Dave4468 Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Hi all I'm looking at using TrainController and I'm buying a laptop the main job of which will be layout operating. I've got a £250 budget and need to buy from Argos (long story short, the £250 is in Love2Shop vouchers and Argos is the only retailer they are valid at that sells laptops). The system specs page is a bit vague so just wanted to check what the bottom limit is and avoid it. My issue is the specs page says "not a cheap computer" rather than proper specs. I'm writing this on a homebuild gaming PC so a £220 laptop is cheap but to someone who only has one to run TrainController then maybe it is. http://www.argos.co.uk/product/5498820 is the most likely candidate. Would it be powerful enough? I'm asking on a few forums as the TrainController forum really helpfully pointed me to the generic specs page. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil S Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 Why not download the software and use it for its free trial - the timing of which, unless it has changed, is 15 minutes connected to operate a layout - unlimited time whilst designing / offline ..... that way you get to see what you like and dislike about the software, and can try it on your exisiting computer to see whether that is fast enough.... and t will give you an idea of related specs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Trofimow Posted October 31, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 31, 2016 It rather depends on which version of TC and how much you want to do with it.... A small layout using TC bronze will not need as much computer power as TC Gold controlling a large room full of layout with lots of trains moving at once with all the bells and whistles and multiple display screens etc. Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave4468 Posted October 31, 2016 Author Share Posted October 31, 2016 Its TC bronze on a relatively small N gauge layout with probably only 4-5 locos at a time so not all the bells and whistles. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold RFS Posted October 31, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 31, 2016 That PC looks to be fine for what you want to do. I run a quite large layout using a 6-year-old desktop with no problems. The main issue with layouts as they get larger is often the size of the display. But that can usually be dealt with by adding a separate external display at a later date. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave4468 Posted November 5, 2016 Author Share Posted November 5, 2016 Does anyone else have any views? As I'm buying a laptop from scratch I can't just test it out so I'm very wary of buying one to then find out it can't run the software so I'm lumbered with a laptop I have no use for and minus £250. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil S Posted November 5, 2016 Share Posted November 5, 2016 Nobody here can take the responsibility of the choice from you 8-) .....But as has been said - you can download (all 4 versions of) the software to try them - even connected to a layout for 15 minutes, but otherwise for years while you are building your layout 8-) At least you will then be confident about the combination before paying out the larger sum - which is for the software and not the laptop! You can also download Rocrail and JMRI for free, and others too to try then and see which style fits you best. My expereinece is that RR+Co is the easiest to setup with a track plan and controlled accessories - and even to then add the feedback modules that work for your sysytem. - but then I start at the 'nice graphic layout on screen' rather than a database of connections ! BEWARE however, if comparing different versions of RR+CO that you do not confuse the manuals between them !! and start looking for a feture a l;ower version does not have .... whole sections of the manual may appear to smply be 'missing' - but other parts might be subtley different. Comparison to other software prsents such a risk too - but the benefits of looking before buying exceeds the risk. As I have the cutdown Rocomotion version of RR+Co (bronze or below?) I cannot change the icons it uses to either anglicise (or scanidi-fy) the symbols .... but I DO have a bitmap image loaded into the top corner (1,1) which covers the whole page - except for being transparent over the track and points ... so I can see ROUTES when selected and point settings. I simply have a graphic over the position of other 'key' buttons such as 'Start' signals on platforms. With 'gold' I beleive you can be your own graphic artist. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tender Posted November 5, 2016 Share Posted November 5, 2016 I run the Bronze edition on a 4 year old laptop with similar specs as the one specified above without any problems. Also runs the silver and gold editions in demo mode as well as roc rail. The only problem I find is the size of the screen, so I have it connected to an external 21" monitor and run in dual monitor mode. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
40034_Nick Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 Does anyone else have any views? As I'm buying a laptop from scratch I can't just test it out so I'm very wary of buying one to then find out it can't run the software so I'm lumbered with a laptop I have no use for and minus £250. I would say to anyone buying a PC these days to get one with an SSD drive (Solid State). This means no moving parts on the hard drive (No Needle on a hard disc) the same sort of principle as a USB stick or memory card also with zero moving parts. I have changed both my laptops to SSD and they boot up in seconds and run flawlessly fast !! But the older"LoL" Hard drives also run very well and i am sure that will be OK for your needs. You can upgrade later to SSD if needed (Change the Hard drive at a later point and install windows again on that drive). One issue i do have with your choice is the amount of RAM (Memory)... 4 Gig is not enough with current operating systems(Windows 7,8 or 10) plus running Software .. Why not wack another 20Quid on top and get this with 8Gig RAM(Memory) and double the Hard drive space (1TB) and Quad core processor? http://www.argos.co.uk/product/4768300 . And its an ASUS :-) I have built Desktop PCs in the past and always used ASUS motherboards. (The Mutznutz).. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonME46 Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 What about JMRI or Rocrail? On a raspberry Pi? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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