Laptop for planet capturing.

[asimov (John)]

Hi all.

I'm a bit clueless these days on this subject..

It seems I'm almost ready to upgrade, but I don't know what to. As the heading suggests, I want a new one for capturing purposes more than anything.
Current Laptop is the Toshiba Satellite A100: Processor 1.40GHz (5400RPM) 2 GIG RAM. The Toshiba has done a great job but it's 5 years old now & rather than wait for a failure, I want to replace it now.
From what I've been reading, a 7200RPM HDD is the go in this day & age..? Whilst I don't own a Flea3 (that apparently necessitates going a 7200RPM HDD). Current camera: Imaging source DBK & DMK USB varieties. Obviously a 5400RPM'er does the job for these cameras however I think I need to plan for the future as well.
I love Toshiba's but the models that have 7200RPM HDD's are like upwards of 3K - I can't afford that. My budget is about $1200AUD (1300USD).
I note there are plenty of other brands out there with the 7200RPM HDD's below 1K.
I'm looking for guidance in this area please. Models/HDD speeds/RAM/etc. Do other issues, like operating systems come into it? I don't even know if Windows7 supports drivers & so forth for the latest camera's. I'm still running XP here.
Thank you for any advice & help!

BTW I did read Mike Salways thread, & the advice therein. Still a bit unsure!

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

If you go the name brands (Toshiba, ASUS, HP, Compaq) you always pay $$$'s. If you are on a budget then have a look at Dell. They offer a Intel i5 2.53 Ghz Processor, 4G DDR3 RAM, 500GB 7200RPM HDD, ATI 1GB Graphics Card all for $1100. This all should be enough for Planetary imaging.

I would also like to hear why HDD drive speed is an important factor..I know it may provide faster down load but I wouldn't think that much faster than 5400 RPM. If you said 10 000 RPM then yes..but that would be an over kill.

I have just received my Flea3...now you have me wondering And I thought finding a suitable Filter Wheel to fit this rather small camera (fits between two fingers) was my only problem.

[asimov (John)]

Hello Hans & thanks for replying. Thanks for the info. Certainly taken on board!

As to the Flea3 requiring 7200 RPM - I don't think that's fact as yet, but from what I'm reading around the place, I'm finding indications of such.

Hopefully someone more knowledgable will come in & enlighten us..

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

Minimum dual core processor now-a-days for USB higher speeds. But depending how serious you want to capture planets or even other then you can get i7 laptop for under $2000.00 which will work well enough.