Laptop required for QHY163M or ASI1600MM

[billdan]

I am seriously looking at buying a QHY163M or a ZWO 1600MM camera with a 7 x 36mm filter wheel. This will replace my QHY12 OSC I am currently using.

If I do go down this path I would have to buy a new laptop that has USB 3.0 support . The one I have in the Obs is a Dell Win-XP laptop.
I am also led to believe that Win 7 does not support USB 3 so does that mean I will have to get a Win10 machine?

Should I also get one that supports SSD drives for better throughput?

Or should I get a small Intel NUC that I can bolt onto the scope and remote control it via Wifi from the XP laptop.

Looking for some guidance here, so I can start budgeting how much money I need, before I go ahead.

Cheers
Bill

[LewisM]

Bill I believe USB3 “throttles down” fine to a USB 2 only connection.

I run Win7 for my Astro laptop and have nil issues.

[billdan]

Thanks Lewis that's good to know, I do have a Win7 64bit laptop in the house I could use as well.
I read that both the QHY and ZWO provide a memory buffer for use with USB2 ports, so I should be OK.

[Nikolas]

Win 7 supports usb3 you need the driver for it

[Shiraz]

USB3 support is useful but not essential, unless you want to run video streams. If you do decide on USB3, suggest that you get a modern PC - I have a fairly old i5/win10 system that nominally has USB3 but is only reliable with USB2 -my new system is reliable with USB3.

the processor/memory does not need to be anything special and SSD is not necessary.

cheers Ray

[billdan]

Thanks Nik, good to know you can get a driver for USB3 with Win7. I checked the device manager on my wifes' Win7 laptop and the ports (hardware) are only usb2.

Ray the laptop would only be used for capturing and guiding, all processing will be done indoors. So from what you say I will not need a SSD drive.

With Mars opposition coming around in July, video does look attractive though.

I might check out the local second hand PC stores and see if I can get a laptop with USB3 on board.

Cheers