Computer Power Needed for Full Frame CMOS Processing

umasscrew39

Well-known member
I have a number of ZWO cameras but I just purchased my first full frame CMOS (QHY128C) and would like to know what folks use as far as the amount of computer memory and processing speed needed to perform image processing. I am still waiting for spacers so I have not set it up yet to test. However, I know data from a full frame camera dramatically slows downs processing compared to non-full frame cameras which is why I am trying to get a sense of what I may need to upgrade on my Dell Windows 10 computer. Currently, I have an Intel i5-8250 CPU@ 1.6GHz and 8 GB RAM. I realize the more the better but what is suggested as a minimum.

Thanks,
Bruce
 
Hi,

The easiest and cheapest upgrade is to add more RAM. 8GB of RAM will work but 16GB or more is better. You could then change the disk drive to a solid state drive. That will give some improvement. If you have the $$$ you can replace the entire PC.

space is not black
John
 
Hi Bruce,

In my opinion, you should consider buying (or, much better, building if you can) a new computer. For a 24 Mpx color camera you really need much more than a core i5 and 8 GB of RAM. An excellent choice in terms of price/performance ratio is one of the latest AMD Ryzen 9 processors or, if you can afford it, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X. Given that reasonably good RAM is not expensive, I would recommend a minimum of 64 GB. A solid state disk drive is also very important; rotational disks are things of the past.
 
Thanks guys. I have some homework to do. I am not in a position to build my own but I can afford a very good computer. If you have any specific brands that would serve my needs, please let me know.
 
the threadripper CPUs are incredible. i built a 2950x system some time ago just to do video transcoding but for the last week it has been tearing thru protein folding simulations - with 32 threads @ 3.9GHz it can do one folding@home work unit in about 1h30m which is as good as a modern midrange GPU.

since there's more CPU work to do on rosetta@home i switched it over to that project. i also brought an old i7 out of mothballs, 8 threads overclocked to 3.9GHz. you can see that the threadripper is 8x faster despite only having 4x the number of threads:

 
the threadripper CPUs are incredible

Absolutely! I am crunching the Gaia DR2 catalog right now on a Threadripper 2990WX running Ubuntu Linux. 1,692,919,135 stars, 550 GB of gzip-compressed data, more than 2 million quadtree nodes being generated, ... it flies, literally.
 
I am a preferred Mac user but it appears that the best processor in a Mac is not as fast as the threadripper in Windows based on the benchmark data. Am I reading this correctly?
 
yes the AMD processors can beat the pants off of intel chips when the workload is easily parallelizable.

there is a rumor AMD powered x86-64 macs are coming, but no one knows for sure.
 
I am a preferred Mac user but it appears that the best processor in a Mac is not as fast as the threadripper in Windows based on the benchmark data. Am I reading this correctly?

From what I've read in these forums, neither the mac nor windows is preferred for power users of PixInsight. The best performance will be with massive numbers of threads under linux.

I'd love to build a threadripper system someday, but for now I am reasonably satisfied with my 2017 mac.
 
I am now trying to customize a new desktop to process my images. based on pervious advice, I am starting with an AMD Threadripper 3970X 32-Core 3.7GHz up to 4.5GHz processor. My idea is to use one M2 SSD to have Windows 10 Pro on it and use a second M2 SSD to place PixInsights. So, I would appreciate any feedback from the computer gurus if the following components I have put together make sense and are not overkill:

- (2) 1TB each Samsung 970 EVO M.2 SSD
- no SSD
- 1TB HDD
- 64GB DDR4 memory
- add the appropriate motherboard

Thanks,
Bruce
 
I am now trying to customize a new desktop to process my images. based on pervious advice, I am starting with an AMD Threadripper 3970X 32-Core 3.7GHz up to 4.5GHz processor. My idea is to use one M2 SSD to have Windows 10 Pro on it and use a second M2 SSD to place PixInsights. So, I would appreciate any feedback from the computer gurus if the following components I have put together make sense and are not overkill:

- (2) 1TB each Samsung 970 EVO M.2 SSD
- no SSD
- 1TB HDD
- 64GB DDR4 memory
- add the appropriate motherboard

Thanks,
Bruce

Looks good to me. I built an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X system with 64GB RAM and 2 1TB M2 SSDs, but instead of a HDD, I used a 2.5" SSD, they're faster and in my opinion, more reliable.

TomC
 
My new AMD 3970x threadripper finally arrived and with a little help from PTeam member, pfile, I am a happy puppy. I can now calibrate and post-process my large ASI2600MC Pro files.
 
Last weekend I processed and put together a 48 pane mosaic with my mid 2012 Macbook Pro (4 core,I7) and decided I needed a more capable system. The mosaic ended up at 4.6 gigabytes.... I was surprised that Mac was able to handle it.
 
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