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I'd appreciate some advice on upgrading my home computer for use with astro post-processing. My old home desktop PC died so I need to replace it. I thought I'd upgrade to a top-end laptop and large external monitor that I can use for my astrophotography processing as well as my normal work applications. In addition, I'll be using my new home PC to process day-time photographs and video. NOTE: I don't plan on using the laptop for field applications such as tracking as I'll get a dedicated astro pc for that later on. Q1) I like the idea of a laptop, just because of its portabilty, but would a desktop computer be better? I don't mind paying a little more for the convenience of the laptop, but don't really want to compromise on performance. I assume an i9 processor in a laptop performs the same as an i9 processor in a desktop? Q2) I'm not sure if software like Pixinsight, DSS, photoshop, premier pro, etc make heavy or any use of the GPU or if they are all about the CPU and the RAM? So I am not sure if I need a top end GPU in the computer. Q3) I'm currently thinking of either an Alienware X15 (i9 CPU, Gforce RTX 3080 with 8 GB, 32Gb ram, 1 Tb SSD) OR a DELL XPS 15 (same spec but with a Gforce 3050 with 4 Gb). Would the better graphics card on the Alienware be an advantage for image processing? Would the DELL be a better all round computer? Any other suggestions? I'm not into gaming (the last computer game I played was Space Invaders), so if I don't need the Alienware PC something cheaper may be better. Q4) As far as monitors are concerned, I'm thinking of either a iiyama 32 inch WQHD 2k IPS (2560x1140) OR a ASUS ProArt PA329cv 32 inch (3840x2160)? The ASUS is twice the price, but not sure if the better resolution is worth it? Are there better options? Any advice welcome. |
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I tend to use refurbished laptops for sequence control and data collection. I get these for about $200-300 - they are not powerful - nor do they need to be for capturing sequences. I run 3 scopes in my driveway, each controlled by one of these cheapie laptops and remote-controlled from within my house. I was a Photoshop guy when I started AP, and that app does not seem to need a lot of horsepower to run. However, if you are going to be serious about progressing in Astrophotography I would strongly recommend going up the learning curve of Pixinsight. This app is extremely powerful and flexible and I could not do without it these days. There is a lot to learn but as you do, you will find your results really improving along the way. Many of the processes and scripts in Pixinisght are built upon multiscale imaging. These routines are extremely compute-intensive. They do not really take advantage of the GPU and rely more on CPU cycles. Starnet - now integrated into Pixinsight - is a real heavy hitter that takes a long time to run. There are ways to make this process use the GPU and the speedup is significant! But this is not the default behavior of Pixinsight - I understand that this will be directly supported in future versions. So for now - I would say the emphasis is on CPU-based resources. I ended up building a custom PC optimized for Pixinsight processing. Pixinsight likes as many cores as you can get, lots of fast memory, and super-fast disk drives. I went with an AMD Ryzen 12-core, 64GB ram, and super-fast NVMe M.2 drives. It made a world of difference! Finally - the biggest problem for me is that laptops never have as much screen real estate as I want and need for Pixinsight processing. Large 4K screens with lots of screen elbow room are very handy. Don't forget to calibrate your screen so that you see is what you get. I documented the computer and network system I set up for myself on my website: A Computer, Storage, and Networking Strategy for Astrophotography This may not be everyone's cup of tea - but it really works well for me. I began by using what I thought was a powerful desktop computer when I first started, but I found it was not well optimized for Pixinsight and I had a lot of wait times for various processing steps. The new system replaced my old desktop and I have been very happy with it. So much so that I ended up building a new version of it but in a smaller form factor so that it was better suited to travel. I spend certain parts of the year in another location and it is much easier to transport in the Mini-ITX scale. That can be seen here: A Smaller Footprint Image Processing Computer for Easier Transport Whatever you decide to do, it never hurts to emphasize CPU Core, RAM, and Fast disk space for Astro Processing! Best of Luck, Pat |
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Some great advice ^^^ I use a late model MacBook Pro with lots of RAM connected to a large 4k screen when working with Pixinsight and AstroPixelProcessor (the latter needs a fast computer and a fast drive) - everything works well. Ian |
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I documented the computer and network system I set up for myself on my website: Patrick, many thanks man, you have a great website, super informative. This is just what I was looking for. Not sure about the AMD Ryzen though. In my day job I do a lot of CPU intensive computations (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and our experience has not been good with the AMD CPUs. So I'm thinking about Intel i9 12900K (16 cores)? Also, what did you do for GPU card and what RAM did you get? Thanks again for your very useful web site. |
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Glad you found my website helpful! I am pretty agnostic regarding CPUs. I have had good luck with the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-cores that I have been using - but Intel is solid as well and more cores are even better! The more, the merrier. I don't think you can go wrong there! I am using the Geoforce GTX 1070 GPU - someday I would like to upgrade this but the crazy supply chain issues we now have (and the resulting pricing) is causing me to wait for saner times. If Pixinsight starts to lean in on GPU processing (which I hope they will do more and more) then I will upgrade this one way or another. As for ram, I ended up using the following: G.Skill RipJaws V Series 64GB (2 x 32GB) 288-Pin SDRAM DDR4 3600 (PC4-28800) CL18-22-22-42 1.35V Dual Channel Desktop Memory Model F4-3600C18D-64GVK This has worked out well, but I bought it on the recommendation of others - so there may be a better solution for this application. Thanks, Pat |
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Thanks again Pat. Regarding the cooling system, did you get the liquid cooling because the Ryzen CPU runs hot, or do you recommend this for any CPU doing heavy duty astro work? Thanks for your time, it is greatly appreciated. |
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In my main processing rig, I did go for a liquid cooling system and enough fans to allow the tower to hover under its own power! When I built my transportable rig, I needed something more compact and went with: Noctua NH-U12A, Premium CPU Cooler with High-Performance Quiet NF-A12x25 PWM Fans (120mm, Brown) This did the job. I was really worried about whether it would handle things when all the cores were pegged but it seemed to handle things just fine. Pat |
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I have been using a mini pc that you can buy on amazon for a couple hundred dollars. 199 to 230 give or take a buck or two. Running a 3.x cpu. Then you can connect the mini pc to your existing home network and control it using the Remote Desktop Connect. At least that is what I do and it has worked out very well for me. Everyone's circumstances is different. Hope by now you have come up with something that has worked for you and that you are still out there imaging.. Clear skies, DJ |
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I think you should read this thread: https://www.astrobin.com/forum/c/equipment-forums/pleiades-astrophoto-pixinsight/are-amd-processors-better-than-the-intel-ones-for-pixinsight/ Don't be confused by its title, there is a lot of info about what is important to make work with the PixInsight more pleasant. I have 2 year old 17" Asus Rog Strix laptop, Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, 32 GB RAM (I can replace it with 64GB), originally 1TB SSD, but I added another 2TB SSD (read the thread to know why), RTX 3050 4GB graphics working with a Dell 27" external display. The desktop should be much faster, but I like the mobility, so longer processing is still acceptable. I use GPU acceleration (Cuda) and the Nvidia GPU is the only one supported by PixInsight till now. Again, it's highly recommended to read the thread. CS, Martha |
