Chromebook or very basic laptop for Minecraft and +

Mountainsandh

Mr Mountains is currently in US, and he's been handed responsibility for picking up a laptop for our 6 year old boy (he's on the "good" list).

He wants it mostly for Minecraft, and viewing Youtube.

See, I'd rather get him a laptop than an Xbox since imo it's more useful and educational, there's more to be got out of it.

Last year we got a lovely Toshiba basic laptop for our 8 year old for 300$. It's great and is able for Minecraft and lots of other little things she does.

But Mr Mountains just told me of the Chromebook, thing is, the lads in US stores are not very knowledgeable for the most part, and I don't understand specs very well.
The Chromebook seems more compact than an ordinary laptop, and the price is good. But does it have decent speakers ? Can it only take apps ?

So what do you guys recommend ?

Basic laptop, or Chromebook for Minecraft and more ?

Thanks a lot !

edit : am looking at specs and threads on here, and notice that someone mentioned Chromebooks are pretty much useless if offline ?
So I guess, any advice on good basic laptops ? Thanks again.

GarIT

Chromebook is basically just the google chrome browser used as an operating system. You can't play any games or anything it's mainly just for the internet.

Mountainsandh

Thanks just seeing that now looking at threads.

How are netbooks/small laptops for Minecraft ? Ones with Windows. I remember seeing them last year, but I was expecting advice from sellers about processors for Minecraft, and they just couldn't tell me.

Johro

Laptop ftw.
Also, I have my fairly basic Toshiba laptop for years now, (coming up to eight yrs) never a problem with it. Mine is a Satellite Pro model.
I'd say buy another Toshiba, you couldn't go gar wrong, they're reliable and built on a sturdy chassis. It would also be worth looking at one with a decent graphics card and enough RAM.
I don't worry too much about the size of the hard drive as you can always use a portable HDD if you need to expand. RAM is important, and the ability to upgrade the RAM.

Mountainsandh

Yeah, looking at the Toshiba, price is even gone down on last year, well no, last March to be precise. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/satellite-15-6-laptop-4gb-memory-500gb-hard-drive/1689021.p?id=1219060689174&skuId=1689021&st=categoryid$abcat0502000&cp=1&lp=6
$229 !

But I'm open to other suggestions.
Size wise, a smaller format would be great.

Overheal

But Mr Mountains just told me of the Chromebook, thing is, the lads in US stores are not very knowledgeable for the most part,

you're in the wrong stores...

Chromebook no. Laptop yes. Not a fan of toshiba they can be quite flimsy. HP perhaps?

Mountainsandh

Whatever Mr Mountains can find on the road, he's touring so it has to be convenient. Best Buys and other chains.
It was my first time there and I thought they would be on top of their game there, but to give you a simple example, we bought a 3ds and asked very clearly if it would work in Ireland, and were told that it would, only to find on coming back here that in fact it doesn't work with EU games.
Pretty simple thing really.
And in another shop, no one could advise on whether the notebook type laptops would be suitable/sufficient for Minecraft.

Looking at the HPs. Maybe if he found a refurbished, they're about 100$ more brand new otherwise. They look great though.

byte

Overheal wrote: »

Chromebook no. Laptop yes. Not a fan of toshiba they can be quite flimsy. HP perhaps?

I'd agree with the comment on flimsy Toshiba laptops, I'm also not a fan, and repairs can be a nuisance at present as the place that fixed Toshiba laptops in Ireland is gone and are currently being sent to Germany which creates a fair delay.

Mountainsandh

Precious info there, thanks.

GarIT

If you want to check what laptops you can run minecraft on, just check the processor on this site, make sure you get the full and exact model number, not something similar. If the processor scores 1,000 or more in the collum Passmark CPU Mark you can run Minecraft. Provided you also have 2GB of RAM and a Windows OS.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

Overheal

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Whatever Mr Mountains can find on the road, he's touring so it has to be convenient. Best Buys and other chains.
It was my first time there and I thought they would be on top of their game there, but to give you a simple example, we bought a 3ds and asked very clearly if it would work in Ireland, and were told that it would, only to find on coming back here that in fact it doesn't work with EU games.
Pretty simple thing really.
And in another shop, no one could advise on whether the notebook type laptops would be suitable/sufficient for Minecraft.

Looking at the HPs. Maybe if he found a refurbished, they're about 100$ more brand new otherwise. They look great though.

Asking about international compatibility is not that simple, in relative terms. You're also prone to speaking to Seasonal/Temp staff and not FT/PT employees who have been around long enough to know. And frankly when it comes to knowledgeable people in blue shirts, I'm an exception rather than the rule. /toot

The HPs are typically more because of better quality. Especially C-series Toshibas (eg. C655) are built feebly and I wouldnt expect it to last long in the hands of a child. Best Buy has some bundle boxed laptops which aren't all that bad either, and they come with a mouse and things. Look for a lime green box with an HP laptop in it. Should be around $315 marked clearance. Employees will know it as a "Laptop Essentials Bundle". If you find it, it's pretty decent. No CD Drive, but no problem either. What comes on a CD anymore? Nothing.

Mountainsandh

Thanks, I'll tell Mr M to look out for that, the packs are great, I remember we nearly went for one.

Not too pushed about cd drive either. Not worried about hard drive space either.

For the customer service, I guess it's the same as everywhere, some people who are genuinely interested in their job make it their business to keep on the ball, and others don't care. It's the same in France where I come from, you could have a very passionate guy, or someone who just doesn't know.
We just didn't get the "on the ball" guys then.

Mountainsandh

GarIT thanks for the link, I think I've found some lovely small Asus laptops in a BestBuy on his way that have a suitable processor
Intel® Celeron® processor 1007U
Features a 2MB L3 cache and 1.5GHz processor speed. 11.6" touchscreen and 4GB memory, they look lovely and this shop in Virginia seems to have 3 or 4 of these models to get rid of. I have an asus for work, I find it very sturdy build wise (except for cd drive, but these don't have one).
They also have a Toshiba Satellite with scratches on bezel for $188 !
Hopefully Mr M will have time to stop there soon.

Thanks all for the advice, appreciated.

Overheal

While a brand new celeron isn't the slowest thing in the world, it is ostensibly one of the slowest CPUs you will find within a brand new PC short of an AMD E-series.

Find something with at least a Pentium, or AMD A6. This time of year there are a lot of great deals on Intel i3s also.

Johro

Overheal wrote: »

you're in the wrong stores...

Chromebook no. Laptop yes. Not a fan of toshiba they can be quite flimsy. HP perhaps?

Flimsy?? For real?
Jeez mine is real feckin solid, and one of Toshiba's selling points is the build quality.
On the other hand, friend of mine got a HP laptop, expensive one too, and when you open it up the top half with the screen in it is pretty bendy and feels proper flimsy. I guess you have to check it out no matter what brand you buy, but I have had Toshiba's before and always found them to be solidly built.
Maybe it's a case of cutting costs and quality suffering, that's always possible, could be they're not as good as they used to be.
But I have never had any problems with them, that's for sure.

Johro

The processor in my eight yr old Toshiba satellite pro is 1.87 GHz.
The Asus one, I don't know, I wouldn't consider it good enough.

(by the way, this laptop is solid as a brick, but I agree about the c-series. Could be the Satellite Pro is just a much better series)

GarIT

Johro wrote: »

The processor in my eight yr old Toshiba satellite pro is 1.87 GHz.
The Asus one, I don't know, I wouldn't consider it good enough.

(by the way, this laptop is solid as a brick, but I agree about the c-series. Could be the Satellite Pro is just a much better series)

GHz as a measure of performance has been completely irrlelvant since about 2000. How good a processor performs is down to archetecture and clock speed (GHz) means nothing anymore. I can show you 1.6GHz procesor that outperforms a 4GHz processor.

A note to add to what I posted earlier anything that scores above 1,000 is within the minimum requirements set by the creators of minecraft. That just means it will run, not run well.