Sugestions for a new computer

[Batch]

Hi,

Its time to replace my desktop computer (not monitors) and I am looking for a bit of advice on what I should be looking for in an off the shelf model. I am interested in purchasing a mid priced Windows based machine that can comfortably handle the image processing demands of PI. I am not computer literate so any recommendations  / suggestions (regardless of how basic) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Batch

[John_Gill]

Hi,

I think an i7 computer with 8-16gb RAM would be great. The more RAM the better, so 32gb is even better.  For the main disk drive, I would get at least 1TB because these astro images tend consume a lot of disk space.   To really boost performance you could add a second drive as a solid state drive (SSD) and use it as a swap area for PixInsight.   

I also use a couple of USB3 portable drives to backup my images.  As a side note, after I have processed my Bias, Flats and Darks and created Masters, I then delete them and after processing the main image I delete the "Calibrated, CosmeticCorrected, Debayered and Registered images.  This saves a ton of space.

I currently use an i5 computer with 16gb RAM which works fairly well.  The delay in-between processes gives me time to contemplate the next process or to have a sip of whisky

Look up
John

[john@fireman.co.za]

Hi Batch
I would go for an i5 or an i7 as suggested by John_Gill with one difference. I would use  the SSD as a boot drive, put my OS on there ( preferably Win10), and all application software. Makes for lightning boot up .
At least  1 or 2 Tb Hard drive to store my data .
Of course to much contemplation time leads to out of focus stars 
Cheers
John Colborne

[aworonow]

PI spends a lot of time swapping to "disk". I'd get fast SSD as the swap disk...this could be the "C" drive as well, if it is large enough for the operating system. Often programs can be put on another disk (i.e. spinning disk), rather than in the "Programs" folder on C. I have this setup with an I7 8700 cpu, and it flies! I had it built by iBuyPower.
You should see the posting at https://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=7083.0 and the discussion by Juan and the review the computer specs on the benchmark page he cites.
Alex

[Batch]

Thanks very much for the comments. This is the exact type of info I was hoping to get. I do have a couple of questions though:

Alex: What defines a "fast" SSD?
and John G. What is a compatible whiskey for a system like that?

Thanks again....this has helped a lot

Batch

[Robert Q. Kimball]

I'm probably crazy, but I enjoy using PixInsight on my MacBook Pro.  Great screen and fast enough for me.

[John_Gill]

Batch, any single malt whiskey is wonderful but if that doesn't work then whatever is available.  Remember there is no bad whiskey, there is expensive whiskey and there is cheap whiskey but never bad whiskey. 

The speed of a SSD is defined by the data transfer rate.  I have seen IBM (Lenovo) SSD with a 6GB transfer rate, but not sure about other manufacturers.

Look up
John

[macnmotion]

We've turned to NVMe SSD instead of SATA SSD for our swap drive. NVMe is a quicker interface to the SSD than SATA. It was specifically designed for SSD drives.

Andy

[ajniskan]

Its time to replace my desktop computer (not monitors) and I am looking for a bit of advice on what I should be looking for in an off the shelf model. I am interested in purchasing a mid priced Windows based machine that can comfortably handle the image processing demands of PI. I am not computer literate so any recommendations  / suggestions (regardless of how basic) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I'd also go for an Intel i7 system with NVMe SSD as the boot drive. 16 GB of RAM should be ok for an 8 core i7. As far as Pixinsight goes, I would recommend you to try it out on Linux. I have a dual-booting Windows 10 & Linux (Fedora distro) and Pixinsight runs sooo much faster on Linux. I started from scratch with Linux this spring, and it's easier than you'd think. I honsestly think it makes a ton of difference, so in case it's an option for you, try it out

br,
Antti

[OldSkyEyes]

An AMD 2700X (8 core) scores high but maybe too expensive.
http://pixinsight.com/benchmark/index.php?sort=cpu&os=windows
but a good fast SSD is at least equally important and enough RAM 16GB or up.