Computers & Electronics

PC For Minecraft

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  • Mar 10th, 2015 2:46 pm
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Member
Apr 27, 2003
220 posts

PC For Minecraft

I'm looking to purchase a desktop PC computer for my 12 year old whom will be strictly playing Minecraft on it, as he already has a laptop, but does not like it. I would rather not build one, but want to be able to just order from either Staples, Best Buy, or Future Shop. Also don't want to spend over $400. Any suggestions?? Thanks :)
12 replies
Deal Addict
Dec 10, 2012
3886 posts
1527 upvotes
Canada
go to one of the wm and pick one of their clearance desktops for under $400
Deal Fanatic
Jul 26, 2014
5219 posts
1679 upvotes
Toronto
http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/asu ... 8f78bfen02

honestly, at the $400 range and in those retailers, you wont find much at all that will be good for gaming.

I would suggest purchasing your own parts, even though you dont want to, and spending an extra $50-75 to get it built by a local shop with warranty on parts+labour ...

maybe bump the budget to 450-500 with installation and make him do some extra housework to "pay it off" lol.. it would be WELL worth it in the long run.

$475 Intel -> http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/guide/d4dnTW ... pc-for-500

$415 AMD -> http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/guide/8Gqqqs ... killer-500
Deal Fanatic
Jul 26, 2014
5219 posts
1679 upvotes
Toronto
Just to add above, for comparison of the bestbuy Graphics card and the 750 ti in the custom builds, you are looking at

Passmark

Radeon HD 8470
348

GeForce GTX 750 Ti
3,687

also , the parts at that price range are SOOOO easy to install, and very difficult to mess up. the amd cpu is easy to seat, ram takes a second, vid card same thing, not much cabling, mount the hard drive, psu, follow motherboard manual for where to connect everything up. save yourself the $75 (canada computers cost w/ 1 yr labor//warranty)
Member
Apr 27, 2003
220 posts
Any suggestion if I were to spend a bit more for ordering off a website direct?? Need for a birthday gift asap, and again, don't want to build one.
Thanks
Deal Addict
Mar 7, 2007
1736 posts
158 upvotes
Toronto

Wouldn't trust it. Minecraft is not so simple anymore. With that being said, HD 4000 graphics on the Baytrail tablets was able to LOAD the game, but once inside it was a laggy nightmare. I really suggest you get a discrete graphics card and avoid on-board. You can definitely put together a nice PC for less than 400$.

Just build it!

http://www.ncix.com/detail/evga-geforce ... 102665.htm <<< something like this, its currently 65$... Has 192 stream processors which is more than enough. You want something from 90-190 stream processors.

Mobo here would be fine, already has a CPU on board with a 2ghz baytrail with 4 cores: http://www.ncix.com/detail/asrock-q1900 ... 7-1049.htm 100$

get your son a 4 gb stick of ddr3, and a 128gb ssd and you're good to go for under 400$ including a cheap mini-itx case, PSU.

Would suggest throwing in a 120mm fan somewhere in the case. But that would be a very nice, quiet and decently powerful rig for minecraft.
Nintendo Switch vibes
Deal Addict
User avatar
Jul 27, 2009
2392 posts
461 upvotes
Don't waste your money on that junk. Not sure how they call that a gaming PC when it uses an Integrated Graphics. If you want to spend that much go to NCIX or Canada Computers and choose your parts and let them put it together for you. Go with something like this:
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/Kjmhxr

You can always add in an SSD down the road. Make sure to tell them to partition the HDD for OS and gaming/backup on 2 different partition. ex. 500GB for the OS/Game and 500GB for the rest. That way when you are ready for an SSD. You will install the OS on that 120GB SSD and the games on your 500GB HDD partition. Any cheapest 8GB ram with DDR3 1600+(heatsink) would do. Same with the R7 260x with 2GB memory or R7 265. Or you can replace the 1TB HDD with a 500GB depend on many games and media stuff you want to put on there for your son.
Banned
Jul 24, 2014
130 posts
11 upvotes
Windsor, ON
Does it have to be NEW? If not, you can pickup just about anything that has a discrete videocard made in the last 6 years and it would be fine. Minecraft is unbelievably easy on hardware; my neice plays on my underclocked Q6600 with an ATI 5770 and it works perfect; those are "throw away" quality parts at this point (Edit: I think it's actually an ATi 9500 ... maybe). She played on my ati 4650 equipped laptop smoothly as well; that thing was cheap 4+ years ago.

I'd bet any of the better APUs from a few years ago could be scooped for basically zero as well; they're easily capable of playing Minecraft.
Deal Expert
Jun 30, 2006
21132 posts
9788 upvotes
Toronto
Get him a used xbox 360 for $80 and a copy of Minecraft for $15. Done.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Jul 27, 2009
2392 posts
461 upvotes
^^There's a whole lot of different playing Minecraft running Java on a Web browser than the one you install on your machine.
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
31271 posts
17295 upvotes
carmaster wrote: Get him a used xbox 360 for $80 and a copy of Minecraft for $15. Done.
Console based Minecraft sucks horribly compared to PC. It's not even the same game at the end of the day.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Oct 26, 2003
39338 posts
6341 upvotes
Winnipeg
get your cheapest dell for around $400

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