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- Next message: David Marshall: "(no subject)"
- Previous message: jsheen@@ibm.net: "Re: More hardware guru "?'s""
> I have the opportunity to have a system custom-built that will be
> dedicated to dictation using NS Deluxe, with Win95 O/S. I am able to
> pick and choose the components, and would appreciate advice, including
> processor, mother board, chip set, sound card, RAM (what kind?), and
> whatever else you think would be relevant. Replies ASAP would be very
> appreciated!
>
I think that most people are generally better off buying from a
company like Gateway instead of "custom building" system.
It is difficult to custom build a system that will be substantially
cheaper than a Gateway and you won't get the 3 year warrantee which is
very helpful.
Here are a few more thoughts:
The best "bang for buck" now is either an AMD K6 Socket 7 system, or
a Pentium Pro 180 system.
A Pentium II system that outperforms a Pentium Pro system will cost
$300-400 more, although it will then have a somewhat better "upgrade" path.
However, I think in the final analysis, the "upgrade path" factor is
not very important because by the time someone wants to upgrade a CPU, it
is usually better to also change out the motherboard too. Related: it has
been widely reported that a Pentium II 300Mhz is a very marginal increment
over a Pentium II 266, as little as 2%, although the price increment is about
$300. Better motherboard/support chipsets will be required to make higher
clockrate CPU's truly perform better, hence support for the notion of having
to change out the motherboard anyways.
If you decide on Socket 7 motherboards (Pentium, AMD K6, etc), beware
of the 64Mb caching limit for TX and VX chipsets. Better to get the HX
motherboards if you are going with Socket 7.
I am running on a dual Pentium Pro 180 system (clocking at 233Mhz),
running WinNT. CPUs+motherboard costs were $600. A dual Pentium Pro (running
at 233Mhz) definitely outperforms a Pentium II 300 in a multitasking
situation, and is cheaper too (PII 300 CPU+motherboard is about $900+).
I am using 64Mb of ECC memory. NatSpeak works great. But I will
probably invest in more memory soon (so that would have ruled out using a
Socket 7 TX motherboard...)
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