AMSTRAD PC-20 512K PERSONAL COMPUTER

[Bryce]

The only KC I know of that looked a bit like a PC, was the KC85/x range, but they definitely weren't 286's

Bryce.

[Badstarr]

@ Gryzor That is exactly what I thought at the time! At first I thought, Oh Geezzuz I found a KC Compact! And the guy selling it was very keen to shift it and when I made a beeline for it he made the fatal mistake of showing me the instruction manual. It wasn't until I noticed the top cover was hanging off and noticed inside looked a bit too advanced to be a CPC, I clicked and looked at the manual. The thing is he used to sell a lot of CPC stuff, so maybe he made the same "mistake" I nearly made. I looked about on the internet and could not find an example of an identical machine so came to the conclusion the name might just have been a weird coincidence, my Dad who was with me at the time said they may have used the name as "Compact" sounded a bit like "Compaq".


@Bryce, I suppose it could have said 386/486 in the manual ?

[Bryce]

Actually I meant older, not newer.

Bryce.

[TFM]

Most of the older machines with RTC or battery backed RAM used those 3.6V soldered in batteries (exactly the same one that was used on the Inicron RAMROMBox too). When they leak they destroy quite a bit. I'm currently trying to save an Amiga 500 which has badly suffered from the same fate

Bryce.

Well my RRB has an accumulator, that gets reloaded due to the CPCs power supply. If runs well since 1996, no problems, no leaking. But if somebody buys an inofficial rebuilt of the RRB, then ... well, who knows.... everything may be possble... 

[TFM]

an Amstrad CPC5256PLUS could have been great.

Actually, I still think about a CPCng, but that would need a serious team of people who can finish the project.

[Bryce]

Well my RRB has an accumulator, that gets reloaded due to the CPCs power supply. If runs well since 1996, no problems, no leaking. But if somebody buys an inofficial rebuilt of the RRB, then ... well, who knows.... everything may be possble... 

They work fine for years if they are being used (charged / discharged) regularly. They only tend to leak when they haven't been used for a long time.

Bryce.

[protek]

Resurrecting this old thread.
A PC20/200 would actually make a nice chassis for a Mini-ITX board.

[Gryzor]

Yes it would Schneider Euro-PCs, too!

[CraigsBar]

Resurrecting this old thread.
A PC20/200 would actually make a nice chassis for a Mini-ITX board.

A sweet little desktop linux box indeed. Or even (if Mini ATX's still come with Floppy Ports) a sweet CPCDiskXP machine.


Craig

[TFM]

Well, one can use different cases, as long as the PCB is either CPC6128 or 6128Plus 

[protek]

How rare the PC20/200 and EuroPC are compared to the CPC line? My friend used to have an EuroPC back in the day but I've not seen one since.

[MacDeath]

CPCs were produced about 3 millions units...

those PC20/200 weren't... perhaps between 10k and 50k units I guess ?

I mean they were cool cased, but CGA PC with no soundcard... lame.

If you can put EGA or VGA + soundblaster, they may get decent though.

[TFM]

They work fine for years if they are being used (charged / discharged) regularly. They only tend to leak when they haven't been used for a long time.
Bryce.

Right, my ROM-RAM-Box and Inicron RAM-expansion are both S-RAM with Rechargeable-batteries. They work find since 20(!) years! Still using them.