Dialsmith

We field a lot of questions from system owners wanting recommendations from us on what type of laptop or desktop set up to purchase for running the Perception Analyzer system. In response, our support team has compiled a list of suggested system requirements.

These are suggested requirements only based upon our team’s experience. Dialsmith does not endorse or guarantee the suitability of any third-party product.

• Notebook
  or desktop computer is acceptable
• Windows
  XP, Vista, 7 or 8
• For
  Windows Vista, 7 or 8:  1.0 GHz processor, 2.0 GHz RAM.  For XP:
  800MHz processor, 256MB RAM (note: most computers running Windows need at least
  1GB of available disk space for trouble-free operation; solid-state drives are
  not recommended)

Required Ports:

• For
  external data display connection to overlay device:  VGA monitor port;
  DVI-A or
  DVI-I port with VGA adapter also acceptable; DVI-D or HDMI is only acceptable if
  no overlay device is used, otherwise an external HDMI to VGA converter is
  required
• For
  external respondent display adapter connection: One USB-2 or USB-3 port for an
  external USB-VGA/DVI display adapter; a PC-card slot is required if using the
  older Margi or VTBook PC-card display adapters (no longer available for sale)
• For
  Perception Analyzer dial interface (Console) connection: 1 available RS-232
  serial or USB-1, USB-2 or USB-3 port

Suggested Brands:

• Lenovo
  ThinkPad R, X, or T series or Sony Vaio; other brands may be acceptable if they
  meet the specifications described above; due to video integration and
  USB-port power incompatibilities, Dell laptops are not recommended. 

 Apple computers:

• Apple
  computers with an Intel-based processor natively running Windows (as detailed
  above) facilitated by Apple’s Boot Camp drive-partition utility are acceptable:
  MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Pro, Mac Mini, iMac; must meet the
  computer specifications described above for Windows; these computers may
  require a DVI to VGA adapter cable for external data display.