I need (want) a laptop.

[hornedreaper33]

Morning everyone. 

I am currently in the market for a laptop. Got my 30th coming up and I think I might treat myself. I was wandering what the biggest driver is for reducing crunching time when stacking/post processing images. I am yet to make to move into astrophotography but it isn't going to be long and I want to get a machine that will be able to chomp it's way through the stacks etc.

I'm assuming 3rd party graphics isn't important, it's more to do with RAM and a nice fast processor. 

Also are we working with HUGE file here as I would love to get an SSD but the capacities aren't enormous yet?

I'm edging towards the Dell XPS 13.

Cheers.

Chris.

[Alien 13]

Cant go wrong with  Dell XPS mines a couple of years old but can handle anything, better still is the Alienware.

Alan

[Joseki]

You can check out the system requirements of PixInsight here: https://pixinsight.com/sysreq/index.html

photoshop I presume is easily found too.   

also, from PixInsight website "As of writing this document (February 2014), the current versions 1.8.x of PixInsight don't make direct use of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Hopefully this is going to change during 2015. We are working to implement GPU acceleration via CUDA programming on systems with NVIDIA graphics cards."

lots of usb ports is good but if you're imaging you might end up with a second, cheap laptop you can use outside. Damp and cold temperatures aren't great for computers.

[damnut]

hi Chris,

The xps 13 is an excellent machine.  Check that all your astro s\w will run on w 8.1 pro or have it supplied with w7.

[JonC]

How much do you have to spend, and how big do you want to go?

On the SSD front its possible to get larger laptops with two HD bays, some have even more. Did notice there are a lot of reasonable spec Lenovo thinkpads going cheap on ebay at the moment, £85 for something with enough oomph for general use, probably worth chucking some extra memory at it as well.

If your looking at new and want to spend £500+ I would look at PCSpecialists, have read some really good stuff about them, seriously considered them but a Asus ROG gaming laptop came up cheap.

Did wonder if anybody uses a Toughbook? Always fancied one but a bit too spendy for the spec for me.

[hornedreaper33]

Thanks for the replies guys. It's nice to see that some of the software guys are considering involving the graphics card. I'm more concerned about getting exactly what I need rather than constraining myself with the budget. I just have to make sure I don't go blowing $4000 on a machine when I don't really need that much oomph. 

Alan, don't say the 'A' word. I've wanted one for years but they're so expensive. Very pretty though.

[Alien 13]

I do find that high spec "gaming" laptops do tend to be future proofed for a good few years however the downside is the battery life, it is sometimes better to split tasks between two machines  a cheap windows tablet can do a lot of the outdoor stuff. 

Alan

[pipnina]

I can't say as I would recommend a laptop for image processing... Their CPUs tend to be down-clocked (run at a lower speed) to save power and heat and their screens usually have a lot to be desired in terms of contrast and colour reproduction (cheap TN panels usually).

If it's all you can afford... Get a laptop by all means... they are more cost efficient but a desktop will be the best option.

If you give me an idea of what you're looking to spend I can probably help you with both a laptop choice or a desktop choice. I've had MANY years of experiance helping people choose builds (Was a PC enthusiast before I got interested in astronomy)

    ~pip

[hornedreaper33]

Pip,

I agree that for the money I would get a much better desktop however, I am travelling a lot and astrophotography/image processing isn't the only use the laptop would have. Saying that, I don't think a laptop with a quad core i7 and 8-16Gb of RAM would do a bad job??

The Dell XPS 13 seems to be a good bet. Tech Radar loved it and the 3K screen would do a good job of replicating the images. I am just struggling to decide if I should get a gruntier machine with a dedicated graphics card just to cover all bases.

Cheers,

Chris.

[pipnina]

Pip,

I agree that for the money I would get a much better desktop however, I am travelling a lot and astrophotography/image processing isn't the only use the laptop would have. Saying that, I don't think a laptop with a quad core i7 and 8-16Gb of RAM would do a bad job??

The Dell XPS 13 seems to be a good bet. Tech Radar loved it and the 3K screen would do a good job of replicating the images. I am just struggling to decide if I should get a gruntier machine with a dedicated graphics card just to cover all bases.

Cheers,

Chris.

A 3k screen might provide less of a benefit than you think... Especially at 13.3 inches!

Besides that, I can't find out whether that screen is an IPS panel or not. If it is, then the specs do look suitable to me, but the Dell website is less than navigatable. (The person behind the live chat feature on their website might be able to tell you, though. Ask if the laptop has an IPS or PLS panel type, or if that one doesn't, if there is another that does.)

As far as GPU accelerated stuff goes. Bear in mind that the GPUs and CPUs RAM is seperate. Workloads that fit on my 16GB of RAM on my desktop will not fit on my 2GB GPU and refuse to run or crash. Not just this but, even though it's blisteringly fast compared to running with a CPU (btw, I have a GTX 670- a £300+ GPU when it was new, laptop models would be downclocked and probably have bits laser'd off them for power efficiency and heat)  you have to make sure your software can support it! After all, if the software you're using doesn't use OpenCL or CUDA (CUDA being Nvidia specific, not runnable on AMD cards) a GPU will be useless.

In stacking and processing software, more cores = better. I don't know about Hyper Threading's affects (HT) on that type of software, though. Since those cores aren't strictly "Real" and provide speed benefits anywhere from +20% to 0 depending on the application.

(If you can get an Intel extreme edition, those would be THE BEST as they have 8 physical cores and 8 virtual (hyper threaded) although they're a little expensive.)

Of course, I don't mean to be an equipment snob... a regular I7 is still more than I have.

[Scott]

the screen on my laptop is dire for processing. that said, it's not the end of the world as I just use the tv via hdmi cable...I should get it calibrated really

[kalasinman]

For scope interface, more than 2 USB is nice.

I5quad  and 16 of RAM seems plenty.

For astronomy the A word is still hobbled by lack of software.

An SSD to run OS, and a large HDD for storage. Barring a 2 drive, BYEOS/BYN will write subs to flash drive (30Gb?)