I am purchasing a new laptop and I need to know if the specs are good enough to run Dragon NaturallySpeaking Pro 10. Laptop specifications: ASUS UL20A-A1.
Technical Details

* 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 Core 2 Duo Processor
* 2GB of DDR2 RAM, 2 Slots, 4GB Max
* 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM), No Optical Drive

I will add another 2 GB of RAM for a total of 4 GB of RAM. I don't really want to put Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 Pro on this machine.

Unfortunately we have to disagree with Martin's assessment. We believe the 250 Gb hard drive is ample for most notebook end-users. HOWEVER, as far as NaturallySpeaking running as fast as any other computer with that 1.3 GHz processor... that simply isn't true. You will definitely take a productivity hit with a 1.3 GHz processor. That's not to say that it won't work but we wouldn't recommend this computer for serious work. Additionally, when you purchase from a place like J&R Music. (Amazon.com) you're not exactly going to receive stellar support. We recommend checking out the M700 series of notebook computers at M-Tech which can optionally handle up to 6 Gb of RAM (best for Windows 7 64-bit), includes 4 Gb of RAM, Intel i7 920 chip (which really is as fast as any other computer), built in the US by a company with a 1% return rate (as opposed to the average 15% return rate of many other companies) and is KnowBrainer certified to run DNS 10.1; tested by yours truly. The M700 series start out at less than $1000 but note that we have no financial interest in making this recommendation.

You might additionally consider checking out the KnowBrainer Computer Forum which is moderated by Chuck Runquist (former NaturallySpeaking developer).

We probably should've spent more time qualifying our recommendation. We will attempt to remedy that mistake in this posting. Although we would agree that a 1.3 GHz processor could be used with NaturallySpeaking; especially for straight dictation, it certainly isn't recommended in a situation where someone is about to make a new purchase.

To our knowledge, Martin is not Nuance-certified and not necessarily qualified in certain aspects in the use of NaturallySpeaking. We sell NaturallySpeaking and the following is quoted directly from the box (which we just pulled off the shelf):

Recommended Specifications: Intel Pentium 2.4 GHz (1.6 GHz dual core) or later, or equivalent AMD Athlon 64 processor or later etc.. Note that those recommendations were originally published for Windows XP and not Window 7 which has even higher requirements.

It's also common knowledge that software manufacturers tend to underestimate ideal hardware requirements in order to sell software. When you combine that information with the extreme likelihood that Ver. 11 (due out in the 3rd or 4th quarter of this year) will have even higher requirements, why would anyone consider purchasing a processor that isn't even recommended, other than minimally, by the manufacturer now.

We are Nuance-certified and at the request of computer, digital recorder and microphone distributors and manufacturers we are frequently asked to test NaturallySpeaking on various speech recognition hardware. Our reviews can be found throughout the Internet and our latest computer review is on the M-Tech M7700 which just received our KnowBrainer certification. We have been testing computers with NaturallySpeaking since 1996 and the previous review is only our latest. Although we can appreciate Martin's enthusiasm, we were not able to find any computer reviews or qualifications to back up his claim.

Conclusions: We're not saying that you couldn't get by with a 1.3 GHz processor but do you really want to purchase an underpowered processor for DNS Pro 10, let alone Pro 11 when it's released? Sorry Martin but this one's a, pardon the pun, KnowBrainer!

The laptop is a gift from a friend. I'm afraid the Intel i7 or the Intel i5 may be a budget buster. Since it's already been purchased, I am sort of stuck with Amazon. If DNS 10.1 works poorly, I will return the laptop for a full refund. This whole thing gets a little complicated because it's on his credit card and he works and lives in Japan. This laptop comes with DDR2 RAM. For about $50 more they sell one with the same processor, but it has DDR3 RAM. Would faster RAM make much of a difference with DNS 10.1?

I should also add that portability and long battery life are key.

Thanks.

Although this computer is definitely underpowered for NaturallySpeaking, the fact that it is a gift, paints an entirely different picture. Judging from your 1st question, we had assumed that you had not yet made this acquisition. It was for that reason that we attempted to steer you towards a slightly more expensive 4x faster system. Under these circumstances, obviously you will want to try the existing system. From strictly a dictation point of view, you can get by with a 1.3 GHz processor. You may notice a slightly longer hang time where your words experience a slight Results Box delay but where you will most likely to experience some sluggishness is when attempting to perform commands (including dictation/correction commands). We've even seen 1.2 GHz Netbooks (which we would never recommend for serious DNS use) work reasonably well with straight dictation but we certainly wouldn't recommend them for anything other than e-mail and Web surfing. In other words we wouldn't try to use a 1.3 GHz processor for work and you will definitely want to forgo using the Natural Language Commands which NaturallySpeaking will turn off on its own.

As far as DDR 2 versus DDR 3 RAM is concerned... it's a very minor issue that will probably go unnoticed on this processor. DDR 3 RAM would be more perceptible on a 2.4 GHz or faster processor.