Ideal laptop

[Rumpelstiltleg]

not really software I know but doe anyone have advice on the type of laptop I should be buying for imaging! I have an SBIG STT8300 mono camera with an WO110 Apo on. CGEM mount. What do I need in respect of RAM, processor and Disc space? What Windows OS is best?

Any advice out there?

Thanks mike

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[SniffTheGlove]

I use an HP Mini 10.1 notebook to run my EQ6 mount, QHY5 PHD guiding, EQMod, CdC and APT. The screen is slightly to small but in the Obsy I can plug it into a separate 19in monitor. Other than that is works OK and has a good 12hr battery life.

To be a laptop, then at least a quad core i3 with 4Gb of ram on Win 7 Premium.

[Rumpelstiltleg]

Thanks sniff.

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[Jessun]

We use these at work, and I'd love one for imaging in the field!

(Panasonic Toughbook)

[IanL]

It depends on whether you have access to mains power or whether you are using it in the field. If the latter then battery life is a major consideration, and so the biggest screen, fastest processor, etc. aren't necessarily going to be desirable if it chews through the battery. Some of the older (business) models used to have an option to swap out the optical drive for a second battery, but these seem to be a lot less common now.

If you have access to mains, then a big screen is probably the most desirable thing. My HP's screen is a bit too small and since I use it outside in the garden, a big external screen is not a practical option for me. Also, are you going to use it purely for capture and operating the equipment, or is it also going to be your main processing machine? If the latter, a lot of memory, a fast processor and plenty of disk space are essential, but not really compatible with long battery life.

Most software and drivers work okay with Windows 7 now, it's still a bit too early to say whether there are any significant issues with Windows 8 compatibility. If you're buying a new laptop though, you may struggle to find any that still offer Windows 7 as an option, since Microsoft make OEMS switch to new versions of Windows as soon as they are released. If you are aiming for a processing machine with lots of RAM, I'd go for a 64 bit version of Windows rather than 32 bit so that you don't hit the 4GB memory address space limit.

[Parus major]

RAM is cheap as chips so it's not worth paying up to the next model just for a £20 stick of 4GB DDR3 RAM.

it's anecdotal but a few people I know upgraded to win8 and say their battery life is longer - but I'd imagine after a year's worth of updates it'll even out. Win 8 is faster and I dare say more desirable...

My advice would be to go for one with dedicated graphics, not specifically for imaging but, yaknow, I wouldn't worry about HDD size if you have a desktop since you'll likely want to store imaged, data and what have you on that instead but you can buy an SSD upgrade instead of a HDD and use the HDD as external storage in a enclosure when you need it.

Processor, i3 minimum, and kep some cahs back for a battery.

[stem1989]

I have a dual core 2 (2.2Ghz) 4gb ram & 500gb hard drive and I have never had any issues with DSS or Photoshop, PHD EQmod etc running, which works fine in the field, I have a charger to my battery 12v as battery life is about 3 hours without. The i3 processors consume less power so you will get a longer battery life so you might be better getting one of these laptops if your budget will allow.