Laptop Advice

[junior]

Hello all,

Im after some advice regarding a laptop im looking at getting to be used specifically for astrophotography (not image processing).

I have been looking at:

Cheap Dell Latitude D420 C2D 1gb 30gb xppro - 48771 - discounts & offers

This seems reasonable price, I just wanted to see what other peoples views were on this.

Many thanks

[chemtom24]

shes gonna be slow....

1gb memory, 30gb hdd, 1.2ghz cpu.

wht exactly do you want this for? is it somehting literally to plug your webcam into and save your vids?

[junior]

Yes it will only be used to connect the webcam to and save the avi files, I will then transfer them to my main comp to do any post processing.

May be running stellarium on it as well though.

[hayju01]

You would at least need to get 2GB of RAM to make it truely usable and 3GB would be better.

I use a Dell Mini 9 - Dell Inspiron Mini Series - Ask Jeeves Encyclopedia and have taken it to 2Gb (its max) and it just about copes, has the occasional hiccup.

I am runnin win7 on it but may take it back to XP when I get a chance.

[msinclairinork]

What about a netbook...Eclipse Computers - Product Details

Better spec and much better battery.

Michael

[Cornelius Varley]

Depending on the graphics chip Stellarium might be a bit slow, My IBM X41T will only run version 0.9 at a reasonable frame rate. The hard drive is a little small for AVI capturing, a typical 30sec capture with a webcam can be 100mb or more so you might need to think about replacing the existing internal hard drive with a bigger one or purchasing an external hard drive.

Peter

[hayju01]

valid point Peter.

Plus you should really plan your evenings viewing or dasj in side to a proper pc to view Stell. :-)

[msinclairinork]

Depending on the graphics chip Stellarium might be a bit slow, My IBM X41T will only run version 0.9 at a reasonable frame rate. The hard drive is a little small for AVI capturing, a typical 30sec capture with a webcam can be 100mb or more so you might need to think about replacing the existing internal hard drive with a bigger one or purchasing an external hard drive.

Peter

Could you not wright your caputre to a USB pen drive? say a 4gb? for speed I mean?

Michael

[hayju01]

USB wouldnt give a speed increase as the processor still needs to process the data but it would give you the space to store.

I have a 32GB SD card in my netbook and SharpCap dumps all avi to that. This has the added benefit that i don't knock it while fumbling in the dark :-)

[junior]

To be honest im just after something that is cheap at the moment I had looked at netbooks but thought the screen sizes were too small for what i wanted to use this for.

If people have suggestions for an alternative that is £150 or less then ill take a look.

Cheers All

[hayju01]

To be honest I have thought a couple of times that iu wished my netbook at a bigger screen but that's just cus I like/better tech :-)

The reality is that as long as the graphics card driving the screen gives an accurate image of what the webcam is seeing then it doesnt really matter.

For me the mini9 is great cus i can old it steady in one hand while fine tuning the focus.

You are going to be hard pressed to get anything for £150 unless you take the ebay gamble!!

If you could go to £200, I see Morgans have an ACER netbook, similar spec to my mini but with 10" screen, add an extra 1gb and you'd be sorted.

[junior]

To be honest for the extra bit of money i would be better off getting a new netbook rather than a 2nd hand the best i can find is

ACER Aspire One D255 - Red at cheap prices | PC World

[spanky]

I actually bought a Dell D420 for £90 off ebay a couple of weeks ago, and I'm well chuffed with it. The 10.1" screen on new netbooks are just too tiny for me.

It runs Stellarium and the Canon EOS Utility just fine. Not had a chance to get started with PHD yet though as it's been so windy and cloudy. Can't see it having any trouble though.

[hayju01]

there are deals out there :-)

[nightfisher]

get on ebay and get yourself an IBM T40 for about £125, they are very rugged with good battery life, my batt can still do over 4 hours! go for the centrino 1.5 gig with 1.5 memory they are very fast and have good graphics chip

[junior]

does anyone have any experience of

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5084306/c_1/1|category_root|OfficeC+PCs+and+phones|14418968/c_2/2|14418968|Laptops+and+netbooks|14419039.htm

[xmal]

I would go for a Samsung NC10 or equivalent with the atom cpu. These netbooks deliver 8-9hrs battery life which is really important when you are out in the field.

[BlueAstra]

The old Dell might have an inbuilt serial port, which is very useful. 1GB might be a bit low when you have multiple programmes running, but again you may have an option to increase the internal memory. Check the full spec on the Dell website or elsewhere.

[junior]

Have ordered and Acer Aspire in the end as the wife said she would use it as well,

also ordered my SPC880 kit so cant wait for it to all arrive now....