Amin,

First, the Dell system that you're looking at is pretty much top-of-the-line as far as laptop processors are concerned (Sandy Bridge). $1500 is a reasonably good price and if you're looking to the future, it will serve you well up through DNS 11.5 in terms of overall performance. Unless you were to purchase one of the new Sandy Bridge 2 or Core™ i e laptops that use the new LGA 2011 motherboards, which also come with all kinds of bells and whistles like support for USB 3.0 and SATA III (6.0Gb/s), you won't get any better in terms of laptop configurations. This system should saying with DNS 10.1 and will even perform admirably with DNS 11.5, should you move in that direction. With DNS 10.1 you will get virtually instantaneous display of text when dictating. However, and that being said, Intel is introducing a new processor code-named Ivy Bridge, which will run circles around even the top-of-the-line Core™ i processors currently available, or which will become available midmonth this month. The Ivy Bridge processors should make DNS 11.5 function like DNS 10.1 in terms of performance (speed). However, Ivy Bridge will not be available until sometime mid to end of the first quarter of 2012. There is some speculation that laptops with Ivy Bridge processors may be available sooner, but I wouldn't bank on it, and you also will not get one of these for $1500. The initial MSRP speculated with regard to Ivy Bridge laptops begins in the neighborhood of $2200-$2500 for the more moderately lower end processors. It will be a while before the price on these processors comes down to the point where you can get one (laptop) or under $2000. The bottom line is that I wouldn't worry about it and I definitely wouldn't wait for it because it's still just a glint in its mother's eye even though some of the specs have been published.

Second, will the Dell system to which you refer improve accuracy? Not likely. Accuracy is not dependent upon performance, at least not directly. If you have the Speed vs. Accuracy slider currently set the 50%, you will be able to set it to 100% with this particular Dell system, and that may improve accuracy. However, processor power and speed is≠ accuracy. That's a function of your microphone/soundcard, your dictation style, the quality of your Acoustic Model, and where, in some cases, you have the Speed vs. Accuracy slider set, among other nonperformance related issues. Keep in mind that accuracy is what is called an asymptotic function. That has two sides: (a) it is a mathematical impossibility to obtain 100% accuracy, and (b) the curve that represents accuracy begins to plateau and become virtually flat (horizontal) as you get to 99.5% accuracy. So, if you're getting 99.5 to 99.9% accuracy, you're not going to see any overall improvement in accuracy no matter what the performance of your system is.

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower®: We don't make speech recognition, we make it better!

"If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside." -- Robert X. Cringely

Fwiw, I did some research on Ivy Bridge before plunking down the credit card for my new laptop.  It doesn't sound like the performance gains are going to be all that impressive.  Here's what AnandTech[/url] had to say (http://www.anandtech.com/show/4830/intels-ivy-bridge-architecture-exposed/6):

techlaw,

I don't think that you fully comprehend the advances in Ivy Bridge processors.

Third, Ivy Bridge processors will support quad channel memory, which by itself won't be significant in terms of overall performance, but coupled with the above will add additional processing power.

Lastly, the size of the die has been reduced from 32 nm to 22 nm with significantly less power consumption. Note that that has little to do with voltage because the voltage is the same. It's the amount of power consumption that the reduced significantly. This is not so much an issue with regard to desktop systems as it is in terms of increasing the battery life for laptops, and, as you note, tablets.

You will likely see Ivy Bridge available in laptops sooner than desktops according to the latest rumblings from the developer community and laptop manufacturers. However, you're not likely to see Ivy Bridge processors in tablets and tablet PCs for at least a year. The rollout is scheduled to be laptops first, which is unusual, desktops second and tablets and tablet PCs last.

Processor speed is no longer an issue relative to overall performance Re: processors because greater the processor speed, the more power consumption, and this defeats Intel's entire technology development philosophy. Also, processor speed is not significant anymore in terms of overall performance. It's the bells and whistles relative to the cache, RAM and RAM speed, hyperthreading, memory and graphics.

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower®: We don't make speech recognition, we make it better!

"Many of the things you can count, don't count. Many of the things you can't count, really count." Albert Einstein

techlaw,

No, I wasn't trying to say that what you said was incorrect. It also was not my intention to start a war. So, if you took offense at what I was trying to say, then I apologize. So let's start over.

I was assuming that because the original post was in reference to computers that would best run DNS now and in the future, that such was the intention of your post. My error. However, as regards your personal needs and your wish list for Intel and tablets, you're preaching to the choir.

In time the sun will turn into a red giant and engulf this planet. It's not that difficult to predict the future. However, the demise of the standard PC (computer/laptop) won't occur until there something that is viable to replace it. Tablets are not going to be where the industry ends up, just a stage along the way. The future is your computer in your shirt pocket. So, as long as you're predicting the demise of the standard computer, you can also add to that the cell phone because the future will be as it's already becoming, the merging of the cell phone and the computer with many hundreds of times the processing power of what we now have and speech recognition to control it (primary user interface). So, if you want to go down that path, take it to the penultimate conclusion.

1. Cell phone and computer combined into one with terabytes of solid-state storage and power 10 times what the current desktop/laptop/notebook can do. The current concept of cell phones and computers will blur and disappear in the merge. In fact, they already have begun to do so – enter the smartphone era.

2. Tiny hydrogen fuel cells that will power such hardware 24/7/365 for up to 4 to 5 years in a constant "on" state (i.e., not having to turn your "computer" off ever except to change "batteries" so to speak).

3. All mobile communications capabilities built-in, computer, Web, phone, video, television, printed communication (no more paper or printers), yada yada yada, ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

4. Speech recognition (where are you going to put your keyboard?) will be the primary, if not the only, user interface and method of communication.

5. Intelligent systems that will alert you, talk back to you, and communicate with you in a normal, undistorted human voice and your computer will it even take on such human characteristics as having a 3-D human face. Your computer will even wake you up, and provide you with alerts to anything relevant to you. We will literally talk to our computers and they will talk back to us. The boundary between talking to a computer and talking to another person will be blurred to the extent that it will be virtually indistinguishable. All communications between ourselves, our computers, and other people will be speech/video-based interaction. In fact, the next generation of kids may never know what a keyboard as or any other way of communicating with their friends, parents, computers, teachers, etc.

Think this is far-fetched? This is part of the research that is currently going on at Intel and other places, predicted by Ray Kurzweil and others, and in the last couple of years there have been some significant technical videos on precisely this topic with precisely this projection. Will it come in the next three or four years? Probably not, but it may come sooner than the predicted 2020. It all depends on how fast the technology advances. Nevertheless, the above concepts are already a glint in their mother's eyes.

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower®: We don't make speech recognition, we make it better!

"If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside." -- Robert X. Cringely

Chuck, do you have any references you could share?  It isn't that I don't believe you, just that I'd love to read about all these issues.  Kind of a masochistic tendency having just spent my hard earned cash on a poor old Sandy Bridge system .

By the way, I replaced Windows 7 64-bit with Windows XP 32-bit on my old Core 2 Duo laptop with 4GB RAM, and if anything DNS Medical 10.1 seems subjectively a touch slower than before.  Not a big difference, at any rate. 

Amin,

There isn't a whole lot of information out there with regard to the technical specifications surrounding Ivy Bridge. However, if you search on LGA 2011 (motherboard specification and slot for the next generation of Intel processors) and/or Ivy Bridge, you will probably encounter most of what I have been able to dig up at this point. I'm lucky enough to have an Intel engineer as my next-door neighbor. Unfortunately, I can't share him with you.

I wouldn't worry about what you purchased vs. what's coming down the road. That's always the challenge. When Ivy Bridge systems really become available on a regular basis, they will be pushed out of date by the next generation. While Moore's Law is being stretched to the limit, technology is still advancing at the rate of two times every year. Ivy Bridge may be the projector technology for next year, but it's already off the drawing table. The only reason you haven't seen it yet is because Intel has to gear up the manufacturing process. Nevertheless, by the time it's out, it will already be obsolete. You can't win. The best you can do is to stay reasonably current. The Toshiba laptop that I just purchased and the one that you just purchased are still current and top-of-the-line as far as laptops and processors are concerned. They'll still be viable. My Gateway Core2™ Duo 2 GHz with 2 GB of DDR2 667 MHz RAM and 4 MB of L2 cache is over five years old, but it still works reasonably well with DNS 11-11.5. I just purchased my new Toshiba which is a Core™ i7 2670QM 4 core/8 thread (hyperthreading) with 6 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM and 6 MB of L3 cache and I'll bet that the performance is equivalent to yours even though your couple of steps up with 8 MB of L3 cache. My reason for purchasing current technology is that I need it right now for training clients on Dragon and VoicePower. Still, it will serve me well for the next few years. I can wait to take a look at Ivy Bridge and I'll wait till it comes out to the extent that I can actually get my hands on one for testing. However, I normally relegate this to desktop computers because they're easier to upgrade and significantly less expensive in terms of doing so. I have all the hardware that I need for my desktop. Only thing I need is the motherboard and CPU. I really have the RAM, the SSD, support for my SATA III (6 GB per second) drives and my corsair SSD (256 GB) boot drive. So, the most it's going to cost me to go to Ivy Bridge on my desktop will be about $700 for the motherboard and CPU, and I can get these wholesale as a system builder. On the other side of the coin, my Toshiba laptop only cost me $849 plus tax at Best Buy and I needed it now, not next year.

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower®: We don't make speech recognition, we make it better!

Be careful what you ask for. What you get might not be what you expect, or want. - Aesop (620 BC - 700 BC)

Thanks, Chuck.

Fwiw, my 2008 desktop has a Core 2 Quad processor Q9400 (6M L2 cache, 2.66 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB) with 8GB RAM and still feels quite snappy for my needs (DNS Medical 10.1, Photoshop, etc).

My 2008 laptop isn't doing too poorly either with Core 2 Duo processor T9300 (6M L2 cache, 2.50GHz, 800 MHz FSB) and also performs pretty well with DNS Medical 10.1.

Still, it's always nice to feel current, if only for an instant . 

I tried going from Windows 7 64-bit to Windows XP 32-bit on the 2008 laptop, and DNS 10.1 performance and accuracy both seem significantly worse to me.  I'm going to put Windows 7 back on there. 

Amin,

Your current systems are fine with DNS 10.1. However, if you decide to upgrade to DMPE (Dragon Medical Practice Edition 11.0), you will find that you will not get as good a performance out of your current systems. Just FYI.

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower®: We don't make speech recognition, we make it better!

Be careful what you wish for.  You may find that what you get is not what you expect, or what you want. - Aesop (620 BC - 700 BC modern interpretation)

Chuck,

Can I expect better performance in DNS 11.5 with my new laptop (Core i7-2860QM (8M L3 cache, 2.50GHz, 1333 MHz FSB, DDR3) than I could get with my 2008 desktop  with Core 2 Quad Q9400 (6M L2 cache, 2.66GHz, 1333 MHz FSB, DDR2)?

Amin 

Nevermind, I was able to find an answer for my own question.  Looks like the 2860QM far outclasses the Q9400: http://community.futuremark.com/hardware/cpu-list/

Your 980X machine must be incredible! 

Many thanks, Chuck.  That's exactly what I needed to know. 

Amin,

First, it's difficult for the average user to look at the specifications that are supplied by any computer manufacturer/distributor because often the specifications are misleading.

The Dell XPS 15 series does not have a limit of 8 GB. That is simply a limitation that is company applied not hardware-based. That is, Dell doesn't offer you anything other than 8 GB of RAM. The reality is that the Dell XPS 15 series only offers you 2 GB RAM chips applied to the four slots available in this laptop. Therefore, 4 x 2 GB = 8 GB. You could easily swap these out, although expensive, for 4 GB RAM chips, which would give you 4 x 4 GB = 16 GB. That is the current maximum for dual channel memory with four slots because there currently are no DDR3 RAM chips greater than 4 GB.

On the other hand, Lenovo is pulling your leg because in order to get 32 GB of RAM, the four slots available in that laptop would have to be populated with 8 GB RAM chips, which currently don't exist. Note that 4 x 8 GB = 32 GB. Since the maximum for DDR3 is 4 GB per RAM chip, Lenovo would still limit you to 16 GB as noted above for the Dell because it's currently not possible to get RAM chips (DDR3) larger than 4 GB each. What Lenovo is saying is that once they release 8 GB RAM chips, then you could go to theoretically to 32 GB total RAM. However, the same would apply to the Dell. The limit on RAM is not one imposed or offered by the distributor, is a hardware spec determined by the manufacturer of the CPU and the motherboard. Currently all motherboards are capable of as much RAM as there are slots using the largest RAM chips size, which is 4 GB times four slots equals 16 GB.

Don't be misled by what the manufacturers say or what is offered because those are not the limitations of the hardware. They are the limitations imposed on your purchase of a particular system by the manufacturer in terms of what they are willing to offer you. In the case of the Dell XPS 15 series, you are only being offered 8 GB. In the case of the Lenovo laptop system they couldn't offer you 32 GB even if you wanted it. Both laptops will except for gigabyte DDR3 RAM chips populating four slots equaling a maximum of 16 GB. Besides, you don't need more than 8 GB currently. You won't use more than approximately 5 GB with Windows 7 64-bit anyway. Regardless, you can always replace your RAM with larger RAM chips if you feel the need to at any time. You just have to find RAM chips that are compatible with your particular system.

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower®: We don't make speech recognition, we make it better!

"The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence..." attributed to Dr. Carl Sagan

Chuck,

Thanks again for your informative response!  I appreciate the clarification.  I should mention that Lenovo didn't tell me that it could go to 32GB.  I got that information from Crucial.com, where they seem to be offering 8GB RAM chips:  http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=8ACDF6A6A5CA7304

I ended up calling Lenovo to see if they had an educational discount.  They offered me a better price, and I went for it.  Here's my new system:

- Lenovo W520

- Core-i7 2860QM (2.50GHz, 3.6GHz turbo mode, 4 cores, 8MB L3 cache)

- 8GB RAM (1 x 4GB DIMM installed, 1 x 4GB DIMM in box for me to install, 2 slots free)

- NVIDIA Quattro 1000M Graphics w/ 2GB DDR3 memory 

- 15-inch FHD (1900 x 1080) LED display 

- Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 

- 320GB 7200rpm HDD

- 9-cell battery

- Wifi/BT/Camera/DVD burner/Fingerprint reader

- 3-year Pick-up/Return Warranty / 1-Year Computrace Lojack Subscription

Total price: $1583 plus tax, free shipping. I'm going to spend the extra $56 at Crucial.com to upgrade this beast to 16GB RAM .

Thanks again for all your help.  I am psyched to see the performance of DNS Medical 10.1 on this system!

Amin 

I am also looking at upgrading, though looking at this forum there seem to be numerous issues to consider. Is going for the top of the range laptop overkill, with little speed advantage. There seems to be a latency issue with 11.5 in windows 7 64 bit compared to XP. Also with windows 8 around the corner should I hold off or will that add other problems.

I am using DNS Medical Professional 9.1 (on XP) and 9.5 (on Vista) I have it on an intel Centrino 1.73G chip (Windows XP)which is definitely faster than my AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50 1.6Ghz (Vista) and fastest on my desktop 3 Ghz pentium 4 (Windows XP).

Do I need to go for the fastest laptop or would a 1st or second generation i-3 or i5 do the job acceptably. 

Should I keep using the DNS Medical Professional 9.1 and install Windows XP on a faster laptop and move my files across as they seem pretty accurate and have been trained over 5 years or so. Or should I opt for a faster laptop and use Windows 7 (32Bit) and install DNS Medical Professional 9.5 onto it as it won't run on 64Bit. (Windows 7 professional gives you the chance to run XP programmes by vitrualisation, but that did not work for me when I tried to load DNS Medical 9.5 on a freinds to try it out)

Or will I really feel I have benefited from Upgrading to 11.5 DNS Medical Professional on a fast laptop with Windows 7 (64 Bit).

As salaries as a doctor in the UK are a 10th of what they earn in the US money is a consideration. I don't want to spend the best part of £1000 and feel that I have only a little improvement. I want to have my socks blown off and no irritations of buggy software.

Sorry there are loads of issues here to be addressed, but hopefully you can point me in the right direction. 

For a straight one-to-one comparison, you may have a look at the performance charts I have just published here:

http://www.knowbrainer.com/pubforum/index.cfm?page=viewForumTopic&topicId=13249&pageNo=2#9A685369-D232-CCAA-7625BD77A3786BC1thread70952

Feel free to ask any questions.

Rüdiger

Well, it's past the point where we can make any changes in the code, but we can still make changes to the Easter Egg!

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

Thank You for the rapid reply.

Interesting results. How would DNS Medical 9.5 on an i7 using XP in 32 Bit compare. 

Would the difference of using a sandybridge i3 v an i7 be unnoticeable or is it worth paying twice the price for the faster laptop?

Will 

eye will,

I would strongly suggest that you at least upgrade to DNS Medical v.10.1. This is clearly an improvement from 9.5. I can't in good conscience tell you to go to DMPE (essentially 11.0). Might be best to wait for the 11.5 upgrade, as DMPE has significant "issues".

MDH

I am sorry, but I don't think such conclusions could or should be drawn, in terms of comparing the performance of version 9.5 under the conditions the system had been tested in, all running version 11-11.5. If I were you, I wouldn't spend that much money and expect as much of a difference though.

The long and the short of it: either you get yourself a decent DualCore system with 6 MB of L2 cache running Windows XP (and be happy with it no matter which version of Dragon), or take the plunge and get an i7 with at least 8 MB of L3 cache to note any significant difference between.

What would still be left to be tested, how would a very fast system perform on Windows XP as opposed to Windows 7? Would it be faster? - Probably so.

Rüdiger

Well, it's past the point where we can make any changes in the code, but we can still make changes to the Easter Egg!

Thanks for sharing your excellent data, Rüdiger!  Does anyone know why XP performance is so much better?  

Another question: Is the performance in XP the same in 64-bit the same as in 32-bit?  

EDIT: Oops, I just saw that DNS only supports 32-bit XP, not 64-bit XP.  Does anyone know if performance with 32-bit Windows 7 is better than 64-bit Windows 7 (assuming RAM is 4GB in both systems)?

This is an interesting question which I have asked myself also. You know, I have the same type of processor (as per my signature) in my desktop at the office with Windows XP and 2 GB of RAM, as well as in my laptop at home with Windows 7 64-bit and 4 GB of RAM. Quite clearly the setup in the office outperforms my home system, as you can see in the charts obviously. Having a little less performance at home won't hurt, but I would hate to see this being the case at the office to be honest.

One day, when there is nothing better to do for me, I will take the trouble and format my C: drive at home, and go back to square one installing Windows 7 32-bit just in order to find out what the performance will be as compard to 64-bit.

Rüdiger

Well, it's past the point where we can make any changes in the code, but we can still make changes to the Easter Egg!

Do keep us updated, please.

Rüdiger

Well, it's past the point where we can make any changes in the code, but we can still make changes to the Easter Egg!

Thank You all for your help.

I have the option of getting (I think it will turn out to be a Aspire 5750G)

Acer Core i7 4GB 500GB 15.6 Inch Laptop.