Upgrading a Laptop??

[ArthurDaniels]

Beware! I was a model railway enthusiast (G Scale) and got Trainz (2006) to help with planning the layout. Nowadays the G scale sits unused and forlorn in its garage & shed and all my modelling is done in Trainz.

Regarding your laptop, given that you are only currently creating a very small route your existing machine should be fine. In the future and bearing in mind the requirements of the next version of Trainz (T2/TANE ) You should be looking for a laptop equipped with a top end graphics card with 2+ GB of memory, at least a 4 core processor and at least 8 GB of RAM. You will also need a 64 bit operating system - in my view Windows 7 Pro 64 bit is the best at the moment.

I concur with your thoughts about what to look for when I upgrade. My present machine is a 64-bit system running Windows 7 Professional and I am very happy with this version of Windows - another reason why I am not anxious to run out and purchase a new laptop. I have completed almost all of my layout trackwork in Surveyor as I replicate my model RR and I am having zero issues with running trains on my virtual layout. I have also spent at least an hour exploring several of the pre-loaded routes with Quick Drive and, although the frame rates are not perfect, I can certainly live with the almost-unnoticeable "jerkiness" and the occasional pause while the system graphically resets itself. If I end up needing to upgrade in the near future, I am going to make a large effort to find a high-end laptop with top-end graphics and running Windows 7 Pro.