Would this be a good laptop for 12 and T:ANE.

For $419 you are lucky if that laptop boots up ... buying a gaming laptop at Sears, is like buying a diamond ring from the a guy in a trench coat, selling counterfeit ROLO® watches on the street ... I doubt that laptop would run even the lowest demanding video game, let alone Trainz, which is the MOST demanding video game on the market ... very few laptops will run Trainz, even most $1200 laptops will not ... Desktop, desktop, desktop PC ... 64 bit OS, with a plug-in video card.

I know a guy who had a $1200 HP DV7 and it melted ... he bought another $1200 laptop with on mother board CPU chip ... and he hasn't been able to run Trainz since then ... One does not buy a gaming laptop from a BigBox store !
 
Last edited:
Lap tops are made to preserve battery life, desk tops are made to go fast. You pay a premium for laptops to keep the power consumption down.

TS12 dual core is fine, TANE will use eight cores so an Intel i7 is optimum. You need a separate graphics card not built in, well Intel HD graphics 6000 or larger number might just do but its low end. The guy in the trench coat taking cash for a diamond ring is probably better value than Sears.

Try newegg.com and I'd expect to pay a minimum of $900, look in open box, ASUS is quite a good brand but look for the reviews, you want one with lots of positive reviews. For $1,000 you could get a much better performing desktop.

Cheerio John
 
yeah, you shouldn't spend less than $1300 on a gaming laptop that has i7 CPU, 8 GB or more RAM, 3 GB 800 series or higher GPU. That will be a good starting point.
 
From my experience from using a Vista laptop, I must say that laptops are not as powerful as Desktops are. Laptops are ok if you wanna run old games from the Windows 98-XP era, but other then that, they aren't that good for any other game playing.
 
I object to saying laptops only run old software. I am running an ASUS laptop, with an I7 processor, 16 Gig Ram, 3Gig NVIDA Video card, 1 X 750G and 1x TB hd, windows 7 Professional and two screens. I can run TANE, TRS12, 3dsMax 12 and several other development applications all at the same time with no loss of performance. It's all in the make up of the hardware. If you want to run high end software like TRS you need High end hardware. It got nothing to do with laptop verses Tower.
 
glt0145 said:
I object to saying laptops only run old software. I am running an ASUS laptop, with an I7 processor, 16 Gig Ram, 3Gig NVIDA Video card, 1 X 750G and 1x TB hd, windows 7 Professional and two screens. I can run TANE, TRS12, 3dsMax 12 and several other development applications all at the same time with no loss of performance. It's all in the make up of the hardware. If you want to run high end software like TRS you need High end hardware. It got nothing to do with laptop verses Tower.
Click to expand...

I agree, the only con being cost and expending full portability and battery longevity in exchange for maximum performance. That being said, GTX970M and GTX980M are not far off their desktop namesakes in terms of performance now, so the future could prove interesting for mobile devices.
 
glt0145 said:
I object to saying laptops only run old software. I am running an ASUS laptop, with an I7 processor, 16 Gig Ram, 3Gig NVIDA Video card, 1 X 750G and 1x TB hd, windows 7 Professional and two screens. I can run TANE, TRS12, 3dsMax 12 and several other development applications all at the same time with no loss of performance. It's all in the make up of the hardware. If you want to run high end software like TRS you need High end hardware. It got nothing to do with laptop verses Tower.
Click to expand...

But you could get similar performance from a cheaper desktop and I think that's the point, you need to pay a premium for a high end lap top, the ASUS ROG has already been mentioned.

Cheerio John
 
Zeldaboy14 said:
From my experience from using a Vista laptop, I must say that laptops are not as powerful as Desktops are. Laptops are ok if you wanna run old games from the Windows 98-XP era, but other then that, they aren't that good for any other game playing.
Click to expand...

Well, that is a problem in itself... a Vista laptop. If you ran the same laptop with Windows 8, I guarantee it will work better. Not saying it can run software better, as you didn't state the amount of RAM, GPU, or CPU. But, just assuming on how you stated, it probably is a low-end hardware platform.
 
pdkoester said:
Well, that is a problem in itself... a Vista laptop. If you ran the same laptop with Windows 8, I guarantee it will work better. Not saying it can run software better, as you didn't state the amount of RAM, GPU, or CPU. But, just assuming on how you stated, it probably is a low-end hardware platform.
Click to expand...

When my old desktop blew up several years ago I decided to wait until I had saved enough to have a good computer built. I used my wife's old laptop, running Vista. It was awful.

It's a given that for price a desktop gets you more for your money but if you want mobility then a laptop is the way to go, so be ready to pay for one capable of running Trainz acceptibly
 
$849 gets you an Alienware Alpha. I recently got one, and they are great, but a couple issues that you might want to consider

Pros:
Small size, for those of us whom are ancient gamers have seen the wonder of the Nintendo Gamecube, Alpha is a little bit bigger than that. It's amazing really.
Intel Core I7 with 8GB of Ram, plus its easily upgradeable
NVIDIA 860M GPU with 2GB GDDR5
1TB HDD space for all you're stuff
Is a hybird machine, it can be both a gaming PC, and a gaming console with Steam
Comes with XBOX360 Controller and software already installed on it
Hooks to your TV really easily.

Cons:
GPU is not upgradable.
It's HDMI Only, meaning unless you got a HDMI compatible monitor, then Alpha is only going to run on your TV, unless you're TV is only 480P
For speakers, well, since it was really designed for running on TV, it doesn't have a typical 3.5mm audio jack like most desktops, you need USB speakers or headsets
For some, Steam being pre-installed on it might be a con, but it wasn't for me.
No CD drive, meaning that it does downloads only, and there's nothing in it for CD's.
Only 4 USB ports on the whole machine.


Other than that, it is a great machine. :)
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I have decided to go with the HP laptop that I linked earlier. Most of my friends have said that it would be the most bang for my buck, and that it can run 12 with decent performance, but not T:ANE, but that isn't my main concern right now, as the route I'm working on currently is to be finished in 12, have multiplayer games for the route in 12, then worry about moving it to T:ANE. Plus being 16, I simply don't have that kind of money to buy a new laptop. I would save up more, but I want to get some HO stuff and pay for gas, etc.
 
Has anyone looked up the specs of the OP's laptop link, and informed him if it will even run TS12 ?

I don't think it will run anything beyond TRS2006
 
emeraldnight123 said:
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I have decided to go with the HP laptop that I linked earlier. Most of my friends have said that it would be the most bang for my buck, and that it can run 12 with decent performance, but not T:ANE, but that isn't my main concern right now, as the route I'm working on currently is to be finished in 12, have multiplayer games for the route in 12, then worry about moving it to T:ANE. Plus being 16, I simply don't have that kind of money to buy a new laptop. I would save up more, but I want to get some HO stuff and pay for gas, etc.
Click to expand...

It has built in graphics for a start, I honestly don't think it will run TS12 at reasonable frames rates without the sliders being way over to min. Have a look at newegg open box and refurbished in the same price range. An Intel i5 with something like an HD4000 or better graphics would be my suggestion, AMD doesn't cut it for what you want to do at your price range. Tigerdirect if you don't like newwegg but Sears will cost you another 10%+ on the price.

Cheerio John
 
emeraldnight123 said:
Well, here's the site that I found the specs on http://thesystemrequirement.blogspot.com/2011/04/trainz-simulator-12-system-requirements.html , and the HP laptop I'm looking at meets most of the system requirements. Currently I'm running on one of these http://www.asus.com/us/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/K53E/specifications/ , intel i3, 320gb hard drive, and it runs 12 at low frames, but not to the point where it's unacceptable, and I've had the asus for 3 and then some years, still going strong.
Click to expand...

It's an i3 and it has Intel built in graphics. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232307

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834318626

cheerio John
 
emeraldnight123 said:
Is there an AMD equivalent to the HD4000, and with a quad core?
Click to expand...

In a word no, http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html the AMD equivalent is OK for office work but not for anything more demanding.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html for the CPUs, have a read here to see what the latest price performance is http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-3.html but in a lap top with integrated graphics Intel 4000 or above is where you want to be.

TS12 as far as I know only uses two cores in driver, i3 is dual core plus hyperthreading. More cores are wasted money, but TANE will make use of lots of cores but from what we've seen so far its going to need $1,000 lap top to run it well.

Dig round the internet and look for comparison of Intel HD graphics and AMD integrated graphics.

Cheerio John
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
Advice on new laptop
Replies
3
Views
586
johnwhelan
J
W
Whatever happened to Whatever?
Replies
9
Views
628
Michaeleba
M
R
New PC build for Trainz Etc. FINALLY finished
Replies
4
Views
551
ricomon35
R
J
Which drives should Trainz be installed on for optimal performance?
Replies
15
Views
815
JonMyrlennBailey
J
C
TMR17 is dead for good. For all.
Replies
13
Views
492
ajrf
A
Back
Top