Which laptop to get for a 10 y.o. which will do him for secondary school AND support MINECRAFT PC version?

[everythingiknow]

Hi all you knowledgeable geeks out there, please can I have some advice from the experienced? 10 y.o DS is desperate for his own laptop, and will get one for his birthday next month. To him (!) the priority is to be able to get Minecraft (PC version) on it... For me, it needs to be capable of this, but primarily robust enough/ able to meet his future needs in secondary school. So, which to go for?

I don't want to get something so cheap that it won't survive what he will probably put it through (I've heard rumours that Minecraft PC makes laptops work hard and is heavy on memory??); we can't afford top dollar, but would pay a little extra for quality and longevity....

Thanks in advance for any suggestions (recommendations or warnings are equally welcomed)..

I'm not much a specs person but I do know that Minecraft PC makes the hardware work very fast, and therefore get very hot.

If you wander into PC world or curry's and say you are looking for a laptop for Minecraft you should be able to pick up some useful information and advice. The effectiveness of the cooling system is just as important as what's inside because if it gets too hot it will keep shutting down, or worse still burn out.

Also keep laptop cool by not using it on lap, using a riser to keep it raised off the desk and encourage air flow, especially one with a fan that plugs in via USB.

We have same issue but are not getting a laptop. Minecraft really burns up ours. We are going to buy him a refurbished PC. We can't afford a new one and thus way if he kills it by downloading mods we won't be too devastated. My dh looked into it as he initially thought he may need a special gaming computer but he decided annirdinarybone will be do.

An ordinary one! Not a bone!

Get one with a dedicated graphics card rather than an integrated one.

Wow, thanks so much guys - I hear the voices of experience here - much appreciated!

I was thinking of having a wander into PC World/Curry's shortly to ask for some advice, so will do that too. What you've said here echoes things I've overheard other people say recently. reup I like the sound of getting a refurbished PC, actually (what indeed is the point of paying out for a high-spec machine when he might trash it just through gaming...)

Just wondered what you ended up doing Everything ?

It's DS 10th birthday next week and we have agreed he can have a laptop.. DH is no help at all in such matters. I am not at all upto date on these things..

Have been to PCWORLD... the guy in the local shop said " oh no.. you cant just have any PC for minecraft you need to go to the big store". Went to the big store and the guy there said " Any of these will be fine"

So now my head is spinning .... dont want to spend the earth as he is only 10, but I will be worst parent ever if I buy something which blows up when he loads his precious minecraft.

Does anyone have Stampys number ?!

Hi there Wizzler

I got lots of super advice from my Barclays Concierge Service (yes! a great add-on I hadn't used before with an account I have) - I let them do most of the groundwork, and in the end we went for the Acer V5-571 which was on offer at PCWorld for 499.97 (about 100 off). We'd have saved a bit more than that if we'd gone for a refurbed version of the same.

It ended up actually costing a fair bit more, what with the optional MS Office Home/Student2013, KnowHow Cloud etc(there was a good optional 'bundle' which we got too) and they set it all up, incl. the downloading of Minecraft and Technic - which they told me is also great with Minecraft. (Mind you we did pay an extra 30 later for an extra 'Showhow' session, so that DS could learn how to use Technic - that was well worth it, he really loves that now). - so it all ended up costing around the 700 mark, but we did opt to have 4GB extra RAM put in (not essential as it has 4GB already). It's been great so far. Good luck!

Thanks... ... I feel so out of my depth!