Help with minecraft

[MeeseyM]

Hello I would really appreciate some help in choosing a good PC to run minecraft from. My son who is 10 loves minecraft and wants to be able to update minecraft so that it runs 'mods' that he has seen on his favourite minecraft utube sites especially 'jurassic craft' as he loves dinosaurs. I would like to buy a new PC both for myself for home office and for him to run his minecraft but I want to make sure that these'mods' will be able to run well off it. has anyone any suggestions for a decent affordable PC that will suit this purpose? I would be really grateful as I don't want to spend a fortune only to find out minecraft mods don't run from it. many, many thanks

it shouldn't take too much to run Minecraft decently including mods, i'm not an expert, but i did help my teen son build his own gaming PC so picked up a bit of knowledge.

What's your budget and is it a PC or a laptop and do you need a screen etc or do you have that already?

Hi there, thanks for your reply. I would like to buy a PC and will need a new screen. I don't really want a purely gaming computer as I will need it for home office stuff, but will need something with a graphics card I guess. I have seen an ACER Aspire TC 220 which has an AMD Radeon R5-235 graphics card which is within budget (around £500 including the screen) what do you think? Thanks so much for you advice.

I think you could probably get something with a better graphics card than that within budget though I am sure that would do the job. I'm in bed now but will have a look tomorrow. I've picked up a few from the Dell outlet which might be worth a look.

Virtually every decent computer these days will be able to run mods. Make sure you get a decent graphics card though as suggested above.

does minecraft really need a decent graphics card? it look to me like it would run on an atari.

anyway here are their specs:

Minimum Requirements:
CPU: Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 (K8) 2.6 GHz
RAM: 2GB
GPU (Integrated): Intel HD Graphics or AMD (formerly ATI) Radeon HD Graphics with OpenGL 2.1
GPU (Discrete): Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT or AMD Radeon HD 2400 with OpenGL 3.1
HDD: At least 200MB for Game Core and Other Files
Java 6 Release 45

Recommended Requirements:
CPU: Intel Core i3 or AMD Athlon II (K10) 2.8 GHz
RAM: 4GB
GPU: GeForce 2xx Series or AMD Radeon HD 5xxx Series (Excluding Integrated Chipsets) with OpenGL 3.3
HDD: 1GB
Latest release of Java 7 from java.com

I don't really want a purely gaming computer as I will need it for home office stuff

Doesn't a gaming computer just mean excellent current spec? which becomes basic office spec in 2-3 years, which them becomes baseline spec at 5 years (just like my gaming machine has done. Anyone want a pc running windows vista?)

does minecraft really need a decent graphics card If you don't you need to lower the graphic distance etc and it doesn't look as good or run as smoothly, and we are talking about a pre teen here, his graphic requirements are only going to get more demanding I would think so I'd go for something as good as you can get or at least make sure the rest of the system could cope with an upgrade at a later date i.e. make sure that the PSU etc could cope.

you can of course use a gaming PC for anything else you want to - using for an office PC you really don't need the enhanced graphics but having them doesn't mean you can't use it for office work.

Thanks guys, I think I'll go for a gaming computer!

If you can stretch the budget a wee touch (this doesn't include a monitor) then this might be a good buy?

outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dfh&cs=ukdfh1&puid=cc8ae52c

Alienware X51 R2
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-4460 processor (6M Cache, up to 3.4 GHz)
Windows® 8.1
1 TB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
6 GB (1x4GB+1x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz SDRAM Memory
2 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 Ti
AlienFX Colour : Mars Red
Back Up Media Not Included
Windows® 8.1 (64 Bit) English
8x DVD+/- RW Drive
Wireless : Dell Wireless 1506 Card
Chassis
Dell USB Keyboard

for £526.80 including VAt and a one year warranty.

I had to add it to my basket to get the proper price so it will not be visible until it cancels out my basket in 15 mins or so.

I've had Dell refurbs before and always been happy - the laptops looked brand new and when we did have a small issue with one, they sent out support to fix it under the warranty. Currently typing on a refurb desktop too.

My husband has a dell laptop refurb, he is very happy with it

Hi there, many thanks for all your messages and for your help. I now have my lovely new gaming PC and it is all set up. I have tried to update the boys minecraft with a mod and have fallen at the first hurdle. I do not seem able to be able to install minecraft forge which is the first thing you need to do. Basically I am downloading the version compatible with the mod I want to install but I cant seem to open it with win-zip. I wondered whether it has anything to do with the fact that this PC is not the main computer that minecraft is installed on. The original one is at my x partners house and we have just logged in using his password etc. Do you think that I need to buy and install new minecraft software? or could I be doing else wrong. any advice please?

My son will probably know but he is out in the middle of nowhere at the moment on his DofE expedition. I'll try to ask him when he gets back tomorrow if he is compos mentis - might be worth asking on a Minecraft forum or something in the meantime.

Hope you are enjoying the new PC otherwise.

You need to log on to minecraft on the minecraft website and then download the game, you don't need to buy minecraft again but you do need to install it.
Have you tried a YouTube tutorial for the mod you want? I am almost certain someone will have made a video for it.

Once you have downloaded minecraft have a look at this video,

Hi there, just to let you know that tonight I managed with the help of youtube to install forge and to download my sons fav mod jurassic craft. He will be beyond thrilled tomorrow when I tell him. Thanks all for your help !!!!

Fab! DS2 was knackered when he came back and I forgot to ask him but I see you have managed anyway :)