Laptop suggestions for starting ha imaging

[Highburymark]

What sort of laptop would be best for someone starting out in solar ha imaging - with something like an ASI174MM? Not wanting to spend too much, but needs the capacity and features required to produce decent results.

[Freddie]

Something that can handle USB 3 and with a decent sized SSD.

[Merlin66]

I went through the same decision making for my ASI 174MM (and ASI 1600mm) which I use for solar imaging (and the spectroheliograph)

In the end I went for a sexy MSI gaming machine - USB3, i7 processor, 16Gb memory, 1Tb SSD drive - it's FAST!!!

I can run at up to 400 fps.

Using FireCapture, AS3! and ImPPG.

 

[MarkAR]

Also the best processor you can, i5 or better.

[Altocumulus]

USB 3 is a must - I get half-frame images on a USB 2 port on the Pegasus Ultimate (though that might be it's a hub, and some don't appreciate hubs!).

[tooth_dr]

Yesterday was the first time where I encountered a problem with my own PC. It refused to run my 178 camera above 600x600 resolution, just said ‘failed to capture’.  My 120 was only getting a max of 18FPS.

Whilst that PC is fine for deep sky, im going to have to reinvest for any sort of high speed imaging.  Will be watching this thread for info. 

[noah4x4]

My 16 megapixel camera would run, but slowly, on a seventh generation i5 with 4Gb RAM. But as soon as I embraced additionally graphics intensive  Celestron CPWI and Sequence Generator Pro it choked. The problem is that once the load on your graphics card/chip gets heavy Windows 10 'steals' user resources. An upgrade to 8Gb RAM got it going again but painfully slowly. I too didn't get the performance I desired until I upgraded to an eighth generation i7 with 16Gb RAM.

It is painfully obvious that stacking multiple high resolution CMOS exposures at higher frame rates will demand vastly more computing ooomph than single exposure AP. But it is easy to get lured into underestimating the computing power required because we read of (single exposure) astrophotographer successes on limited computers. By contrast EEVA (EAA) is vastly more demanding on PC capabilities.

 

[Rusted]

Agreed on all of the above. i7, USB3, 16GB Ram, 1TB of onboard SSD. Lots of UWSB3 ports. Hubs don't seem to work as well IME.

I regularly capture at 400fps from my ASI174. For hours on end! This makes for huge video files.

I bought a 15.6"  ASUS N552V a couple of years ago and by sheer luck it had most of the right bells and whistles.
EXCEPT for a measly little 250GB onboard SSD. That's only worth a couple of hours of solar imaging at most!

So I bought a 1TB Samsung T5 external USB3 SSD. But now I waste valuable imaging time transferring files.
Just because the onboard  SSD has filled up. [Again!] I could get a bigger onboard SSD but worry about reloading Windows 10.

Forget about onboard screen size and get a nice big, quality monitor for imaging.
I went for a 27" HD AOC. Quite pricey but wonderful for imaging! 

Do you really need a laptop for your imaging? A PC might be cheaper for the same specs.

[Altocumulus]

I agree a PC is probably better - not least because it can be more easily upgraded / added to.

[RayD]

1 hour ago, Rusted said:

So I bought a 1TB Samsung T5 external USB3 SSD. But now I waste valuable imaging time transferring files.
Just because the onboard  SSD has filled up. [Again!] I could get a bigger onboard SSD but worry about reloading Windows 10.

Not sure what capture software you're using, but have you tried setting your target location to your external drive and save directly to it?  The T5 on USB3 has a pretty good write rate, so it may work.

This is all I ever do and it works fine and keeps the internal drives for programmes only.

[Davey-T]

I only use an old Mac Book Pro running Windows 7 on a Bootcamp partition, with LS60 and ZWO ASI178 capturing to an external 1tb USB3 drive, this saves clogging up the main drive and all my processing is done on the external drive, only transferring the final Tiffs to main laptop for finishing.

Dave

[Davey-T]

1 hour ago, Rusted said:

So I bought a 1TB Samsung T5 external USB3 SSD. But now I waste valuable imaging time transferring files.
Just because the onboard  SSD has filled up. [Again!] I could get a bigger onboard SSD but worry about reloading Windows 10.

I refer you to my post above.

Dave

[Rusted]

3 minutes ago, RayD said:

Not sure what capture software you're using, but have you tried setting your target location to your external drive and save directly to it?  The T5 on USB3 has a pretty good write rate, so it may work.

This is all I ever do and it works fine and keeps the internal drives for programmes only.

You make a very good point.
When I first bought the T5 I set it to accept all my imaging videos.
However it forgot my instructions as soon as the laptop was turned off.
From then on it completely ignored any new instructions.
"Operator error," no doubt.  I'll have to try again. 

 

[Rusted]

6 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

I only use an old Mac Book Pro running Windows 7 on a Bootcamp partition, with LS60 and ZWO ASI178 capturing to an external 1tb USB3 drive, this saves clogging up the main drive and all my processing is done on the external drive, only transferring the final Tiffs to main laptop for finishing.

Dave

Thanks Dave. I had to look up Bootcamp partition. None the wiser, but you do have my respect.
As stated elsewhere, my ignorance of modern computers is only exceeded by my ignorance of the niceties of image processing. 
Oddly, my first and second real jobs were with computers the size of sports halls. I was also an early adopter of the Sinclair ZX81.
I wrote all my own ray tracing, optical design software on the BBC-B in the absence of anything free being available.
It all went rapidly downhill from there.

[stash_old]

1 hour ago, Rusted said:

I could get a bigger onboard SSD but worry about reloading Windows 10

You dont reload Windows you "copy" your current drive onto the new SSD and resize using special software - then you have the new with lots of space and a backup which you can use to rebuild. Too much time and hassle to rebuild Windows for a new SSD.

Example of partition/disc copying software https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

You will need a cheap USB external drive case to put in new SSD or another computer to connect both old and new if you are using a laptop to copy old disc to new SSD. Just go thru the process a couple of times in your head and recognise the name of your hardrives (not drive name but Manu Name)

[Rusted]

6 minutes ago, stash_old said:

You don't reload Windows you "copy" your current drive onto the new SSD and resize using special software - then you have the new with lots of space and a backup which you can use to rebuild. Too much time and hassle to rebuild Windows for a new SSD.

Example of partition/disc copying software https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

You will need a cheap USB external drive case to put in new SSD or another computer to connect both old and new if you are using a laptop to copy old disc to new SSD. Just go thru the process a couple of times in your head and recognise the name of your hard drives (not drive name but Manu Name)

Thank you very much!  You have clarified a great deal which had escaped me.
I should probably watch a YT video or two of the whole process before proceeding.
I keep having to back up my SSDs to a 4TB external disk hard drive to make room on those.
It takes forever and the 4TB HDD is nearly full! I'd better do something and soon!