Dragon NaturallySpeaking

[amilian]

Good one Bryan!
This forum should be proud that one of its newest members is doing something truly extreme. You're choosing the most radical and expensive solution in the search for voice recognition heaven. You'll certainly have one of the fastest DNS machines in the world. I'm proud to know ya hehe.

[Bryan Crow]

Gee.

Thanks, amailian.

[davidhammock200]

Originally Posted by amilian

Good one Bryan!
This forum should be proud that one of its newest members is doing something truly extreme. You're choosing the most radical and expensive solution in the search for voice recognition heaven. You'll certainly have one of the fastest DNS machines in the world. I'm proud to know ya hehe.

Well, since you put it that way... get the dual channel SCSI controller,
you will certainly have done all that can be done to eliminate the I/O bottleneck!

I can't wait to see these numbers, you will PWN everyones HDD numbers!

Good call Bryan.

[Bryan Crow]

Thanks, Dave.

Next: Cooling and Power supply. I forgot to mention that amilian's friend advised me to make sure I have an adequate power supply. I ordered one that was somewhat more robust than standard, but I can't remember what it is. I've been putting off going into the case, because it's going to be a bigger job than you think to get the tower out. I have the DIMMs, and I may go ahead and stick them in during yellow flags at the NASCAR race in California tomorrow. Then again, I may just wait for the SCSI card and do everything at once.

Hmm. if I go ahead and peep inside today or tomorrow, I'll be able to tell you what kind of power supply and fans I have. I may have to add or change some in preparation for overclocking. I know I have at least one case fan, maybe two. Both of the current hard drives have their own fans, and naturally the CPU and power supply have fans. some of the fans aren't running, as I've mentioned before. I think they're set to kick in at higher temperatures. I guess I ought to reset them so they run all the time, right? I've almost gathered enough nerve to start cranking this sucker up. I'm impressed that you provide so many links in your heatsink guide. Very helpful.

[amilian]

Originally Posted by davidhammock200

Well, since you put it that way... get the dual channel SCSI controller,
you will certainly have done all that can be done to eliminate the I/O bottleneck!
I can't wait to see these numbers, you will PWN everyones HDD numbers!
Good call Bryan.

David
Yeah Brian, when you're all set up and have time, throw some benchmarks at us
Atto download here
CD Speed download here
and HD Tach download here
The first 2 programs will 'see' the Superspeed software performance improvements. HD Tach will not, but rather just give you the hardware only performance.

Try doing those benchmarks before activating Superspeed, then after to see the difference.

A few other helpful thought when you're set up:

I don't know what partitioning you will be doing with your RAID0, if any at all, but assuming you use Supercache, when you install Supercache Windows won't (at least for me) allow the windows pagefile to reside on the same partition as the Superspeed/Ramdisk partition. If you specify it manually, it will just auto move it to another partition (if you have one). If you don't have another partition, it won't create or 'see' a pagefile, and run your system of RAM alone. This is fine if you have enough RAM, which you do, so this is what I'd recommend: disable the Windows pagefile completely. (Do this by start pressing start/settings/control panel/system/advanced/performance settings/advanced tab/virtual memory change/custom size/enter 0 and 0 and set/OK/Apply/OK/OK/and reboot). What this does is forcing windows not to use a pagefile and you will run everything from RAM memory. People will tell you XP will automatically use a pagefile even if you set it to zero, but they are mistaken. The Superspeed software just won't let it happen.

[davidhammock200]

Power Supply: OCZ PowerStream 520W: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...104-152&depa=0

CPU Cooling: Thermalright XP-90: http://www.frozencpu.com/cpu-tri-13.html

I recommend this fan: http://www.frozencpu.com/fan-87.html

The PS & HS Guides are in my sig.

Dave

EDIT:

You get a FREE fan with the XP-90! Don't forget to ask for it!

[onewecallgod]

Originally Posted by davidhammock200

Power Supply: OCZ PowerStream 520W: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...104-152&depa=0

CPU Cooling: Thermalright XP-90: http://www.frozencpu.com/cpu-tri-13.html

I recommend this fan: http://www.frozencpu.com/fan-87.html

The PS & HS Guides are in my sig.

Dave

EDIT:

You get a FREE fan with the XP-90! Don't forget to ask for it!

i would advise against ordering from frozencpu and newegg. i did some digging and frozencpu charges a whole lot more for ground shipping than newegg does for 3 day air. just buy everything from newegg, you'll get your stuff a few days earlier and for a few bucks less
XP-90
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...factory=BROWSE
OCZ powerstream 520
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...factory=BROWSE
92mm fan
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...999-002&depa=1
throw some arctic silver ceramique in there too:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...factory=BROWSE

[Bryan Crow]

I'm running behind. Let me address each of your messages in the order you sent them, beginning with amilian’s defrag program. You're right about its speed. It's amazing. Are you pretty sure the list of DNS files you compiled is complete? (Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth! Thanks for going to all the trouble of compiling it.)

I bet it is. The reason I ask is that I used Diskeeper Pro 9.0 to totally defragment the c: drive. Then I dictated a paragraph into Microsoft Word using DNS. Then I used Diskeeper again to analyze the drive (much faster, I assume, than using a Contig switch to print out a report). Naturally, Diskeeper's Drive Map showed red bands representing fragmentation. Then I clicked on the command file I've placed on my desktop per your instructions. The DOS screen showed the files being defragmented, and it only took a second, maybe two. Then I went back to Diskeeper Pro to analyze the result. I think the red bands had grown narrower, and maybe a few have disappeared, but a lot of red continued to decorate the Map Drive.

I bet those fragmented files are mostly Microsoft Word files. Even if you defragment the speech engine frequently, won't the presence of other files that are fragmented slow down the transcription into Word? If so, I suppose I could simply add the Word files to the list, couldn't I? And I bet it would be easy enough to automate the utility. I wouldn't mind a brief interruption every five or ten minutes, because the thing is so darned fast.

I'm sure that sounds like overkill and will become unnecessary anyway when I install the new hard drive system. I only mention the possibility because there's no question DNS runs faster and more smoothly immediately after defragmentation. And then it begins to bog down after less than an hour of dictating.

By the way, that was my first clue—before you confirmed it—that either reading from the hard drive or writing to it (or both) was slowing the application down. It's too bad somebody on another DNS forum insisted that the hard drive couldn't have anything to do with the latency of recognition display.

[davidhammock200]

Originally Posted by onewecallgod

i would advise against ordering from frozencpu and newegg. i did some digging and frozencpu charges a whole lot more for ground shipping than newegg does for 3 day air. just buy everything from newegg, you'll get your stuff a few days earlier and for a few bucks less
XP-90
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...factory=BROWSE
OCZ powerstream 520
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...factory=BROWSE
92mm fan
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...999-002&depa=1
throw some arctic silver ceramique in there too:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...factory=BROWSE

Since we are going new egg, then I can recommend my first fan choice.

This fan: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...180-053&depa=1

Dave

[Bryan Crow]

OK, amilian, I'll be sure to record benchmarks. Thanks for the links.

I'm sure partitioning offers advantages, but I haven't partitioned since I started using Windows XP. I'll have to read my XP manuals and think it through. I didn't realize you're using both SuperCache and RamDisk. How does that work?

With 2.5 GB of RAM, will I still need SuperCache, or will RamDisk alone do the job? I need to take a closer look at SuperVolume during the evaluation period. I don't know how it works.

It's very appealing to go to what I suppose amounts to a virtual pagefile and eliminate it from the hard drive (actually, two hard drives in RAID 0 configuration). That ought to streamline the process. I suppose it's easier to keep disks defragmented too when you have no pagefile.

[Bryan Crow]

Dave, thank you for these links. I looked at the Thermalright heat sinks. Impressive-looking stuff. I specified the biggest fan Magic Micro sold for my CPU, but I don't know whether a heat sink is incorporated into it or not. I don't think so. I still haven't opened the case. I'm going to do that tomorrow during the NASCAR race. I'll check out the power supply when I do. It's supposed to be a robust one, but when I ordered it, I did it casually without learning anything about power supplies, because at that time, I never expected to overclock the system.

[Bryan Crow]

Yeah, onewecallgod. I'm already on a roll with Newegg. No use changing horses in midstream. Thanks for the links.

[Bryan Crow]

Less fragmentation occurs when I dictate into DragonPad, amilian, and Contig defragments more sectors, but quite a few red bands are left. I suppose it wouldn't be hard to identify the fragmented files and put them on the list.

[davidhammock200]

You will only be using 2GB of RAM, not 2.5GB, as over 2-sticks of RAM kills performance.

As to the page file, as a general rule, I would set it to 2GB for max addressability or XP min for gaming.
We need input fron DNS experts on this one.

Partitioning can increase performance by helping to keep fragmentation to a min.

Dave

[Bryan Crow]

Great tips, Dave.

I'll have to figure out the most efficient way to partition.

I misunderstood how the DIMMs work together. I thought the 512 MB DIMM in the third slot would add useful extra memory, since this isn't a dual-channel memory mobo or CPU.

I've been meaning to ask: Can I use Norton Ghost to clone the RAID 0 setup instead of having to install Windows and all the programs? That's a long day of work, getting everything like I have it now.

[davidhammock200]

Originally Posted by Bryan Crow

Great tips, Dave.

I'll have to figure out the most efficient way to partition.

I misunderstood how the DIMMs work together. I thought the 512 MB DIMM in the third slot would add useful extra memory, since this isn't a dual-channel memory mobo or CPU.

I've been meaning to ask: Can I use Norton Ghost to clone the RAID 0 setup instead of having to install Windows and all the programs? That's a long day of work, getting everything like I have it now.

Get the latest version of Ghost & it will.

More than 2-sticks & you are going to suffer, this is an AMD issue & the memory controller is in the CPU.

Normal partitions, (1) OS & software, (2) page/swap & temp files & (3) data files.
Dave

[Bryan Crow]

Thanks.

I guess the partitions will show up as drives, right?

I have Ghost 2003. I just read C/Net's review of Ghost 9.0. The reviewers say Acronis True Image is better, but I might be eligible to uograde to Ghost 9.0 more cheaply.

[davidhammock200]

Originally Posted by Bryan Crow

Thanks.

I guess the partitions will show up as drives, right?

I have Ghost 2003. I just read C/Net's review of Ghost 9.0. The reviewers say Acronis True Image is better, but I might be eligible to uograde to Ghost 9.0 more cheaply.

Yes, logical drives & Partition Magic makes this simple, easy & fool proof, although it can be done manualy.

I use & love Norton Ghost, I recommend the upgrade.

Dave

[Bryan Crow]

I didn't even know Ghost 9.0 had been released. I'm amazed Symantec hasn't hit on me to upgrade.

[davidhammock200]

Originally Posted by Bryan Crow

I didn't even know Ghost 9.0 had been released. I'm amazed Symantec hasn't hit on me to upgrade.

Any version 8.0 or over will work.

Partition Magic is also their product.