what are the criteria for selecting a computer for image processing

[Gerald Sargent]

I am finding that using IP to process EOS images is taking too long. Just to de-bayer an image takes 15 seconds. Most of the subsequent operations
are taking similar times. Computers in use are an ASUS F3J with duo core
Intel T5500 1.66GHz cpu and 1 meg ram and lots of HD, desktops are all intel 1.8- 2.8 Hz processors and lots of RAM and HD. I am frustrated and need to know how to select something that does these tasks in 1-2 seconds.
Help please. Gerald.

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

Assuming you use Photoshop, you can theoretically get by on 192MB of RAM, but you won't enjoy it and you'll be restricted to low res images. Probably 500MB of RAM is the minimum you should consider.
Unfortunately image processing is computing intensive and doing things in 1-2 seconds is not really on. Have you tried the automatic processing in IP? Just set it up and go and have a cup of coffee.
Geoff

[acropolite (Phil)]

The answer, I'm sure, your already know. The fastest of everything you can afford, that goes for motherboard, CPU, video card, HDD and Ram. Do your homework by checking reviews on each piece of equipment before you buy. CPU's with higher clock speeds and larger caches will perform better as will HDD's that spin faster and have larger caches. You could also get increased performance with RAID if you're willing to take the associated risks. Performance gains will follow the law of diminishing returns, you will probably end up spending 3x as much for a 10-20% increase in performance, hardly the 700% increase you're seeking. As Geoff suggests your money may well be better spent on a decent coffee machine...

[DobDobDob (Ron)]

.....and the most important thing of all....... .......make it a dedicated astro computer, forget all the other programs that you are tempted to put on because you have a shiny new fast computer, have the minimum number of essential software programs on it.

If you really know what your doing, depending on the O/S version, go in and shut down all non-essential services and processes.

Also if you know what your doing, after you have installed your software on the new computer, make sure you go in and clean up afterwards in areas like temp dumps and registry (be careful if you are a novice).

The bottom line is, the less you ask your computer to do, the faster it will do what you actually purchased it for, astro-imaging

[g__day (Matthew)]

If you can post it here, we could download it and post our trial times for you and offer advice.

I'm not sure what de-bayering an image is! But generally all of my photoshop CS2 operations take at most 1-3 seconds on a E6400 dual Core CPU, ASRock motherboard with 2GB generic RAM.

The only other support might be if the General Purpose GPU open source initiative launches a plug in for Photoshop (reasonably good probability). If that happened and you had a modern videocard on a PCI express bus - expect your processing times would be 10 - 35 times faster! I'll try asking on www.beyond3d.com and see what folk think there for you.

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by g__day

I'm not sure what de-bayering an image is!

One shot colour cameras have a mosaic of RGB filters (a Bayer array), so 25% of the pixels record the red, 25% record the blue and 50% record the green. If you look at a raw image from such a camera, it's a bunch of little grey level squares, each recording a particular R, G or B value. Debayering is converting this to a smooth colour image.
Geoff

[Gerald Sargent]

Problem partially solved. Using the latest IP V2.8 de-bayer takes 47 seconds,
reverting to V 2.6 speed is 7 seconds - so much for costly progress............
Mike Unsold is not replying to queries on this. Gerald.

[gbeal]

Still think that the best is what you need Gerald, notwithstanding your recent find.
I started webcamming with an old laptop, and it was the slow part of the chain. Now I have a dedicated (and not connected to the internet) PC, a desktop. It sits in a converted TV cabinet that I wheel in and out to image with. Quick as, and half the price of the similar laptop. OK, I realise that not everyone can "wheel out" to their observing/imaging site, but if you can.........
Gary

[Hoopa]

The only thing that will really make image processing faster is ... the processor (CPU). Photoshop will probably utilise dual cores , but expect to pay the $$$ for them. RAM & HD space will help, and probably no less than 1GB of RAM, but at the end of the day when you're doing serious image processing, 90% of what counts is your CPU.

I guess de-bayering at 2.6 vs. 2.8 will reduce quality of the end result, but if the difference is on a 'who cares' scale, then it's probably not a big issue.

Cheers
Hoopa