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Dragon for Mac Forums and Discussion » Dragon Dictate » Using Dictate

Dictate and SSDs

(9 posts)

  1. WJC
    Member

    Has anybody on the forum tried using Dictate running on an SSD? If yes, can you comment on whether it makes much of a difference in the running/operating od Dictate itself, as opposed to boot time/general operation of the Mac?

    Many thanks,

    WJC

    Posted 1 year ago #

  2. Fanman
    Member

    If I could get my newly bought SSD up and running, I could give you an answer. Unfortunately, none of the computers I own recognizes the SSD, so diagnosing the problem is a bit tricky.

    I am hoping the SSD will allow me to switch languages more quickly in DD since switching languages requires that the user profile be reloaded, which is currently a lengthy process.

    Posted 1 year ago #

  3. KnowBrainer
    Member

    WJC, DragonDictate loads almost entirely into RAM so as far as launching DragonDictate is concerned, you could shave a few seconds off the launch time because solid-state drives typically feature faster access times but as far as running DragonDictate is concerned, it won't make any difference.

    Chat Live w/a Nuance Gold Certified Speech Recognition Specialist
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    Posted 1 year ago #

  4. Fanman
    Member

    WJC, I now have my SSD up and running. Yeah!

    The loading of profiles is indeed much snappier, as is opening the vocabulary and command editors (which was previously very slow).

    As for dictation, DD was so snappy even before installation of the SSD (for the reasons KnowBrainer already noted) that no difference can be perceived. You have to remember that DD always waits a bit to make sure that you have concluded an utterance before converting that utterance into text.

    Posted 1 year ago #

  5. WJC
    Member

    Fanman, well done! What turned out to be the reason the SSD wasn't being recognised by the Mac? I have a couple of old Mac Pros with 10 gigs of RAM and SnowLeopard, but I still get the spinning beachball from time to time when using Dictate- I really would love to find a way to eliminate that, was hoping an SSD might be the answer.

    WJC

    Posted 1 year ago #

  6. Fanman
    Member

    Well done? After working with the SSD for a few hours, I closed the lid on my laptop and that was that. It wouldn't wake from sleep mode and, upon restarting the computer, wouldn't reboot from the SSD. In fact, the SSD was no longer recognized by the system even after rebooting from another disk. So much for that SSD — at least until a positively reliable firmware update comes along.

    As for the reason it wasn't being recognized in the first place … the Internet will tell you there are a zillion possible reasons. SSD's are an exciting, but still a fairly young technology. In particular the controllers are a very tricky matter with plenty of room for error. With manufacturers constantly pushing the envelope and wanting to be first to market, you still have to reckon with hiccups when products are first released (at least from many manufacturers).

    By the way, if your Mac Pros are old, the computer's I/O interface could slow data transfer from the SSD down to a level where it doesn't really matter whether you have a hard disk or an SSD. Look into that before you buy an SSD.

    Posted 1 year ago #

  7. cactustweeter
    Member

    I completely disagree. I do not disagree that SSDs do not directly speed up dictation, but I do not agree with the insinuation that SSDs are not ready for prime time, or provide no real value for voice recognition (VR). I have had 2 Crucial SSDs. Both 256 GB drives. One in a mid-2010 MacBook Pro and one in my current mid-2011 Mac mini. Both computers have seen dramatic improvements in, boot time,nyy application launch time, and filesystem manipulations (searches, transfers, etc.).

    VR specific benefits are:

    • faster Vocabulary Editor lookups and edits.
    • faster Command Editor compiles and saves.
    • Faster application switching.
    • Super quiet and efficient.

    Not all SSD manufacturers are equal. Buy a good SSD and you will be very pleased you did.

    Posted 1 year ago #

  8. Fanman
    Member

    Unfortunately, it is not always possible to know a "good" SSD from a bad one ahead of time. There are so many different combinations of hardware and OS that no vendor can be expected to have tested them all. SSDs push the envelope of computer interfaces in a way they've never been pushed before, which is suddenly revealing incompatibilities that no one had expected were there. Furthermore, I've seen numerous reports of cutting-edge SSDs from allegedly reliable, big-name firms suddenly going into "brick mode" and equally many reports of consumers left alone with their problems. All is not yet well in the world of SSDs.

    By the way, if you look back at my posts, you will see that I fully agree with you re the faster Vocabulary and Command Editors. I also noted that SSDs significantly speed up profile loading. But unless you switch profiles very very frequently (e.g. to switch languages), I doubt that these VR-related improvements alone would justify the multi-hundred dollar investment of an SSD. Naturally, as you mentioned, the other advantages of SSDs certainly do justify the investment, presuming you don't experience bad luck with your SSD.

    My advice: If you choose to buy an SSD, use time machine to maintain at least two distinct backups. One realtime backup and a second daily backup.

    Posted 1 year ago #

  9. Fanman
    Member

    Allow me to add a few more thoughts to the above discussion as well as a quote from Anandtech:

    "The balance of price, performance and reliability is what keeps this market interesting. Do you potentially sacrifice reliability for performance? Or give up some performance for reliability? Or give up one for price? It's even tougher to decide when you take into account that all of the players involved have had major firmware bugs. Even though Intel appears to have the lowest return rate out of all of the drives it's not excluded from the reliability/compatibility debate."

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/4253/the-crucial-m4-micron-c400-ssd-review

    It is my understanding that most SSD problems do not stem from hardware failure. This means that if you are having problems getting your SSD to run reliably with your system, simply replacing the drive is probably not going to fix your problem. However, if you've had your drive for a few weeks or months, getting a refund may be difficult. You thus may be at the mercy of your manufacturer to supply a firmware update. In contrast, hard disks tend to work fine from day one, but are susceptible to old age and accidental jolts.

    While return rates for SSDs appear to be lower than for hard drives, the question is whether this is because "defective" SSDs can often be "fixed" via firmware updates, albeit not necessarily without data loss and not always as quickly as needed. My perception is that the risk of sudden data loss with a newly bought SSD (i.e. roughly within the first six months of purchase) is far above the risk we are familiar with from hard drives and thus demands consumer awareness.

    Posted 12 months ago #

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