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Canoeboy said:
With minecraft if you play it online the mods are generally at the server end not the host pc end i believe

At least thats what i know from my daughters and setting up a MC server for them

Steps i may have a decent graphics card at work looking for a home, give me a week as I'm having a clear out, if i find it ill let you know
Click to expand...
Star man

Btw, 

Playing minecraft on that PC is not an issue whatsoever,

But, I don't allow him as I don't want to compromise it as that is where all my work stuff is kept, backed up.

But, I think that makes the point that it doesn't take the latest all singing/dancing stuff, 

I've saw a couple sub £200 that I'll link up once I get on laptop that you guys can pass comment on,

tbh, that's about my budget for a PC for an 8 yo, 

I was thinking £250 max by the time I'd forked out for a graphics card, monitor, and wireless keyboard etc. 

 
Minecraft specs if it helps:

https://help.mojang.com/customer/en/portal/articles/325948-minecraft-system-requirements

My boy has just commented that irrespective of the fact the game's online you need a decent spec because Minecraft is so badly "optimised". It has to run so many calculations. He reckons the CPU is more important than the GPU as it has to handle incoming as well as outgoing data. He said he thinks a minimum of 8GB RAM as he "runs a bunch of other stuff" simultaneously. 

Don't shoot the messenger!  :lol:

 
Ok, so my lad won't be running a bunch of other stuff, and, I was looking at something like 4G ram with expansion room for the future.

Canoe, I'm gonna buy minecraft for PC and run it on that RAID one I have and try it on TEF server, then that way I have a benchmark I suppose 

Ok,

So just something else,

Is a dual core 2.5 better than a quad core 2

I have heard that if you are only doing one thing, then it's pure speed you want, the cores are only if you are doing more than.one thing at a time.

Obviously the above figures have been picked from the air, but you get the idea,

Prices are about relative for the above figures. 

 
It's not entirely about how many things you are doing but how many things you are doing that are capable of using multiple cores.

There's probably not much in it really with the above examples you picked, the internet would probably be the limiting factor rather than the local resources.

 
Lurch said:
Yep, looks OK.

Why? Spend the money on maxing out the memory instead.

Yes, the graphics will be onboard.
Click to expand...
I thought I had to upgrade the PSU if I put a bigger graphics card in?

the card says it needs 300w,

the PC only has a 300w PSU, so I thought that would be already almost maxed out with the PC requirements,

remember, I know nothing of these things,  :C

 
steptoe said:
I thought I had to upgrade the PSU if I put a bigger graphics card in?  :C

Me too, we upped the boys card to a 500W when we put in his HD6770 1GB GDDR5 Radeon a while back. Spec said it needed a 450W psu......and we only had a 400W in it.

A lot of these cards have their own power connector that you feed straight from the PSU.
Click to expand...
 
Im completely lost now,I really have not got any idea what Im doing

so, by going on what someone else suggested, an i3 whatever,

there is this, http://www.ebuyer.com/662316-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7260-3025

thats my top end budget, is that better than the other one with the added graphics?

or, is it the fact that no matter what I buy, an extra graphics card is the deal maker?

 
NozSpark said:
I also have no idea,,, but that also has an onboard graphics card..... however you can always upgrade at a later time if you need to
Click to expand...
thats what I thought Noz,

and a google search says its fine for minecraft at normal use,

and, might be better for a family PC [and future proof] that the wife can use [and me] and if need be get a graphics card and PSU later if it needs it,

I just couldnt afford 250 and then more for a graphics card and psu,

 
I bought my daughter a £200 laptop a couple of years ago... She hardly uses it because it's so laggy...

I'll have to buy her another new one before the next school year I think,,, but this time it'll have to be the dogs danglies so that it'll last her through 6th form and hopefully uni

 
steptoe said:
I thought I had to upgrade the PSU if I put a bigger graphics card in?
Click to expand...
Only really necessary for high end cards, I have never need to upgrade a power supply when using a budget graphics card. I'll have a look at a couple of my machines this week and check specs but none of them had anything hefty in them, just OEM power supply and cheap graphics card.

steptoe said:
the card says it needs 300w,

the PC only has a 300w PSU, so I thought that would be already almost maxed out with the PC requirements,
Click to expand...
I can't see that card using 300W though, that's 25A on the 12V rail, or 60A on the 5V so I would assume it means min 300W PSU taking into account mainboard requirements.

 
Lurch said:
Only really necessary for high end cards, I have never need to upgrade a power supply when using a budget graphics card. I'll have a look at a couple of my machines this week and check specs but none of them had anything hefty in them, just OEM power supply and cheap graphics card.

I can't see that card using 300W though, that's 25A on the 12V rail, or 60A on the 5V so I would assume it means min 300W PSU taking into account mainboard requirements.
Click to expand...
thanks for that Lurch,

I did say I knew nothing of such things,,,

may be pushing me now towards the 'better' i3 PC then,

and maybe get his grandad or someone to buy him the graphics card if anyone thinks it still needs it,

otherwise he will have to wait until his birthday in March, which might not be a bad thing,

as long as I think it will be ok with onboard until then, I suppose I can always get it and try next week, still gives me time if it really doers need added graphics to get some.

Im just think the 'better' processor, more RAM etc, might make it last a few extra years before I have to shell out again. hopefully.

 
steptoe said:
Im just think the 'better' processor, more RAM etc, might make it last a few extra years before I have to shell out again. hopefully.
Click to expand...
You can't really plan these things, I have some budget PC's that still work OK and I have seen some high end PC's that don't last long at all so all you can do is hope for the best to some extent.

General PC buying tips that have not let me down really so far are;

  • Stick to Intel & Nvidia (AMD and ATI are nothing but a PITA IME)
  • Do not buy Celeron or Atom based PCs.
  • Check the max memory as some are limited, and max it out if you can
  • Stick a cheap graphics card in.
 
Lurch said:
You can't really plan these things, I have some budget PC's that still work OK and I have seen some high end PC's that don't last long at all so all you can do is hope for the best to some extent.

General PC buying tips that have not let me down really so far are;

  • Stick to Intel & Nvidia (AMD and ATI are nothing but a PITA IME)  my thinking also, I use Ubuntu and they both seem to work OOTB
  • Do not buy Celeron or Atom based PCs. I thought that was just a cheaper lower performing intel?
  • Check the max memory as some are limited, and max it out if you can  both I've looked at are 16G, I wont be going that big,,,,,
  • Stick a cheap graphics card in.  depends on budget, as above post, maybe that can wait a couple of months,
Click to expand...
cheers Lurch, its all these different numbers and stuff for the chips does my head in,

ie,

is a 4750 really better than an i3 3160  ?  :shakehead

why dont they just have a system where the number is the better model,?

I'm sure they do it to confuse people like me,,,,,,

 
Last edited by a moderator:
steptoe said:
I thought that was just a cheaper lower performing intel?
Click to expand...
It is, but they are not really much cop for anything.

steptoe said:
cheers Lurch, its all these different numbers and stuff for the chips does my head in,

ie,

is a 4750 really better than an i3 3160  ?  :shakehead

why dont they just have a system where the number is the better model,?

I'm sure they do it to confuse people like me,,,,,,
Click to expand...
They used to make some sense when everything was single core so it was all pretty much relative, once things went multi-core as standard it got more confusing, hence all the numbers which are pretty much meaningless anyway. e.g I'd have a 4 core 2Ghz over a 2 core 2.5Ghz, but it isn't entirely that simple as mentioned before with not many programs being able to use multiple cores.

 
Lurch said:
It is, but they are not really much cop for anything.

They used to make some sense when everything was single core so it was all pretty much relative, once things went multi-core as standard it got more confusing, hence all the numbers which are pretty much meaningless anyway. e.g I'd have a 4 core 2Ghz over a 2 core 2.5Ghz, but it isn't entirely that simple as mentioned before with not many programs being able to use multiple cores.
Click to expand...
ok, so, in your knowledge, experience, and as I said I know absolutely nothing of these things,

would I be better off with the cheaper PC with 4G RAM and a graphics card, or the more expensive i3 PC with 8G RAM and no graphics card?

if it came to the push i could prob get a pair of 4G RAM cards for the cheaper PC, about 35£, so then they come out at about the same price.

I suppose its down to , do you think the i3 chip is worth the extra money.?

 

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