Minecraft Laptop for 11-year-old kid

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cluelessmom1

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My son is asking for his own laptop for Christmas so he can play Minecraft. I have been trying to read up on what would be best but I'm so NOT a techie that I don't trust myself to make a good decision. In my research I have seen over and over that building a PC would be best, however, I prefer him to have a laptop because I can confiscate it if his grades slip or he has discipline issues. Also, he and his buddies like to take their laptops to each others houses and play Minecraft in the same room together.

I am looking at four laptops, all of which are all in my price range of $400-$450. I know that is a small budget, but I am not a millionaire and he is only 11. Do you guys recommend one of these over the others? Are they all about the same? Or is there a different one out there somewhere that you think would be better? At this price are they all just too crappy to bother with?

Lenovo IdeaPad Laptop (P580-308725U)
• 3rd Gen Intel Core i5-3210M (2.5GHz)
• 6GB DDR3, 750GB Hard Drive
• Intel HD Graphics 4000
• $415.00 refurbished

Asus K55N-DB81
• AMD A-Series Quad-Core A8-4500M 1.9 GHz
• 6 GB DDR3 750 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
• Radeon HD 7640
• $439 new

HP Pavilion G7-2269wm
• AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M
• 6GB memory; 500GB hard drive
• AMD Radeon HD 7640G Discrete-Class graphics and up to 3053MB total graphics memory
• $370 refurbished

HP Pavilion G7-2298NR
• AMD A6-4400M 2.70 GHz (with a Max Turbo Speed of 3.20 GHz)
• 8GB Memory, 1TB Hard Drive
• AMD Radeon HD 7520G Graphics With up to 4077MB total graphics memory, HDMI and VGA capabilities
• $390 refurbished

Sorry this is so long; thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to share their opinion on this. :)

 
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cluelessmom1

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Thanks so much for your reply. I have now found one that is more expensive but I'm assuming would be better because it has a dedicated NVidia graphics card. It is more expensive but I'm thinking it would be worth it (???). I would love input from you or anyone else who has a few moments to type out a quick answer. If you guys think it would be better than the others I've listed above and worth the extra cash, I'm gonna get it today. Here are the specs:

Lenovo P580 59RF0216
• Intel 3rd Generation Core i7-3520M, 2.9GHz
• 8GB memory, 750G hard drive
• NVIDIA GeForce GT630M
• $549 refurbished
 
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jaguarskx

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For that amount of money, I would rather get a new laptop. The following is an example. It is actually a business laptop; the Lenovo ThinkPad E545 for $430 base. I would add $20 for the A8-5550m APU and $90 for the dedicated Radeon HD 8570m. With the "Cybermonday" coupon code it works out to $524.

Note is part of Lenovo's "Student Education" site so you need to provide additional information if want that "huge" $10 discount verse the regular site.

Student discount:
http://shop.lenovo.com/usstudents/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/e-series/

Regular site for $440 base (and no additional personal info required:
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/e-series/e545/

The quad core A8-5550m generally have weaker cores compared to Intel's dual core i7-3520m, but there are 4 of them and for an 11 kid it will still be more than enough. The Radeon HD 8750m is slightly less powerful than the GT 630m, but not by very much. Overall, the ThinkPad E545 is more than enough for an 11 year old.

More importantly, this is a new laptop rather than a refurbed laptop which means you will have a 1 year warranty rather than 30 - 90 day warranty. Additionally, since this is a ThinkPad should you need to deal with tech support you will deal with "corporate" tech support, rather than "consumer" tech support; that means a different level of support. Piss off a consumer, and he/she may warn other not to buy Brand X laptops. Piss off a corporate client and you can potentially loose 1000's of future laptop/desktop sales if the company is large enough.
 
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jaguarskx

jaguarskx

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Another option is the HP Pavilion 15z-n100 with a base price of $400. I would upgrade to the quad core A8-5200 + Radeon HD 8670m for $95. Total $495.

The A8-5200 is slightly weaker than the A8-5550 in the ThinkPad, however, the Radeon HD 8670m is a little more powerful than the nVidia GT 630m (the refurbed Lenovo laptop).


http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-Pavilion/E1K49AV?HP-Pavilion-15z-n100-Notebook-PC-ENERGY-STAR-
 
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Wisecracker

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Edit: Upon further review, ignore what I said about the 384 shader cores (Notebook Check lied to me!) The model I highlighted only has 192 shader cores !!

You're not clueless, and you came to the right place!
HP Pavilion G7-2298NR
• AMD A6-4400M 2.70 GHz (with a Max Turbo Speed of 3.20 GHz)
• 8GB Memory, 1TB Hard Drive
• AMD Radeon HD 7520G Graphics With up to 4077MB total graphics memory, HDMI and VGA capabilities
• $390 refurbished
Click to expand...

That one ... and here is why: The APU 'Graphics Engine' on that model CPU has '384 shader cores' running at 497Mhz. The HP Pavilion G7-2269wm with the Radeon HD 7640G has a higher graphics clock speed (686MHz) but fewer shader cores (256). This seems to be a big deal in MineCraft ...

Trinity-OpenGL-Minecraft_Anand-0-50163_zpsef4535e7.jpg


These are desktop APUs -not mobile- but the same principle applies. The model with the 384 shader cores beats up on the 256 shader cores by 50%, and both really pound the Intel HD 4000 graphics.

Good luck, and enjoy!

PS_ You did not list the Windows OS, and that is where things get even more interesting. If the laptops have Windows 8, the Metro 'Touch' interface will be enabled by default.

Carefully read the included Windows information to enable the conventional Windows desktop (with the 'Start' button) OR ...

if you can stretch your budget to $499.99, here is a touch-screen enabled HP laptop from Office Depot

The graphics engine on that APU also has 384 shader cores, and clocks at 533 - 626 MHz !!






 
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cluelessmom1

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Thanks so much for the information, everyone, I really appreciate it! I think the HP Pavilion from Office Depot looks like a good buy. Should I be worried about the lower GHz as compared to the other models? The Office Depot webpage says "2.1 GHz (typical); 2.9 GHz (max) " so maybe with the higher 2.9 it's not a concern? LOL, I don't even know what GHz is, my son just noticed it was lower (the others are 2.5-2.7, I believe) so I want to clear that the "2.1 GHz (typical); 2.9 GHz (max)" is fine. Thanks again, everyone.
 
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jaguarskx

jaguarskx

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The HP Pavilion A10 laptop should be fine for Minecraft. The 2.1GHz is the maximum speed (typical) the laptop will operate without Turbo Core. Turbo Core is basically an automatic overclock which causes the CPU to operate above the normal maximum speed. While it states 2.9GHz that only applies if just one of the core is used. The higher the number of CPU being used the lower the actual maximum Turbo Core clockspeed will be. This is to prevent the CPU from overheating and damaging itself.

Clockspeed is not the primary determinant of how fast a computer is. It actually depends on the CPU architecture. However, this goes far beyond what you are asking about and can become quite technical in a heartbeat. In the end, the laptop will be fine for playing Minecraft and some other slightly more demanding games like World of Warcraft.
 
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Wisecracker

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Back to yah, Mom!

I followed my own advice and bought one :lol:

Here is the HP Product Information Support Page and the CPU World AMD A10-5745M Richland APU specifications page.

The 2.1GHz/2.9GHz thang is a performance/power management function. The AMD A10-5745m APU has four CPU cores (technically, 2 modules with 2 cores per module).

When the system (or, an application or game) can utilize the 4 cores of the CPU, you will have 4 full-power cores at 2.1GHz, with the system pulling roughly 25 watts. However, many of the processes on your computer only require a single core (that's called a 'single thread'). The laptop will recognize this, and boost a single core to 2.9GHz (or 'Turbo') while 'down-clocking' the other 3 cores. I happens quite quickly (in milliseconds) and is generally unobtrusive to the operator.

Truth be known for most tasks (office, email, web browsing, et al), all 4 cores of the CPU on the laptop will be 'down-clocked' to roughly 1.4GHz as a power management function. AMD calls this **Cool & Quiet**

You will be tested later :D

I'm off to try and mod my new laptop with an SSD, and see how far above stock I can turbo the Turbo :ouch:

 
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