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USB3 Laptop solely for astro-imaging - decision time!

Demonperformer

By Demonperformer
in The Astro Lounge

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Demonperformer

Demonperformer

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I am in the throes of getting a new (USB3) laptop exclusively for astro and am looking at an Acer Aspire. With a recently received £25 Argos voucher, I could get this for £225. Just wondering if anyone has any experience of using this for astro-imaging?

A slightly more expensive option is this HP . Yes, it has a 1TB drive, but I am not sure that will be a major plus (even with the size and number of subs produced by the 1600) as I tend to move everything from the laptop to an external HD at the end of a session anyway. I could just about stretch the extra £50, but would not want to go beyond that.

Whichever (or other) the plan will be to get it functioning and then remove everything from the machine that I will not need (like the internet!) so that it will, hopefully, perform quite fast and sleek. Any thoughts welcome.

Thanks.

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UKJay1971

UKJay1971

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I buy reconditioned Lenovo machines from Amazon - the previous two have been reasonable high spec machines, that are easily expandable, and rugged as heck which is good for outdoors. Often, the machines have had light / no use at all and have been sold off in bulk by IT departments. My next laptop will be another one of these, with 3.0 USB ports.

As an example (and just one of several) ... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Professional-Certified-Refurbished/dp/B01H5NW8YA/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1506689756&sr=8-9&keywords=lenovo+usb+3.0+laptop

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Zakalwe

Zakalwe

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If you are using it for planetary/lunar/solar imaging with any of the big-chipped fast ZWO cameras (174/178 or similar) then you will need a decent sized SSD. A traditional HDD will not cut the mustard.

For DSO imaging (guiding/SGPro/planetaruim) then any old shonky thing will work. There really is very little horsepower required for that work.

 

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Demonperformer

Demonperformer

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Thanks for all your input.

@UKJay1971 Thanks for the suggestion, there seem to be quite a lot of them there, which I will have a wade through, but will depend a bit on the below ...

@spillage It's set-up & take-down each time and I am looking for it to run all that I use during the evening, from polemaster, through EQMOD/CdC & Astrotortilla, the SX filter-wheel, PHD, to the imaging software (Sharpcap, APT, EOSUtils) and the various camera drivers (Canon, QHY5II, ASI 1600) & a the new-intended planetary camera (see below) ... Assuming all of this will run on Windoze 10 (I was going to run another thread in the 'software' forum to ask about any issues people have encountered with these progs on it). Processing to be done on the desktop.

@Zakalwe A new planetary camera is intended (the main reason I want a laptop that will run USB3). I am looking at this one. Been through the specs and can't find any justification for purchasing one of the more expensive models [bigger chip just seems to make the planet look smaller!]. Don't know if that one would qualify as "big chipped" ... hopefully not, as SSD seems to be both smaller (capacity) and more expensive than HDD. Although, having read (VERY) little about SSD, I wonder if the issue would not just the chip-size, but also the 250fps maximum frame rate?

Thanks.

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Zakalwe

Zakalwe

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45 minutes ago, Demonperformer said:

A new planetary camera is intended (the main reason I want a laptop that will run USB3). I am looking at this one. Been through the specs and can't find any justification for purchasing one of the more expensive models [bigger chip just seems to make the planet look smaller!]. Don't know if that one would qualify as "big chipped" ... hopefully not, as SSD seems to be both smaller (capacity) and more expensive than HDD. Although, having read (VERY) little about SSD, I wonder if the issue would not just the chip-size, but also the 250fps maximum frame rate?

Thanks.

The size of the sensor has no impact on the image size- thats a function of focal length. You'll need to consider matching the pixel size to focal length. The pixels on that camera are a little small if you are working at f25 or greater.

The need for USB3 and SSD is down to the size of the sensor and the frame-rate. on my ASI174 camera a 450 frame .avi will be just over 2Gb in size. Big sensors and high speed puts a lot of demand on the disk subsystem. If I recall correctly, the 120 should just about work with a fast hard-disk...whether a 2.5" laptop hard disk will cope I don't really know.

You could always consider getting an external USB3 SSD for planetary work, if the one in the laptop is struggling. Or bite the bullet and replace the disk in the laptop with a SSD....the prices are falling all the time. A 500Gb SSD is about £160 now.

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Demonperformer

Demonperformer

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Thanks, Zak - that last post is particularly interesting.

I had been thinking about it all overnight and had more or less come to the conclusion that (1) I do not currently have this planetary camera (2) the amount of planetary imaging I will do is significantly less than DSO imaging (3) although I am a believer in reducing frame size for planetary [no sense in imaging a lot of black nothing] I am not convinced that I will be able to reduce the exposure time, even on Jupiter, sufficiently to take 250+ fps (4) the Aspire laptop I referenced in my first post has an extra USB 3.1 socket, so adding an external SSD drive as you suggested above would definitely be a possibility.

Taking all that into consideration, I am definitely leaning towards the Aspire, subject to any info coming to light that it is not a good machine for astro-imaging.

Thanks.

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AngryDonkey

AngryDonkey

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It might also be wise to check the ZWO ASI support forums for USB 3 related issues. I seem to remember a thread where people were reporting that USB 3 chipsets used in some laptops are not working well with the ASI cameras. Maybe you can find out what the Spire is using and confirm.

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Demonperformer

Demonperformer

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Thanks.

Looks as if these could have been 'teething problems' - the thread stopped at the end of last year. There is another thread suggesting that there might be problems with the 120 on AMD machines.

I think it might be worth following the advice (given several times in the thread) to email them, confirming if there are any outstanding issues with ZWO cameras using USB3.

Thanks.

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Merlin66

Merlin66

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I “invested” in an ASI 174MM as a FAST frame camera and ended up buying a sexy FAST laptop!

I ended up with a hot gaming machine a MSI, fantastic!!!!

8 mb ram, a 500Tb SSD drive etc..this works extremely well for me.

Highly recommended.

 

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RayD

RayD

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24 minutes ago, Merlin66 said:

Yeah, 

got carried away.

It should have been 500Gb SSD drive.

 

I wouldn't think it will be too long before that will read right, and we are wondering whether a 500Tb SSD is big enough :icon_biggrin:

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