several months. The Black Friday sales of last year got me the memory, hard drives, and power supplies. Newegg for motherboards, processors, KVM, switch. Swiftech for pump and waterblock. Video card direct from ATI clearance.

Inside there will be 2 computers. That's why space is at a premium. Both will be based on a MSI K7N2GM-L mobo. NForce2 with IGP and mATX form factor:


Both have mobile XP 2400+ processors for overclocking. One will use the integrated graphics and will be used as a game server. The other will be the actual gaming machine and will use an ATI X800XT PE videocard. Both will use 60 GB Maxtor hard drives. Right now they both have 1GB of PC3200 memory in them.

Also, I will be putting a switch in them:


As well as building a PWM fan controller, and making sure that either of the computers being turned on powers on the pump.

I will use an external USB DVD drive powered by the power supply of either computer to minimize extra wires.
I'm thinking of building an external box with the KVM and a the base/reciever for a Logitech MX 1000.

For design, I'm thinking of going with a Natural Selection theme. For those of you familiar with the game, I was thinking of making it look like a piece of TSA hardware. A dark green for the front and back third, and the finned section in the middle in gray. Yellow stenciling on the front and maybe some sort of lights coming out through the radiator. Then a sort of brownish alien ooze crawling up one of the sides like you see in the hives.
It will be about a week before I can do any more work since I'm on vacation right now.

If you want to use a Mobile then you need to get this mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138234

It's one of a very small few (most of them over seas) MATX mobos that will work with a Mobile AXP.

OK, I'll look into those mobos. Thanks.

Fenris_Ulf said:

...For design, I'm thinking of going with a Natural Selection theme. For those of you familiar with the game, I was thinking of making it look like a piece of TSA hardware. A dark green for the front and back third, and the finned section in the middle in gray. Yellow stenciling on the front and maybe some sort of lights coming out through the radiator. Then a sort of brownish alien ooze crawling up one of the sides like you see in the hives..

Click to expand...

Why use the NeXT case if it'll be unrecognizable in the finished project?
I'm not knocking your choice of theme, just curious why you'd obliterate a NeXT box to do it?

themark said:

Why use the NeXT case if it'll be unrecognizable in the finished project?
I'm not knocking your choice of theme, just curious why you'd obliterate a NeXT box to do it?

Click to expand...

Well, it will be recognizable to those who know what it is. Plus the shape is different and very few changes will be totally permanent. Some things had to be changed to bring it into line with modern standards. I thought about re-painting it black, but black has become the new beige. If anyone has any ideas (that haven't been done before like the polished cube), I'd love to hear them.

Update time!

I've gotten alot done, starting with the wiring:


At the lower left is a pair of diodes that isolate the +12v rails on the two power supplies from each other. This acts as a 12v bus for all the accessories that need to be powered if either comp is on (water pump, fans, network switch).
At the top left is the main exhaust fan (120mm) with a PWM controller and the 5 port switch. It connects to the 12v bus with a co-ax connector.
To the right of that is the 120v AC power in connector.
In the middle are two LED pulsing circuits. They run off of 12v and throb 4 LEDs each about once every five seconds. They'll act as a power-on indicator. They'll be mounted on the bottom of the interior piece and shine through the ventilation slots in the bottom of the cube.
On the right are the on/off and reset switches along with the hard drive activity LEDs. These LEDs will shine through a clear acrylic NeXT cube symbol on the front of the case.
The farthest right wire is a 12v line that will go from a co-ax connector to an external USB DVD-RW. That way I don't need an external power adapter.
All wiring in this case is sleeved, even though it will probably never be seen. I'm just a wire fanatic that way.

Here's the radiator, vinyl tubing, and video card.



Video card is an ATI X800 XL PE thanks to the [H]ot Deals forum.

And here's the mobos, waterblocks, and hard drives.

Here are the heavily modified PSUs. One has two four pin Molex plugs and the other only one. Each had it's mobo power connector shortened to just long enough to fit. There's a small co-ax connector with a plexi bracket that will be used to power the external USB DVD drive. There's also a 12v line that will go to the common 12v power bus and a 12v plug for the power on LEDs. Everything sleeved of course.

Here's the finalized interior shell with brackets for the hard drives (in the middle), 120v AC power (the square block closest to the camera), power and reset switches (clear acrylic brackets with two holes), waterpump (on right side of AC bracket), and holes for the power LEDs (the holes in the dark spots on the bottom of the shell).

Here it is with the hard drives, power switches and LEDs installed:



And with the AC connector and power supplies installed:



And the mobos installed:

that looks really cool.

what're you gonna be doing for heat dissapation (other than watercooling the cpus)?

rogue_jedi said:

that looks really cool.

what're you gonna be doing for heat dissapation (other than watercooling the cpus)?

Click to expand...

120mm fan at the back for primary airflow through the system. 92mm fan blowing down onto back of video card (definitely not ideal, but better than nothing), 60 mm fan blowing onto one of the power supplies. I want at least one more fan blowing onto the other PSU, but I'm still trying to figure out how to do it. Space here is a major issue.

I've got the watercooling running now (pics soon) and without the case on it seems to run fine with the main mobo. I'm memtesting it now, but I don't think it likes running much above 2.2 GHz. 2.4GHz leads to lockups a few minutes after boot. MBM reports CPU temps about 100 degrees F, but that's in an 80+ degree room. Temperature may be an issue, so I'll keep it at 2.2. The other one starts to boot Win2K, but goes to a blank screen instead of the desktop. I'm not sure what the problem is (it ran fine before). If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated.

When the case goes on it will greatly change the airflow patterns inside the case - I may have to get a digital thermometer and take a few samples to find out what any issues are.

very neat project. its good to see a NeXT system actually put to good use

/subscribed

Update time:

Here are a few pictures of the interior shell with all of the components installed:

Straight on from the back:


I had to swap out the 70mm fan with a 60mm fan due to space limitations below the video card. I also had to change out the 92mm fan with a more powerful one. And I added a 80mm fan to get good airflow over the second PSU.

A shot from the top:


The DangerDen fillport is attached to an acrylic bracket that can be unscrewed and lets the fillport be raised to fill/bleed the system. Then tucks back out of the way. Between the 92mm fan and the radiator is a small piece of acrylic that channels the air from the fans under the radiator and over the second power supply and other motherboard.

And another view:


Here's a view of the front:


The small white acrylic piece on the front is a NeXT symbol that I made. The power LEDs shine through it.

Now the interior frame is installed in the exterior shell:



And the finished back piece with the primary 120mm exhaust fan and fan controller, network switch, and one of the external 12v connectors.


And with the back in place:


And the finished front:


And another view:


I'm still not sure of how I'm going to finish it. My wife suggested the Mirage paint (the kind that is green/purple depending on the angle you look at it.) Frankly I think that wouldn't look right. Any ideas?

Polish it. I know CD did it, but it's still awesome. I saw the worklog over at Pheaton (*sniff*) and the polished one looks awesome. The pics on the one site that Mashie linked to don't do the polished NeXT justice.

In short, polish it

Oh, and some expanded metal over the radiator might look nice

Other than that, I think it's AWESOME! Your work is pretty darned impressive!

And for those looking for a good point of comparison, here's a few pictures of my newly aquired and totally restored NeXTcube:

http://members.arstechnica.com/x/powermacman/Full Frontal.JPG

http://members.arstechnica.com/x/powermacman/Rear.JPG

http://members.arstechnica.com/x/powermacman/Innards.JPG

http://members.arstechnica.com/x/powermacman/Motherboard.JPG

http://members.arstechnica.com/x/powermacman/System Angle.JPG

w00t! I made the front page! I'm finally somebody!

thats an awesome rig you made there

Man that is some great work. I can't wait to see it with the outside dressed up.

Lookin' good!

If you go the polished route, keep in mind you'll have to repolish at least once/month to keep it up - the polished magnesium has a short shelf-life and clouds up and tarnishes pretty quickly. I've seen another fellow who put a sealer on his and it looks OK but it is not the same as raw metal - not quite as shiny. Me, I've let mine go and have kinda gotten used to the tarnished look (it is still my main rig). Tarnished can be attractive in a weird way.....

It takes a lot of work to get the paint off and polish it. I'd recommend Aircraft Paint Remover ladled on thick and then wet sanding the rest with a 1/4 sheet sander. 100 grit-->220 grit-->600 grit-->1200 grit-->2000 grit. Then rubbing compound followed by Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish. The first one I did took about 33 hours all by hand - the second took about 15 hours with the powered sander.

(What happened to Pheaton? Did he fold up his website?)

gl,
CD

Great use of the case, especially the front opening, although I agree that some mesh over your radiator would add to the overall effect. Personally, I wouldn't recommend polishing it. That's a TON of work, probably double or triple what you've already spent on it. I'd suggest some metallic black. Honda had a great color for the Civc Si in 1991 (I think) called "Cherry Black" which looked like plain metallic black in the shade, but had deep red highlights in the sun on edges and such. It would really complement your cube's "evil twin" interior, while keeping some of the black cube's historical identity. Just a thought.

Your wife is a tard.

altec said:

Your wife is a tard.

Click to expand...

No, she's not. She just sees a computer as a tool, not so much as art. Personally I think she has 10x my ability to pick out furniture, drapes, carpet, etc. She might like the Civic "Cherry Black" or something similar.

the back looks sexy,

Fenris_Ulf said:

I'm still not sure of how I'm going to finish it. My wife suggested the Mirage paint (the kind that is green/purple depending on the angle you look at it.) Frankly I think that wouldn't look right. Any ideas?

Click to expand...

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=855304

http://www.crowdcontrolusa.com/overclock/mirage.html

See my case with mirage paint. (blue/red/purple)

chrisf6969 said:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=855304

http://www.crowdcontrolusa.com/overclock/mirage.html

See my case with mirage paint. (blue/red/purple)

Click to expand...

But mirage would look ugly on that case. I would just use a flat black, or a drak blue.

If I went for basic black, I would probably just have the case stripped and powdercoated for durability. I was thinking something with a little more panache, all ideas are welcome.

that things awesome! I love those old NeXT cubes.