Ivan
First, Boy do I get tired of people asking to be replied to privately. Yes,
it is perfectly appropriate when you know that you are discussing something
that should not be on this list. Of course one would argue that you should
never have started to begin with but... Most of this information is of use to
other people so please, if it relates to JAWS, keep it on list and if it is
totally outside the JAWS arena, well... you know in your heart what you should
do.
Ok, enough preaching
This is only my opinion mind you but really, the only name brand (not clone)
computer out there is IBM. In reality all the rest are clones however I suppose
one could argue at this point that the HP, Compaq and Hewlett Packard's of the
world are not clones and that the Dells & Gateways are close behind.
Anyway... The most important thing is what the assembler put in the box. Is it
put together with well known, good reputation, name brand parts or is it full
of junk. The next thing to realize is that indeed, as you said, technology
changes to fast to keep up so often the latest products have not been tested
with much main stream software, let alone something like JAWS.
In general, I would suggest trying to set your self up with a supplier who is
willing to swap things out if they do not work for you. As I understand
things, some here on the list have had good results with Dell and Gateway in
that regard and some have had a hard time so it may be better to buy locally.
That can be especially useful if you are talking several systems and will be
needing after purchase service. If you shop well, you will find a company that
will work with you, learn with you and deliver what you want and need at a fair
price. Remember, you get what you pay for and cheap is not generally good.
Having said all that, I am running JAWS with the software synth Access32
The system is a Pentium II 233mhz with 64MB of Ram in a
ASUS motherboard with onboard SCSI running an ultra wide SCSI hard disk and a
Matrox Millennium AGP video card with 4MB or ram
My PCI sound card is the only generic item which I tried as an experiment as it
was sooo much cheaper at the time. Mind you, I tried it with the understanding
that I could return it if it failed to do the job. As it ends up I am
extremely happy with it as it has multi channel capability which allows JAWS,
the CD and the system sounds to be heard simultaneously and clearly.
As far as I can tell, if you are going to use a software synth, the important
items are system RAM, the sound card, the systems main processor, the video
card and the hard disk, in that order though I may be wrong on this?.
It seems to me that 32Meg of ram works but considering how cheap it has become
I would really suggest a minimum of 64. This will give the system a bit of
breathing room to have several applications open without doing much swapping to
disk. Having said that, Microsoft's main products and the combo pack MS-Office
are system and memory hogs. If you plan to use several of them I might suggest
adding even more RAM.
In any case, if the sound card is not up to the task, it is all over.
As the whole speech operation does put a drain on the system, the main
processor should be fast. I would suggest nothing below 233mhz but actually 233
is already getting hard to find.
The video card is what JAWS is looking at so it needs to be compatible with
JAWS. HJ is trying to keep a list of compatible hardware but as you can expect,
it is always out of date. The AGP Matrox I have is great but I believe it has
also been superceded
The hard disk tends to kill system performance when it is actually reading,
less so when writing. For everything about your system, the faster the disk
the better the system performance. That does not mean you need SCSI but it can
help and if you want to run other peripherals like CD writers and scanners,
SCSI is a better performer.
I also have a Compaq Armada 150mhz laptop running JAWS and the Access32
software synth. That system is really not up to the task. As far as I can
tell, the biggest problem is the internal sound card, partly as it is single
channel so only allows JAWS sounds through but also I don't think it has much
onboard processing. That aside, I think the video is the other big problem. It
only has 1.5MB of ram and on top of that, Compaq is well known for doing al
sorts of strange things with their drivers.
Anyway, it works but the difference between it and my desktop is like night and
day.
If you are going to use a separate synthesizer card than the rest of the system
does not need to be so strong. Virtually all the voice sound work is done by
the card so the only really important item is the video card and system RAM.
As far as hard disk size, again personally, I have no idea what the average
user does with all the gigabytes of storage available today. I have a 4 gig
drive and it is perhaps 30% full.
Software really depends on your needs. the Microsoft Office stuff as I said is
bloatware but JAWS does come more or less ready to deal with Word, Access,
Excel etc. Also, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4x is pretty well supported.
Scanning and Braille I can't help with and you would have to explain what you
mean about Education or training environment.
One last thing you did not mention that is certainly a must in my book...
Something that is often overlooked, especially by computer sellers as they
don't like to admit that things can go wrong is a backup system. In days past,
a few floppies were all you needed to backup everything. Today, one floppy can
be hard pressed to hold one MS-Word file. So, you need to be using at a minimum
a Zip drive but at 100 or 200 MB per disk they also generate allot of disks,
especially for a total backup. Personally, I am using a NS8 SCSI tape drive
with hardware compression. It gets about 8 Gigs onto one tape and does my daily
backup of about 300MB in a few minutes. Actually, it takes almost as long for
the tape to forward fast and get the correct cue point as it does for the
actual backup. No matter what, you need to do something because though
computers are fun, helpful and well simplified when things go wrong, there is
often no way back unless you have a good backup. It is a lesson many have only
learned the hard way but I suggest you try to deal with it now
Daine
On Thursday, February 25, 1999 11:02 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Ivan Pineiro)
wrote:
**** Please write to me privately to avoid cluttering the list. ****
My employer wants me to put together a wish list of equiptmentt
(hardware and software) compatible with JAWS for Windows. This list
is to include an ideal computer system. The problem is thatt with so
many changes in technology and all the different things that are
necessary for JAWS to work properly, I don't know where to start.
That's why I'm appealing to the list for suggestions/recommendations.
What kind of processor? Is proprietary system such as DELL or Gateway
better than a Clone? How fast can the computer be before problems
start appearing? Are synthesyzers better than sound cards? If so,
which kind? How much memory and hard disk space could be consider
optimal for JFW to run?
What kind of software can we use for word processing? What kind of
software can we use for Internet Access and e-mail? What kind of
software can we use for scanning and what kind of scanners? What
other type of software is available that can be used on an educational
and/or training environment?
How about Braille displays? What's best with JFW?
As you can see, any information will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Ivan
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