Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Amazing Charts Hardware Guide V8+ [2015]

Hello Board!

I've been getting several emails and calls on a weekly basis from people who are concerned that their server/main computer will not be able to handle V8 or is currently not able to handle V8. Unfortunately, these messages have been piling up and I have not had the time to respond to each and every one. (A lot are not members of the board too.) Rather than going through everyone's setup individually, I have written a guide that will make it easy for you or your IT person to configure a fast main computer/server for Amazing Charts V8. This guide is meant to build on AC's hardware recommendations .



LT Medical - Amazing Charts Hardware Guide V8+

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Fantastic. I just bought a new computer matching these guidelines.

Great! What are the specs?

Hi everyone,

I'd like to give Sandeep, and LT Medical, two thumbs up!

I have been in private practice for 10 years. We have used Amazing Charts from day one. Until one year ago, we use peer to peer, and I took care of all of the IT. However, it was becoming more and more apparent that we were running far more on luck than skill.

On about September 1 of last year, we purchased a Lenovo server from Sandeep, the equivalent of the Solo+ Practice server. I did the hardware installation, which was essentially just plugging things in. Sandeep remoted in, and set everything up.

For the last year, we've had absolutely no problems with the server or anything directly related to it. Speed has been excellent, and reliability superb, uptime has been 100%.

We've have had the usual unrelated issues with laptops, desktop PCs, and so forth. Sandeep has been incredibly talented, and responsive, to problems or needs as they arise.

Unrelated to the office, I also set up a wireless network at our church. Sandeep suggested the equipment, configured it, and shipped it, providing basically a "plug-and-play" installation.

Medical practice, and solo primary care especially, has more than its share of headaches. I can thankfully say, at this point, IT is not one of them.

Thanks Sandeep!

Gene

Thanks Gene,

Sandeep is simply the brightest and best computer person I have ever known. Period. And, he is incredibly nice as well.

AC should hire him.

Maybe they can't afford him!!!!

Gene

it would be so nice if we could just use Sandeep for all our AC needs !
bala

You pretty much can. I do anyway. I pay the yearly fee to AC for the updates and ERx and then pay Sandeep for support. I'm not going to bash AC support on the board. If you'd like to hear, PM and I'll dish the dirt.

Hardware guide looks very useful -- Thanks Sandeep.
I have been using Server Essentials 2011 with Xenon E3-1230 and SSD very happily for several years.

Is there any advantage to Server/R2 Essentials 2012?
Would it help to upgrade processor to E5?

I am leery of performance degradation with AC-8.
For the month of Oct, at least, we are planning to stick with v6.6.3 -- All notes will be coded with ICD9, of course.

Since we use a separate PM program (Medware -- which already has ICD-10 code list), we plan to have the billing clerk run the ICD9 codes through a translater for billing purposes. Medicare has indicated they will accept ICD-10 codes that at least make it to the correct "family." This seems do-able.

We don't even try to do MU any more -- that looks like a lost cause.

Am I being hopelessly retro, head-in-sand?

Does anyone else have other ideas about how to navigate ICD-10 transition?

Many thanks to Sandeep for an excellent guide! Please sticky it.

Tom, My plan is the same as yours. The only other wrinkle. We do use AC to generate our lab forms, so the options are to manually change the code list and the patient's diagnoses in AC before the lab form is printed, or write in the ICD10 codes on the lab form.

To the point about support, I think AC should split the annual fee into two parts, one for the upgrades/ERx and one for support. If you don't want to use AC support, then you are not tied to them. In that case, they would also be more accountable for the quality of support, or our dollars will go elsewhere.

The hardward guideline is slightly ambiguous. Do Workstations require the version of Windows to be "PROFESSIONAL" or does just the MAIN COMPUTER have this requirement?

Thank you everyone for the kind words. I'll be sure to release more guides in the upcoming weeks.

If you have any suggestions, feel free to PM me.

It was deliberately ambiguous in the software department as it was a hardware guideline. My recommendation would be to always use Professional on the desktops. There are numerous benefits including the ability to join a domain, Bitlocker encryption (Windows 8+/7 Ultimate), advanced networking/sharing features, network backup, and more. If you think you might want server/client in the future, Professional is recommended.

I'll be covering this more in another post but with Windows 10, it's almost mandatory to get Professional since the home edition can get updates that break your programs. Since Microsoft laid off a lot of their testers for Windows, home users are the new beta testers. Even the Professional users will eventually be forced to upgrade, but they get the updates after the updates are stable for the home users. If you plan to use Windows 10 on your server, you would want to get Windows 10 Enterprise Long Term Service Branch as its the only one that doesn't get forced updates. This forces users to move to Windows Server with the new version of Windows or get Enterprise LTSB which is hard to find.

Server 2012R2 does have some new features like SSTP VPN (much faster + safer) than the PPtP VPN (most don't use it though), detailed health reporting, manage network shares on other computers, network restore via WDS (this means you can restore any backup on your network without needing any flash drives or restore discs), and Office 365 integration. There's other stuff, but nothing too revolutionary.

So, basically, if you already have 2011 Essentials, stick with it. It's good until 2020. If you're getting a new server, go with 2012R2.

No, most of the Xeon E5's would actually be slower. The main reason to go with Xeon E5 is if you need a dual processor server. For example, a terminal server and amazing charts on the same box.

Thank you very much Sandeep

Much has been said about SQL Server Express using only a single core, and being very dependent on core speed.
How then, to maximize performance?
Is any particular processor "the best" -- or do all the recent ones work pretty well?

For most practices the Xeon E3-1230 or higher (latest version is the best, but marginal difference between generations.) Currently, the Xeon E3-1200V3 series is widely available but the new V4 and V5 versions should be out soon.

If you want to go desktop, Intel Core i7-4790. Earlier versions up to the i7-2600 should also be fine. Again there are marginal improvements in performance, but the latest is the best. Avoid the K variants, e.g. 4790K. While they are faster, they lack some business features like Trusted Execution Technology and vPro. The K CPU's were designed for gamers and enthusiasts who like to overclock.

Here's the funny thing, the server (Xeon) processors are actually cheaper than their desktop counterparts (Core i7)

Still use the AMD FX series.

Thanks all.