Help a Mom out in getting her son a computer?

jaclyn1111

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Dec 11, 2014
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Hi. I am a novice mom looking for a laptop for my son, 9. We want it for school work and for gaming -- Minecraft Mods possibly on his own server. Best Buy said I need these things: 4th generation Intel processor or better, 12 gb memory, 1 TB hardrive and a graphics card. We also want a touch screen. The Laptop Model: M7-KIIIDX SKU: 8771146. it is $899, which is a lot for a little kid's laptop, I think? Are these specs right? How is this machine? Is there a better and cheaper one I can get? Can I find this one cheaper and if so where? Please tell me exactly what he needs for Minecraft so it doesn't lag and works well. He is very into video games and is already taking coding classes - how to create video games and I want to make sure he gets the best machine for him at the least cost. What price area am I in for his needs and where can I get a laptop cheap for him. Also, do they come with Word etc. Do I need to but that separately? Best, <Mod Edit>. All replies welcome. Thanks for your help in advance. Also, is there anything else I need to be considering for his needs?
 
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Seems like a lot, though a touch screen will add to the cost. Memory is way to high, 8GBs should be more then enough. I don't have a model number for you, but any i3/i5 with 8GBs and just about any video card (GPU) should be fine. Minecraft can run on modded Chromebooks, so any laptop will be more powerful.

4745454b

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Apr 29, 2006
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Seems like a lot, though a touch screen will add to the cost. Memory is way to high, 8GBs should be more then enough. I don't have a model number for you, but any i3/i5 with 8GBs and just about any video card (GPU) should be fine. Minecraft can run on modded Chromebooks, so any laptop will be more powerful.
 
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BrandonYoung

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Oct 13, 2014
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Minecraft doesn't need 12gig of ram, 4 would work just fine.
I would recommend a desktop instead of a laptop personally. If he drops a mouse or keyboard that would not be nearly as hard to replace opposed to if he dropped a laptop.

Laptops can't be upgraded very easily, where as a desktop, you could replace any component with ease. I built my 10 year old a pc last christmas, it set us back around 500$ (not counting monitor and OS, we had these already) and it plays Minecraft on max settings at full speed.

If you choose the desktop option, I would very highly recommend picking parts, and building yourself (this is not as hard as it may seem).
Many prebuilt PC's use crappy components in order to maximize profit for the retailer (not always, but this seems to be the norm).

If you must go the laptop route, I would suggest at least an Intel i3 processor, 4gb ram, some form of dedicated graphics processor (AMD/nVidia). Avoid Intel HD#### style graphics, as they are not suited for more than simple gaming.

Bestbuy is after your money, they will recommend the top of the line when it is not really needed, especially for minecraft style games.

Best of luck.