Advice needed. Cheapest laptop option for imaging.

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

G'day everyone.

I'm a Mac guy but am wanting to get a cheap (second hand?) Windows laptop computer to put in the obs to run the camera, guiding, ect, and am just wondering what I should be looking for.

Any advice appreciated.

Cheers
Jo

[Astro_Bot]

I bought a second hand laptop off eBay for less than half price - 2 years old and in pretty much as-new condition. You can find a wide range of models there. I generally find brand new laptops best priced at MSY, though rarely, there'll be a better promotional deal somewhere else.

If the installation is permanent, and you have mains power nearby, you could use a desktop computer instead as it's usually more bang for the buck. That's not necessarily any benefit for you as you say it's just for the Obs, not for processing. Again, eBay has plenty of cheap, second-hand desktops - I've bought a few myself over the years.

Depending on your budget, you may want to take a long-term view and get something with USB3. With a desktop you could add a USB3 card later, expandability being one of the desktop's major advantages. You also may want to upgrade the HDD, perhaps to an SSD, if you want to maximise download speed. You can add an SSD to a laptop, but you could do the same more easily to a desktop. The 200GB HDD (120GB free space with no data) I have can be a bit small sometimes - if I'm shooting uncompressed planetary video, I can fill it in a single evening - so I suggest a bigger HDD. I'm sure you know this, but most laptop HDDs are 5400rpm and optimised for low power consumption, whereas most desktops HDDs run at 7200rpm.

As for processing power, my 2.0GHz dual-core / 3GB RAM / USB2 / Win7 laptop does the job of running a Canon DSLR and QHY5 guidecam with PHD, BYE, EQMOD, Stellarium, etc. without problems. For running exotic CCD cameras or other equipment, you'll need to seek advice from others.

I suggest Win 7 - too many problems being reported by users of Win 8.

As for brand of computer or brand of chip (AMD, Intel i5/i7 etc.) I would look simply at overall performance, reputation and value of the models you're considering rather than draw any general conclusions.

HTH.

[lazjen (Chris)]

Do you have a budget in mind?

I'd also suggest a desktop box if possible because it will be cheaper. If you've already got some spare bits around, you could buy a cheap new bare bones box. If you've got network connectivity (probably wireless) you could remote control it as well from your Mac (TeamViewer as an example).

If you want to do plate solving on the machine (e.g. Astrotortilla), a bit of extra grunt and reasonable disk speed (e.g. SSD) will speed up the process.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by lazjen

Do you have a budget in mind?

I'd also suggest a desktop box if possible because it will be cheaper. If you've already got some spare bits around, you could buy a cheap new bare bones box. If you've got network connectivity (probably wireless) you could remote control it as well from your Mac (TeamViewer as an example).

If you want to do plate solving on the machine (e.g. Astrotortilla), a bit of extra grunt and reasonable disk speed (e.g. SSD) will speed up the process.

The thing that really speeds up Astrotortilla/astrometry.net is memory, but you need enough to load all the indexes you are using at once. That means a 64bit box, a 64bit build and probably 32GB of RAM.

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

Thank you very much Astro_Bot for your comprehensive reply very helpful. Good to know what you are using and what it is capable of.

Chris, budget is around $250, if that is reasonable.


My obs it pretty low tec at the moment (just a shed on some wheels) so I like the idea of a laptop that I can bring inside. I don't have a GoTo mount, although hopefully I will be able to build one in the near future. The computer will mainly be used for guiding and running a DSLR. Not worrying about plate solving for a few years yet .

My obs it over 100m from the house (has ok wifi connection) so I was hoping I might be able to use remote desktop to check on guiding ect, from the house computer.

I wont be doing any processing on it.

Cheers
Jo

[Renato1 (Renato)]

I've had an Acer laptop and an Acer Netbook that stuffed up just after the warranty expired, which hadn't had too much use. The screen went on the laptop, and something in the motherboard went on the netbook.

By way of contrast, the Toshiba laptop I bought 12 years ago still works, as do two 10 year old Toshiba laptops my wife bought for $65 each. I'm typing this on one of them now.

I can't comment on current reliability, but I know which brand I'll be avoiding like the plague in future.
Regards,
Renato

[lazjen (Chris)]

Given you're after a laptop for about $250, it's most likely going to be 2nd hand or if new something probably of low quality.

If you get something second hand, be aware that the battery life is probably going to be quite low - probably won't be an issue for you though, I imagine as you'll have access to AC?

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

Originally Posted by Renato1

I've had an Acer laptop and an Acer Netbook that stuffed up just after the warranty expired, which hadn't had too much use. The screen went on the laptop, and something in the motherboard went on the netbook.

By way of contrast, the Toshiba laptop I bought 12 years ago still works, as do two 10 year old Toshiba laptops my wife bought for $65 each. I'm typing this on one of them now.

I can't comment on current reliability, but I know which brand I'll be avoiding like the plague in future.
Regards,
Renato

Thanks, I'll keep it in mind

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

Originally Posted by lazjen

Given you're after a laptop for about $250, it's most likely going to be 2nd hand or if new something probably of low quality.

If you get something second hand, be aware that the battery life is probably going to be quite low - probably won't be an issue for you though, I imagine as you'll have access to AC?

Second hand is ok, and yes I have got power out in my shed.

Jo