line of personal computers by Apple

The 75 MHz Performa 5200 was the first PowerPC Mac with an integrated monitor. Although the PPC 603 CPU was superior to the older 601, this computer’s architecture kept performance of the 5200 – and it’s monitor-less twin, the 6200 – comparable to a 66 MHz Power Mac 6100 .

To save money, Apple based the motherboard on the Quadra 605 with its 25 MHz bus and 32-bit memory, even though the 603 is a 64-bit chip. Apple also used an 8-bit IDE controller for the hard drive. This is the kind of thinking that had crippled the LC with a 32-bit CPU on a 16-bit bus in 1990.

Because of unusual architecture, installing a 25-pin SCSI terminator to the SCSI port (if you have no SCSI devices attached) will improve network stability.

Specs (via Low End Mac)

• Cpu: 75 MHz PPC 603
• Bus: network and SCSI run at 10 MHz, RAM and IDE at 22.5 MHz, CPU at 37.5 MHz, graphics at 30 MHz
• Performance: XXX (relative to SE)
• Ram: 8 MB, expandable to 64 MB using 70ns 72-pin SIMMs (two slots, each supports a 4, 8, 16, or 32 MB SIMM), 32-bit memory bus, installing RAM in pairs of identical speed gives slightly more efficient performance
• Rom: 4 MB
• L2 Cache: 256 KB
• Video: thousands of colors at 640 x 480, 256 at 800 x 600 and 832 x 624
• Vram: 1 MB, not expandable
• Adb: 1 port for keyboard and mouse
• Scsi: DB-25 connector on back of computer
• Sound: may have 8-bit or 16-bit (if capacitor C255 is present, motherboard has 8-bit sound)
• Microphone: standard 3.5mm minijack, compatible with line-level input including Apple’s PlainTalk microphone
• See: Online resources and links for the Performa 5200
• Internal Hd Format: Cannot See IDE Drives (Apple Knowledge Base 18360) notes that due to changes in the way modern IDE drives are formatted at the factory, early versions of Apple HD SC Setup (ones that come with System 7.5.1 and earlier) will not recognize them. You should boot System 7.5.2 or later and use Drive Setup 1.0.3 or higher with these drives.