I have gotten good results from Guitar Rig and Amplitube over the years, primarily with Fender amps in those pieces of software. Heres the reality, your PC has much more computing power and speed than the computer you had she you acquired the pod 2. I personally use a Zoom G5 and I really like the Two-Rock Emerald 50 SIM in it with My Epiphone Nighthawk Custom Reissue. I have never played a real Emerald, but that really doesn't matter to me. I haven't recorded electric in awhile, and have no recent SIM VSTi, so no patches which I can share. I love amp simulation in both hardware and software flavors just because of the tonal variety available.