Chromebook or something similar for basics and Minecraft?

[thestrangebrew1]

So my daughter had a fundraiser and whoever sold the most candy bars would win a Chromebook. Well she didn't win, and told us she wanted a chromebook for xmas. I know nothing about chromebooks, but she plays Minecraft a ton and from what I've read, any chromebook with an intel processor and HD gpu would run it. Their prices vary, but looking to be around $150-$200. If that's the case, considering most if not all only come with 2gb RAM, should I up the ante and just get her a laptop? If so, my budget would be $300 max, in which a laptop with decent specs is highly unlikely. If I don't do the laptop, what chromebook would you guys recommend?

 

[sandorski]

2gb of RAM is going to be a major issue. I have a Win10 Notebook with 4gb of RAM and it has issues with 5 Tabs open in the Edge browser. Different OSes to be sure, but I doubt that much different. At the very least wait for someone to comment with experience running Minecraft on Chrome.

 

[JackTheBear]

2 GB of RAM would cripple a Windows notebook, but it's not a major issue on a Chromebook, even with 10 tabs open (depending on what sites they are of course). 4 GB is preferable if you can get it, but 2 GB isn't a deal buster. Chromebooks based on recent Intel Celeron processors (or better) provide a very reasonable experience - they perform the way you want a laptop to perform

. As far as Minecraft goes, there is at least one unofficial version in the Web Store, and if you get a Chromebook that can run Android apps there is an official Android version of Minecraft in the Play Store. You could also install Crossover for ChromeOS from the Web Store to install the Windows version, which probably works, but I'm not certain, I don't play Minecraft. You can also install Steam and Windows games, and the Windows versions of MS Office too, assuming you have enough disk space.

Assuming your daughter is school aged, most schools (around me at least, in Massachusetts) tell students to use Google Docs because it's free and available on any PC the student has access to, so a Chromebook has her covered for school needs. Some of the public schools around here actually distribute Chromebooks to the students.

And updates on ChromeOS are a vastly better experience than Windows 10. They download in the background - you don't even know it's happening. No degradation of performance, and when it's time to install them, they install the next time you reboot, and the longest one I've experienced took about 3 minutes. That was a big one that brought me the play store. Most other updates took less than a minute, or happened immediately. I can't tell you how many times I've taken my Windows 10 laptop to lunch, opened it up and it started installing updates which made it useless during my lunch break. They've sort of fixed that since, but at least to me, when updates are downloading/pending in Windows, performance isn't right and wifi is kind of crippled. This is what pushed me to try a Chromebook and I'm probably not going back to Windows 10 any time soon.

There is a whole lot to like about newer Chromebooks and very few drawbacks.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Great information thank you. She's 8 but her school is not on the google ecosystem, yet. I believe they were considering it but haven't pulled the trigger. She plays MC on the pc and MC Pocket Edition from the Play Store, so it looks like that would be covered. I'll look for an intel chip and 4gb ram for the system.

 

[kenzz]

The advantage of having a chromebook for a child is that there is less risk of the OS being messed up; there is less risk of downloading malware etc and even relatively cheap chromebooks usually have very good battery life.

I have happily used an 11.6" 4GB chromebook for several months. I find that the 16GB SSD is OK for my needs but definitely agree that 4GB RAM is preferable. I recommend searching for the latest list of chromebooks that already have or are planned to have access to Android apps and buy one of those on the list.

Mine is an Asus Chromebook C202SA with a Celeron N3050 and 4GB of RAM. A bit above your budget at $229 but already has Android access and is ruggedized and has a spill-resistant keyboard ... possibly ideal for an 8 year old.

 

[Torn Mind]

You have another computer to take care of word processing requirements, etc? Consider it an expensive toy purchase that she might tire of 3 years from now and just get her one.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

I'm having trouble confirming if some of these Intel Celeron chips will run MC. I was just thinking of going with a Dell chromebook 3180 that has 4gb ram and an n3060 chip hd 400 braswell. Anyone know if this will run MC? Of course I'll have to determine if this run play store apps too now.

(Spam removed)

 

[MarkizSchnitzel]

2gb of RAM is going to be a major issue. I have a Win10 Notebook with 4gb of RAM and it has issues with 5 Tabs open in the Edge browser. Different OSes to be sure, but I doubt that much different. At the very least wait for someone to comment with experience running Minecraft on Chrome.

I find this hard to believe.

I have an old T100 with only 2GB of RAM. I can "easily" have 30+ tabs in Chrome opened. Occasionally there is a reload, but not nearly as much as you would expect. Under W8 it was even better, but it's still OK.
Obviously, what pages are loaded is a major factor. Bullshit like FB are hogs. On the other hand, ad and banner heavy porn sites are surprisingly easy on the resources

 

[thecoolnessrune]

It's worth noting that you can only officially play the Android version of Minecraft Bedrock Edition on a Chromebook, because Chrome Web Store does not have any Minecraft Edition. To play Minecraft Java Edition, you either need to install Linux outright on it, or Install Crouton so you can install a chroot environment that you can switch in and out of (between say ChromeOS and Ubuntu). Either way you'll have to enable Developer Mode on it. This is because ChromeOS does not allow Java to be run on it.

If she plays modded Minecraft, dollars to doughnuts its Minecraft Java Edition, otherwise, it's going to be some form of Bedrock Edition if she's playing it on a mobile device or console.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

It's worth noting that you can only officially play the Android version of Minecraft Bedrock Edition on a Chromebook, because Chrome Web Store does not have any Minecraft Edition. To play Minecraft Java Edition, you either need to install Linux outright on it, or Install Crouton so you can install a chroot environment that you can switch in and out of (between say ChromeOS and Ubuntu). Either way you'll have to enable Developer Mode on it. This is because ChromeOS does not allow Java to be run on it.

If she plays modded Minecraft, dollars to doughnuts its Minecraft Java Edition, otherwise, it's going to be some form of Bedrock Edition if she's playing it on a mobile device or console.

Thanks. Yea I was reading up on a few guides on installing linux or crouton. She plays Vanilla MC on the desktop, and Pocket Edition on her Ipad. She doesn't play any mods that I'm aware of.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Just an update. I ended up just getting her a 13" inspiron laptop with 4gb and a celeron processor. I'm also going to throw in an ssd I have laying around. I figured for the specs and prices, with the laptop she could do more if she wanted. Thanks for responses regardless!