Astro Photography Computer Experts I need Some Help Please

[UK1]

I have just saved enough money to by my own laptop
I have the Usb hub. eq6 mod and skyscan all most ready to do some autoguiding and photography...
I read that most components were compatible with WINDOWS XP HOME or some thing like that. But you cant get XP HOME any more as it is not supported by Microsoft
But what type of laptop should I be looking at
Eg.. Power
Speed
Ram
hard drive size
graphic card size
I have a Phillips web cam and forms of guiding software eg.. Phd and others
But the only operating system that comes with a lap top
Is WINDOWS VISTA BASIC
Or WINDOWS VISTA PREMIUM
OR the new WINDOWS 7 soon to be out
Has any one seem to have had any trobs with these systems and or software??????

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi
A lot will depend on how familiar you are with computers and operating systems. If you are just beginning I would suggest you get a computer that has the option to update to Windows 7.

No matter what system you have there will be a learning curve for basic operations. Vista has a lot of cosmetic differences to XP but once you are familiar with it, you will find it is not the dog that it is generally refered as.

The biggest problem was that many of the older programs need new drivers but this has been pretty much sorted out now. Those programs you mention are successfully run under Vista.

I bought a cheap laptop last year with Vista Home Basic. I found it extremely slow to start up, and the change of names of some folders hard to get adjusted to. I installed the more familiar XP, keeping the Vista installation as a dual boot. Later on I configured Vista as a more friendly operating system and now it starts in the same time as XP and it runs most of my programs better than XP.

The big thing about the new operating systems is that they are designed to work with 64 bits on multi-cored processors. They do this extremely well and very fast. They do operate on 32 bit system but operation here is a compromise and they are often slow and cumbersome.

Barry

[Moon]

Rob
If this is the laptop that you are going to take outside to guide the mount, then it can be a reasonably low end model, even a second hand one running XP is ok.
However if this is the main Computer you are planning to run Photoshop, Deep Sky Stacker, store all your photos on etc etc , then it needs be be a fast one with heaps of disk space and memory.
James

[dpastern]

I would recommend getting it new, and future proofing your setup a bit. Sure, you can get an older, 2nd hand laptop, but you run the risk of hardware issues (yes, it *will* happen). Better to get new (and a warranty) imho. Newer laptops will be at least dual core, and probably have 2 gb. Hell, you should be able to pick up a low end spec laptop that meets this criteria for $800.

I'd probably wait for Windows 7 to be released as well, it seems like it's a nice improvement over XP (which in turn is a nice improvement over XP imho).

Dave

[UK1]

at the moment all the lap tops down this way are about $1100 + new ( I dont want 2nd hand )
It wont be my main Computer just going to be for astro photograpy ( have had computers a long time but never a laptop) just wanted to know what specs I should have for guiding and photograpy.

most have 2.1 mh.....2.4mh
4gig ram
350-500 gig hdrive
but no one will allow xp to be loaded

has to be vista or no lap top
thanks again all

[dpastern]

I'm sure you can hunt around and get something cheaper than that. Here we go:

http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/4aa4642605230b0e2740c0a87e010641/Product/View/XC4301

Under $800. Dick Smiths. I'm sure you have one of those within reasonable distance. You could always buy it from their online store too.

Dave

[bmitchell82]

i use a EEEPc for doing what i need to do the miss's purchased it for 450 on spesh without me knowing, it is a great computer just needed a little bit more processing power. other than that its great at only a bit of a kg, and runs off battery flat out for 4 hours makes for a nice little unit.

If i can give you some advice, it doesn't matter what computer you have to do your processing it will all be the same just speed. and well.... my eeepc with only 900mhz and 1 gig ram works sure it takes 2 minutes longer but youll be stuck infront of your image for ages tweaking it here tweaking it there so meh. its not a race. As for storage you can get 500gb laptop hdd's for 125 odd dollars. or a WD 500gb external for 150-60 so storage wouldn't be my main bother... Just my opinion.

[mithrandir]

I have yet to see a laptop review that says the CPU is 64 bit capable. I would expect by now someone would consider that a marketing advantage. I would find it useful to be able to run more VMs simultaneously, but can't put enough memory on a 32 bit bus.

You can never have too many cores, GHz or GB.

[picklesrules]

most cpu's made after 2004 i think are 64 bit compatible, the only real reason you upgrade to 64-Bit is because 64 bit is made to handle a higher memory architecture setup (in simple terms, if u have over 3gb of ram in xp/vista or 4gb of ram in Win 7)

[mithrandir]

Most desktop CPUs. Not the ones you usually find in laptops. There are a few "desktop replacement" laptops with desktop CPUs. They tend to run so hot I would not want to risk my lap with one.

This box has 4GB. The motherboard supports 8GB. Linux is reporting 3.25GB. XP with the /3 option does the same. The rest is lost in adapter cards eg 512MB for my video card.

[picklesrules]

yer im still pretty sure thgh u can use 64 bit with laptops thgh