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#11
Marketplace / Re: eBay: NeXT Cube (Germany)
Last post by KennyPowers - Oct 11, 2026, 11:17 PMQuote from: jade_nekotenshi on Oct 08, 2026, 08:08 PMBah, folks don't know what "mint" means. That's in good shape, but not mint for sure.
Ya the parts that are there are in good (not "mint") shape...but it appears to be missing both drives/drivebay-covers and all 3 expansion slot covers. That's like calling a decent looking comic book "mint" when it's missing a handful of pages
#12
Hardware / Advice on getting 3D-printed d...
Last post by Ndru - Oct 11, 2026, 10:16 PMI found a design on Thingiverse for a Cube bay cover with base for a BlueSCSI, including a slot for the SD card.
Does anyone have any recommendations and/or advice for getting that printed? I've not dealt with 3D printing before, and I'm especially interested in recommended services; what material and any other details I should use for the best match for a Cube; and any gotchas etc.
(I wasn't sure if this topic should go here in Hardware, or in General Discussion. Apologies if I chose wrong; I can remove it from here and re-post in General if so.)
Does anyone have any recommendations and/or advice for getting that printed? I've not dealt with 3D printing before, and I'm especially interested in recommended services; what material and any other details I should use for the best match for a Cube; and any gotchas etc.
(I wasn't sure if this topic should go here in Hardware, or in General Discussion. Apologies if I chose wrong; I can remove it from here and re-post in General if so.)
#13
Hardware / NeXT hardware fan specs
Last post by Ndru - Oct 11, 2026, 09:40 PMHi, I'm wondering if anyone has specifications for the OEM fan(s) in '040 Cubes? I found specs for fans pulled from a NeXTstation and a NeXTstation Turbo, but I can't find anything for the fan pulled from a cube.
(This cube was manufactured July 12, 1990 and has an '040 board. I've had this idea that it was originally an '030 machine which got upgraded to the '040, but I'm not confident about that.)
---
The longer version:
* The base NeXTstation originally had a Sanyo Petit Ace 25, model 109R0812M402. A datasheet I found online says: 2350 RPM; airflow of 29.3 CFM; and noise of 23 dB(A).
* The NeXTstation Turbo originally had a Nidec M33409-16. The datasheet I found for it says: 2900 RPM; 35 CFM; and 31.7 dB(A).
* I replaced both with Noctua NF-R8 redux-1800: 1800 RPM; 31.37 CFM; 17.1 dB(A). Quieter than the originals, and more airflow than the base slab originally had, but less than the Turbo originally had. The hard drives have been replaced with BlueSCSI and I'm guessing that makes up for the 3.6 CFM drop in the Turbo (but not my area of expertise).
* The cube's OEM fan is a San Ace 109E1212L1T3 from Sanyo Denki. I can't find a spec sheet for it.
* I've replaced it with a Noctua NF-S12A: 1200 RPM; airflow appx. 63 CFM, static pressure 1.19 mm H₂O and noise 17.8 dB(A).
The cube too no longer has a hard drive or optical drive. (The optical was removed before I acquired the machine; I'm assuming it originally had one, because the top drive bay is missing a faceplate.)
I'm hoping that the replacement fan is adequate, at least given the lack of HD and OD, but it would certainly be nice to have some actual OEM specs to compare against.
I stuck a thermometer in and the motherboard area topped out at just under 106º, just sitting there with BackSpace's Space module running full-screen. (I probably need like a long project build to do a real test. And maybe I should swap back in the original fan and test that.)
(I went with the NF-S12A instead of the NF-P12 redux-1700 because the latter doesn't have space for screw heads — the assumption seems to be that you're attaching from the opposite side. The NF-S12A itself intrudes slightly, but fortunately the original screws still worked, albeit under a bit of side pressure.)
Thanks for any help.
(This cube was manufactured July 12, 1990 and has an '040 board. I've had this idea that it was originally an '030 machine which got upgraded to the '040, but I'm not confident about that.)
---
The longer version:
* The base NeXTstation originally had a Sanyo Petit Ace 25, model 109R0812M402. A datasheet I found online says: 2350 RPM; airflow of 29.3 CFM; and noise of 23 dB(A).
* The NeXTstation Turbo originally had a Nidec M33409-16. The datasheet I found for it says: 2900 RPM; 35 CFM; and 31.7 dB(A).
* I replaced both with Noctua NF-R8 redux-1800: 1800 RPM; 31.37 CFM; 17.1 dB(A). Quieter than the originals, and more airflow than the base slab originally had, but less than the Turbo originally had. The hard drives have been replaced with BlueSCSI and I'm guessing that makes up for the 3.6 CFM drop in the Turbo (but not my area of expertise).
* The cube's OEM fan is a San Ace 109E1212L1T3 from Sanyo Denki. I can't find a spec sheet for it.
* I've replaced it with a Noctua NF-S12A: 1200 RPM; airflow appx. 63 CFM, static pressure 1.19 mm H₂O and noise 17.8 dB(A).
The cube too no longer has a hard drive or optical drive. (The optical was removed before I acquired the machine; I'm assuming it originally had one, because the top drive bay is missing a faceplate.)
I'm hoping that the replacement fan is adequate, at least given the lack of HD and OD, but it would certainly be nice to have some actual OEM specs to compare against.
I stuck a thermometer in and the motherboard area topped out at just under 106º, just sitting there with BackSpace's Space module running full-screen. (I probably need like a long project build to do a real test. And maybe I should swap back in the original fan and test that.)
(I went with the NF-S12A instead of the NF-P12 redux-1700 because the latter doesn't have space for screw heads — the assumption seems to be that you're attaching from the opposite side. The NF-S12A itself intrudes slightly, but fortunately the original screws still worked, albeit under a bit of side pressure.)
Thanks for any help.
#14
Virtualization / Re: What Needs to be done for ...
Last post by clarkkent - Oct 11, 2026, 07:21 AMI think I'll just do a fresh one with OS 4.2. 512 MB or 1 GB max are certainly enough for the NeXT system. Is the Openstep 4.2 CD image enough for installation or is something else needed?
#15
Virtualization / Re: What Needs to be done for ...
Last post by jade_nekotenshi - Oct 10, 2026, 02:10 PMNot really. That said, if you have filesystem-level compression available (such as on Windows), use that - it will save you at least all the unused space and probably a fair bit more.
#16
Virtualization / Re: What Needs to be done for ...
Last post by clarkkent - Oct 10, 2026, 08:53 AMIs there a way to reduce the size of an hard disk image? I have a 2 GB one but I do not need such a large image and I do not want to make a new one...
#17
Virtualization / Re: What Needs to be done for ...
Last post by andreas_g - Oct 10, 2026, 08:09 AMHello all,
I want to announce the release of Previous v4.5. This is a bug fix release. The most noticeable bug fixed is a long standing issue that sporadically caused permanent loss of the Ethernet connection. Another bug caused the installer program from the CD-ROM to fail in certain situations due to a bad SCSI selection.
As always I have built a binary for macOS 10.13 and later (Intel and Apple Silicon) which you can load here.
Have fun with the new version and please report any issues.
I want to announce the release of Previous v4.5. This is a bug fix release. The most noticeable bug fixed is a long standing issue that sporadically caused permanent loss of the Ethernet connection. Another bug caused the installer program from the CD-ROM to fail in certain situations due to a bad SCSI selection.
As always I have built a binary for macOS 10.13 and later (Intel and Apple Silicon) which you can load here.
Have fun with the new version and please report any issues.
#18
Virtualization / Re: What Needs to be done for ...
Last post by clarkkent - Oct 09, 2026, 07:18 PMYou can find both projects here:
https://github.com/danifunker/NeXT-Color_MiSTer
https://github.com/apolkosnik/before
The mouse moves exactly as on my real NeXT!
https://github.com/danifunker/NeXT-Color_MiSTer
https://github.com/apolkosnik/before
The mouse moves exactly as on my real NeXT!
#19
Marketplace / Re: NeXT eBay Finds!
Last post by ZombiePhysicist - Oct 09, 2026, 06:16 PMSo heard from that seller. He's breaking it up into multiple auctions and they will go back up soon.
#20
Virtualization / Re: SPARC frustrations and hop...
Last post by Rhetorica - Oct 09, 2026, 05:40 PMQuote from: Protocol 7 on Oct 09, 2026, 09:56 AMTo add to that, PR1's kernel is quad-FAT but there's no /usr/standalone/sparc folder and most of the apps lack SPARC support. For example, the Upgrader app supports SPARC but Workspace doesn't.I think that may actually be the only case of a quadfat kernel in all of history, for any platform, ever.
3.3.47 was mastered 1995/02/15 (RISC, SPARC+HPPA)
4.0 PR1 was mastered 1995/09/02
4.0 PR2 was mastered 1996/02/07
I suspect there's a lot of development history that can be uncovered by reading file dates...