My first computer was a ZX81 in 1982, which you can program to do amazing things at that time, with e.g selfbuild hardware (we did a lot those days). But to get a better screen and resolution, you must own a Commodore or Atari, but doing the fact of a difficult programming in basic with lots of Pokes and Peeks to get the effects, I did not.
Then in 1984 The Amstrad in England came with a whole new concept and I was crazy of it from the beginning. So the HCC Meetings in 1984 were coming and I did order the CPC 464 with a colour monitor. It toke 2 month before I received the package and it was one with a build -in cassette recorder, controlled by the computer ( as we used with the ZX81, but then with higher baudrates).
A lot of work coming up in making programs and saving them on tape. The programs were easy to make with the build-in locomotive basic. Pokes and Peeks also were easy to use in the basic, due the lower- and upper roms. A part of the upper rom could be programmed easily and set the system to do easy jobs for the programs. Much better than a C64!. After a few month's I bought a standalone 3" diskdrive plus controller, connected at the back side of the computer. Offcourse we also bought other things like epromcards, speech synthesizer, midi interface, and multiface two copier module. There was a huge  amount of parts to get in th UK.
At least all became to be a little confused of all the separate cables and modules, so I took the decision to build all stuff in a new environment. After 3 month's this was ready and guess what, a great succes on the computer Amstrad GG meetings. For there was Gerrit with his CPC COCKPIT!

Foreground  Roms: Basic                 - Locomotive Basic (1.0 of 1.1, what's choosen)
                               DP                     - Utlity Rom with format, editors, sector reading, aso.
                               CP/M                 - Insert systemdisk and push the button for a start
                               80 koloms Basic - Starting in 80 Characters Mode (2)

Background Roms: Oddjob               - The Ulitimate utility eprom
                               Promerge Plus    - Utility tool for Protext
                               Protext               - Textwriting
                               Rodos                - Will CPC work like a DOS machine, incl. directory structure
                                                          Can control a harddisk
                               Utopia                - Fantastic Utility Rom, Copy, Format, aso.
                                A.R.C.S            - Programming the Super Plus Rombox
                               CP/M                 - CP/M start rom (always on, except with XD-Dos Rom)
                               Copylock            - Copying protected software with track/sector
                                                           method
                               Discology           - Copier- and editor rom (simple version 5.0)
                               Maxam               - Diss-/Assembler for machine language programming
                               SysX                  - Systemrom for RSX Commands adding to the systeem
                               XD-Dos               - Can control a harddisk.
                                                           There are a lot of routines to burn in a  separate eprom, so
                                                            the CPC can work without a harddisk

A CPC 464 with 2 roms, Locomotive Basic 1.0 (464) and Basic 1.1 (664 - 6128) (switchable by a switch at the leftside of the computer). There also is a switch for 7 / 8 Bits printing and Linefeed for the printer, auto or manual. Below the left flap there's a On/Off switch for the SUPER PLUS ROMBOX, a hard reset button sits in beneath of the switch. The ULA chip on the motherboard is cooled by a larger aluminum plate with cooling paste.
At the switchpanel (sitting in front of the computer) there are the switches for the 3.5" / 5.25" and 3" diskdrives. By special switching combinations, every drive can be A or B, incl. a sideswitch for the 3.5" and 5.25" to use both sides of the diskette, without turning them, Even a reserve connector has been placed at the left side for a extern diskdrive, also switchable as A or B (incl the sideswitch).

Furtheron there's a CP/M Autostart switch on the panel (only if there's a Rombox with pre-programmed CP/M Plus Eproms inside).
A volume pot for the speech-synthesizer, also for the sound of the games.
A headphone- and a lightpen connector (besides the AMX Mouse).
Also a AMX Mouse can be connected on/off trough the panel.
At the leftside also there are 2x joystick connectors, and as written earlier an extra diskdrive and power connector.

If we remove the upper cover, we see the compartment with power and cooling, a compartment with a 3.5" and 5.25" drive. And at the right there's the original build-out 3" drive. In front there are the left- and right speakers of the speech-synthesizer.

Do we lift up the upper part of the box, then it opens and we'll find the On/Off switchable Super Plus Rombox for 16 eproms, controlled by software in a eprom. In other words, with this software you can see what eproms has been added to the system and what functions they have. You can see it on the first photo.
Behind the Rombox there's the 64Kb  Memory expension and all to right side you see the connector incase to dismantle the switching panel, e.g for repairs.
At the backside of the computer there are coolers, even cooling the CPC 464, so the chips on the motherboard stay cool.

With the Rombox it is very fast and easy working. All the tools to manage disks in formatting and copying, inwhich you need the original CP/M systemdisk, are no needed. You only can't make CP/M systemdisks with the Rombox, that's why CP/M is needed. But if you have a ready made systemdisc, just copy it with the Utopia eprom and voila!

20 years after starting with this CPC it's still working fine in using it for data storing for several programs, wrote by me in basic programming and very easy to handle.

Now I don't do much in making new stuff or programs, maybe when there's a harddisk connected to this CPC 464 Extended, but that's an other story . . . . .