Good laptop for Astro Imaging and general use?

[x6gas]

Depends what you might need in the future. I think I'll go for USB 3.0 ports on my next laptop... need good battery life too so I can leave the imaging rig running all night if I want to.

Looking at this http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-rf511-15-6-laptop-silver-11884749-pdt.html

[Quatermass]

I have got an old Dell latitude 11Ol running windows xp just put in new hard drive and 1gig of memory and it runs like the clappers. XP is old now but a lot of astrophotography software still runs very well on it.

[Parus major]

If it's just for astro and you're not taking it to darks sites or anywhere away from the garden and you have an old TFT monitor knocking about then a small form factor ITX desktop could be an idea.

[SionR25]

Thanks for all the replies everyone . Hopefully I should get some shifts after my exams and start earning some money and see how my budget goes. For now though my laptop is coping OK with Ubuntu (a lot faster than windows) so will hang onto it for now.

Thanks again ,

Sion

[Parus major]

Thanks for all the replies everyone . Hopefully I should get some shifts after my exams and start earning some money and see how my budget goes. For now though my laptop is coping OK with Ubuntu (a lot faster than windows) so will hang onto it for now.

Thanks again ,

Sion

Might be worth googling the laptop model number to find out the RAM situation to see if you can get a cheap bump in performance.

[Ags]

Glad it worked out!

[Ags]

By the way Sion, are you amazed by the ubuntu boot speed? Knocks the socks off windows. My 4 year old dell laptop takes three minutes to start and to stop disk thrashing. The less powerful ubuntu desktop is running in 15 seconds.

[SionR25]

Yes, definitely much faster and really impressive. Don't know if I am imagining things but it also seems to make the battery last longer as well.

Sion

[Ags]

On the subject of batteries, if its charge life is declining, it may be that your battery is on its last legs. Can you get a new one from your supplier?

[Ags]

+1 to Parus Major's suggestion to look at upgrading RAM. Stacking software eats memory.

[Parus major]

+1 to Parus Major's suggestion to look at upgrading RAM. Stacking software eats memory.

It does! XP machines generally only had 1GB, wasn't until Vista that 2GB became the norm on stock machines.

[Ags]

I am looking at building a cheap web server for a business idea of mine, and I could put together a basic machine for 230 euros - that must be about 20 pounds these days :-)

Add 60 to 80 euros for a graphics card - and you can always get that at a later date. The specs were 320GB hard drive and Pentium G620, 4GB ram. It would be quite a potent machine compared to the sort of machines you and I have got.

Of course you might want to spend a bit more on the components - the 17 euro case I selected might not be the best idea :-)

[Parus major]

You can get away with a cheap cases if you're taking a modular power supply and don't intend it moving around that much. Decent cases have decent cooling but that's nothing going wild with a dremel and some new fans won't fix. Watch them sharp edges, though.

[JB80]

Hey all, I thought I would bump this instead of start my own thread but my old laptop is fast becoming past the point where it's useful and seems to be becoming a hindrance. No surprises really, it's ancient and I know I need a new one anyway but I think I have been pushed over the edge today.

Anyway I know I can walk away with one of these two today if I chose, there is a 6GB acer too but for the price I may as well stick with an 8GB. These are around the budget I have and with a bit of shopping I can save a few euro here or there from a different store.

http://www.carrefouronline.carrefour.es/noalimentacion/TemplateProduct.aspx?pila=&itemMarcado=catalog310026&nivel_desplegado=cat6270002&itemId=319701224

http://www.carrefouronline.carrefour.es/noalimentacion/TemplateProduct.aspx?pila=catalog310026%40cat410364%40cat1270002&itemMarcado=catalog310026&nivel_desplegado=cat1270002&itemId=319701232

What are people opinions of these?

My main concern is will the smaller less powered of the two be able to hold up to my needs.

It would basically be an astro laptop, the most important thing is will it run a ZWOAS120 that I plan on getting without major hassle?

I'd also like it to run the DMK and the software that comes with which I don't think will be a problem. I'll probably put a bunch of astro programs on like AS!2, Registax, DSS and whatever else that is likely to end up there. I may even put photoshop CS5 on but in truth I can leave all these programs off as I do most processing on the desktop.

Thoughts?

[swag72]

My parents bought their laptop from Spain and all I would say is that unless you are fully conversant with the language, you will not be able to change the operating system to English unless you upgrade to Windows Pro which cost my parents over £140.

Without that, all of the menu's etc were in Spanish, which was less than helpful.

To this end, I buy my PC's from Amazon.co.uk. Just a thought in case you'd not come across this before.

[JB80]

My parents bought their laptop from Spain and all I would say is that unless you are fully conversant with the language, you will not be able to change the operating system to English unless you upgrade to Windows Pro which cost my parents over £140.

Without that, all of the menu's etc were in Spanish, which was less than helpful.

To this end, I buy my PC's from Amazon.co.uk. Just a thought in case you'd not come across this before.

That's odd, we got our desktop from Media Markt here and just set it up as normal and the same in Belgium.

Admittedly they were desktops but surely the initial installation gives those options?

Not saying though it wont be the case.

It would probably be cheaper from the UK though.

[swag72]

I generally find electrical stuff cheaper from the UK. If you are willing to take a punt on a Spanish company, I can recommend these guys http://www.etendencias.com/index.php?uri=/paginas/inicio

Their prices are actually competitive and they sell for less than the RRP (Wow!!! That really is something over here!) and they send out using a 24-48 hour courier service for free. I used them recently and was really pleased with their service.

[happy-kat]

Wxastro do a linux webcam capturing app very like sharp cap

[JB80]

I generally find electrical stuff cheaper from the UK. If you are willing to take a punt on a Spanish company, I can recommend these guys http://www.etendencias.com/index.php?uri=/paginas/inicio

Their prices are actually competitive and they sell for less than the RRP (Wow!!! That really is something over here!) and they send out using a 24-48 hour courier service for free. I used them recently and was really pleased with their service.

I'll keep them bookmarked, that sounds like perfectly reasonable service.  

I would rather use a Spanish seller as that way we can get the VAT back but I am wary of online ordering if for nothing else I want it immediately or at the least by Monday or Tuesday if I sit around all day today instead. But more so I don't trust or particularly have the energy to deal with a delivery company any more.

[swag72]

today instead. But more so I don't trust or particularly have the energy to deal with a delivery company any more.

It was sent with Seur - They were good for couriers!

[JB80]

They are the mob that give us nightmares. 50% of the time they are perfect but the other half you have to fight them , admittedly they have been marginally better since we asked for the complaints book but they are still useless.

That said you have me worried about the language thing now, I have to weigh up the faff and cost of getting it changed or the potential faff of Seur. Maybe I will order from the UK.

edit: On further inspection I will be better off ordering from the UK but that means I'm going to have to find a different model. The easynote seems like the closest.

[JB80]

So after some umming and ahhing and checking a couple of local stores out I decided to order from the UK and settled on a 6GB RAM 1TB HDD and 2.4Ghz processor and it was mainly the 2.4Ghz that swayed me over the other models. And the price was cheaper than locally.