New laptop for processing

[OK Apricot]

So I think I'm in need of a new laptop. I currently have a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad T430 which is decent on paper, but it's got issues where it'll have a seizure and shut itself down, it's not reliable enough in the field for acquisition (so swapping to ASIair soon) but it's not really great for processing which is the main thing. The screen resolution is low, colours are weird, it'll take a while just to respond to change levels on a 9MP image. So, I'm in the market for something purely for processing. It will have to be a laptop as space in the house, and budget, doesn't really allow a large desktop. 

I came across the Acer swift 3 which looks to have a decent spec? What do you use for processing? Recommendations for a piece between £700-£900?

Thanks 🙂

[Anthonyexmouth]

50 minutes ago, OK Apricot said:

So I think I'm in need of a new laptop. I currently have a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad T430 which is decent on paper, but it's got issues where it'll have a seizure and shut itself down, it's not reliable enough in the field for acquisition (so swapping to ASIair soon) but it's not really great for processing which is the main thing. The screen resolution is low, colours are weird, it'll take a while just to respond to change levels on a 9MP image. So, I'm in the market for something purely for processing. It will have to be a laptop as space in the house, and budget, doesn't really allow a large desktop. 

I came across the Acer swift 3 which looks to have a decent spec? What do you use for processing? Recommendations for a piece between £700-£900?

Thanks 🙂

I was using an old 4th gen i7 gaming laptop until recently. I decided it was getting slow and very hot trying to process, WBPP took ages. Built myself a SFF PC, AMD 5700g with 64gb ram. WBPP flies by now. 140 subs with calibration frames and drizzle takes about 50 mins. 

All in cost me about your budget. Allows me an ok upgrade path in the future if I want to put it in a larger case with a GPU. 

[Alien 13]

1 hour ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

I was using an old 4th gen i7 gaming laptop until recently. I decided it was getting slow and very hot trying to process, WBPP took ages. Built myself a SFF PC, AMD 5700g with 64gb ram. WBPP flies by now. 140 subs with calibration frames and drizzle takes about 50 mins. 

All in cost me about your budget. Allows me an ok upgrade path in the future if I want to put it in a larger case with a GPU. 

Very nice, could you supply any details of the case you used? thinking of building something similar myself...

Alan

[Anthonyexmouth]

12 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

Very nice, could you supply any details of the case you used? thinking of building something similar myself...

Alan

https://amzn.eu/a1PxEFa hope this link works. 

Originally I planned a cooler master nr200p but decided this would be ok and I'll transplant into that bigger sff case when I want a gou

 

 

[OK Apricot]

2 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

I was using an old 4th gen i7 gaming laptop until recently. I decided it was getting slow and very hot trying to process, WBPP took ages. Built myself a SFF PC, AMD 5700g with 64gb ram. WBPP flies by now. 140 subs with calibration frames and drizzle takes about 50 mins. 

All in cost me about your budget. Allows me an ok upgrade path in the future if I want to put it in a larger case with a GPU. 

That's a very nice bit of kit. Unfortunately I don't have the slightest know-how when it comes to computers and the like - I can (just about) use one let alone build one! 

Just to brainstorm a little... Along with the usual DSO imaging, I'm thinking I may want to get a large ish SCT in the future for planetary. Excuse my terminology here... I'm going to need USB 3.0 ports, hi-res screen, high fps (50+?), a quad core i7 sounds good? My current laptop is 2.6GHz so maybe looking for around 4GHz+? Don't know what RAM is for but throwing numbers about, 8GB? Would probably pick up an external 1TB+ hard drive, decent battery life wouldn't go amiss but not essential 🤔.

Sorry for that rambling, just trying to get across my needs without really the ability to communicate them! Do any particular models on the current market pop out? 

[Anthonyexmouth]

4 minutes ago, OK Apricot said:

That's a very nice bit of kit. Unfortunately I don't have the slightest know-how when it comes to computers and the like - I can (just about) use one let alone build one! 

Just to brainstorm a little... Along with the usual DSO imaging, I'm thinking I may want to get a large ish SCT in the future for planetary. Excuse my terminology here... I'm going to need USB 3.0 ports, hi-res screen, high fps (50+?), a quad core i7 sounds good? My current laptop is 2.6GHz so maybe looking for around 4GHz+? Don't know what RAM is for but throwing numbers about, 8GB? Would probably pick up an external 1TB+ hard drive, decent battery life wouldn't go amiss but not essential 🤔.

Sorry for that rambling, just trying to get across my needs without really the ability to communicate them! Do any particular models on the current market pop out? 

More ram the better. 16gb minimum.

Don't use your good processing computer for telescope control. Repurpose your old laptop to do telescope control and imaging. 

[OK Apricot]

1 minute ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

More ram the better. 16gb minimum.

Don't use your good processing computer for telescope control. Repurpose your old laptop to do telescope control and imaging. 

Cheers. I'll note that down. 

This would be exclusively for processing. I'm ditching the laptop acquisition method and now looking into the ASIair. 

[OK Apricot]

How does an Acer Swift X look as a processing laptop?