I want to give a relative who lives on a sailboat a flight sim rig for Xmas. For space reasons, a laptop would be the only way to go. Will FS run OK on a laptop? Would FS2K2 be the way to go? He will never be a hard core simmer and I would imagine FS9 might be too much for a laptop.Thanks

I wish I had relatives like you!! Some people have all the luck!!Barry

Can't speak from personal experience as my ancient laptop might have a hard time with FS98 - never tried. However my son does run FS2k2 and 2k4 on his rather more modern machine(I believe it's a 2.8Ghz CPU) without too many problems. He settled in the end on 2k2 - mainly due to the graphics card struggling a bit with 2k4.Dave

There are some modern laptops equipped with hi-rez screens, as well as high powered processors and graphics adapters. They are also high pricetag. :) While I haven't tried to run MSFS on my work laptop, I wouldn't want to out of fear that it wouldn't look as good as my desktop. I would try to weigh the purchase towards a fast processor and 3D video laptop, and maybe shave off dollars with smaller hard drive or no DVD-burner... But with those accessories being so cheap lately...

make sure your purchase has two things - 1 gig of ram and decent graphics (eg ati radeon mobility). I have personal experience of a 1.6ghz (I'm sure whatever you get will have a much faster cpu) hp nc8000 laptop so equipped and fs2k4 ran remarkably well even at initial installation, not to mention a little tweaking(hifps replacement clouds etc) - then addons like lots of PAI and PSS Airbusses. Not a single hang or crash related to the machine - even for longhaul.For a nonhardcore simmer who aint after complete fluidity at Heathrow with heavy cloud at dusk with 100% ai a good modern laptop will do just fine.regards,Mark

Thanks to all for the excellent advice.