just got a performa 5200CD

[supernova777]

whats up guys

just got a performa 5200CD for free basically

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_performa/specs/mac_performa_5200cd.html

ive read some people consider it to be the worst mac ever .. lol!! but i dont really care for other peoples

opinions really.. i think its pretty cool atm. its the only mac that i have that has a floppy drive. for that fact alone 

im actually kind of enjoying it. all my other macs are g3 b+W or g4 or higher.

its also the only mac i own that can run system 7.

so i just was reading about how u can swap motherboards from other machines into this all-in-one housing..

which is really interesting...   and then i found this post:

http://retromaccast.ning.com/photo/1672786hoto:6096

here "macman" says that hes swapped in a 6400/6500 motherboard!!! which is pretty impressive as an upgrade ?

going from 75Mhz to 180/200 Mhz + PCI compatibility.......  i also saw that its possible to swap out the motherboard for

a 68k Quadra 630 motherboard to get a 68040 cpu.

this performa has no network connection 

i would need a comm slot or pds slot network card to  get this thing on my network.. 

ultimately i want to use it to drive two midi interfaces slaved to a sequencer

such as performer, vision, cubase, logic etc

as well as use the synth editors like unisyn, galaxy, or sound diver

has anyone here got experience with swapping logic boards on this architecture?

after looking at lcds for the past 10 years im kind of liking the CRT on this thing..

its really interesting to be able to downgrade or upgrade the same unit a range from 33Mhz 68k cpu 

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_quadra/specs/mac_quadra_630.html(1994)

all the way to a 300Mhz PowerPC 603e

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac/specs/powermac_6500_300.html(1997)

im just wondering if theres any hiccups in doing so? or if its plug + play... no problems..

 

[Elfen]

The Performa 5200 is like the Performa/Mac 520 - it is the first model of that line, compete with all the bugs and problems that first came out with them that were fixed or improved on in later models. I know like the Mac 520 can be upgraded with a 550 logic board, you can do the same with the 5500 board to upgrade the 5200.

Many schools used them here in NYC and no doubt elsewhere in the USA. The best thing to do with it is to max out the RAM and use (I believe) OS8. And get the Comm Card to get Ethernet on it.

 

[supernova777]

i dont see any comm cards available for ethernet.... only pds cards

and apparently the guy above said that its also compatible with the 6000 series 

 

[Macdrone]

i may have a comm slot 2 card for it or a pci ill have to look.  5xxx,6xxx and tam boards are all interchangeable for the most part.

 

[supernova777]

yea theres no comm slot nic's for it listed on ebay atm that i could see

i also noticed that theres an apple IIe compatibility card that may be able to be used with this 

 

[Cory5412]

The 5200-5500 and 6200-6500 motherboards are all compatible. That enclosure will probably also run a 580 board, but there's no really compelling reason to run a 580 board, and I'm not totally sure the 580 board will run the display at any more than 640x480.

The TAM uses the same architecture, and the board should drop in, but I probably wouldn't bother with one because you can either G3-upgrade a slow 5400/6400 board, or put in a faster 6500/300 board. The TAM board doesn't include the beige back-plate that the 580/630/5000/6000 series Macs do.

The Performa 5200 is like the Performa/Mac 520 - it is the first model of that line, compete with all the bugs and problems that first came out with them that were fixed or improved on in later models. I know like the Mac 520 can be upgraded with a 550 logic board, you can do the same with the 5500 board to upgrade the 5200.

While it's the first of a line, I wouldn't say that it's "like the Performa/LC520" if only because the LC520 didn't quite have the problems the 5200 did. Both were still usable in the long run, even if the 5200 in particular weren't nearly as fast as their massive clock speed and architectural upgrades should have afforded them.

I'd argue that nobody's specifically beholden to using their vintage Macs a particular way. RAM and a newer version of the OS may alleviate some of the problems of the 5200, but if you already have other faster Macs, maybe you want a 5200 for the other things it represents. Many people prefer original installs for reasons of specific nostalgia or because they want to see the system as it existed at a particular time.

 

[supernova777]

ive read articles that state that serial/midi performance with 68K cpu units can be superior to powerpc units because the entire serial/midi subsystem is written in 68k code.

and that even in mac os 9.2.2 the mac os is running bits of 68k code in emulation to process the serial/midi data.. and at a low level the system was never rewritten from its native 68k platform..

this would be why i would consider getting a 68k cpu board to swap in.. then i would have a cheap + easier to find version of a color classic that runs with an IDE hard drive! (modern 80gb sata drive with IDE converter board) .. albeit unable to run system 6.. but probably can run system 7.1

 

[Elfen]

this would be why i would consider getting a 68k cpu board to swap in.. then i would have a cheap + easier to find version of a color classic that runs with an IDE hard drive! (modern 80gb sata drive with IDE converter board) .. albeit unable to run system 6.. but probably can run system 7.1

A 68K board swap would never work on the 5200. The 5200 is PowerPC, used (I believe) an IDE hard drive and not a SCSI hard drive and the edge combs do not match between the PowerPC and the 68K. When I was teaching/teching at schools in NYC, I would recycle a dead machine's parts, and in the case of the LC 500 series, I took working logic boards from units with monitor issues and get a working machine from the parts. The same with the LC/Perform 5000 series in swapping out boards. But in the few attempts I tried, the 500 board would not fit in a 5000 case and the 5000 board would not work in the 500 case. Things do not line up or fit internally.

 

[HAL2001]

The 5200 is the Mac that made me abandon the Apple brand for at least 10 years or so. It was horribly slow for my work and the faster machines were too expensive. And than the iMac came out. But I already switched to Windows.

 

[Macdrone]

the Performa 63X series 68K boards will work in a 5200.  Same board form factor and Hard drive.

 

[Macdrone]

Thats why a 63X power supply, comm slot and case can be used for 62/63XX series parts.

 

[supernova777]

is there anyone here who has upgraded a performa 5200CD to a performa 6400 ??

this looks like a cool upgrade, but im concerned about a few things..

- will there be physically enough room to fit a g3 L2 Cache upgrade card? (UPGRADE ADDICTS FTW!)

- will there be physically enough room to use ANY PCI riser card? the standard 2 slot one? or perhaps finding a 1 slot one if the 2 slot one doesnt fit ?

any info is appreciated

im crazy to even be considering this but  ... LOL  

 

[supernova777]

A 68K board swap would never work on the 5200. The 5200 is PowerPC, used (I believe) an IDE hard drive and not a SCSI hard drive and the edge combs do not match between the PowerPC and the 68K. When I was teaching/teching at schools in NYC, I would recycle a dead machine's parts, and in the case of the LC 500 series, I took working logic boards from units with monitor issues and get a working machine from the parts. The same with the LC/Perform 5000 series in swapping out boards. But in the few attempts I tried, the 500 board would not fit in a 5000 case and the 5000 board would not work in the 500 case. Things do not line up or fit internally.

yea - i read that almost all of them are incompatible.. (the ones from 1993 were all using SCSI drives) but the last few models (from 1994) switched to IDE drives + the newer form factor.. the quadra 630 and the LC630 -- i think those are the only two that are compatible with the 5200CD.  - the LC using the 680LC40 chip (that i read was buggy? and best avoided?) but the quadra 630.. allows for up to 36MB of RAM + uses the 68040 Chip.. the final 68K cpu.

oh it looks like there was a few 68k cpu models in 1995 aswell

http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_year/macs-released-in-1995.html

Macintosh LC 580 33 MHz 68LC040
Macintosh Performa 580CD 33 MHz 68LC040
Macintosh Performa 588CD 33 MHz 68LC040
Macintosh Performa 640CD (PC) 33 MHz 68LC040
 
not sure if these are compatible but someone above in this thread spoke of the 580 so probably..
but these are all nerfed in that they dont include the FPU part of the CPU chip that the 68040 had
so i guess the quadra 630 is the better option
 
crazy to be considering downgrading a computer.. but its a different cpu architecture.. that this forum takes its namesake from..
and i feel like im not a real mac user if i dont have at least one 68K powered machine!! LOL

 

[Elfen]

The only issues I found with the 5000 series then was the lack of RAM Apple sold them with and forcing feeding it a bloated System 7 or 8 to run it. 16megs is great if you just did MS office, a few games and that's about it (all of the NYC Dept. of Ed Macs had 16Megs of RAM because that is they opted for). Anything more like Photoshop (even 4.2 Lite), PageMaker and even LogoWriter needed a Mac with a minimum of 24Megs.

Somewhere I have the System 7 & 8 Install CDs for these machines. I'm going to start looking for them.

 

[supernova777]

i have the performa 5200CD restore cd if u need it + an update cd.. i was given the original cds with the mac when i bought it for 30$ 

hehe

 

[Macdrone]

I have put a 6400 board in a 5200 chassis and it works great.  Only downside is since no sub is present a TAM board or 6400/6500 changed to a TAM board will not make sound in a 5XXX series computer.

 

[supernova777]

I have put a 6400 board in a 5200 chassis and it works great.  Only downside is since no sub is present a TAM board or 6400/6500 changed to a TAM board will not make sound in a 5XXX series computer.

sorry i dont know what a TAM board is...

do you mean the speakers no longer work ?

 

[CC_333]

What he means is that if you take the logic board out of a Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (or a Power Mac 6400 logic board modified to work in a Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh), you will not get sound from the 5200's speakers because the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh logic board does not recognize them; it expects there to be a subwoofer (which is where some of the sound circuitry is on a Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh), which the 5200 obviously does not have. Same goes for the modified 6400 logic board.

A standard, unmodified 6400 logic board, however, should work fine, and you should get full sound.

c

 

[Bunsen]

New thread: 630 in 52xx

Discussions about other motherboard upgrades (5xxx/6xxx) can stay here.