PixInsight - Best PC to use

[sloz1664]

The os and programmes need to be on the ssd to enable fast startup and shut down. Your files would be more suited to the hdd. It accesses files better than a ssd.

 

Steve

[gnomus]

2 minutes ago, SkyBound said:

Yes you would have the SSD as your main drive, or master drive as it is known, then the old drive would be the slave drive, all the programs installed on the slave drive, can still run, but you would need to add desktoo shortcuts to them on your new desktop, this is not easy for someone who does not know how, as you have to find the .exe file for each programme and create shortcut from that to the new desktop screen.

it is much easier to install the new drive as a slave drive, and then clone the old drive onto it, which means you get an exact copy of the old drive onto the new one, then set the new drive as the master and then you can boot from that, and it will be exactly the same as before but much faster, then you can format the old drive and keep it in there as a second back up drive.

hope that all makes sense

Thank you.  I know how to make Desktop icons from .exe files so that is no issue.  I had just got it into my head that Windows needed more information than that.  Can I take my machine round to your place to be fixed when I break it?  

[SkyBound]

15 minutes ago, gnomus said:

Thank you.  I know how to make Desktop icons from .exe files so that is no issue.  I had just got it into my head that Windows needed more information than that.  Can I take my machine round to your place to be fixed when I break it?  

Lol,

i am a computer technician by trade, although I don't do much any more, as am semi retired now....

windows just needs to know where the software is located to open it, and the newly created .exe shortcuts will tell it that info.

doing  the clone is the best option, in my opinion, it just gets more difficult if the SSD drive is smaller that the old drive...that's another issue altogether.

[daz]

Gina - if you have the capacity, using an SSD as a swap file for PI will help as well. I have an SSD for my boot disk, plus 6 HDDs in raid and the DVD drive. I'm going to swap out the DVD drive and use the port for a ~250gb SSD for PI.

 

[Gina]

I have installed Linux Mint on the machine, set up partitions and installed the OS.  Yes, I have assigned 220GB to root partition and 17GB to swap-file (a touch bigger than the RAM installed) ready for migrating to a 250GB SSD.  I assigned the rest of the 1TB to /home.  Would using a bigger SSD be helpful?  A 500GB is not that much more expensive.  I'm also thinking of rejuvenating one or two of my laptops with SSD drives.

I have also just installed PixInsight on the new machine and now doing updates.  Got a strange error after updating but running PI again and all seems well - don't know if the updates installed or not but if it works I'll be happy

[gnomus]

I'd be interested in your views on the machine Gina.  I am seriously thinking of just buying one of these, putting in an SSD and installing Windows.  Other than time, is there any reason not to build from scratch?  (I'm sort of thinking of doing that, as an alternative, as an ego exercise.)  Do you think you could buy the parts even cheaper??

[Shelster1973]

Gina

Not sure if this will be of any help, but I asked a few similar questions a while back when I was having issues with having PI doing drizzle on my rather large DSLR images.  It has a few benchmarks as I was going through my steps.

My current computer is an Intel 4790K with hyper threading, 32 GB RAM, of which I have 16 GB assigned as a RAM Disk, which is then setup in PI as 4 instnaces for swap discs.  My main HDD is a Samsung SSD, but that can be improved on if you are able to use the m2 drives as these operate at PCI-e speeds, so are silly quick.

[Gina]

44 minutes ago, gnomus said:

I'd be interested in your views on the machine Gina.  I am seriously thinking of just buying one of these, putting in an SSD and installing Windows.  Other than time, is there any reason not to build from scratch?  (I'm sort of thinking of doing that, as an alternative, as an ego exercise.)  Do you think you could buy the parts even cheaper??

I don't know TBH - a few years back it was reckoned that buying ready made was cheaper if you could find the spec you wanted.  For anything non-standard self-build was best.

There's an option to buy this with Windows 10 but you may be able to buy an earlier version separately - and cheaper.

[Gina]

I've ordered a 500GB Samsung SSD.  Have a feeling I shall want plenty of room!

[Alien 13]

2 hours ago, gnomus said:

I'd be interested in your views on the machine Gina.  I am seriously thinking of just buying one of these, putting in an SSD and installing Windows.  Other than time, is there any reason not to build from scratch?  (I'm sort of thinking of doing that, as an alternative, as an ego exercise.)  Do you think you could buy the parts even cheaper??

The debate about building from scratch is less important these days unless you need something very specific, you then can be faced with warranty problems if something fails. Standard machines designated as being suitable for gaming will provide all you realy need for image processing and with desktops the upgrade options are usually easy.

As said elsewhere the biggest upgrade you can make is moving to SSD you would be surprised what they can do even for a humble laptop.

Alan

[SkyBound]

2 hours ago, gnomus said:

I'd be interested in your views on the machine Gina.  I am seriously thinking of just buying one of these, putting in an SSD and installing Windows.  Other than time, is there any reason not to build from scratch?  (I'm sort of thinking of doing that, as an alternative, as an ego exercise.)  Do you think you could buy the parts even cheaper??

If you want to buy all the part and build your own PC, then try here:

http://www.ebuyer.com

i have used them for years, superb all round service, you may be able to save a few quid by shopping around, but you can get all you need from one place with these guys....

they are a massive company now, and the sales service and returns service, (not that you would need this) are all round spot on.

[SkyBound]

On 31 August 2016 at 10:46, Gina said:

I have signed onto PixInsight for their free trial but now looking at what to run it on.  My present computers have just 4GB of memory but they recommend much more for decent processing.  They are also pretty old and slow.  I know I could build my own desktop as I have in the past but I think I have higher priorities for my time and I want to get on with astronomy rather than fiddle with computer stuff.  I would think the requirements for astro processing would be similar to gaming  and a gaming machine would be the best option.

I'm looking at 3 to 4GHz processor with 16GB RAM and 1TB HD as something that could run PI pretty effortlessly.  I am just totally fed up with slow PCs and would like to migrate to Linux totally.  So a machine without expensive Windows 10 OS, into which I can install the latest Linux Mint 18, should be a good option.  I'm thinking of THIS ONE  Any comments would be welcome

Hmmmm, not sure I would have gone for an AMD chip.....I am sure I read on here somewhere that some Astro software does not like the AMD....but can't remember which software it was...

Edit: just found it, it's the Nextimage 5 software that it has issues with...

[Gina]

Think I read somewhere that a lot of Linux software was written on AMD machines.  I've used AMD a fair bit in the past and not had any problems.