Power Macintosh 5400

Background

Introduced in April 1996, the PowerMac 5400 LC looked the same as the 5200 on the outside, but inside was radically different. Running on a 120 MHz 603e processor (a high speed variant of the 603), and initially released only to educational markets, the 5400 was the first LC to use 168-pin DIMM sockets for memory expansion. It was also the first LC to include an industry-standard PCI slot, (although it also included the familiar LC comm, video i/o, and TV slots) and the first Macintosh computer to include enhanced SRS surround sound support. The 5400 was "speed bumped" to 180/200 MHz in February 1997, and discontinued in early 1998. It was also released in the consumer market as the Performas 5400CD, 5410CD, 5420CD, 5430CD and 5440CD, each with different hardware and software bundles. There was also a Performa 5420, which came in a black case similar to the failed Macintosh TV and was never released in the US.