8gb or 16gb RAM for Astro imaging?

[Sandancer10]

Hi and can anyone advise how much memory you need to be able to produce high quality imaging? My Mac can't handle DSS as I had to split the drive to add Microsoft as my preferred operating system. All this because I have PS CS6 P.C. Version, but not the Mac.

I am now using my laptop which again only has 4gb RAM, so I am thinking of getting a new laptop. when I enquired at PC World as to the maximum RAM for a laptop they told me that you can only get 8gb, but you can upgrade it to 12gb. I thought you could double it? I wouldn't have this problem if I bought a PC, but there is nowhere to site this where I need it to be hence the laptop solution. Any help would be much appreciated.

Brenda

[earth titan]

The more RAM you have the fmaster it will work. PS is relatively hungry on RAM so the more you can add, the better.

If you ever need to know how much you can add to a particular computer, go to a website run by 'Crucial' memory. They have a little tool which will analyse how much you can fit and suggest the correct type.

[pete_l]

Hi and can anyone advise how much memory you need to be able to produce high quality imaging? My Mac can't handle DSS as I had to split the drive to add Microsoft as my preferred operating system. All this because I have PS CS6 P.C. Version, but not the Mac.

Brenda

RAM is relatively cheap (compared to the total cost of a new computer), so I'd go for 16GB. That way you can download and run a program called Virtualbox which will let you run Windows "inside" your Mac (but not OS/X from inside Windows).

That would save having to reboot from one O/S to another - they'd both run simultaneously. Obv you'd need enough memory for each one, hence the 16GB

[Russe]

TBH - I use two laptops - one for imaging and one for processing.

Imaging - dell mini 9 - 1GB RAM - no problems running Stellarium, PHD, APT and logmein.com.

Processing - i5 processor, 8GB RAM, 1TB hard drive. No probs with DSS and PS5.

[Coopz]

Hi Brenda,

I assume the laptop you say you are now using is a different machine to your Mac?  

Is so before you buy or upgrade any RAM make sure this is a 64 bit version of Windows. 32 bit Windows will only use up to 4GB of RAM (I cannot remember the actual figure, it's actually more like 3.7GB depending on hardware).

Regarding PC World, ignore what you have been told, it's wrong. They actually sell at least two laptop models that come with 12GB of RAM. When I bought my iPad from them earlier this year the sales guy was trying to sell me the "Whatever Happens" care plan which I refused and then online cloud storage. Upon also refusing the cloud storage stating that I had a iCloud account I was asked "are you sure thats compatible"!

I use a 6 year old laptop that has a AMD Turion X2 CPU with 3GB of RAM (a relative dinosaur) to run DSS and Photoshop. For sure it's very slow (100 4 sec subs of a widefield Orion shot took also 40 mins to run) but it handles it. It also boots Win 7 in under a minute because I look after what I have installed on it.

If you wanted to run everything on your Mac I would look into purchasing a Win to Mac licence to convert Photoshop over to run on OSX, and install a Wineskin to run DSS. You could then delete your Windows partition on the MAC. Obviously you would have to consider whether or not this would work for you depending on what other Windows software you currently use.

[bogdog]

so before you buy or upgrade any RAM make sure this is a 64 bit version of Windows. 32 bit Windows will only use up to 4GB of RAM (I cannot remember the actual figure, it's actually more like 3.7GB depending on hardware).

so before you buy or upgrade any RAM make sure this is a 64 bit version of Windows. 32 bit Windows will only use up to 4GB of RAM (I cannot remember the actual figure, it's actually more like 3.7GB depending on hardware).

this^^

windows 7 32bit will only allow access to 3gb of ram

xp slightly higher,so get a 64bit win os,and dont fall for "the salesmans" pitch esp from pc world

i have 6gb or ram on win7 machine 32bit and can only use 3gb

[Sandancer10]

Thanks to all for your good advice.  I didn't think about getting a 64 bit version, but it will be the first thing I check on the specs.

Hi Brenda,

I assume the laptop you say you are now using is a different machine to your Mac?  

Is so before you buy or upgrade any RAM make sure this is a 64 bit version of Windows. 32 bit Windows will only use up to 4GB of RAM (I cannot remember the actual figure, it's actually more like 3.7GB depending on hardware).

 

Yes, the Mac is a separate computer. Actually, I have a Mac, a P.C., a Laptop and an Ipad - you can't have too many computers I think!!

I use the separate P.C. for tutorials at my workstation whilst I'm working on the Mac.  The laptop controls settting up the webcam, Stellarium, EOS Canon (camera control) and currently I'm using DSS on it.

It's the laptop I want to replace as my P.C. is ever so slightly aged and I don't think DSS will work on it.  I particularly want to use the drizzle function and I havn't been able to up to now. So I thought if I get another laptop that would solve it.

Brenda 

[Russe]

Drizzle is not so great as one might expect...

[Rihard]

Tip from a long time computer addict: If budget is not an issue, go for 16GB if the HW and OS support it: the more RAM, the better!

[StuartJPP]

DSS is still only a 32-bit application though so it can't access all that memory. Trying to use drizzle mode on DSLR sized images will cause it to crash no matter how much RAM you have got, even on a 64-bit system.

But like above...get as much as you can afford though I have only got 6GB and have never run out running PS, PI, PSP and a few others concurrently.

[Naemeth]

As far as I know, the more RAM you have (as long as it is compatible with your other components), the faster the computer will be able to process information (thus loading documents more quickly, processing things more quickly, doing memory-intensive things more quickly). Go for 16GB if you can afford it.

[Merlin66]

I'm looking for a new laptop to replace an aged ACER...

I found laptops Win8 8Gb memory (non-upgradable) about 50% the price of one's with 16Gb!!!!

[Sandancer10]

DSS is still only a 32-bit application though so it can't access all that memory. Trying to use drizzle mode on DSLR sized images will cause it to crash no matter how much RAM you have got, even on a 64-bit system.

But like above...get as much as you can afford though I have only got 6GB and have never run out running PS, PI, PSP and a few others concurrently.

So Stuart, I'm thinking that it's better to use a CCD for DSO.  Or, perhaps use DSS for DSLR images and once processed crop the picture and then try a small stack of 2/3 pictures and use drizzle then?  If you use a CCD camera are you then able to use drizzle without the system giving an error message?

The reason I'm so interested in increasing the size of nebula etc. is that whilst I find taking DLSR pictures gives a good result I'm always disappointed with the size of the image and I'm having to crop quite a bit to get a decent size.

Brenda 

[Sandancer10]

Drizzle is not so great as one might expect...

Russe, I looked at the link, but it was just asking for an upload.   I would appreciate it if you would explain your comment, or do you have a drizzled picture that I can take a look at?

Brenda 

[NickK]

Using macbook pro -  2.2GHz i7 with 16GB RAM and a 500GB 7200rpm drive on which I:

* develop -

* capture - using my own app or previously running windows in a VM

* process - PixInsight and Registax under Wine.

Capturing I have a mac mini that usually does the long term captures with windows under virtualbox and Nebulosity 2/PHD.

Only issue with virtualbox is that a bug prevents using more than one CPU core if you're plugging in USB devices.. 

Drizzled.. I'm a fan..

Bear paw brings out some nice details (given it's titchy!)

M57 at 1340mm using a 383L.. small object at that scale!

Now each of the 4 dots is a 5.4um pixel at 1340mm fl..

[earth titan]

Using macbook pro - 2.2GHz i7 with 16GB RAM and a 500GB 7200rpm drive on which I:

* develop -

* capture - using my own app or previously running windows in a VM

* process - PixInsight and Registax under Wine.

Capturing I have a mac mini that usually does the long term captures with windows under virtualbox and Nebulosity 2/PHD

They're impressive mate. Loads of close up detail in those.

[CSM]

As has been mentioned above, there is a 4GB limit on Windows 7 32 bit, but if the software can't work with 64 bit then that isn't much use.  Although memory is very important so is the speed of the machine AND what else you load on to it.  I bought a PC without any operating system and loaded it with the 32 bit as I wanted to run older, legacy software apart from any Astronomy ones.  It also meant that I didn't have loads of other pre-loaded software slowing it down.  Ok, you can get rid of a lot of it, but that takes time and you are still left with a lot of unnecessary system and other files which can slow the whole computer down.