Can anyone tell me if it is possible to play Minecraft on the Chromebooks, and if so how well does it work?
I have a son who is turning 9 next month, and both he and his 14 year-old brother are avid Minecraft players. The 9 year old has been playing a downloaded Windows 7 version, but the 14 year old has his own account, and it is on his laptop that they both play.
I have been thinking about getting the least expensive laptop available, and that would appear to be an Acer Chromebook for $299. I have read all the negative things about the OS, and have taken all of that into account, justifying it on the basis that even if the whole premise fails, I will only have lost a few hundred dollars. I read somewhere that Minecraft can be played if you turn on the Developer Mode and install Java by jailbreaking the machine. Would that actually work, would it invalidate the warranty, and how well would it operate?
I guess the more basic question is: what are the minimum requirements that would allow him to play Minecraft? In addition, is there some way that my son could use the worlds he has created on the current laptop on the newer machine?
All of the chromebooks use Intel IGPs so they will run it like crap.
In that price range the only laptops that will run Minecraft are the ones with an AMD APU
The A8 series does more then max the game but can be in the 500$ range.
All of the chromebooks use Intel IGPs so they will run it like crap.
In that price range the only laptops that will run Minecraft are the ones with an AMD APU
The A8 series does more then max the game but can be in the 500$ range.
That will get you by but you should look to get an A6 or A8. Such as this http://www.newegg.co...N82E16834215258
Will run the game far fancy with x64 texturepack at 60fps.
You can move the worlds over go to run
Type in %appdata%
Look in the .minecraft folder they are in the saves folder.
No, I would definitely NOT recommend Chromebooks. Find one on either Craigslist or at a clearance on Staples or something that has a really good GPU. You probably want to avoid Acer.
Chromebooks are for mostly web browsing and using some chrome apps. It's not intended for gaming. So i don't recommend it.
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No, I would definitely NOT recommend Chromebooks. Find one on either Craigslist or at a clearance on Staples or something that has a really good GPU. You probably want to avoid Acer.
Are you actually recommending someone to buy from Craigslist that place is full of people ripping each others off. You should get something with a good GPU thanks for the advice good thing you came in the other posters told them to get an underpowered GPU. Nothing is wrong with Acer my experience with them has been good especially that there desktops have thumb screws and do not require screws to pull the harddrive out and have used good brands of PSUs.
Are you actually recommending someone to buy from Craigslist that place is full of people ripping each others off. You should get something with a good GPU thanks for the advice good thing you came in the other posters told them to get an underpowered GPU. Nothing is wrong with Acer my experience with them has been good especially that there desktops have thumb screws and do not require screws to pull the harddrive out and have used good brands of PSUs.
Chromebooks are for mostly web browsing and using some chrome apps. It's not intended for gaming. So i don't recommend it.
Also true. You CAN take them apart and install Win 7 but it runs like crap. My brother did it to his and it freezes on him because it isnt designed to do that. I mean you can kind of play online but it isnt worth it. Basically buy an APU and you will be fine.
Can anyone tell me if it is possible to play Minecraft on the Chromebooks, and if so how well does it work?
I have a son who is turning 9 next month, and both he and his 14 year-old brother are avid Minecraft players. The 9 year old has been playing a downloaded Windows 7 version, but the 14 year old has his own account, and it is on his laptop that they both play.
I have been thinking about getting the least expensive laptop available, and that would appear to be an Acer Chromebook for $299. I have read all the negative things about the OS, and have taken all of that into account, justifying it on the basis that even if the whole premise fails, I will only have lost a few hundred dollars. I read somewhere that Minecraft can be played if you turn on the Developer Mode and install Java by jailbreaking the machine. Would that actually work, would it invalidate the warranty, and how well would it operate?
I guess the more basic question is: what are the minimum requirements that would allow him to play Minecraft? In addition, is there some way that my son could use the worlds he has created on the current laptop on the newer machine?
Tried to quote myself and posted it instead (sorry).
Thanks to all of you for the quick replies and help
My next question would be CPU/GPU/APU choice, and platform alternatives. Obviously, Minecraft itself is not as demanding a game as others, but would most i3 and entry AMD CPUs be adequate for game use (as you can tell, I myself am not a gamer)? Is it worth the extra money to splurge for an i7, as he will undoubtedly grow into other games and use this machine for schoolwork? What about netbooks, tablets, and Macs? I have both a MacBook Pro i5 with Lion OS 10.7 and a pre-Intel G5 iMac running OS 10.5.5 Leopard. Are the file portability issues we discussed earlier the same?
In addition to the cost issue, there is the reputation of the manufacturer. You mentioned Acer. I understand that Asus, Apple, Lenovo, Samsung, HP most of the time and Toshiba most of the time are reputable and dependable.
Tried to quote myself and posted it instead (sorry).
Thanks to all of you for the quick replies and help
My next question would be CPU/GPU/APU choice, and platform alternatives. Obviously, Minecraft itself is not as demanding a game as others, but would most i3 and entry AMD CPUs be adequate for game use (as you can tell, I myself am not a gamer)? Is it worth the extra money to splurge for an i7, as he will undoubtedly grow into other games and use this machine for schoolwork? What about netbooks, tablets, and Macs? I have both a MacBook Pro i5 with Lion OS 10.7 and a pre-Intel G5 iMac running OS 10.5.5 Leopard. Are the file portability issues we discussed earlier the same?
In addition to the cost issue, there is the reputation of the manufacturer. You mentioned Acer. I understand that Asus, Apple, Lenovo, Samsung, HP most of the time and Toshiba most of the time are reputable and dependable.
Thanks again
stmc
The i3 is generally enough for most games that exist right now. If you are going for higher level gaming (eg Battlefield on max graphics and possibly future games) an i5 will be handy. The i7 will provide no difference in gaming from the i5, since the only difference is that the i7 is hyper-threaded, which mainly boosts multi-threaded apps (EG Video Editing, rendering ETC).
One thing you NEED to be aware of when buying laptops (and cheaper desktops) is that they have a decent graphics card. Anything named ''Intel HD'' is bad, and won't even run Minecraft. A graphics card is an essential part of the computer, and although there are graphics cards intergrated into the i3, i5 and i7 they suck hard. To get a good dedicated graphics card you need to spend at least 7-800$ (if getting a laptop), so your next choice would be an AMD APU (basically a much better version of the intel intergrated graphics. The proccessor itself isn't as powerful as intel's, but the graphics card that is intergrated is alot better). The first reply to this thread (by Xaanos) posted links to very nice laptop's with APU's.
And Macs are not really built for gamers. Their parts are quite expensive, the parts are not designed for gaming (rather office work/video editing), and many games are not compatible with the Mac OS. Tablets are not designed for gaming, and nor are netbooks (the name gives it away, they are to browse the internet and most likely have intergrated graphics cards by intel).
HP and Dell are the brands you can not trust. Alienware is a sub-branch of Dell, so that also sucks.
Obviously, Minecraft itself is not as demanding a game as others, but would most i3 and entry AMD CPUs be adequate for game use (as you can tell, I myself am not a gamer)?
The Intel i3 is enough if your sons won't be doing anything else while playing games with high system requirements. The i5 is enough to run a screen recorder alongside a game to record what they're doing. The i7 is mainly intended for complex 3D modelling, so using it to play games is overkill.
Is it worth the extra money to splurge for an i7, as he will undoubtedly grow into other games and use this machine for schoolwork?
Not at this moment, no. The i7 is very powerful and expensive. By the time games are able to utilize that much power Intel will probably have another, less expensive CPU available.
What about netbooks, tablets, and Macs? I have both a MacBook Pro i5 with Lion OS 10.7 and a pre-Intel G5 iMac running OS 10.5.5 Leopard. Are the file portability issues we discussed earlier the same?
You should still be able to move their saved words around, but not many PC games are compatible with OSX. OSX isn't really an option for a computer intended to be used for games. Netbooks, as stated above, are only intended for light Internet browsing; tablets are... not really good for anything.
In addition to the cost issue, there is the reputation of the manufacturer. You mentioned Acer. I understand that Asus, Apple, Lenovo, Samsung, HP most of the time and Toshiba most of the time are reputable and dependable.
HP's dv5 series has overheating problems, actually. I don't have much experience with other manufacturers.
My next question would be CPU/GPU/APU choice, and platform alternatives. Obviously, Minecraft itself is not as demanding a game as others, but would most i3 and entry AMD CPUs be adequate for game use (as you can tell, I myself am not a gamer)?
It IS relatively demanding, AKA you do need a dedicated GPU and a half-decent processor.
Is it worth the extra money to splurge for an i7, as he will undoubtedly grow into other games and use this machine for schoolwork? What about netbooks, tablets, and Macs? I have both a MacBook Pro i5 with Lion OS 10.7 and a pre-Intel G5 iMac running OS 10.5.5 Leopard. Are the file portability issues we discussed earlier the same?
Even if you were to get the best laptop out there, in 3 years it'll be rendered near-useless. Netbooks, on the most part, are crappy. Tablets aren't good for gaming, and are only to be purchased if you don't need a computer.
In addition to the cost issue, there is the reputation of the manufacturer. You mentioned Acer. I understand that Asus, Apple, Lenovo, Samsung, HP most of the time and Toshiba most of the time are reputable and dependable.
Good manufacturers:
Asus
Lenovo
Acer
MSI
There are a couple others, but they are for high-end desktop replacement laptops.
Meh:
Toshiba
Samsung
NO!:
DELL
HP
Apple
In any case, I recommend you get one of the computers Xaanos recommended.
It IS relatively demanding, AKA you do need a dedicated GPU and a half-decent processor.
Even if you were to get the best laptop out there, in 3 years it'll be rendered near-useless. Netbooks, on the most part, are crappy. Tablets aren't good for gaming, and are only to be purchased if you don't need a computer.
Good manufacturers:
Asus
Lenovo
Acer
MSI
There are a couple others, but they are for high-end desktop replacement laptops.
Meh:
Toshiba
Samsung
NO!:
DELL (Alienware goes right here next to Dell. They are the same company if anyone is wondering.)
HP
Apple
In any case, I recommend you get one of the computers Xaanos recommended.
Sounds like this is turning more into an issue of buying another machine for myself than for a 9 year old. Steevy
T. said that in any event, the best machine out there (Clevo Gaming Notebook, Eurocom Panther) would be obsolete in three years.
That being the case, is it better to buy a cheaper machine, with the idea of discarding it in a few years, or to buy a better notebook to guard against obsolescence? it seems that the higher end processors also have problems with heat generation, which is not only uncomfortable on your lap, but as I understand it shortens the life of the CPU.
Also off topic: what about the versions of Minecraft for gaming consoles? I understand that Xbox 360 should be getting one, but instead of buying that, how about waiting for the expected "Xbox 720?"
Sounds like this is turning more into an issue of buying another machine for myself than for a 9 year old. Steevy
T. said that in any event, the best machine out there (Clevo Gaming Notebook, Eurocom Panther) would be obsolete in three years.
That being the case, is it better to buy a cheaper machine, with the idea of discarding it in a few years, or to buy a better notebook to guard against obsolescence? it seems that the higher end processors also have problems with heat generation, which is not only uncomfortable on your lap, but as I understand it shortens the life of the CPU.
Also off topic: what about the versions of Minecraft for gaming consoles? I understand that Xbox 360 should be getting one, but instead of buying that, how about waiting for the expected "Xbox 720?"
Just buy the AMD APU I linked in the second post and the Xbox version will be lacking many things compared to the PC version.
Steevy T. said that in any event, the best machine out there (Clevo Gaming Notebook, Eurocom Panther) would be obsolete in three years. That being the case, is it better to buy a cheaper machine, with the idea of discarding it in a few years, or to buy a better notebook to guard against obsolescence?
It's impossible to buy any computer hardware that won't be obsolete in a few years. Just recently Nivida released a new series of graphics cards that are allegedly more powerful than their previous series which was released a few years ago and was touted as the best on the market. In the case of a desktop it's easy just to buy new hardware and stick in in the case when something new comes out, but laptops need special smaller parts that fit in the small space it contains and thus cannot be upgraded easily.
I would say buy something relatively inexpensive now, try to stretch it for as long as possible, and buy a new one only if a game comes out that the laptop simply cannot handle. But that's my opinion.
Edit: Oh, and laptop batteries don't last for more than a few years anyway.
it seems that the higher end processors also have problems with heat generation, which is not only uncomfortable on your lap, but as I understand it shortens the life of the CPU.
AMD processors tend to run cooler than Intel processors if heat is a problem.
Also off topic: what about the versions of Minecraft for gaming consoles? I understand that Xbox 360 should be getting one, but instead of buying that, how about waiting for the expected "Xbox 720?"
If Microsoft follows the pricing of the Xbox 360, the next Xbox will probably end up costing more than a decent laptop.
i would recommend buying a computer with either and amd athlon (the cheap way to go) or an intel i5 or if you are rich an i7 but here are some good specs for a computer running minecraft:
Intel i7 990x
2x Nvidia GTX-590
24GB RAM
256GB SSD Boot
4TB Storage
Additional Hardware:
MXL 009
Astro A40
Razer Naga
Canon 60D
that is a really good computer that should run minecraft like a boss but that is expensive.
I have a son who is turning 9 next month, and both he and his 14 year-old brother are avid Minecraft players. The 9 year old has been playing a downloaded Windows 7 version, but the 14 year old has his own account, and it is on his laptop that they both play.
I have been thinking about getting the least expensive laptop available, and that would appear to be an Acer Chromebook for $299. I have read all the negative things about the OS, and have taken all of that into account, justifying it on the basis that even if the whole premise fails, I will only have lost a few hundred dollars. I read somewhere that Minecraft can be played if you turn on the Developer Mode and install Java by jailbreaking the machine. Would that actually work, would it invalidate the warranty, and how well would it operate?
I guess the more basic question is: what are the minimum requirements that would allow him to play Minecraft? In addition, is there some way that my son could use the worlds he has created on the current laptop on the newer machine?
In that price range the only laptops that will run Minecraft are the ones with an AMD APU
The A8 series does more then max the game but can be in the 500$ range.
You can pick up an A4 that would still run the game pretty well for about 450$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215253
That will get you by but you should look to get an A6 or A8. Such as this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215258
Will run the game far fancy with x64 texturepack at 60fps.
You can move the worlds over go to run
Type in %appdata%
Look in the .minecraft folder they are in the saves folder.
Everything you need to know right there.
Are you actually recommending someone to buy from Craigslist that place is full of people ripping each others off. You should get something with a good GPU thanks for the advice good thing you came in the other posters told them to get an underpowered GPU. Nothing is wrong with Acer my experience with them has been good especially that there desktops have thumb screws and do not require screws to pull the harddrive out and have used good brands of PSUs.
I was only trying to help the OP...
This.
Also true. You CAN take them apart and install Win 7 but it runs like crap. My brother did it to his and it freezes on him because it isnt designed to do that. I mean you can kind of play online but it isnt worth it. Basically buy an APU and you will be fine.
Thanks to all of you for the quick replies and help
My next question would be CPU/GPU/APU choice, and platform alternatives. Obviously, Minecraft itself is not as demanding a game as others, but would most i3 and entry AMD CPUs be adequate for game use (as you can tell, I myself am not a gamer)? Is it worth the extra money to splurge for an i7, as he will undoubtedly grow into other games and use this machine for schoolwork? What about netbooks, tablets, and Macs? I have both a MacBook Pro i5 with Lion OS 10.7 and a pre-Intel G5 iMac running OS 10.5.5 Leopard. Are the file portability issues we discussed earlier the same?
In addition to the cost issue, there is the reputation of the manufacturer. You mentioned Acer. I understand that Asus, Apple, Lenovo, Samsung, HP most of the time and Toshiba most of the time are reputable and dependable.
Thanks again
stmc
The i3 is generally enough for most games that exist right now. If you are going for higher level gaming (eg Battlefield on max graphics and possibly future games) an i5 will be handy. The i7 will provide no difference in gaming from the i5, since the only difference is that the i7 is hyper-threaded, which mainly boosts multi-threaded apps (EG Video Editing, rendering ETC).
One thing you NEED to be aware of when buying laptops (and cheaper desktops) is that they have a decent graphics card. Anything named ''Intel HD'' is bad, and won't even run Minecraft. A graphics card is an essential part of the computer, and although there are graphics cards intergrated into the i3, i5 and i7 they suck hard. To get a good dedicated graphics card you need to spend at least 7-800$ (if getting a laptop), so your next choice would be an AMD APU (basically a much better version of the intel intergrated graphics. The proccessor itself isn't as powerful as intel's, but the graphics card that is intergrated is alot better). The first reply to this thread (by Xaanos) posted links to very nice laptop's with APU's.
And Macs are not really built for gamers. Their parts are quite expensive, the parts are not designed for gaming (rather office work/video editing), and many games are not compatible with the Mac OS. Tablets are not designed for gaming, and nor are netbooks (the name gives it away, they are to browse the internet and most likely have intergrated graphics cards by intel).
HP and Dell are the brands you can not trust. Alienware is a sub-branch of Dell, so that also sucks.
The Intel i3 is enough if your sons won't be doing anything else while playing games with high system requirements. The i5 is enough to run a screen recorder alongside a game to record what they're doing. The i7 is mainly intended for complex 3D modelling, so using it to play games is overkill.
Not at this moment, no. The i7 is very powerful and expensive. By the time games are able to utilize that much power Intel will probably have another, less expensive CPU available.
You should still be able to move their saved words around, but not many PC games are compatible with OSX. OSX isn't really an option for a computer intended to be used for games. Netbooks, as stated above, are only intended for light Internet browsing; tablets are... not really good for anything.
HP's dv5 series has overheating problems, actually. I don't have much experience with other manufacturers.
It IS relatively demanding, AKA you do need a dedicated GPU and a half-decent processor.
Even if you were to get the best laptop out there, in 3 years it'll be rendered near-useless. Netbooks, on the most part, are crappy. Tablets aren't good for gaming, and are only to be purchased if you don't need a computer.
Good manufacturers:
Asus
Lenovo
Acer
MSI
There are a couple others, but they are for high-end desktop replacement laptops.
Meh:
Toshiba
Samsung
NO!:
DELL
HP
Apple
In any case, I recommend you get one of the computers Xaanos recommended.
Added another brand to not buy from.
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/SteevyT/saved/21PI
T. said that in any event, the best machine out there (Clevo Gaming Notebook, Eurocom Panther) would be obsolete in three years.
That being the case, is it better to buy a cheaper machine, with the idea of discarding it in a few years, or to buy a better notebook to guard against obsolescence? it seems that the higher end processors also have problems with heat generation, which is not only uncomfortable on your lap, but as I understand it shortens the life of the CPU.
Also off topic: what about the versions of Minecraft for gaming consoles? I understand that Xbox 360 should be getting one, but instead of buying that, how about waiting for the expected "Xbox 720?"
Just buy the AMD APU I linked in the second post and the Xbox version will be lacking many things compared to the PC version.
It's impossible to buy any computer hardware that won't be obsolete in a few years. Just recently Nivida released a new series of graphics cards that are allegedly more powerful than their previous series which was released a few years ago and was touted as the best on the market. In the case of a desktop it's easy just to buy new hardware and stick in in the case when something new comes out, but laptops need special smaller parts that fit in the small space it contains and thus cannot be upgraded easily.
I would say buy something relatively inexpensive now, try to stretch it for as long as possible, and buy a new one only if a game comes out that the laptop simply cannot handle. But that's my opinion.
Edit: Oh, and laptop batteries don't last for more than a few years anyway.
AMD processors tend to run cooler than Intel processors if heat is a problem.
If Microsoft follows the pricing of the Xbox 360, the next Xbox will probably end up costing more than a decent laptop.
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/SteevyT/saved/21PI