A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Requesting advice on computer specs - sm

Posted: Mar 06, 2014

Since I'm still using Windows XP, I need to change to Windows 7 OS to be HIPAA-compliant. I will either buy a new computer or have one built for me. Since price is a huge factor, I would like to spend the money on only the most important features (RAM and sound card). Could anyone please advise me on how much RAM, size of hard drive, best sound card without going overboard, etc? Preloaded or built from scratch? Desktop or laptop?

Like I said, since money is so tight, I cannot spend a lot, but want to make sure I have a very MT-friendly computer.

Thanks, everyone, for any input you can offer.

What are your current specs? - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Processor? RAM? Mother Board?

AMD 32-bit, 960 MB of RAM - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Don't know about the motherboard. This is a 10-year-old machine.

Computer Specs - Samsgirl

[ In Reply To ..]
If you're buying a new computer to work for Nuance I don't know why you bother. I would save the money and put it on a gas card so you can get to and from work someday very very soon. They are losing work right and left. Maybe save it for tuition for a course that will afford you a career change. This MT business is not where it's at anymore I hate to say. Sorry for the negativity. I had no work today. I will log in tomorrow morning to the same I'm sure. It's been this way for almost 3 weeks. Thanks to the government mandates on EHR this time next year there will be no MTs. I'm not starting malicious rumors or anything of the sort. It's all part of Obama's healthcare reform and requiring ALL institutions to be switched over to electronic health record keeping system by January 2015. Where does that leave us? Yeah, you got it, without a job!

computer specs - mtinmi

[ In Reply To ..]
Check on getting a refurbished computer with windows 7. I got mine from a computer repair shop. Hard to find windows 7 on new computers and the update for a computer is costly.

Check out MicroCenter online - very decent prices for windows 7

[ In Reply To ..]
I just got a brand new PC built by their in-house techs (a PowerSpect) with 2T hard drive, 8 gigs RAM for $579. I increased the RAM to 24 gigs for another $100 and have room for a total of 32 gigs when I get another $100 bucks (16 more gigs to replace the two 8 gig modules and make it 32 gigs total).

Admittedly, you don't need 2T and 32 gigs to work for a transcription company, but I also do a lot of video editing for little league in my spare time and those specs are what I needed to work seamlessly for that. It's an i5 core, which is just fine for video editing, but you don't even need that much if you just browse the web, watch video or play games online, and also do work, so maybe even an i3 or whatever suits your needs. You can order one they have pre-assembled and installed, or you can build your own.

That amount of memory and RAM for $579 is awesome, though. Plus they gave me Windows 7 installed without ANY bloatware, just the stuff you need and then you add your own programs. I also got a disk and product key for Windows 8 if I ever wanted to upgrade (for free) and 1-1/2 years of free virus service, which is a pretty good program. So if I went with that much RAM, etc., and it was only $579, you could order a much cheaper PC that suited your needs, I'm sure.

I have a MicroCenter nearby so I drove there, but they deliver too!

Hope that helps! I thought their customer service was topnotch. They've already helped me with a question I had in a matter of 10 minutes ;)

Not a HIPAA thing - A Support Thing-nm

[ In Reply To ..]
vvv

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