New pixinsight user with some question..

[mtibor]

Hi!

I just got the trial version of the PI.Wow!What a great software!
Followed Harry's tutorial and I can tell I'm comfortable to do some "basic" processing now after a few days.
Thanks Harry!Great tutorials you have there!

I gave up buying "desktop"computers about 8 years ago.Right now the laptop I have I'm using it it for processing,capturing images as well.
But some of the "functions" in PI runs slow.I did one set of image-calibration,alignment etc.,but it took a long time to go thru the whole process.
So,I'm thinking I'll just use DSS to stack my images,and use PI to "process"the images.

Here is what I have:I3 dual core processor,4gig.Ram,500gig harddrive(380gig free)Win7
I have the 32-bit version of PI.
Is there a way to speed up my laptop??Some of the PI "functions"run slow.
Or the laptops are just not that fast??
I'm thinking that maybe I need to get a "desktop"PC,with the i5-i7 processor,6-8 gig ram?and faster and bigger harddrive?
Is there a huge difference stacking in PI vs.DSS?


Anyway I have a picture re-processed with PI,and I can see a big difference!The first picture was processed in PS CS3
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtibor64/5693511084/in/photostream
and using the same "stacked" picture,I re-processed   in PI using Harry's tutorials.
Now,I really didn't get good data with these shots,but I really like the PI version.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtibor64/5771669384/in/photostream

Thanks ,Tibor

[georg.viehoever]

It is difficult to give a general answer, but I will try anyway:
- usually, laptops are slower than their desktops. This mainly is because they have a stricter thermal budget (Watts) than their desktop counterparts
- there is usually no way to upgrade to faster CPUs in laptops
- the best investment you can do usually is more RAM. Check if you can upgrade to >=8 GBytes (and make sure you are running a 64 bit OS)
- second best usually is an SSD, but they are expense.

Georg

[Nocturnal]

Hi,

I have two i7 based laptops and an i7 desktop. In the US an i7 laptop with 6GB of RAM, 1080p screen and a BD drive runs less than $1000 if you watch logicbuy.com for the right coupon codes. In fact I just bought my laptop (no 1080p) and effectively the price dropped another $150 just a few weeks later when the 1080p screen became available.

These laptops are pretty zippy but don't hold a candle compared to desktops. I haven't compared exactly but for performance and extensibility a desktop is cost effective and fast. If I had to choose just one I'd get a laptop but luckily I was in a position to have both and that's even better SSDs are zippy (fast) and will help PI with swapping duties and naturally file reading and writing is faster. With large projects (1.7) this may be an important point. The issue is that you need some kind of life cycle management of your data. Process on SSD, store on a NAS and keep backups. Something like that. Unless you're really rich and can afford SSDs for all your storage including backups

[mtibor]

Thanks for the reply !

I have upgraded my laptop with more RAM.The max.RAM I can have is 8GIG.So I have 8 gig. RAM now in my laptop and I also just purchased the PI license and running the 64-bit version.Don't know too much about computers,windows is recognizing the 8 RAM I have in the system.

Do I have to change the memory configuration somewhere,or windows will use all the memory I have installed..WIN7-64bit version..

Thanks,

[Gary]

Hi this link shows how much memory windows 7 can access dependant on the version you have.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7

btw Im Using Windows 7 64 bit 12 gigs memory i7 920 cpu and 2 x 1tb sata 3 drives and PI runs like a charm. "Desktop PC"

Good Luck

Gary