When knowlege ends, frustration begins and I'm sort of out here treading water at the moment. I picked up Dragon Premium 11.5, only to discover that my 7-year-old PC is no match to it (was looking for a reason to pick up a new PC anyway).

I stumbled (gratefully) across KnowBrainer and in reading through the forums and looking at the home page, have come to realize I'll probably also need to pick up some products there.

 

Now - before I go running out to the local PC/laptop store, or better still, one of the sites where I can build my own PC, I'm looking to you all for some knowledge.  For $500 or less, what is the best off-the-shelf PC/laptop; OR what features would you build in.

 

My prerequisites for my outside work server are:

• Internet Explorer 8 or higher (IE 9 recommended for its increased speed and performance)
• Windows XP or higher
• Word 2003 or higher

I currently have the 2003 software so would prefer to stay with that but could go up if needed.

 

I would really appreciate an knowlegs you can pass on.

 

Thanks

 

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MTFutures

NDP;Windows XP

                        Welcome to the World’s Most Popular Speech Recognition Forum

We are not completely certain you will be able to find quite enough system for $500 but you'll find our general computer recommendations in the NaturallySpeaking Quick Tips (at the top of this page) when you look up “Computer Recommendations”; the 2nd link. You might be able to find an appropriate $500 system if you go with an i5 processor.

Windows XP is all but dead and you shouldn't use it even if you have the option because you would be limited to about 3.5 Gb of RAM. Most computers are now Windows 7 64-bit which includes IE 9. Word 2003 will work but there are some snags which were eliminated in Word 2007.

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Click KB 2012 REV D to Download a 30 Day Evaluation of KnowBrainer 2012 

 

 

 

Doing a quick check of the name brands at the various big discount sites, the current PC pricing looks like $800 min and $1000 for pretty much all you need. You can shave costs if you get the parts and build your own but I still don't think you can get to $500 and be happy with DNS 11.5. 

You can read the recent threads on this part of the form and get a pretty good idea about what is required.

Phil Schaadt

 

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DNS12 Pro BM V Large Vocabulary plus KB or Voice Computer running Win7 64 bit machines with i7-2640M to i7-3960x and i7-3770K processors plus a Sony VAIO Windows 8 machine. DBX Audio Gate with Allen&Heath mixer/USB Audio; Andrea PureAudio USB  usually with Airline 77 or Audio-Technica but also Sennheiser MD431 II, theBoom, et. al.

MTFuture,

These are the closest appropriate computers to your $500 price range that I could find--but these are $600.

 

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11751003&whse=BC&Ne=5000000+4000000&eCat=BC|84|56671&N=4047237 5000107&Mo=21&No=21&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C

 

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11752041&whse=BC&Ne=5000000+4000000&eCat=BC|84|56671&N=4047237 5000107&Mo=21&No=17&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C

 But, you could get a much better computer for just $200 more:

 http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11329189&whse=BC&Ne=5000136+4000000&eCat=BC|84|56671&N=4047237 5000107 4294899772&Mo=4&No=4&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C

(I just bought this last one for my wife).

MDH

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MTFuture,

First, I'm not sure whether you're looking for a laptop or desktop. However, keep in mind that DNS 11.5 is particularly resource intensive. This is especially true if you're going to be using Windows 7 64-bit, which I recommend.

Second, the likelihood of getting a good system for use with DNS 11.5 four equal to or around $500 is unlikely. Basically, what you would be looking for is a Core™ i7 2600 or Core™ i7 2600K with the minimum of 6 GB of RAM (1333 MHz) and a recommended 8 GB of RAM. The Core™ i7 2600 series processors work extremely well with DNS 11.5. They are quad core processors with 8 MB of L3 cache (desktop) and 6 GB of L3 cache for the Core™ i7 2670QM (laptop). You don't need to get a 1 TB hard drive, even though the cost per gigabyte gets cheaper as the size of the hard drive increases. The only consideration as regards hard drives to stay away from the 5400 RPM and stick to the 7200 RPM drives.

Regardless, you can shop at Costco, TigerDirect, Newegg, CompUSA for best deals on desktops and laptops, but just remember if you shop online going to pay tax and shipping. You can get a good desktop with the above specs for around $749, and a good laptop with the above specs for around $949. Even so, be careful looking at systems for around $500. They're out there, but as regards DNS 11.5 you're cutting corners. While you may be able to find one for around that price, you can end up disappointed with the results.

Just food for thought.

PS, MDH beat me to the punch, but the systems that he posted links for are very good for use with DNS 11.5. The last one is the best both because of the hard drive and memory (RAM).

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower®: We don't make Dragon NaturallySpeaking, We make it better!
Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't. - Pete Seeger

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According to Nuance

http://www.nuance.com/ucmprod/groups/dragon/@web-enus/documents/collateral/nc_016349.pdf

 the minimum specs are:

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
The install process checks that your system meets the
minimum requirements; if they are not met, Dragon
NaturallySpeaking will not be installed.
• CPU: minimum 1 GHz Intel® Pentium® or equivalent AMD
processor or 1.66 GHz Intel® Atom® processor.
We recommend 1.8 GHz Intel Dual Core™ or equivalent AMD
processor. (IMPORTANT: SSE2 instruction set required).
• Processor Cache: minimum 512 KB. We recommend 2 MB.
• Free hard disk space: 2.5 GB (2.8 GB for localized
non-English versions).
• Supported Operating Systems:       Microsoft Windows 7, SP1, 32-bit and 64-bit.
Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 and SP2, 32-bit and 64-bit.
Microsoft Windows XP SP2 and SP3, 32-bit only.        Windows Server 2003 and 2008, SP1, SP2 and R2 SP1, 32-bit and 64-bit.
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
• RAM: minimum 1 GB for Windows XP and Windows Vista, and
2 GB for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2003/2008. We
recommend 2 GB RAM for Windows XP and Windows Vista,
and 4 GB for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2003/2008 64-bit.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher (free download at
www.microsoft.com).
• Creative® Labs Sound Blaster® 16 or equivalent sound card
supporting 16-bit recording.
• DVD-ROM drive required for installation.
• Nuance-approved noise-canceling headset microphone
(included in purchase).
See details at support.nuance.com/compatibility/ (includes
Bluetooth® microphones, recorders, and Tablet PCs).

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Help! I can't see vowels!! (and sometimes "y")

We recommend taking Nuance computer recommendations with a grain of salt because they are in the business of selling NaturallySpeaking and the last thing they want to do is frighten away a potential customer. We think you'll find more realistic recommendations in the NaturallySpeaking Quick Tips (at the top of this page) when you click the 2nd link from the top titled Computer Recommendations.

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Click KB 2012 REV D to Download a 30 Day Evaluation of KnowBrainer 2012 

 

 

 

They would "frighten" me away as a potential customer if their minimum requirements are unrealistic and their supplied headset was totally inadequate.

I would expect the minimum requirements with the supplied headset to perform tolerably well, and that they wouldn't do the Microsoft thing where the minimum requirements for Windows was enough for the OS and nothing else.

 

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Help! I can't see vowels!! (and sometimes "y")

you might also want to check out this thread

http://www.knowbrainer.com/pubforum/index.cfm?page=viewForumTopic&topicId=12147&listFull#762B6076-F07B-26F9-CD171DEFCBCthread63235

 but the budget in that case was $1000

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Help! I can't see vowels!! (and sometimes "y")