[The_bluester (Paul)]

"It really depends" is the answer.

I am currently dipping my toe more in to AP and am giving new software and hardware a crack at once. I am using EQMOD to control my mount, PHD2 for Guiding and APT to control my capture and to drive the other two. I am giving it a crack at running under Windows 10 on an older Intel NUC and it is moderately OK but very slow on plate solving. It is slower than a cheap old laptop I was using before it. I tried out the NUC as while it is old it has one USB3 port which the laptop lacked and I have the imaging camera connected to that.

I am toying with the idea of running a later NUC with a higher specification to improve plate solving speed and general responsiveness, if I recall correctly the later ones all run on anything from 12 to 19VDC, the 12V side obviously being very useful for being able to run the whole show from a 12V power supply. The NUC is small enough to put a VESA bracket on my mount and actually site the NUC right there where the action is.