Amstrad PC1640
RH-73TE
Alan Sugar's answer to the question of why a PC cost two thousand pounds. The 1640 gave the 1512 proper EGA graphics and 640K as standard, bundled GEM and a mouse, and sold in enormous numbers to British small businesses. Everything is in service of the price: the power supply lives in the monitor, so the machine will not run without one, and the fanless design that Amstrad advertised as quiet is the reason so many cooked themselves.
Details
- Manufacturer
- Amstrad
- Model
- PC1640
- Year
- 1987
- Serial
- 531-7Y18202
- Chassis
- desktop, with the power supply in the monitor
- CPU
- Fujitsu MBL8086-2
- Installed RAM
- 2× 4464, 4× 41464, 18× 41256 (704 KiB + parity)
- Drives
- 2× 5.25" 360KiB floppy (beige, yellowed)
- OS
- MS-DOS 3.2 / GEM
- Condition
- Working
- Source
- Pete Farm
- Acquired
- 2026-10-04
- Notes
- Repaired. 11 faulty MT RAM chips.
Machine
- Catalogue model
- PC1640 — Amstrad PC, 1987
- Style
- twin drive (DD)
- Region
- UK
Motherboard
Parts
Nothing fitted in it yet.
Files
-
rh-73te.txttinydiag log
History
Acquired 2026-10-04 from Pete Farm · held less than a month
- 2026-10-21
-
added 1 file(s)
- 2026-10-21
-
board detached as RH-YJ69, and linked back in
- 2026-10-21
-
changed the default photo
- 2026-10-21
-
added 4 photos
- 2026-10-21
-
created