$500 Gaming Laptop for Trainz?

This site has a pretty good review for many $500 gaming laptops http://gaminglaptopunder1000.org/best-cheap-gaming-laptops-under-500-dollars/

I'm not going to be playing Trainz on my couch, bed, sofa, bus, train, coffee shoppe, lunchroom ... and my laptop basically sits on my one desk, tethered to an Ethernet cable ... So I may as well have a full size water cooled desktop for @ $1000 - $1800

Please post links to custom Gaming desktop PC's, some are as far away as Ireland

You really don't need water cooling. Are you going to overclock? A lot of times, an upgraded air cooler will work fine even with a "reasonable" overclock depending on case and fan configuration, unless the pc is going to be in a confined space in a normally hot room. A water cooled pc will generally be quieter and there is the "Wow" factor if you are the type that likes see through side panels to show off the hardware.

GTPS2 said:

The Problem for me is that PC's that coast $800 - $1,500 are ridiculously expensive, and I don't want to wait 1 - 2 years to save up that much money for PC's like those.

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A laptop will give you about 60% of the performance of a desktop at the same price point.

With this sort of budget I'd go refurbished Dell, http://dellrefurbished.com/product/...ell-optiplex-7010-4gb-ram-128gb-hdd/si6820843 you want the tower case so you can drop in a better GPU sometime. I seem to recall you can upgrade from 32 bit Win 7 to 64 bit for free and you get a free upgrade to win 10 anyway. Monitors again http://dellrefurbished.com/browse/?navDesc=16343 gets you something reasonable for $100. Look for cosmetic a on the monitor on the PC either A or B, B might be a bit scratched. These are off lease machines and good quality.

They have some laptops as well but only with "

Intel Integrated Graphics" which is a bit below what you'd like but having said that its a better machine than you'll pick up new for the same money. I have a couple of refurbished i7 Dell laptops lying around and they run rings round a new cheap HP laptop I have as well. ​

You can always add memory, a decent GPU etc to a desktop when you get some cash.

Cheerio John

johnwhelan said:

A laptop will give you about 60% of the performance of a desktop at the same price point.

With this sort of budget I'd go refurbished Dell, http://dellrefurbished.com/product/...ell-optiplex-7010-4gb-ram-128gb-hdd/si6820843 you want the tower case so you can drop in a better GPU sometime. I seem to recall you can upgrade from 32 bit Win 7 to 64 bit for free and you get a free upgrade to win 10 anyway. Monitors again http://dellrefurbished.com/browse/?navDesc=16343 gets you something reasonable for $100. Look for cosmetic a on the monitor on the PC either A or B, B might be a bit scratched. These are off lease machines and good quality.

They have some laptops as well but only with "

Intel Integrated Graphics" which is a bit below what you'd like but having said that its a better machine than you'll pick up new for the same money. I have a couple of refurbished i7 Dell laptops lying around and they run rings round a new cheap HP laptop I have as well. ​

You can always add memory, a decent GPU etc to a desktop when you get some cash.

Cheerio John

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Walmart also sells refurbished Desktop PC's made by Dell and such. This one I just found is very much like the one you've shown me, expect it's a "Dell Optiplex 990 WA1-0233" Desktop PC, with an Intel Core I5, 8 GB's of RAM, a 1 TB Hard Drive and Windows 7 OS.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/49333267

I've also done some bing searching on models such the one you've shown me, and and someone told another person that they need to upgrade it's power supply to a Corsair 650TX Power Supply in order to run a high end graphic's card such as the nVidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti.

Also, I'm NOT the kind of person who buys PC's and such on websites such as "NewEgg.com". I'm only a customer at Amazon, Walmart and BestBuy because I can only buy stuff with Gift Card Money or actual Money.

I don't have a debut card where I can add money too it, because I don't have a job, and can only work around the house to earn money.

GTPS2 said:

Walmart also sells refurbished Desktop PC's made by Dell and such. This one I just found is very much like the one you've shown me, expect it's a "Dell Optiplex 990 WA1-0233" Desktop PC, with an Intel Core I5, 8 GB's of RAM, a 1 TB Hard Drive and Windows 7 OS.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/49333267

I've also done some bing searching on models such the one you've shown me, and and someone told another person that they need to upgrade it's power supply to a Corsair 650TX Power Supply in order to run a high end graphic's card such as the nVidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti.

Also, I'm NOT the kind of person who buys PC's and such on websites such as "NewEgg.com". I'm only a customer at Amazon, Walmart and BestBuy because I can only buy stuff with Gift Card Money or actual Money.

I don't have a debut card where I can add money too it, because I don't have a job, and can only work around the house to earn money.

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That machine has an option of the HD 6450 GPU with the existing power supply. It comes with Intel HD graphics which is the same as the laptops in your price range have, reputedly it will run TANE with the settings set back. It might do better with TS12. Tomshardware tested the pomer output of various power supplies and found that an ANTEC rated at 450 watts actually outperformed higher rated units. The Dell power supplies are solidly rated. I put a meter on my machine, i7, 12 gigs of memory and a GTX 980 running TANE it draws 125 watts. So I'm not convinced you need a high end 650 watt power supply for a 750. There are nVidia equivalents to the HD 6450 by the way which I would think in terms of. Check the power supply rating when you get the box and you can go from there if you're feeling rich in the future.

I can't see the price at Wamart probably because my ip address in Canadian. When purchasing over the internet I have been known to go into a bank and buy a prepaid credit card for the amount and use that. It's normally cheaper than buying one at the store. Alternatively talk nicely to someone you know who has a credit card and give them the money to make the purchase.

The refurbished market varies as to what has just come back. The Walmart one looks fine to me. I might go for a screen from Dell as I doubt Walmart carry refurbished ones and their normal quality might not be quite so good.

Best of luck, the desk top route does offer more flexibility for the future.

Cheerio John

As many have mentioned, if you want to play a high-end game like T:ANE, you are going to have to bring some serious hardware to the table or expect to be disappointed. No a mount of wishing is going to change that.

Keep an eye out for specials, especially when new models are released. Last year's top model, demoted to second tier, can then sometimes be had for a good price. Otherwise, wait while you save.

I have a couple of refurbished Dell's lying around with win 10 on them. They come with Intel HD graphics but only directx 10 so they are not capable of running TANE. Which is interesting as someone wrote they were running TANE on one of these. Presumably a later version.

I trying the Dell laptops with TS12 and I'll see what they do.

On the desktop side you can pick up an nVidia GT 730 not the hotest card in town but it should be enough to run TANE with shadows off etc. for around $50 from Newegg.com but it has Directx 11 which is what you need and show work with anything that says power supply on it.

Cheerio John

A low profile 730 with passive cooling will fit most cases and draw less power.

Cheerio John

My old computer which has vista runs ts 12 just fine and barely crashes

I've just installed TS12 on a E6410 ATG Laptop i7-640M and run one of the built in layouts on default settings. Seemed to be fine, one bit of stuttering but that's all. I'd probably back off the distance setting. Ebay seems to have at least one refurbished ie off lease i5 version of this laptop for $150 and I doubt you'd see much difference in performance. The ATX is mil grade which means it is heavy for a laptop and built to take some abuse.

You'd probably want to be selective on what you run. Dell tends to be difficult to replace parts such as the power supply. They have their own way of mounting etc. Not impossible but sometimes a standard power supply won't fit. HP use more standard parts, but beware of the smaller cases for both Dell and HP you want something that a GPU will fit into when you get round to buying one.

Cheerio John

johnwhelan said:

A low profile 730 with passive cooling will fit most cases and draw less power.

Cheerio John

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For the Desktop I've showed you?

Also, I've decided to just stick with Trainz 2009.

GTPS2 said:

For the Desktop I've showed you?

Also, I've decided to just stick with Trainz 2009.

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Strangely enough TS12 will give you slightly more frames per second for the same content and draw distance. Besides my wagons use TS12 scripts so I prefer it. I'd watch the prices on N3V and pick one up when its on half price sale.

Just go with the walmart machine as is at the moment. For TANE you really want a Maxwell nVidia GPU and nVidia haven't brought out a low end Maxwell GPU yet but I'm sure they will.

Don't forget you will need a monitor. I see Walmart has them for $60.

Cheerio John

Just to prove my point about BigBox stores ... I saw a Asus ROG 752 that normally has a 680 video card ... But in the BigBox store it only had a substandard 940 video card

Saw a gaming desktop with all kinds of flashing red white and blue lights, and a fancy shaped white case ... it only had a 500w power supply, and a 940 video card, with no water cooling ... all show ... no go !

Both were hugely marked up prices ... with low end hardware inside !

Don't buy in a BigBox store ! You will not get what you paid for !

Raise it to $600, these are desktops:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hFjWzzAXhg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02g3INPsfDg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz6IONlEYDA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ADzxBdQ5kk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIrOJYV7VNI

So, keep in mind, you are not going to find a laptop that can perform near these, which are decent, not high end.

You may just want to add that those are all DIY setups, so if you are not inclined to build your own machine you will have to factor that into the cost as well as the cost of an OS if you aren't reinstalling a current one.

cascaderailroad said:

with no water cooling ... all show ... no go !

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Just so others are aware, a computer does not need to be water cooled to be a decent computer. There are dozens of alternatives in the air cooling world to watercooling that will perform just as well as a closed loop system. Phanteks and Noctua come to mind. Cascade's original point about buying a prebuilt computer from a retail store is not a good idea as you can get more for your money if you build it yourself.

sfrr said:

... Cascade's original point about buying a prebuilt computer from a retail store is not a good idea as you can get more for your money if you build it yourself.

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All true but just as few know how build their own "anything" these days, it is not an option for many people. If you can possibly afford it, instead of a big box lemon, check for computer builders who can build a custom box. They will be more expensive but you get what you pay for. Besides, if you screw up, it's your problem. If a computer builder makes a mistake, they will have to fix it themselves.

That's what I've done in the past and am about to do again. Besides just not being interested in building my own, there are a lot of factors to take into account. There is the shopping, ordering and waiting for delivery of parts. There is the assembly time, the tedious things like cable management. there's the possibility of defective parts, the time spent in the return, the possibility of making mistakes, testing the final build and and so on. I was more than willing to pay extra to have this all done for me. A couple of emails and phone calls with the builder, and 2 weeks later I had my new pc.

I knoow Fry's Electronics will build your system for about $89, you provide the goods, worth it to me if I didn't know how to do it. Not sure if there's one near you, though...