Recommended laptop spec for astrophotography

[stem1989]

I currently have a 27inch Imac with photoshop and some stacking software within bootcamp on the mac and the spec is fine (2.8ghz quad & 8gb RAM & 1TBHD) but Obviously I cant take this out into the field with me, however I can do much of my processing from it so what spec windows laptop would be sufficient for a webcam feed?, its frustrating as I can only use the webcam when Im at home but I would love a portable laptop with the bare minimum spec sufficient to allow me to go out to a dark area just outside of town and get some avi footage to process on my mac when I get in.

One Im looking at is £200 second hand

2.2 intel dual processor

120gb hard drive

2GB ram

will this be sufficient.

Any other ideas are much appreciated.

[Ewan]

The processor should be fine Stem but the hard drive is too small imo, you should get something 750gb+ minimum 7200rpm, you could also paertition the space say 150 gb JUST for windows & a 6GB swap file if you have 4GB RAM installed & the rest for imaging.

Upgrade the ram if possible to 4GB it's as cheap as chips & more ram always helps.

A large USB stick is handy & cheap for tranfering files nice & quickly, (plus you can use a chunk of it for Windows ReadyBoost if you feel the need), usb 2(3) ports on the laptop NOT usb 1. Software wise AS!2, Registax, Winjupo, Sharpcap or IC Capture (for other ccd's), PiPP & DSS if you dabble in that also.

Photoshop or Gimp for processing as well.

I have built all the 5 PC's in my house & i have a Toshiba Satellite Pro which is great for my setup, the above is a guide but will do the job.

All the best with your upgrades.

[StarRaver]

64bit always helps, my old laptop was a 32bit and always seemed to run into problems somewhere down the line when i was imaging, but that could of been down to the programs I was using aswell

[stem1989]

thanks for the replies, I ended up going for second hand for £180 so I think it will do, next clear night Im up my local fell with all the kit!

Dell Inspiron 1750 Intel Core 2 Duo-M 2.1GHZ 4Gb RAM 500Gb HDD

[Bukko]

Hi, Stem1989,

yes, the laptop will be more than enough.

From your original question, it sounds like you ONLY plan to use it for .avi captures. If so, then almost anything would do. If there is absolutely no plans to multi-task and you intend it only for data capture for later downloads, then your original spec would be fine too.

If no internet connection is planned, then I would NOT bother installing any antivirus and absolutely no additional programs, as they all have the effect of slowing the laptop down.

With the caveat that if you do inend to connect to the net, then AV is essential.

My fixed 'scope control PC is a single core 2.8Ghz CPU, 4GB Ram (It would be happy at 2) and 60GB HDD. It runs the mount, guide camera and software, filer wheel and SBIG camera. Without missing a beat, it is happy to connect via remote link and download 100's MB of data at a time while simultaneously controlling everything. But, as my caveat above, there is no additional software messing it up; nothing trying to run live updates, etc.

Also, be aware that Li-Ion batteries don't like the cold...

Gordon.