Need recommendation for notebook for the kids

[boomhower]

Ok, both of my kids are wanting a notebook for Christmas. This is not something I am going to spend a bunch of money on as I believe they will use their iPads most of the time. Usage will be light with the most demanding being light gaming. Biggest thing will be Minecraft, it must work. My younger one plays a lot of flash based online games. Ability to play HD content is desired as well. What internals do I need to look for? (mainly CPU with hopefully integrated GPU is sufficient)

Im eyeing this, would it do the trick?

 

[crashtestdummy]

That celeron is probably a little underpowered, even for minecraft. It'll run it, but it'll really struggle. I might suggest spending a tiny bit more and getting one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834231073
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834312827

The A6 will probably do a little better, but they'll both be leaps and bounds beyond that celeron.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That celeron is probably a little underpowered, even for minecraft. It'll run it, but it'll really struggle. I might suggest spending a tiny bit more and getting one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834231073
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834312827

The A6 will probably do a little better, but they'll both be leaps and bounds beyond that celeron.

Not so fast. The 1007U is a 1.5Ghz Ivy Bridge. The first laptop you linked is 1.4Ghz IB (but with hyperthreading), and the second laptop you linked, appears to be Kabini (The Radeon 8400 is a giveaway.) Kabini is a much weaker core than Ivy Bridge.

Edit: Here's is an A6-5200 review:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2343102

 

[boomhower]

It seems we have some controversy. Anyone else want to jump in?

 

[crashtestdummy]

Not so fast. The 1007U is a 1.5Ghz Ivy Bridge. The first laptop you linked is 1.4Ghz IB (but with hyperthreading), and the second laptop you linked, appears to be Kabini (The Radeon 8400 is a giveaway.) Kabini is a much weaker core than Ivy Bridge.

Edit: Here's is an A6-5200 review:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2343102

The first one I linked to is actually Sandy Bridge, but the celeron's graphics chip is horribly crippled (half the execution units and no video decoding). The Sandy bridge will be a lot better.

Similarly, the Kabini will be about the same in single-threaded compute power as the Celeron, but has 4 cores and MUCH more powerful graphics.

Neither of those are powerhouses by any means, but you'll get solid frame rates for both of them in minecraft at least.

 

[Dr. Canny]

I would suggest either http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-15-6-laptop-4gb-memory-500gb-hard-drive-black-licorice/9772859.p?id=1219041360202&skuId=9772859&ref=06&loc=01&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=9772859&extensionType={adtype}:{network}&s_kwcid=PTC!pla!{keyword}!{matchtype}!{adwords_producttargetid}!{network}!{ifmobile:M}!{creative}&kpid=9772859&k_clickid=791a3692-9690-c029-aafc-00001eb4f452 or http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-15-3521/pd?oc=fncwc201h&model_id=inspiron-15-3521.

 

[crashtestdummy]

I would suggest either http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-15-6-laptop-4gb-memory-500gb-hard-drive-black-licorice/9772859.p?id=1219041360202&skuId=9772859&ref=06&loc=01&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=9772859&extensionType={adtype}:{network}&s_kwcid=PTC!pla!{keyword}!{matchtype}!{adwords_producttargetid}!{network}!{ifmobile:M}!{creative}&kpid=9772859&k_clickid=791a3692-9690-c029-aafc-00001eb4f452 or http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-15-3521/pd?oc=fncwc201h&model_id=inspiron-15-3521.

The second one in particular would be better than the Sandy Bridge I posted.

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2348039

I took the liberty of posing a Q to the PC gaming forum about several of the first machines discussed, and no-one thought that they would be enough.

I did not initially remember or realize that Minecraft was written in Java.

I think a laptop with an A8 or A10 Richland quad-core should be good for Minecraft, however, those will likely run you north of $500 ea if buying new.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The first one I linked to is actually Sandy Bridge, but the celeron's graphics chip is horribly crippled (half the execution units and no video decoding). The Sandy bridge will be a lot better.

Oh, just to mention, the Celeron does have hardware video decoding, it doesn't have hardware support for trans-coding (ripping blu-ray to mkv, for example). Intel calls that QuickSync.

 

[sm625]

If they have an ipad then there is almost no use for the notebook form factor. You can go on ebay and get a couple E8600 desktops for $100 each and slap a 7750 in each one for a total cost of $600 (including 2 22" monitors)

 

[corkyg]

Agree with sm625. You can also give them your notebook and you get yourself a new one. I believe in hand-me-downs.

 

[boomhower]

If they have an ipad then there is almost no use for the notebook form factor. You can go on ebay and get a couple E8600 desktops for $100 each and slap a 7750 in each one for a total cost of $600 (including 2 22" monitors)

Hadn't considered this route, certainly will look into it.

Agree with sm625. You can also give them your notebook and you get yourself a new one. I believe in hand-me-downs.

They aren't getting my macbook and I haven't had it long enough to justify the expense of a new one. I do apply this theory to cell phone though.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Have you made a decision yet? Curious whether you go with cheap desktops or laptops.

Kaveri (FM2+ quad-core desktop APUs with GCN graphics cores and HSA capability) should be out in Jan.

 

[monstercameron]

Not so fast. The 1007U is a 1.5Ghz Ivy Bridge. The first laptop you linked is 1.4Ghz IB (but with hyperthreading), and the second laptop you linked, appears to be Kabini (The Radeon 8400 is a giveaway.) Kabini is a much weaker core than Ivy Bridge.

Edit: Here's is an A6-5200 review:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2343102

minecraft runs just fine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsKrUVnKLwk

 

[Fayd]

FWIW, minecraft runs terrible on HD4000 graphics. my laptop is an i5-3320M with HD4000 graphics, and minecraft is pretty sluggish on it.

Pretty sure the problem is integrated graphics. go with the A6. Minecraft doesn't require a lot of graphics performance, but more than the intel integrated can provide.