Your concept of a good, basic computer, a scanner and a designated self-voicing scanning program like Kurzweil or Openbook is very good.  You could even put either program in the startup sequence so it would load on start up and therefore would be truly a designated stand-alone scanning system.
At $1,000 for the software, say $500 or possibly 600 for a computer with the processor to do a good job and a $100 scanner, mine was $70; that's $1,700 for a very excellent system for scanning.
 
However, the designated stand-alone scanners are easier to use because they are designed to be simple and don't require as much setup within themselves.  But, if a person had someone put it together who could set the defaults for them as part of that to get the speech speed and voice set to what they want, etc, this is a good idea.
Say spend $250 for someone's time to do all that and you are still under $2,000, which is less than many of the stand-alone machines.
 
Richard
 

From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lynn Zelvin
Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 11:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VICUG-L] Are There Any Stand Alone Scanner / Readers?

The thing to know is that any reader that is theoretically stand-alone is really just a computer with a scanner where they hide from you the fact that it's a computer. The thing that makes it easier to use is not the fact that it doesn't have a full computer keyboard, it's the software. The Kurzweil and OpenBook software is designed so that you can do everything you want within these self-voicing programs. Until something doesn't work. Anyway, you could get the same results for cheaper by paying someone, preferably someone who knows the software, to buy a computer, scanner, and software, and install it for you. You don't need a screen reader as the speech is built into the software. If you even wanted, they could remove the monitor, although it's nice to have around if someone needs to troubleshoot problems, and attach a numeric keypad and hide or remove the full keyboard, so it looked just like a stand-alone device. It really is the same thing. You can go directly into the reading software without having to learn anything about windows. One advantage is that you can replace one part or get it repaired without changing the others. Good scanners can be purchased   for about $100 and a computer that isn't too fancy for $500 or less.
The one exception to this is possibly the new Intel Reader which I know little about. I mean, it is  basically also a computer with a camera and customized software, but it's designed to be portable so it's really encased in one shell and all the pieces, including the software,  were probably designed to work together. And the price I saw was $1500 which probably beats the price on a system you put together if you want customized software. Plus the advantage that it's really portable.  

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