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Dragon on a Thinkpad X61 Tablet with low voltage Core 2 Duo
Submitted by DaveC on Mon, 05/19/2008 - 15:51.
Hi all,
I'm considering purchasing a Thinkpad X61 Tablet which has a low-voltage Core 2 Duo processor (L7700 LV, 1.8GHz, 4MB L2, 800MHz FSB).
Does anybody have experience running Dragon 9.x on a set up like this, and if so, how is the performance?
Thanks,
Dave
Not Our 1st Choice
You should find it acceptable
but you might want to keep in mind that DNS Ver. 10 isn't that far-off and we
prefer not going below a 2.0 GHz processor with 6 MB of combined L2 cache
because NaturallySpeaking eats up L2 cache.
You might want to additionally post this question on
the KnowBrainer Computer
Forum which is monitored by Chuck Runquist and sees a lot of
NaturallySpeaking computer-related traffic.
Lunis Orcutt - Developer of KnowBrainer &
Host
of the Http://www.KnowBrainer.com Speech Recognition Forum
A Nuance Gold Certified Endorsed Dragon
NaturallySpeaking Vendor/Trainer
KnowBrainer wrote:
we prefer not going below a 2.0 GHz processor with 6 MB of combined L2 cache because NaturallySpeaking eats up L2 cache.
Thats surprising.
I found that DNS 9.5 Preferred worked pretty well with a laptop 1.8 Semperon, 256 Kb L2 cache and 1 Gb Ram.
I have to admit it is quicker with my Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz 800 Mhz FSB 2 Mb L2 cache and 2 Gb Ram.
ViaVoice, of course, is lightning quick on the second one as compared to the first one.
So why is it necessary to have such a high spec. as suggested by KnowBrainer
What has made a very big difference to me is a new Phillips SpeechMike Pro Plus that I just purchased to replace my old SpeechMike 6274. It is a vast improvement, although it still has difficulty making out what I am saying when I am eating my lunch!
Quentin
Pay Now or Pay More Later
We sell NaturallySpeaking for a living and
have over 10,000 customers. We are by no means insisting on getting a 2.0 GHz
or faster core 2 duo chip with 3 Mb of L2 cache but rather making this
recommendation from our customers and personal experience. We are currently
running Vista on an Intel (the only chip we recommend) based 2.6 Quad core
with 2 Mb of non-sharing L2 cache on each core with 3 Gb of RAM and we could
definitely use more speed but we're holding out for the 8 core system. You
might want to also keep in mind that supposedly Windows XP will no longer be
available on new computers after June 20 and assuming that Nuance follows all
of the previous formulas, the next version of NaturallySpeaking will probably
be significantly larger than Ver. 9 but not 64-bit. It would be a shame to
purchase a brand-new computer that might not be fast enough in 5 months. Logic
tells us that it would be less risky to spend a little more money now than
risk having to spend a lot more money buying a brand-new system later.
Lunis Orcutt - Developer of KnowBrainer &
Host
of the Http://www.KnowBrainer.com Speech Recognition Forum
A Nuance Gold Certified Endorsed Dragon
NaturallySpeaking Vendor/Trainer
That's why I am sticking
That's why I am sticking with XP, with which my new laptop came equipped.
That will keep me going on until Windows 7.
Quentin
P.S. I would have quoted you but it is impossible with the layout of your post. Try quoting your own post!
Thanks
Thank you both for your advice.
Click “enable rich-text”
Just click “enable rich-text” when attempting to quote a Rich Text posting.
Lunis Orcutt
Don't scrimp on laptops if you can avoid it
Hi all,
I'm considering purchasing a Thinkpad X61 Tablet which has a low-voltage Core 2 Duo processor (L7700 LV, 1.8GHz, 4MB L2, 800MHz FSB).
Does anybody have experience running Dragon 9.x on a set up like this, and if so, how is the performance?
Thanks,
Dave
Dave,
While there is a lot of good advice and some suggestions in the threads relative to this post, I have to respectfully agree with KnowBrainer in that, it does not pay to scrimp on laptops, configurations, or hardware in general relative to a laptop. Unlike desktop systems, once you purchase a laptop, you're basically stuck with it.
You can do no harm going with the specifications relative to the ThinkPad that you're considering. However, something is wrong in your specifications. The Intel mobile Centrino Core2™ Duo processors running below 2.0 GHz are using the larger CPU chip size. This prohibits placing more than 2 MB of L2 cache on the chip die. Either the speed is wrong, or the L2 cache specified is wrong. I would go back and check it. The 1.8 GHz processors are 90 nm. The 2.0 GHz processors are 65 nm. The current 2.5 GHz T9300 processors are 45 nm. As the chip size decreases the amount of L2 cache that can be included on the chip die increases. The T9300 is a 45 manometer chip size that can support 6 MB of L2 cache. L2 cache is more important than speed relative to performance with regard to DNS 9-9.5.
Therefore, I would strongly advise you to wait for the same reasons that KnowBrainer points out. Also, within the next year Intel will be releasing its new Nehalem processor, which will change the entire ballgame and process DNS much faster than anything currently available, including eight core CPUs.
On the other hand, if you can't wait and you can afford to buy a new laptop when the new technologies are available, then it probably does absolutely no harm to go with the ThinkPad that you're considering.
Chuck Runquist
Former Dragon NaturallySpeaking SDK & Senior Technical Solutions PM for DNS
"You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself." - Galileo Galilei
Works fine for me!
Dear Dave,
I have a Thinkpad X61 with exactly your specifications (Core 2 Duo processor (L7700 LV, 1.8GHz, 4MB L2, 800MHz FSB). I have Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) 9.51, I run it on Windows Vista (3GB RAM) and it works just fine. I am very happy with it!
Of course I do not know about the future Dragon 10. But at the moment, I found the X61 with the above specifications very well able to handle DNS.
Wolfgang