A laptop for my birthday.

[batema (Mark)]

Hi,
I have had enough of running all my astronomy programs from my supplied school laptop that seems to crash regularly and whenever my employer changes things in head office this also affects my imaging programs.
My wife suggested i bypass the school computer and buy my own dedicated laptop. I use software such as registax phd k3ccdtools qhy ezicap with photocopy and that is about it. Also iccapture for dmk viewing. I am looking at down the track of getting an eq8 and would like to maybe get into programs like maximdl and a little more computer control maybe focussing and temp control focussing.
If anyone could point me in a direction that would be great
Mark.

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

Hi Mark,

Stick with a Win7 laptop due to compatibility with astro programs (some will work with Win8, some wont). Core i5 minimum, 8GB RAM minimum, SSD works well but cost of space can be an issue (largest commodity size is 250GB).

I have 2 HDDs in mine, one SSD internal (250GB) and one normal (500G) in the a caddy where my DVD normally sits

Aim to spend around $1000-1500.

Brands are much the same, no great quality difference.

[LewisM]

I bought an ASUS K53S (apparently discontinued), with an i7 processor and 8GB RAM (now 12). SUPERB machine, as all ASUS are in my opinion (Acer on the other hand, have always been problematic in our household). It goes, FAST! (runs all the modern games at full slider values without hiccup, as the onboard graphics are super too)

I wouldn't go under that spec much, as even with all this, an Win 7 64 bit, DSS sometimes STILL runs out of memory (which they'd make a 64 bit version), especially if doing a 3X drizzle.

Got mine at Joyce Mayne Chancellor Park. Cost was just on $1300 at the time.

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

I use an 11.1" (1366 x 768) small laptop Acer Aspire one, cost $289 a few years back. Runs fine for capture & control and operation of equipment and scope. Do not go overboard for mount and camera control laptop. You do not need great processing power to control a scope and camera etc.

You just need as many USB 2 ports as you can get, bluetooth and of course wireless and LAN and if lucky an RS232 port or HDMI port to output to a bigger monitor if later required. Of course capture control laptops need good battery life so get one with lots of battery cells...6+ or more, 8+ better.

I chose mine as it has 11 cell battery ....6~7+ hrs battery life and I hate ACER stuff but with these specs and battery life...I love it.

But if you want it for image manipulation software like Photoshop etc....totally different ball game you need to pay...MORE!

For a cheap option, ......maybe look at latest ALDI Akoyo Laptop, $499 , 2 year warranty, 60 day return if you do not like if. Specs i3, 2.5ghz, 500gb HDD, 4GB RAM (can probably add a lot more as this is cheap) 2 usb 2 and 2 usb 3 ports, gigabit LAN wireless, HDMI, 6 cell battery, 64 bit OS but unfortunately WIN8. We just purchased one for our youngest in year 11...sto see her thru the last 2 years of school.

I'm sure win 8 is ok and can be made to run like a real OS (like WIN7) but atm it confuses the hell out of me.....here's me still using XP

[LewisM]

Yeah, triple what was aid about beaucoup USB ports! My Acer has 3, which is exactly what I currently - note, CURRENTLY - need. It also has HDMI, which is super for showing stuff on a big monitor.

Wireless on ASUS seems superb too - I can sit in my driveway with the carport closed, and the wireless modem is at the BACK of the house, and it still get's a strong signal (top of line Belkin router helps too, but other laptops fail to get a signal in my driveway, especially phones).