To Tak, or not Tak?

[Greymouser]

I have been budgeting for a new PC, which is going to cost a fair bit new. My old one is getting on now only has an i5 cpu and 8g ram, with a 1050ti gpu, so I budgeted a decent amount, which is sat there in the bank, waiting. The old one is only Windows 7, never got around to updating it to Windows 10. Today though, I wondered if I could still get the upgrade free, so dug out an even older PC and gave it a go. The result is that it upgraded, easily and without problem, better yet no demand for monies!

Now I am wondering if I can manage with my i5 PC for a bit longer... I now know I can upgrade to Win 10 for free, it does pretty much everything I need, so maybe a little longer? Of course, this thought is in part motivated by the simple fact that the money sitting there, would cover a Tak scope! Now I find I am in a dilemma. I know this PC is only just managing everything I throw at it, but could do so for a while longer, maybe. I also know the new PC will likely last for the next ten years or so. But a Takahashi...

The other thing is, my first impression of Win 10, is not great. What to do?

( I suspect I  Know the most likely response.  )

[John]

How long does an upgraded PC remain "state of the art" ?. A few months perhaps ?

How long does a Takahashi go on being a superb, top end performing scope ?. 50 years plus I would think.

 

 

[DaveS]

I think that unless you're an imager crunching huge data sets then an i5 with 8 gig ram would do for quite a while.

[Alien 13]

PC every time...

Alan

[Greymouser]

24 minutes ago, John said:

How long does an upgraded PC remain "state of the art" ?. A few months perhaps ?

Well, yes, that is hard to argue with and my heart agrees. However I cannot do without a decent PC, my mind says. I already have some decent scopes, even if not quite Tak quality. Also as I like to play games, some of which can be very demanding, an i9 and 32 gig or Ram is calling, to future proof me for a while. Added to which, can a Tak be justified, with Bortle 6 skies and little chance to travel for the foreseeable? Playing good games is not a weather dependant hobby either!

[Star101]

I have run all my rig, three cameras, Aik 120ex, ZWO ASI183MM Pro and Lodestar X2, Mesu 200 with SiTech II controller, SGPro and Artemis along with PHD2 Guiding all on a Celeron cheap ( £120) PC. Your PC will last another 6 months, time to save again. That TAK may not wait  

[Star101]

4 minutes ago, Greymouser said:

Playing good games is not a weather dependant hobby either!

Is this the real reason? 😮 

Shame on you!! 😛 

[Greymouser]

Well, perhaps, partly...

[DaveS]

Any reason for going Intel rather than AMD? The latest Ryzen processors are pretty powerful and cheaper than Intel.

[Greymouser]

1 minute ago, DaveS said:

Any reason for going Intel rather than AMD? The latest Ryzen processors are pretty powerful and cheaper than Intel.

I know, but the only time I had a PC fail completely was when I ventured AMD, so prefer sticking to what has been reliable. I cannot remember the cause, but the CPU failed. 

[DaveS]

I've been kicking around ideas for a new imaging computer with enough grunt to deal with the 124 MB files from an IMX 455 camera, and have been leaning towards AMD. I've been Intel / Nvidia up to now because I did a fair bit of video editing on Avid which, at the time, was very snooty about what hardware it ran on, and would turn its nose up at AMD.

[AdeKing]

You might be able to give the PC a boost by fitting a SSD if it currently has a conventional hard disk and you're happy to open it up and replace the drive.

A £50 250gb SSD made a world of difference to my 5 year old Laptop..........

Then I managed to spill half a mug of tea over the keyboard.

The built in keyboard is no longer functional but the laptop survived, though I need a plug in keyboard.

[JeremyS]

Tak. Obviously 🙂

 

[Sunshine]

I would use an abacus if it meant i could have a Tak.

[John]

13 hours ago, Greymouser said:

Well, yes, that is hard to argue with and my heart agrees. However I cannot do without a decent PC, my mind says. I already have some decent scopes, even if not quite Tak quality. Also as I like to play games, some of which can be very demanding, an i9 and 32 gig or Ram is calling, to future proof me for a while. Added to which, can a Tak be justified, with Bortle 6 skies and little chance to travel for the foreseeable? Playing good games is not a weather dependant hobby either!

Not being a gamer or even in any sense a "power" PC user I didn't factor that in of course 

It sounds to me as if you have already talked yourself out of a Tak so that's the decision made

 

 

 

[dweller25]

@Greymouser

I had an 8gb i5 laptop running windows 7 that was running painfully slow.

I replaced the HDD with an SSD (£30) loaded on Windows 10 and it now boots and runs SIGNIFICANTLY faster 🙂

Once you get used to Win 10 it’s great and very stable with an excellent built in virus checker

So for £30 you get a better PC and a Tak 😀

Edited June 17, 2020 by dweller25

[mikeDnight]

The Tak is unlikely to get any cheaper as time goes by, but PC technology? 

As regards your sky conditions, if you're looking for a good refractor then Tak's will deliver. There are other great refractors out there though, so you don't have to limit yourself to Takahashi!  (Did I actually say that?)

[Dr Strange]

Can you sell some of your other scopes that the Tak would replace or compete with and go with an i7 thus making the Tak a possibility? If you aren't using the other scopes regularly and/or the Tak will be the one you use the most then it is logical to sell the others and get the Tak. If the Tak will not be used that much or is in a niche then it doesn't make sense to buy it. The best scope for you is the one you use. And I apply this philosophy very militantly. If I am spending more time looking at a scope I own rather than through it I will sell it with no regrets and without a second thought. 

To be fair I do have a bias. The scopes that work best for my needs are the Tak lineup because of their superior color correction and lack of CA. I am very sensitive to CA and it really takes away from the experience when I see it in a scope. I also really want to have the best color correction I can get. Tak handles both better than even the Astro Physics and TEC scopes I have owned and used. So if quality of image is important to you then a Tak is at the top of the list in my view. 

[Greymouser]

8 hours ago, John said:

It sounds to me as if you have already talked yourself out of a Tak so that's the decision made

I suspect you are right, maybe this was just an exercise in confirming an already made decision?

As @Dr Strange says the scope most used is the best, ( as many others have said too, ) which for me is my superb little C5. What more can a 100 mm Tak give me? ( That is rhetorical I guess!  ) I do have too many scopes though and will sell some. I still have to experiment more with the SW ED 80 and 6" Classical cass, so do not know if they will be kept. But I have not used the C9.25 in ages, so think maybe a reassessment of my needs is in order. 

@dweller25 and @AdeKing, yes it would be very easy to add a SSD to my current rig and whilst it will speed things up, it would not help much with games, the CPU; GPU and the amount of RAM is important here. I would need a new motherboard too, to significantly improve things, so figure a whole new PC makes sense.

Thank you all for your help, you have all helped me to come to some conclusions. I need to think more on what to keep and what to go. Especially with a 6" newt; 102 ST a pair of 20 x 100 binos and maybe the ED80 and C9.25 to go along with the Evolution mount. If I go the whole way, maybe a Tak could be on the cards too!

[Alien 13]

7 minutes ago, Greymouser said:

I suspect you are right, maybe this was just an exercise in confirming an already made decision?

As @Dr Strange says the scope most used is the best, ( as many others have said too, ) which for me is my superb little C5. What more can a 100 mm Tak give me? ( That is rhetorical I guess!  ) I do have too many scopes though and will sell some. I still have to experiment more with the SW ED 80 and 6" Classical cass, so do not know if they will be kept. But I have not used the C9.25 in ages, so think maybe a reassessment of my needs is in order. 

@dweller25 and @AdeKing, yes it would be very easy to add a SSD to my current rig and whilst it will speed things up, it would not help much with games, the CPU; GPU and the amount of RAM is important here. I would need a new motherboard too, to significantly improve things, so figure a whole new PC makes sense.

Thank you all for your help, you have all helped me to come to some conclusions. I need to think more on what to keep and what to go. Especially with a 6" newt; 102 ST a pair of 20 x 100 binos and maybe the ED80 and C9.25 to go along with the Evolution mount. If I go the whole way, maybe a Tak could be on the cards too!

Dont forget a shiny new DSLR too 

Alan

P.S. I dont know the current price of a TAK but expect its not far off the 2.5K I paid for my lappy which gets hammered every day with video work and gaming so I made the best choice for me I expect.

Alan

Edited June 17, 2020 by Alien 13

[AdeKing]

5 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

The Tak is unlikely to get any cheaper as time goes by, but PC technology? 

As regards your sky conditions, if you're looking for a good refractor then Tak's will deliver. There are other great refractors out there though, so you don't have to limit yourself to Takahashi!  (Did I actually say that?)

Quick, someone get a medical professional out to @mikeDnight, he's saying the most uncharacteristic things, I think he might be in trouble. 🤣

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Get the collection down to two telescopes, then consider building an AMD Ryzen based PC and save a few bob to put toward the Tak you don't need. 😉

We have two DIY, liquid cooled & overclocked Ryzen 1600/16gb DDR2666/Nvidia gfx/Win 10 gaming PCs at home and they still cut it after 3 years or so. The gfx cards were replaced last year with an RTX 2060 and RTX 2070. The RTX 2070 PC is a 4k capable beast even with the dinky oldish Ryzen 1600.  My son absolutely canes the 2070 PC ( he got the good card as a Chrimbo present. I had to settle for a bit less like dads do...🙄 ). He's been offered a new mobo/ram/cpu for his birthday, but he's happy with the system still.

A brilliant gaming PC doesn't need to cost the earth.

Edited June 18, 2020 by ScouseSpaceCadet