I second that.
As a "cheap" starter kit, I think the 1MB RAM card from Lo-Tech (or from other makers) is worth a look.
It's merely an 8-Bit UMB RAM card, though.
So it's a little bit of a performance bottle-neck..
Nevertheless, it maybe can be helpful to get DOS and drivers out of conventional memory.
The remaining RAM then can be used for applications.
That being said, I don't know how exactly the board does organize memory.
Depending on how it does, some RAM might be available above 1MB for Extended Memory.
That would be good for XMS/Himem.sys.
Edit: Personally, I had a good experience with 286 PCs that had 4MB RAM (total).
That was fine for loading Windows, EMM286, disk cache etc.
So I *guess* that 2MB (total) may also do. Or ~1MB of free, unused RAM.
With less available memory, there might be resource conflicts.
Because contiguous memory is needed or prefered by some more sophisticated applications.
Programs using overlay files (.OVL) may also need or favor such memory.
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