Picking Kids Laptop for School Work & Modded Minecraft

[ITGL72]

I've always built our own gaming PCs, but I need help picking a laptop with specs that will not break the bank and allow for dual use. I built my 8 and 9 year olds decent, mild gaming PCs, but for Christmas '15 I want to get them both laptops. It will be for general computer usage, homework at the kitchen table if you will, and *some* gaming, but primarily Minecraft, with some mods. I don't need it to be an all out gaming PC but I want it to at least play Minecraft with mods with good performance.

These are the 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

Anything I should look out for that doesn't translate the same from PC to Laptop hardware when researching this? Anything I should look out for from someone's experience who has maybe gone through this same scenario?

I appreciate you feedback, thank you...

 

[sm625]

Dont get a discrete gpu. They are useless for minecraft. The texture mods make use of a discrete gpu, but the graphics still look like crap. No other mod that I know of needs a proper gpu. You want as much CPU IPC as possible. Which means i5, not i3. Skylake i5 would be ideal for minecraft. I'd go with something that has the specs of a Zenbook UX303UA, albeit it may be a little cheaper to go with i5-5200U. You dont lose much by goign that route.

 

[Mushkins]

I used to play Minecraft just fine on an old core 2 duo Thinkpad. Literally anything they sell on a store shelf these days should more than meet your requirements.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Any particular retailers you have in mind for this purchase? Walmart actually has a few inexpensive laptops that could get the job done.

 

[ITGL72]

I figured best buy since it's close by and has a couple locations.

 

[Blue_Max]

So long as it's not one of those pathetic N-series Atom replacements!

Any new i3 or i5's internal Intel graphics will be perfectly fine for Minecraft and more.

 

[ITGL72]

Maybe a little more expensive than what I originally anticipated, but even though minecraft seems to be their primary game I want to have a little wiggle room to allow it to play some other games as well when a time comes. I've been looking at this one but am still in research mode.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-750gb-hard-drive-gray/7500349.p?id=1219679623926&skuId=7500349#spoke/featuresSpoke

 

[VirtualLarry]

Maybe a little more expensive than what I originally anticipated, but even though minecraft seems to be their primary game I want to have a little wiggle room to allow it to play some other games as well when a time comes. I've been looking at this one but am still in research mode.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-15-...19679623926&skuId=7500349#spoke/featuresSpoke

I'm a bit surprised by those specs. Some things don't seem right.

"750GB mSATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)"

First of all, mSATA is a card-edge form-factor, and is used for SSDs, and SSDs don't have an RPM rating. So does it have a HDD or SSD?

Second, a GT920M video card. That sounds really weak, as far as GPUs go. I would def. research that.

There was a link posted in another sub-forum to a sixth-gen Core laptop with a GT940M, I think at Amzn for a similar price.

There's a Lenovo sold by Adorama on ebay for $199.99, that has an A6-6310 APU. Might want to research MineCraft benchmarks for that APU.

Edit: Here's one with a better GPU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...6&PID=361116&SID=ebs2d0d9344d1448779075057sbe

 

[troisanh]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011KFQASE...olid=3ON36SPUO4IHB&coliid=IK8VH8ZFJB356&psc=1
For price, this would be hard to beat.

 

[ITGL72]

Good points for me to consider. Thanks for the help.