I know this is kind of late in the year to be thinking about this but I am considering a mega tree. I have watched many videos, read many posts and I am just somewhat lost. 

In Amazon I have in my cart 15 strands of lights.....2811 12V 12mm 18 gauge from Paul Zhang with X connect and they are 100 pixels per strand.....so 1500 total pixels.

From this point I am kind of lost. I was thinking about a ready to run controller from Holidaycoro but the options really confuse me. I think I have several question that I am hoping the group can help with.

1 - Do I need a connection for each strand or can they attached together?

2 - Is 30 amp good enough?

3 - Are there cheaper board options that are just as good?

4 - How does my laptop communicate with the controller?

5 - Is anyone familiar with Xconnect?

Thanks