If you have an amp and you have speakers then it would probably be far more prudent just to get yourself a superduper effects pedals set. Amplitube already emulates speaker amplifiers and speakers. That's like towing an additional car instead of having a spare tire in your trunk. Why? Do you just like to make life difficult and inconsistent for yourself? I've seen guys on stage with laptops and they screw around with them for too long periods of time. Screw that. You are an entertainer on stage not an engineer on stage. That's why I'm a recording engineer and you are a musician. All successful performers bring their own engineers with them since they can afford to. That's a different scenario than your local café performance venue. Remember computers never work right when you need them to. And so purpose built devices are the key to consistency & reliability. So why would you need software cabinet emulation when you already have speaker cabinets? You need volume, tone and effects which is not part of an emulator. And like the rest of us, when things blow up, you either replace them or you are out of business.

Everything I have works and I am still out of business.
Mx. Remy Ann David

I see your point...reliability is a key concern.

I was thinking laptop as in "preamp". Now I only have a power amp and a cab, the amp that died was my rackmount SGX2000 guitar preamp.

So the laptop would give me lots of tones. As an entertainer, I am all about setting things up ahead of time. No tinkering in front of an audience! It's like tinkling in front of an audience! Too much behind the scenes stuff there...

The way I use amplitube I can record dry and monitor with it running, zero latency. BUT, though it is the best amp sim IMO, it still doesn't come close to a real amp. And my amp is only a peavey valveking 112. Plus, one computer hiccup and you're dunzo.

If you want it just for effects it can be cool, but even then... the real stuff just sounds better.

I've found Amplitube to be superb - no differences from a real amp. However, I've also found that Amplitube is not substitute for lots of hard work, listening, and tweaking settings. Amplitube just gives me lots of great gear, and it's always been up to me to get it to sound the way I want.

But I think I'll abandon this idea and go with a regular amp for live use. All I need live is Clean/Dirty and a chorus pedal. I hate pedals. But there it is.