Looking for a laptop for Pre and Post Processing astro images with Pixinsight

[Alfredo Beltran]

Hi

I'm in the process of purchasing a new laptop for processing my astrophotography images. So far I've seen that the gaming laptops have the answer since they have i7 quad core processors, 16 gb or 32 gb of ram and usually a SSD drive that should make the process of integrating images much faster. MSI and Asus look like good candidates.

So far, I've narrowed to i7-4720HQ, i7-5700HQ, i7-6700HQ or i7-6820HK processors. The good thing about the i7-6 Skylake family seems to be that they use (faster?) DDR4 memory but is it an advantage for Pixinsight?

Since a while ago, it has been announced that Pixinsight will implement GPU acceleration. Since most of the laptops come with mid to high level mobile GPUs like Nvidia GTX 960m, 965m, 970m or 980m, will a higher end GPU be worth it for pre and post processing images? Also you can find the same GPU with 2 to 6 Gb Ram (or up to 8 gb in a 980 m). Would the amount of ram of the GPU have a high incidence on Pixinisght performance?

Finally, since the laptop is also to be the one in control of imaging sesions I want it to be Windows based (8.1 or 10) to be ASCOM compatible.

Thanks for your help and Happy New Year!

Alfredo

[Alfredo Beltran]

No one?

[msmythers]

Alfredo

Not that I can help but it might help others if they know the cost budget your looking at also. Otherwise if cost is not a problem the easy answer is the most expensive you can find that is not a Dell, haha.

All kidding aside, do you have weight requirements, size requirements,resolution requirements, battery requirements, port requirements. These are all serious considerations when sourcing a high end laptop. Memory and CPU are easy, the most your can afford once the other requirements are made. Also even if a laptop comes with some other OS most can have Windows 8 or 10 installed also.

I know there was a posting by Juan not long ago that the Nvidia GPU was not a priority I believe at the moment but if your considering having the laptop for a some years then you never know what might change. You might want to have the GPU for future PI releases or other software.


Mike

[Alfredo Beltran]

Thank you Mike

Cost could be around $1700. I wish it wasn't a restriction! haha

As for size, I would like a 15.6 or 17 inch Full HD script, no need for a 4k. Weight is no restriction since that laptop will be most of the time at home.

GPU could be something useful but knowing it is no priority then a mid range one could be a good choice.


Alfredo

[oldwexi]

Alfredo!
In my opinion the resolution of the screen should have the highest priority.
HD resolution is not enough!! Keep in mind that most of todays Notebooks do have a vertikal resolution
from 768 to 1024 Pixel. They are UNUSABLE for Image Processing, they are only designed for watching Videos.

The graphic card should support much higher vertical resolution. Speed and memory are not a real issue compared to resolutionj and dynamic.
Keep also in mind that Notebook Displays below 4K resolution usually do have a very low dynamic (<8-bit) and are not
recommended for image processing as you cant display the reality.


So either get yourself a highend Notebook supporting a 4K Display - or -
use an old cheap mini Notebook for imaging and a Desktop PC which supports 2 high resolution Displays side by side
at the same time. 
I personally use since many years  an old ACER-ONE with XP for imaging and also controlling the Mount. Plus a Desktop PC with 2 vertikal mounted displays 1920x1200
what gives me a working area of 2400x1920. However a 4K Display would be better and will be the next upgrade.


Just my experience and thoughts.

Gerald

[jkmorse]

Alfredo,

A second thing after resolution (Gerald is entirely right about that being a priority) is speed.  I process on two machines, a fast laptop (Samsung 880Z that I upgraded to a TB SSD and 16GB RAM) running Windows 10 and a desktop running Linux.  The Linux machine dances circles around the laptop, especially for processor intensive activities like drizzle integration.  For things like drizzle integration, the laptop can take hours doing what the desktop does in minutes.

Hope that helps,

Jim   

[Alfredo Beltran]

Thanks Gerald and Jim

I agree that screen resolution is very important. Wouldn't Full HD (1920x1080) be enough?

On the processor side, I see advantages on the i7-6820hk which is one of the top mobile processors found in laptops today. I concur on the long time it takes for not so fast processors to make some tasks. Particularilly stacking takes a lot of time with my current laptop, and some processing tasks also.

SSDs also seem to have a major advantage with Pixinsight, right?

Your recommendations make a lot of sense and give me a lot to think about.

Alfredo

[jkmorse]

My laptop screen is 1920 x 1080 which is really borderline functional.  If I were buying a new machine today I would look at the cost of going up a step or two in resolution.  One place you should definitely check out if you haven't already is the attached page about minimum and recommended system requirements:

http://pixinsight.com/sysreq/

Best,

Jim

[Alfredo Beltran]

Thanks Jim!

That link provides most of the answers to my question. It should have been my starting point.

Regards,

Alfredo

[vicent_peris]

Hi,

You can work in PixInsight with full HD resolution, it's the resolution of my laptop and I've been working with it the last 6 years. Please don't mix the concept of display resolution with workspace area. One problem of any laptop is the screen size. My laptop has a 17" display and you can use it with full HD resolution. But a 4K, 15.6" display will be less usable because the graphical elements at a full HD virtual resolution (using a x2 factor to resize the graphical interface) will be tiny.

If your laptop is going to be fixed, then absolutely go to a 17" model. You have the new Dell  Precision 7710. If you want a lighter computer, the MSI W72 series could be also a good option. A good advantage of the Dell laptop is the Thunderbolt 3 port. This year Dell is going to release a Thunderbolt based docking station, which could be very useful for you to have your computer fixed in your office.

If possible, go for a laptop with a minimum of 2 drives. One for the system and other for your image / project data. Both SSD. And a third, internal or external, rotational backup drive.

Cooling is also important if you're going to preprocess a lot of data. I should regularly clean the vents of my laptop with dry air to prevent the computer getting too hot while preprocessing. Once the processors reach critical temperature levels, usually the computer slows down and you should reboot. This is one major reason to get a desktop computer... It never goes too hot and you can preprocess tons of data without worries.


Best regards,
Vicent.

[Alfredo Beltran]

Hi Vicent

How much does impact in Pixinsight performance have the change from DDR3 to DDR4 in RAM?

What about i7-6700HQ to i7-6820HK?

Alfredo