How much RAM can a PPC Performa 5260 Take?

J

JeffCGD

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How much RAM can a PPC Performa 5260 Take?

I managed to score one as a freebie from work, and I want to spec it up (as much as possible with a 120MHz computer, of course) to run OS9, and give it to my brother. Currently it has only 48Mb.

How much can it carry, and is the RAM it uses still readily available?
 
Bother.
Although it technically 'will' run OS9, it won't run much of anything else on top of OS9's memory footprint with just 64Mb RAM. Can anyone recall how much ram an average OS9.x install uses? I though it was about 60Mb just in itself!
I wanted to be able to run a web browser, an instant messaging client, email etc. I'm loathe to put 8.6 on it (If I can even locate a system disc that old).
 
Back when I used OS 9 I remember it took around 90 MB, but that was with 192MB total. I think it might scale to what's available.
 
I wouldn't recommend OS 9 on that machine. My father still has his old Performa 6220CD (which is the same as the 5200 series except that it wasn't an all in one) with 64 MB RAM and it's dragging with OS 9. 7.6.1 would probably be the fastest OS on those machines, but any of the 8.x versions I think will be enough.
 
scruffy said:
That or a free unix - NetBSD or Linux...
Click to expand...

Neither of these two will run on these models (52xx, 62xx). Since these are still NuBus based, they aren't supported at all by NetBSD or Linux. MkLinux supposedly is able to run on these machines, but definitely not out of the box. You REALLY have to kill yourself to make it work, and even then not everything works.....if anything at all...

Your only options are Mac OS. :rolleyes:

PS: The only real exception is the Performa 6360, which is a completely different motherboard. It's basically like the 6400 series Macs, but in a small desktop enclosure. The Performa 6360 will run Linux and any of the BSDs. I think you can add a Performa 6360 motherboard to it, but you would also have to replace the power supply with one that is designed for a 6360. And while this is something I would do to a 62xx model, I would be wary of the 52xx models since there is a possibility of electrocution from the monitor while replacing the power supply (unless the power supply doesn't require the machine to be opened in such a way).
 
Well, technically, you CAN get Yellow Dog Linux running on a 5200/6200 with a little work -- and, if I were you, this is something that I would explore if you'd like to experiment with Linux. I've got Yellow Dog installed on an old 8500 (with a G3/400MHz upgrade) and 448MB of RAM, and I'm glad I took the time to install it.

Developmental (and functional) kernel discussion and information can be found here:
http://nubus-pmac.sourceforge.net/

...and Yellow Dog Linux can be had for free at:
http://www.yellowdoglinux.com
 
Technically, yes. But not out of the box. Be prepared to spend some time on this project if you are dead serious about installing and running Linux. If you look carefully, they took most of the work from the MkLinux project and claim parity with it, though it looks as though they have progressed more so than MkLinux.

The 8500 is wonderfully supported by Linux . I installed YDL 2.1 at the time on an 8550 and everything worked great. Was a good system for me until I got my hands on a PM G3 Beige system, on which I also installed YDL (v3.0).
 
I've gotta say that yeah, my 8500 runs it pretty good with the exception of a few quirks -- unless I totally boot into OS 9 and then Linux, Linux thinks that the built-in sound card has been removed and I have to tell it to ignore that (sound works perfectly regardless). Also, the system is reported as only being 200MHz (there's a G3/400MHz 1MB L2 cache card in there) even after running the cache grabber utility and enabling it.

What else would you do with a machine that old? Mac OS 7.6.3 isn't going to be spectacular, and I think you'd get more enjoyment out of it trying something new. It will take work, but I guarantee you'll come out of it with a better knowledge of how OSs work. A worthwhile project if you're a tinkerer like me.
 
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