Amstrad PC1640
RH-J8JA
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
- 531-8614231
- Form factor
- proprietary
- Chassis
- desktop, with the power supply in the monitor
- CPU
- Intel 8086-8
- Installed RAM
- 4× 4464, 2× 41464, 2× 41256, 4× 44256 (704 KiB + parity)
- OS
- MS-DOS 3.2 / GEM
- Condition
- Working
- Source
- TME Matt
- Acquired
- 2026-09-05
- Notes
- This is my moungrel. Board and case from a 1640, front from a 1512. Modified with 12v DC power. Has a rainbow LED fitted.
Machine
Motherboard
Amstrad PC1640 Moungrel
- Chipset
- Amstrad
- CPU family
- 8088-class
- Form factor
- proprietary
- Onboard RAM
- 640 KiB
- Slots
- 4× 8-bit ISA
- BIOS
- Modified GLaBIOS
- Onboard video
- Amstrad EGA
- Ports
- Floppy, Serial, Parallel
Parts
Polpo PicoGUS
- Chip
- RP2040
- Interface
- 8-bit ISA
Allnet All0130
- Interface
- 16-bit ISA
Western Digital WD1002A-WX1
- Chip
- WD11C00-JT
- Interface
- 8-bit ISA
- Ports
- 2× MFM
Seagate ST-124
- Kind
- Hard disk
- Interface
- MFM
- Protocol
- MFM
- Capacity
- 20 MiB
- CHS
- 615/4/17
Work
Part of Repair of Amstrad PC1640
- Needs repair. No POST.2026-09-25
Files
History
Acquired 2026-09-05 from TME Matt · held 1 month
- 2026-09-24
-
note Hard disk bad; removed.
- 2026-09-24
-
note Replaced faulty RAM 41256 chip and bad BIOS.