New laptop suggestions

[Phil Hart]

Have you made your decision on this Mike?

[iceman (Mike)]

I had decided on the one Hugh linked to at onlinecomputer, the Asus 15". But the link is now dead, product doesn't exist now

I think this was a similar one, 17" though. http://www.onlinecomputer.com.au/pro...ducts_id=10229

I hadn't bought yet but still planning on it soon.

Back to the drawing board now. Any new recommendations from anyone?

[iceman (Mike)]

Getting really close to making a decision on a laptop soon. But it's been 6 months since this thread was created and no doubt new models are out now.

Touch-screen ultrabooks are now 'the thing' and it's hard to find a laptop without one. Originally I was against a touch-screen, but Tom Lowe (famous timescapes guy) swears by them and says 'you just don't know how good it is until you've used one'.

Any comments on that from people who have one?

The original specs I wanted are roughly the same as now:
I want:
- 13"-15" screen (as opposed to 17", too big for the train)
- SSD for the primary drive
- Another internal HDD for additional storage
- Min 8GB RAM, upgradable to 16 or 32gb.
- Optical drive not needed
- Budget: $1500 give or take - looks like I might need to go to $1800.

It looks like I'm not going to find one that has a good SSD and a good HDD - I'll probably have to switch out an optical drive after.

I'm resigned to Windows 8.1 now, which I guess is why a touchscreen 'might' be ok

Thanks for any input.

[michaellxv (Michael)]

Originally Posted by iceman

Touch-screen ultrabooks are now 'the thing' and it's hard to find a laptop without one. Originally I was against a touch-screen, but Tom Lowe (famous timescapes guy) swears by them and says 'you just don't know how good it is until you've used one'.

I don't have one, but i've lost count of the number of times I have tried to touch something on the screen of a now old laptop or even desktop screen

[Phil Hart]

Bit more expensive, but I have my eye on an Acer Aspire S7:

http://www.scorptec.com.au/computer/...92-74508g25tws

There's an equivalent Sony VAIO that has wider monitor gamut, but I think a half-decent IPS monitor on the S7 will be plenty good enough for me - hoping to check one out in person someday. But since I just bought a house all other purchases are on hold!

Phil

[killswitch (Edison)]

If your after an Ultrabook, you wont find anything better than a Lenovo X1 Carbon. The build quality and features is unmatched.

-Carbon fibre rollcage
-14" screen on 13" form factor
-Lightest ultrabook in the world(1.36kg)
-Rapid charge battery to 80% in 35mins
-Mil spec
-Windows 7 or 8
-3G (optional)

Base model starts at around $1500 and you can customise the specs to your needs. It goes a couple hundred cheaper when on sale or if you find a coupon.

[Barrykgerdes]

It depends mostly on what you want a computer for.

I have four laptop/notebooks of various ages. The latest is a Toshiba that now has win 8.1 on it, no touch screen I also have a touch screen on my Nexus (haven't turned it on in weeks)

The one that I use most (in bed with a mouse) is an Acer (el cheapo) with win 7 and that is only because the screen is cactus on my old Acer with XP
When I was in hospital 7 months ago I used one of those small notebooks with XP from a couple of years ago and found it ideal for the purpose. Particularly to use as light when my bed lamp did not work!

The new Toshiba gets virtually no use. It is a bit of a dog to use so I only use it for testing new programs.

My main use is for emails, forums (this and nzmeccano), Solitaire that I play while waiting for uploads / downloads and programs compiling in the background.


Barry

[Steffen]

Originally Posted by killswitch

If your after an Ultrabook, you wont find anything better than a Lenovo X1 Carbon. The build quality and features is unmatched.

Only if you want a Windows Ultrabook. The Macbook Air is lighter, faster and cheaper, and has much better battery life. But I think Mike is after a Windows laptop, so your suggestion is valid.

Cheers
Steffen.

[killswitch (Edison)]

Yes the Macbook air is a good option if your after a 13" ultrabook.

The X1 has a 14" screen on a 13" body. Its got a higher res screen and anti-glare coating (useful when outdoors)

X1 is due for another hardware refresh soon so there should be a sale on before Christmas.

[Steffen]

Originally Posted by killswitch

X1 is due for another hardware refresh soon so there should be a sale on before Christmas.

If they move to the current generation of Intel chips (Haswell, HD5000) it should be nice performer and have better battery life.

Cheers
Steffen.

[acropolite (Phil)]

If your after an Ultrabook, you wont find anything better than a Lenovo X1 Carbon. The build quality and features is unmatched.

+ 1 for Lenovo although I bought the Edge series in i7 Quad core. The only minus with my particular Lenovo is that the keys are black with grey lettering, not easy to use in darkness compared with my old Toshi and it's Silver keys with black. One plus with the Lenovo Edge that I got was that (of the 3 usb's) it had one USB2 port, which came in very handy as the SSAG isn't happy on USB3. Battery life is spectacular in comparison with my Old Toshi.

[siriuslyfuzzy (Mick)]

I see some pretty flash laptops mentioned here ...so for a basic eq6 mount ....what specs will I need for a guide scope and laptop set up...?

by specs I mean ..hard drive .. ram ..speed etc

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by siriuslyfuzzy

I see some pretty flash laptops mentioned here ...so for a basic eq6 mount ....what specs will I need for a guide scope and laptop set up...?

by specs I mean ..hard drive .. ram ..speed etc

Mick, I can run PHD for guiding and Nebulosity for capture on an Acer notebook with 2GB RAM and Windows XP, and also run a planetarium program like CdC at the same time.
I would not want to try doing much image processing on it.

[siriuslyfuzzy (Mick)]

Originally Posted by mithrandir

Mick, I can run PHD for guiding and Nebulosity for capture on an Acer notebook with 2GB RAM and Windows XP, and also run a planetarium program like CdC at the same time.
I would not want to try doing much image processing on it.

yeah that's cool ..I can do processing on my desktop..cheers

[Astro_Bot]

Originally Posted by mithrandir

Mick, I can run PHD for guiding and Nebulosity for capture on an Acer notebook with 2GB RAM and Windows XP, and also run a planetarium program like CdC at the same time.
I would not want to try doing much image processing on it.

Pardon me for tacking on to this thread, but I have a related question:

If the processing workflow is split with a first stage consisting of registering-aligning-stacking and a second stage consisting of denoising, sharpening, stretching, colour adjusting (and anyting else), then would the first stage hardware requirements be significantly less than the second? For example, could the first stage be done adequately during quiet time (a.k.a. daytime) when not imaging, using a modest laptop in the field?

(I've only mucked about with small images so far, and haven't got up to things like wavelet processing yet).