For those that are little left field, check out some of the integrated mini-ITX offerings…for example, the Cooler Master NR200P MAX or NZXT H1 V2.
These combos usually come as a case with power supply and water cooler installed. All you do is drop in a CPU+motherboard, drop in some memory and a SSD and you’re away!
FWIW, mine is running a Ryzen 5950X practically silently…
Dunk, you may recall, i used these PC liquid cooled components to build a DSLR cooler some years ago. I attached the CPU cooler component to a copper cold finger running behind my 450D sensor (which ran out the side of the camera). It worked ok. I had a TEC on the cold finger to cool and the PC cooler was used to extract the heat from the hot side. I could easily pull the sensor temp down to -7C. The only problem was the mass of the coolant in the tubes, and the complexity of the support arms needed to allow freedom of movement of the scope and camera on the mount. You need a small radiator and fan to extract the heat from the coolant and a pump to circulate the coolant back to the camera. There are gamer PC component suppliers that have all the components you need to build it.. A real Rube Goldberg invention, but it did work. And it was fun putting it together, but far from practical compared to simply putting a fan on the TEC hot side.
Thanks for your input Dunk but I don't really understand what you are suggesting so may I ask where can I look at the unit that you suggest..the water cooling sounds trick and given the heat I get here in summer maybe something I should know more about.
Alex, yeah that’s kinda what inspired me to look into the liquid cooling, as some days I would want to leave the machine crunching away without the air conditioner running
It basically replaces the CPU cooler, the power supply and the case, and in effect at least some of the cooling fans, since they are built in to the liquid cooler. The bonus is that these parts are already assembled for you, so saves a bit of effort.
The Cooler Master unit uses a 280mm radiator, so has a substantial amount of heat capacity, which means that the (built-in) water pump and attached fans don’t have to run as fast for the same heat output.
The GPU card will also exhaust its heat out the back panel, so there are no extra fans required there either. Saved a few extra $$ IMO.
Dunk, you may recall, i used these PC liquid cooled components to build a DSLR cooler some years ago. I attached the CPU cooler component to a copper cold finger running behind my 450D sensor (which ran out the side of the camera). It worked ok. I had a TEC on the cold finger to cool and the PC cooler was used to extract the heat from the hot side. I could easily pull the sensor temp down to -7C. The only problem was the mass of the coolant in the tubes, and the complexity of the support arms needed to allow freedom of movement of the scope and camera on the mount. You need a small radiator and fan to extract the heat from the coolant and a pump to circulate the coolant back to the camera. There are gamer PC component suppliers that have all the components you need to build it.. A real Rube Goldberg invention, but it did work. And it was fun putting it together, but far from practical compared to simply putting a fan on the TEC hot side.
Yeah I remember Glen
That inspired me to coldfinger my trusty 1100D…which I still have, still works, although I tend to use my dedicated cooled astro cam these days for ease of setup.
I found the Cooler Master solution offered me the functionality I wanted without breaking the bank or my desk liquid cooling for PCs is really commonplace now, and it really works well for my 5950X, and I don’t have to hear a noisy PC while working on my image processing
Alex, yeah that’s kinda what inspired me to look into the liquid cooling, as some days I would want to leave the machine crunching away without the air conditioner running
It basically replaces the CPU cooler, the power supply and the case, and in effect at least some of the cooling fans, since they are built in to the liquid cooler. The bonus is that these parts are already assembled for you, so saves a bit of effort.
The Cooler Master unit uses a 280mm radiator, so has a substantial amount of heat capacity, which means that the (built-in) water pump and attached fans don’t have to run as fast for the same heat output.
The GPU card will also exhaust its heat out the back panel, so there are no extra fans required there either. Saved a few extra $$ IMO.
Thanks Dunk I have passed that on...
A question that I was asked to put to the brains trust...was if I have it right...what does the stacking software use predominantly..CPU or GPU...
I hope I got it right.
Alex
Thanks Dunk I have passed that on...
A question that I was asked to put to the brains trust...was if I have it right...what does the stacking software use predominantly..CPU or GPU...
I hope I got it right.
Alex
From memory DSS provides a choice of stacking algorithms, and conducts multiple passes. The speed with which it operates is also affected by the star threshold setting, ie it can be limited to using a brighter subset of the star field. You only need enough stars to provide good alignment, over processing can really slow things down. On that basis I would think it it is CPU, however, I do not believe DSS is a processing hog, per se. File size and pixels in the image probably determine time taken as well.
From memory DSS provides a choice of stacking algorithms, and conducts multiple passes. The speed with which it operates is also affected by the star threshold setting, ie it can be limited to using a brighter subset of the star field. You only need enough stars to provide good alignment, over processing can really slow things down. On that basis I would think it it is CPU, however, I do not believe DSS is a processing hog, per se. File size and pixels in the image probably determine time taken as well.
Alex
My only advice is plenty of storage , plenty of memory and a powerful processor
As we all know the new generation Cmos cameras from ZWO and QHY spit out 50 MB files
Also Startools needs a solid machine 32GB ram as a minimum
I’ve noticed in the past 3 weeks since updating to V1.8 it does lag on some of the modules ( there’s even a note to tell you that on some modules ) and my laptop is an i7 with 16GB ram
Don’t cut yourself short with the new machine, we spend a stack on money on mounts , scopes and cameras etc… shouldn’t we do the same for the most important final cog in the gear , the computer
Alex
My only advice is plenty of storage , plenty of memory and a powerful processor
As we all know the new generation Cmos cameras from ZWO and QHY spit out 50 MB files
Also Startools needs a solid machine 32GB ram as a minimum
I’ve noticed in the past 3 weeks since updating to V1.8 it does lag on some of the modules ( there’s even a note to tell you that on some modules ) and my laptop is an i7 with 16GB ram
Don’t cut yourself short with the new machine, we spend a stack on money on mounts , scopes and cameras etc… shouldn’t we do the same for the most important final cog in the gear , the computer
Cheers
Martin
Thank for sharing your wisdom Martin I think you have a great perspective there.
For those who are interested here is the final list..I think..anyways we have ordered everything.
My daughter is getting a new and better graphics card and i am taking hers.
There is an old monitor laying around but I will get another so I can have two
AND if nothing else it is a step forward..I think we have it all covered but to be honest my head is spinning after our final parts list and ordering conference..
FINAL BUILD
Corsair RM750x Gold Modular 750W Power Supply V2
Western Digital WD Black 10TB 3.5" Drive x2
Western Digital Black SN770 NVMe Gen4 M.2 SSD 1TB
ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi II Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X Processor
Team T-Force Dark Za 32GB (2x16GB) 3600MHz CL18 DDR4
Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh Edition TG Black Case
Phanteks SK 140mm PWM Fan
ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2060 Super 8GB
Phanteks Glacier One 280MPH D-RGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler Black
2560x1440 32" primary monitor (exact model to be determined)
1920x1080 32" secondary monitor (Acer)
Looks pretty good to me.
If you're going for two monitors there can be an annoyance when you get 2 different ones, in that their pixel scale can be different and they look weird. The wife does CAD and had this problem, switched to two the same and all good.
At 32" 1080 will have very noticeable pixels. Even if you want that (effective) resolution you are better to use a 4k and set it to native resolution (2160) in the display settings and then set the "Scale & layout" in the display settings to greater than default (I use 175%). It's not perfect and some crap programs get weirded out by it but nothing astro so far has caused me grief. This way you have a large screen with no discernable pixels and you don't have to squint to see things.
Dual 32" monitors is a lot of real estate - I use dual 27" (1440p and 1080p like you) and find that's nearly too much for me (and I like the idea of big screens) - but if you're sitting quite far away it could be fine
Looks pretty good to me.
If you're going for two monitors there can be an annoyance when you get 2 different ones, in that their pixel scale can be different and they look weird. The wife does CAD and had this problem, switched to two the same and all good.
At 32" 1080 will have very noticeable pixels. Even if you want that (effective) resolution you are better to use a 4k and set it to native resolution (2160) in the display settings and then set the "Scale & layout" in the display settings to greater than default (I use 175%). It's not perfect and some crap programs get weirded out by it but nothing astro so far has caused me grief. This way you have a large screen with no discernable pixels and you don't have to squint to see things.
Thanks for your warning.
My daughter covered the proposition you mention however my response was that on the old screen I will display my file list which I find I am accessing frequently and being text it should not be a problem, and to use that same screen to input and view activity in Deep Sky Stacker and use the better screen to use with StarTools and Photo Shop.
I have not used a two screen set up so it is unknown if I will like it or not but given my experience of seemingly constant reference to my file list and Deep Sky Stacker while working in Startools or Photoshop I feel it may work for me....I may just have an open fire displayed on the older screen or a planetarium...or gold fish
Alex
Dual 32" monitors is a lot of real estate - I use dual 27" (1440p and 1080p like you) and find that's nearly too much for me (and I like the idea of big screens) - but if you're sitting quite far away it could be fine
Thanks I dont know how I will go as I only use small screens the biggest being my lap top ...I think Photoshop should be a better experience maybe StarTools as in both those I tend to be looking at blown up images and scrolling around and I hope that there will be less need to scroll and view a complete large image.
Inspecting subs I hope will be easier.
My daughter told me I can even have more screens so maybe two at my work bench and two on the dresser near my bed and one on the ceiling about my bed
Now that everything has been ordered I am only now starting to get excited ...
My darling daughter finished my machine yesterday
She is even going to load all my software.
Thanks again for all the help ..this machine is now much more special than something off the shelf.
Alex
Like Russell, I use two 27" screens, a holdover from marking student assignments. If you're going down the path of two screens, take the extra five minutes to set everything up carefully at the outset. It's not difficult, but it saves a little hassle later on.
Sweet Alex. Try to run as many hard jobs (stacks or system benchmarks etc) as you can as soon as you can for the first day or so. Just to make sure everything is hunky-dory. New parts, if they're going to fail, usually do it in the first 24hrs under load. Generally it's called "burn in". Besides I'm sure you've got a few thousand subs that need a good stacking
Like Russell, I use two 27" screens, a holdover from marking student assignments. If you're going down the path of two screens, take the extra five minutes to set everything up carefully at the outset. It's not difficult, but it saves a little hassle later on.
