Good BUDGET PC for Astrophotography?

[@AstroOnbudget]

Found it helpful? Please subscribe

[@astroheartuk4623]

I managed to get hold of a 2nd gen I3 NUC with 4gb, win 10, and. 64gb SSD. Does me absolutely fine. Cost was £60 GBP. I think it's about managing expectations. My NUC does what I need it to do, no more, no less. Doesn't matter to me if it's faster or not because ultimately a 5 min sub is a 5 min sub and there's no way of speeding up that side of things. After a night's imaging I grab the data from it across the network and process on a separate machine. The only drawback for me is the lack of being able to power other than via the mains. Working on that part 😉

[@AstroOnbudget]

Love NUCs, they are awesome. They get the job done. I concur with you about 5 min sub is a 5 min sub :D About the power, how often do you take your rig away from home?

[@astroheartuk4623]

@@AstroOnbudget I haven't yet. I'm trying to source a power supply that isn't going to totally upset my bank manager 🤣

[@AstroOnbudget]

@@astroheartuk4623 Haha. :)

[@rafaelleafar020]

it is more cheaper than getting raspberry pi nowadays. are you going to set it up with windows? are you not considering having a linux based OS? please make a video of your final setup of that mini PC. OS and software installed. Im planning to get one too. thank you! :)

[@AstroOnbudget]

That's very true. With Pi, you are stuck with raspberry platform which from what I am told can be a little hit and miss. Do you use raspberry? How do you find it? Yes I hope to use windows 10 with it

[@rafaelleafar020]

@@AstroOnbudget I dont have any, I am just starting my astrophotography journey and still learning. But I am looking for a portable system like astroberry that requires raspberry Pi. but supply of it is an issue. hard to find and very expensive. also considering to get miniPC and portable power station. I don't know what's next. Hope you release a full setup of your mini pc so I can get an idea. love you videos btw :)

[@ziggyfrnds]

Haha, I made the same decision some time back…the geek inside me refused to buy an underpowered overpriced red colored raspberry pi of a specific brand 😂 although the HP prodesk I bought runs on a power brick giving 19v power not 12v Which my battery provides. I’m getting a dc to dc converter to convert 12v to 19v. I’ll let you know if I’m able to use it in the field in a dark sky :-)

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

I use a HP EliteDesk 800 G2 with i5 in the observatory & it handles most tasks just fine you can pick those up for around £100 now, it had Win 10 pro although I connect via Chrome remote which works just fine for me.

[@AstroOnbudget]

Mate, thats excellent. Good to hear that you and I have similar setup. Although i have no observatory. How does it behave? Do you use Nina on it?

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

@@AstroOnbudget I use NINA PHD2 ASCOM & the Onstep drivers to operate everything in there & it works flawlessly. An SSD does help speed things up if it doesn't have one fitted

[@kevinjeansonne5081]

Always enjoyable content on your channel. Thanks for this video, because I've been in quandry over getting a PC that can handle EAA live stacking/stellarium/plate solving at the same time while being on an extremely tight budget. My little ole notebook cannot handle synscan pro and sharpcap. This might would be a great micro PC to use right at the telescope during warm weather, but then have it connected remotely to my laptop inside for the cold times. I only use my rig in the backyard with electric ran to it. any suggestions on what else I could do/or needed for this? I do have a moniter/keyboard/mouse that could go out in the field with the micro-PC. Would it work?

[@AstroOnbudget]

Thanks mate. I think 16-32GB RAM can handle all of your astro apps. With all the apps open currently I am using very little of my RAM. So these computers can handle such beating.

[@jesuschrist2284]

More videos please :)

[@Dehancer]

Hey hey! We absolutely loved the content you put out! Would you be open to collaborating with us?