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Advice on laptop specification for post processing dso images

Sky-Watcher HEQ5 PRO Beginner Buying Advice
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Astroplantfish avatar
Astroplantfish avatar
Hi, 

I'm planning on getting an heq5 pro to marry up with an 80 ed refractor, to do some astrophotography. I'm a real beginner, but one thing that gets mentioned is post processing. I don't want to spend lots of money on a good mount and the asiair, then find my 10 year old secondhand laptop can't handle the processing. 

So, I'd like to know what you have learned with respect to the requirements. I want something that will get the job done without frustrating lags. Assume budget is between £600-800.

Assume I won't be using Pixinsight. More likely siril and gimp. 

Thanks in advance 

Mark
Engaging
Gerhard Geipel avatar
Gerhard Geipel avatar
Hi Mark,
 You should have a look to Amazon. There you can find a lot of notebooks.
I myself have ordered this year an ASUS Notebook with Intel I9 for about 700€. However, I think this notebook was  available only a few weeks.

But you can find several notebooks there for less than 700€. It must not be an I9. I think I7 ist also good enough. You should have a look to the installed RAM, 16GB will be ok.
Also the harddisk should be 1TB.
Probably also important the installed operation system. If you prefer Windows than Win11 with the newest update (24H2) is ok.

Best regards
Gerhard
Richard Carande avatar
Richard Carande avatar
You might want to have a look at Cuiv's latest video related to this topic:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf4mt7St_4E
Well Written
Bill McLaughlin avatar
Bill McLaughlin avatar
Unless you have a specific need for a laptop, a desktop is going to be better in several ways for processing - especially if you build one yourself. A desktop will offer much more processing power for a lot less money and you can tailor it to your needs much more easily. Desktops also offer much bigger screen possibilities that are easier to use and are often easier to  calibrate. They are easier and cheaper to upgrade as well  with things like GPU and memory and storage and sometimes even CPU.

I have always gone with a cheaper laptop for when I need portability and put my money into building a more powerful desktop for anything that requires horsepower.
Well Written Helpful
Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
+1 on the desktop comment.
Astroplantfish avatar
Astroplantfish avatar
Gerhard Geipel:
Hi Mark,
 You should have a look to Amazon. There you can find a lot of notebooks.
I myself have ordered this year an ASUS Notebook with Intel I9 for about 700€. However, I think this notebook was  available only a few weeks.

But you can find several notebooks there for less than 700€. It must not be an I9. I think I7 ist also good enough. You should have a look to the installed RAM, 16GB will be ok.
Also the harddisk should be 1TB.
Probably also important the installed operation system. If you prefer Windows than Win11 with the newest update (24H2) is ok.

Best regards
Gerhard

*Thanks Gerhard👍
Astroplantfish avatar
Astroplantfish avatar
Bill McLaughlin:
Unless you have a specific need for a laptop, a desktop is going to be better in several ways for processing - especially if you build one yourself. A desktop will offer much more processing power for a lot less money and you can tailor it to your needs much more easily. Desktops also offer much bigger screen possibilities that are easier to use and are often easier to  calibrate. They are easier and cheaper to upgrade as well  with things like GPU and memory and storage and sometimes even CPU.

I have always gone with a cheaper laptop for when I need portability and put my money into building a more powerful desktop for anything that requires horsepower.

*Thanks Bill, something for me to think about 👍
Astroplantfish avatar
Astroplantfish avatar
Richard Carande:
You might want to have a look at Cuiv's latest video related to this topic:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf4mt7St_4E

*Thanks Richard. I watched the video. It was about the spec needed for Pixinsight, so may be more than I need for Siril, but gives me an idea of where my upper boundary would be. 👍
Well Written Respectful
Gerhard Geipel avatar
Gerhard Geipel avatar
Hi Mark,

i Should give an additional comment. At the end it is yours, what you do.
Several years ago I have made my desktop PC by myself. Ordered the components and the build the PC. It is a I7 (older version) with 32 GB RAM and serveral HDD's. The Basic HDD is a m.2 SSD with 1GB Memory. This PC worked about 5 years then someting went wrong . I was lucky to have the same machine as Backup. So I could change my main PC to the other Desktop. However, the price for one desktop PC was in the same order like a notebook. Later I have added a bigger monitor (32"). This I use also today. But, if I compare the desktop PC with 8 threads to the new notebook with 20 threads, then I must resume that the notebook is much faster. The second thing is - I can take the notebook with me, when I travel.
Therefore one option is: To have a good monitor and a notebook. All newer notebooks have an output for monitors (HDMI or better).
If I use astropixelpprocessor for stacking the pictures, the the notebook is about three to four times faster then the desktop PC.
SkyHoinar avatar
SkyHoinar avatar
Desktop, except if you need portability, like during holidays for instance.
Me, when traveling, I am using an AMD Ryzen 5 with 16Gb RAM and it is quite fine for quick post-processing in Siril + GIMP. The more serious processing, I am doing it home on my desktop (with PixInsight).
Concise
Stargazer66207 avatar
Stargazer66207 avatar
Whether you choose desktop or laptop,  the most important thing is to get the fastest solid state hard drive and the most RAM and disk storage you can. 
Ron Abbott
Dale Penkala avatar
Dale Penkala avatar
I have to mimic what @Bill McLaughlin has to say about the desktop. I have 3 laptops that range from i3-i7 for data collection and run on processing and post processing on desktops. Unless you really need the portability of a LT then seriously consider a desktop.

Much more power and also gives you more options for upgrades down the road.

Just my 2 cents is all.

Dale
Paul Larkin avatar
Paul Larkin avatar
Hi, Mark.
Ditto to many of the comments above.  I have found that I take my laptop for traveling and now use a desktop at home.  The laptop is great for checking if what I've captured looks OK etc. out in the field, but is generally very slow compared to my home setup.  I use PixInsight with the the Xterminator suite (magic stuff) and the GPU reduces processing to about 1/30th of what it does without it (yep, I measured it.  I have a NVIDIA 4070).  Of course, how much depends on how deep your pockets are.  The shift to a desktop for me a little while back has made a world of difference to the joy of processing smile
Cheers.
Paul
Helpful
MaksPower avatar
MaksPower avatar
MacBook Air M3. Maxed out. Way quicker than any intel machine, more like a Ryzen.
Astroplantfish avatar
Astroplantfish avatar
Paul Larkin:
Hi, Mark.
Ditto to many of the comments above.  I have found that I take my laptop for traveling and now use a desktop at home.  The laptop is great for checking if what I've captured looks OK etc. out in the field, but is generally very slow compared to my home setup.  I use PixInsight with the the Xterminator suite (magic stuff) and the GPU reduces processing to about 1/30th of what it does without it (yep, I measured it.  I have a NVIDIA 4070).  Of course, how much depends on how deep your pockets are.  The shift to a desktop for me a little while back has made a world of difference to the joy of processing 
Cheers.
Paul

*Thanks Paul. I've been looking at a website that builds a pc. As you indicated, when a good gpu is added, it really pumps up the price. I need to maybe make sure the system can handle the gpu, then perhaps take it out with a view to upgrading if I find I need it in the future. I'm planning on using siril, so if that proves OK for me, u may never need the upgrade. I was trying to keep my cost down to around £600,but to get a fast spec (i7 or ryzen 7,with 32 GB split RAM) is proving difficult to do under £800-900.
Tony Carro avatar
Tony Carro avatar
Well I switched to Macs over a decade ago and I won’t go to a Windows unit.  I used to build PC’s for home and within 6 months they seem to be dogging along.  I have a MacBook Pro  that is 7 years old and is now starting to give me “you need to replace the battery” message.  I checked to see how much they would give me for laptop and it was 200 bucks.  I ended up ordering a 16 inch MacBook Pro with an M3 processor and unified ram.  Haven’t gotten it yet but it should do the job handily since my old MacBook Pro works.  I am limited by software , but learning and enjoying Affinity Photo 2.  It is simple enough that I understand.  I will probably get an iMac or Mini Mac since I have monitors in my house but will see how laptop performs.  As always your mileage may vary.  BTW , I am going to have the battery replaced and keep the MacBook as a backup.  What I am buying is those SSD portable storage.  The storage is what gets eaten up by subs.
Francisco avatar
Francisco avatar
An intermediate solution is to buy a small desktop PC like Lenovo Thinkcentre https://www.lenovo.com/es/es/p/desktops/thinkcentre/m-series-tiny/lenovo-thinkcentre-m80q-gen-4-tiny-intel/len102c0036, it is powerful and expandable, it will help you process and if necessary you can take it on your outings, naturally you will need a monitor, you can have a small one for outings and a larger one to work at home, you will find good second-hand equipment for less than €300, in any case I recommend that the processor be from generation 11 onwards that have quite a few processing cores and if possible 32 GB of RAM, from I5 to I7 there is not much difference, better i5 and more RAM
Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
Here's what works for me:

Intel i7
32 gigs RAM
1 terabyte HD

It runs everything more then quickly enough for me. As an example, most of my stacking in Siril finishes in under a min. Star net separation, about 20 sec. PI stacking, forever but no machine can save you from that ;)