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From: cwebster@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Chris Webster)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: BBS under Desqview & Bocaram AT plus board questions
Keywords: Desqview, DV, Citadel-86, BBS, Bocaram AT plus
Message-ID: <1953@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
Date: 2 Feb 90 16:12:51 GMT
Sender: netnews@rodan.acs.syr.edu
Reply-To: cwebster@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Chris Webster)
Distribution: na
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Lines: 37


     I'm interested in running a BBS on my AT under Desqview, but there's
some questions that I need some help on.

1)  Will my hardware be fast enough?  I have an AT running at 12.5 Mhz with a
VERY slow harddrive (60-70+ ms access times.)  The BBS software I plan on using
is Citadel-86  (BTW, it's an incredibly awesome Public Domain BBS program; it
was on Simtel the last time I checked) and, since it doesn't use a lot of
memory (which is good for running under Desqview) it requires a lot of brief
disk accesses.    I'm mainly concerned with the apparent speed to the dial up
user.  I have a 2400 baud modem, but I think I may upgrade to an U.S. Robotics
dual standard (since BBS sysops get excellent discounts).  Can I have things
going in the foreground, and not affect the performance of the BBS to the user?
(My foreground tasks would mainly be Wordperfect and some other typical PC tasks
  I would like to have Fractint running in a virtual mode when nobody is using
  the console of the BBS.)

2)  I'm going to need more memory as I only have one meg right now.  If the 384k
 of that memory was compatible with EMS 4.0, I'd be all set, but alas, it's not.
 I thought that I would purchase a EMS 4.0 board to accomplish this.  I seem to
 have come across a rather good price on an Bocaram AT Plus board; $299 for two
 megabytes installed.  (Is this a good price?)  What speeds should the chips be
 running at?  I really don't want to be getting a good price because they
 installed slower ram chips on the board.

 3)  Configuration:  Can the Bocaram board run with a DTK bios?  The DTK bios
 I have pops-up through a hot key in order to be configured.  Last time I
 checked, the menus didn't have an option for an memory board add on.

     Finally, can I keep the motherboards' memory enabled, and still get decent
sized windows?  I really don't need the full 600k or so that DV would give me
in a window, but I do need something closer to what my biggest window is now,
450k or so.  I want to use the extended memory I have now for Microsoft's
Smartdrv.sys (after all, I do have a tortise hard drive) and the EMS memory
for programs.  Can this be done.

    Thanks for any assistance.