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Suitable computer hardware for astro imaging
Hi. I'm pretty much a novice starting out in astro imaging. I'm
waiting on delivery of my QSI 583 wsg and will be using MaxIm DL for camera control, off-axis guiding and processing. I use Starry Night Pro for telescope control and expect to use Photoshop for additional processing. I would appreciate some advise on how to spec a computer to cope well with running all this. Clearly reasonably fast with lots of storage and good graphics processing will be helpful. I've read somewhere about a suggestion of using two screens to run different tasks but the chap building the computer indicates this may be a bit of a nightmare. I'm sure all of this is pretty standard and would be grateful for advise based on good experience! Many thanks |
#3
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Suitable computer hardware for astro imaging
On Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:15:28 -0800 (PST),
wrote: Hi. I'm pretty much a novice starting out in astro imaging. I'm waiting on delivery of my QSI 583 wsg and will be using MaxIm DL for camera control, off-axis guiding and processing. I use Starry Night Pro for telescope control and expect to use Photoshop for additional processing. I would appreciate some advise on how to spec a computer to cope well with running all this. Clearly reasonably fast with lots of storage and good graphics processing will be helpful. I've read somewhere about a suggestion of using two screens to run different tasks but the chap building the computer indicates this may be a bit of a nightmare. I'm sure all of this is pretty standard and would be grateful for advise based on good experience! For telescope control and guiding, just about anything will do. You could use a 10 year old Pentium 2 at 166MHz. Where you want the computer power is for processing. For that, you can never have enough memory. If you run a 32-bit OS, get 4GB of ram, and set things up so apps have access to 3GB (there's a boot switch for this). If you're going to have this computer for a while, make sure it can support a 64-bit OS. You may want to get such an OS right away if your camera has 64-bit drivers. If possible, I'd recommend XP over Vista, but you may not have a choice. You don't need anything special in the way of graphics. If you're running a single monitor, typical onboard graphics will be fine. Photoshop has no special demands, and neither do Maxim or other image processing programs. Of course, if you're planning on using the computer for gaming or other 3D apps, you'll want a nicer graphics card. Running two monitors is trivial- you can either use two video cards, or better, a video card with two separate outputs. They're very common, and Windows will operate both displays with no effort at all. _________________________________________________ Chris L Peterson Cloudbait Observatory http://www.cloudbait.com |
#4
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Suitable computer hardware for astro imaging
wrote in message ... Hi. I'm pretty much a novice starting out in astro imaging. I'm waiting on delivery of my QSI 583 wsg and will be using MaxIm DL for camera control, off-axis guiding and processing. I use Starry Night Pro for telescope control and expect to use Photoshop for additional processing. I would appreciate some advise on how to spec a computer to cope well with running all this. Clearly reasonably fast with lots of storage and good graphics processing will be helpful. I've read somewhere about a suggestion of using two screens to run different tasks but the chap building the computer indicates this may be a bit of a nightmare. I'm sure all of this is pretty standard and would be grateful for advise based on good experience! I agree with Chris's comments. As for Photoshop, this is an extremely memory-hungry application and will benefit from having as much RAM available as possible. In reality, that means 4GB max (although only 3.x will be useable) for 32-bit applications and operating systems (eg CS4 running under XP.) A multiple core processor will be of huge benefit, especially if you decide to use Deep Sky Stacker (free), as this is one of the best stacking applications available and one of the few (possibly the only one) which directly supports (and uses) multiple processors. I would look at Intel quad core CPUs, as these are extremely attractively priced at this time. Powerful graphics cards may be useful in the future, when special software will be able to use their massive GPU power for non-graphics number-crunching, but are only useful if you also want to play the very latest games at this time. They won't help a jot with the applications we use as astronomers. HTH, -- Rob |
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Suitable computer hardware for astro imaging
"Rob" wrote in
: Powerful graphics cards may be useful in the future, when special software will be able to use their massive GPU power for non-graphics number-crunching, but are only useful if you also want to play the very latest games at this time. They won't help a jot with the applications we use as astronomers. Seti@home uses CUDA on Nvidia GPU's. My GeForce 9800 GTX+ is crunching workunits as fast or faster than the Core 2 Quad 3.0 Ghz Q9650 that it's installed with. That's powerful number crunching and it's astronomy, sort of. Brian -- http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism Seismic FAQ: http://www.skywise711.com/SeismicFAQ/SeismicFAQ.html Quake "predictions": http://www.skywise711.com/quakes/EQDB/index.html Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? |
#6
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Suitable computer hardware for astro imaging
"Skywise" wrote in message ... "Rob" wrote in : Powerful graphics cards may be useful in the future, when special software will be able to use their massive GPU power for non-graphics number-crunching, but are only useful if you also want to play the very latest games at this time. They won't help a jot with the applications we use as astronomers. Seti@home uses CUDA on Nvidia GPU's. My GeForce 9800 GTX+ is crunching workunits as fast or faster than the Core 2 Quad 3.0 Ghz Q9650 that it's installed with. That's powerful number crunching and it's astronomy, sort of. Good point, Brian. I used to run seti@home, but didn't know they'd added this excellent feature to the new version. I must admit to still getting emails from them, but have not bothered to re-install for a year or two now. Time to re-join and put my nVidia GPU to work, too! Thanks for the info., -- Rob (~52N, ~1W) |
#7
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Suitable computer hardware for astro imaging
"Rob" wrote in news:go6iqf$hp1$1
@south.jnrs.ja.net: "Skywise" wrote in message ... "Rob" wrote in : Powerful graphics cards may be useful in the future, when special software will be able to use their massive GPU power for non-graphics number-crunching, but are only useful if you also want to play the very latest games at this time. They won't help a jot with the applications we use as astronomers. Seti@home uses CUDA on Nvidia GPU's. My GeForce 9800 GTX+ is crunching workunits as fast or faster than the Core 2 Quad 3.0 Ghz Q9650 that it's installed with. That's powerful number crunching and it's astronomy, sort of. Good point, Brian. I used to run seti@home, but didn't know they'd added this excellent feature to the new version. I must admit to still getting emails from them, but have not bothered to re-install for a year or two now. Time to re-join and put my nVidia GPU to work, too! Thanks for the info., You're welcome. But be careful. I'm using a beta version of the BOINC manager as the current release caused CUDA to crash the GPU on my system. Seems everyone has some issue unique to their system. It is still beta in my opinion but is improving. If you want to try CUDA, be prepared to babysit it until you are sure you have a working setup. I had to do a LOT of reading in the support forums. Oh, and be sure your system is cool. With my quad running full speed plus the Nvidia card, air flow is VERY VERY important. My exhaust air temp on my machine has been as high as 95 degrees F. I've been making mods to my case with ducting designed to bring fresh air directly to the CPU and GPU fans. Now I'm working on a DIY air cooling system. I am not an overclocker, though, otherwise I'd just go liquid cooling. I'm proud of my contribution to Seti@home. May 19th will be my 10 year anniversary. There's a lot of folks way ahead of me in number of credits, but I am in the 99 percentile. Brian -- http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism Seismic FAQ: http://www.skywise711.com/SeismicFAQ/SeismicFAQ.html Quake "predictions": http://www.skywise711.com/quakes/EQDB/index.html Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? |
#8
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Suitable computer hardware for astro imaging
Skywise" wrote in message
Oh, and be sure your system is cool. With my quad running full speed plus the Nvidia card, air flow is VERY VERY important. My exhaust air temp on my machine has been as high as 95 degrees F. I've been making mods to my case with ducting designed to bring fresh air directly to the CPU and GPU fans. Now I'm working on a DIY air cooling system. I am not an overclocker, though, otherwise I'd just go liquid cooling. I switched to water years ago, not because I'm overclocking but because I wanted a quiet rig. The racket from the fans was driving me nuts until I switched. |
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