[Dragon on the cheap is a series of articles about how to achieve just about the highest level of voice recognition, using high-quality, low-cost equipment and approaches. This article tackles how to acquire an effective, powerful, high and computer for not much money.]

My computer -- so goes the story told to me by the group selling it -- was once part of the render farm at Pixar. It chugged away on some bit of Finding Nemo.

It is a dual 2 MHz Xeon IBM workstation with 1 GB of memory. Nothing I hand it slows it down. It cost me $360. I have never gotten more than one or two words behind using Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 8.

It was pure happen stance. My primary computer, brand new from Dell in 1998, tried to die early in 2006. Since I make my living writing, and I write on the computer, I needed a quick replacement.

The eBay route was going to be too slow for me -- I needed something right away -- so I turned to craigslist Boston. I wanted something around $350, and at that price point there were a lot of computers very much like mine. Like mine, they were clearly out of date and clearly close to the end of their looked working life. The standout was listing for several IBM Intellistation servers.

They looked intriguing, and I had always toyed with the idea of a dual CPU computer, so I called the guy. "I don't know if I need a server," I began. He interrupted: "Everybody needs a server," he said, "especially if you're doing graphics or music or anything like that. Server is just another word for computer. It happens to be a type of computer that can do things very well."

A little research showed him to be right. Brand name, server grade equipment has high-end components, including 10,000 rpm SCSI drives (or faster), registered memory, overengineered power supplies, and expandability you would not believe.

You can gain big-time by looking for a server that has been put out to pasture by a corporation. Big companies buy these things of the trainload, and they cycle them out anywhere from three to six years from the time they are new. Because the word "server" scares people, there is no real mass-market for these big business leftovers. That means the prices stay relatively low ($350 for a $5,000 machine isn't bad).

You might have to learn some new things, such as configuring SCSI drives, or what the dozens of options are on the built-in ethernet, but you will end up with a grand machine.

(You might want to do a little bit of work on upper body strength at your local sports Center, as well, before you go to pick it up. A light weight server comes in around 65 pounds, and in the tower case configuration, stands about one third taller and one third longer than a big consumer model.)

There is an added bonus in purchasing from among the IBM Intellistation M Pro series: Blessed quietness. Some of the heftier, more powerful, rack mount servers spool up like jet engines, thanks to their multiple, heavy-duty fans. The intellistation series has multiple fans (my unit has five plus the fan on the power supply), but they all are speed regulated by heat sensors.

Bottom line, if you have high-end computing needs, but not much in your wallet, go for a server.