My son wants a laptop for Minecraft He plays the windows bedrock version. I don't have a budget to get him an $800 dollar laptop for Christmas. I had a really good laptop a couple of years ago with a hard drive crash that I was wondering if I could replace with a new one I would spend the time and a little money to fix it. Here are the current specs
I cant test the computer.. The current hard drive is not working but I am asking the above question as to not try and fix the current one if the specs aren't decent. a simple hard drive replacement can be done easily but would rather not wast time and money if its not going to run Minecraft.
I have an AMD Atholon II 2GB ram and 2Tb hdd all in one comp from 2011 that runs Minecraft up til 1.12 just fine. It starts to stutter at 1.13 and pretty much goes into BSOD if I attempt to run 1.14
You'll be fine with your specs. Actually you'll probably be able to run 1.14 without an issue. I'm jealous
Honestly I wouldn't bother as it won't run modern versions, maybe it will run 1.7.10 and earlier, it's about a 2009 laptop
Age only becomes a factor dependent on the wear and tear of the components. How often was the laptop used? What was it's primary use? These things determine hardware's lifespan. Given the specs, which are reasonable and better than mine, they should be able to run recent versions of MC rather alright
My only concern would be what exactly caused the HDD to fail. Was it aged or was it a PSU problem? With a dead PSU that always risk the chance of shorting out the motherboard in which case the laptop is trash and needs to be repaced entirely
@elektropunch - This is great information and good to hear. Sorry if I am unknowledgeable on Minecraft terminology or computer stuff, in general, I am somewhat of a novice. When you mention 1.14 vs 1.12 are you talking about clock speed or a different upgraded version? Am I able to set a setting to make it run 1.12 so that it runs smoother? If so how do I do that?
I am honestly not too concerned with the hard drive crash... Not entirely sure why it crashed and If it fully crashed or not. I upgraded to ROG laptop for my use and let the wife and kids use this particular laptop and it got stuck on boot loop startup so it may be recoverable just havent spent time with it. New Hard drive would be the worst case. I was mainly using it for work and I did do some Graphic design work within illustrator but other than that the computer would not have been taxed or used for gaming. I used it daily for a working environment with spreadsheets and emails etc.
Age only becomes a factor dependent on the wear and tear of the components.
Note what they said:
maybe it will run 1.7.10 and earlier
The system requirements have massively increased over the years; for example, this is what they called for when 1.6 was the latest version:
Minimum Requirements:
CPU : Intel P4/NetBurst Architecture or its AMD Equivalent (AMD K7)
GPU : Intel GMA 950 or AMD Equivalent with OpenGL 1.2 Support
Just a year later it was increased so the minimum was now at least as high or higher than the previous recommended (in fact, a GeForce 9600 is 3 generations newer than the previous recommended, which was simply any 6000 series GPU. Note that GPUs have changed numbering schemes many times; NVIDIA used to number GPUs using a 4 digit number (6800, 7600, 9600), later they dropped down to 3 digits (210, 780, 970) before going back to 4 (1080, 2080, 3080), so this can cause confusion when looking at the requirements. Likewise, "Intel Core i3" by itself is quite meaningless; they likely meant one of the first generation "Core" CPUs given that the corresponding Athlon II was launched in 2009):
Minimum Requirements:
CPU: Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 (K8) 2.6 GHz
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
Recommended Requirements:
CPU: Intel Core i3 or AMD Athlon II (K10) 2.8 GHz
GPU: GeForce 2xx Series or AMD Radeon HD 5xxx Series (Excluding Integrated Chipsets) with OpenGL 3.3
For comparison, these are the latest requirements, and it has been this way for quite a while now; I'd expect 1.18 to be much more demanding due to 2x the effective world depth (I had no issues with modding the game to have up to 3x the ground depth back when I had a system from the mid-2000s, but that was on a much older version of the game as well):
Minimum requirements:
CPU: Intel Core i3-3210 3.2 GHz/ AMD A8-7600 APU 3.1 GHz or equivalent
GPU (Integrated): Intel HD Graphics 4000 (Ivy Bridge) or AMD Radeon R5 series (Kaveri line) with OpenGL 4.4
GPU (Discrete): Nvidia GeForce 400 Series or AMD Radeon HD 7000 series with OpenGL 4.4
Recommended requirements:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz / AMD A10-7800 APU 3.5 GHz or equivalent
GPU (Discrete): GeForce 700 Series or AMD Radeon Rx 200 Series (excluding integrated chipsets) with OpenGL 4.5
In other words, you can only assume that a given computer can run a given version of the game; anything newer and all bets are off, which goes for all software (for example, my computer does not support Windows 11, though this is more due to lacking certain hardware features than performance, but this does apply to Minecraft as well, for example, if your GPU doesn't support OpenGL 3.2+ then it can't run any version past 1.16, no matter how well older versions run).
That said, the OP mentioned Bedrock Edition, which is supposedly far more optimized than Java so I'd expect you could run it on much older hardware, given that it has the proper driver support (this has caught many people off-guard; a system that ran the game on Windows 7 can no longer do so in Windows 10 because there are no drivers and the default drivers that comes with Windows only have basic functionality. Of course, Bedrock can only run on Windows 10/11, as suggested by its name on that platform), though the requirements that are listed in the Wiki are still well ahead of what you have, and unlike Java Edition you can't downgrade to older versions of Bedrock/Windows 10 Edition, and as with Java Edition there have been reports of performance issues in newer versions:
As with anything you get what you pay for. At the time I am posting this, this laptop is costing about 510$ but I suggest you make up your mind about it now because there are only 2 left in stock, and you may never get another chance at this ever again, It's a Dell Inspiron laptop which has an AMD Ryzen CPU, quad core, and no doubt a Vega integrated graphics chipset, it also has a 256gb SSD with Windows 10 installed and 8gb of RAM. I understand your limited budget but the people who make these devices also have their own bills to pay for, sometimes we need to accept the fact that there are simply some things we can't afford. And no, the laptop you've suggested isn't going to be good enough, forget about it, all it's going to do is be a waste of money.
As I have continued to research and I talked with my son he would definitely need something more higher-end. He said would not be able to play with his friends playing on an older version. .. It's crazy to me.. the computer needed to run Minecraft.. As I always viewed the game as more of a low-end game as far as graphics etc but it definitely has evolved over the years. I would love to by this laptop above however I just started working with a non profit that helps rescue kids from trafficking. So my income has dwindled significantly hence the Christmas on a budget this year. Thanks, everyone for the help. Saving me on time money and effort.
As I have continued to research and I talked with my son he would definitely need something more higher-end. He said would not be able to play with his friends playing on an older version. .. It's crazy to me.. the computer needed to run Minecraft.. As I always viewed the game as more of a low-end game as far as graphics etc but it definitely has evolved over the years. I would love to by this laptop above however I just started working with a non profit that helps rescue kids from trafficking. So my income has dwindled significantly hence the Christmas on a budget this year. Thanks, everyone for the help. Saving me on time money and effort.
You're welcome, I would consider that laptop to be the bare minimum to run Minecraft at any acceptable level of performance at this point. Older versions in Java may be different but I'm guessing your son wants to play the latest version with the Caves and Cliffs update, so your out of luck here. Yeah it kind of sucks that the game is starting to need expensive hardware to run it properly, you can blame Mojang for their bad coding practices for that though, the game isn't very optimized so it ends up needing a much more powerful computer than it should. If you're not modding the game or using any high resolution texture packs, there's no excuse for the games excessive hardware requirements imo. TheMasterCaver has demonstrated what can be done with weaker hardware.
@elektropunch - This is great information and good to hear. Sorry if I am unknowledgeable on Minecraft terminology or computer stuff, in general, I am somewhat of a novice. When you mention 1.14 vs 1.12 are you talking about clock speed or a different upgraded version?
My son wants a laptop for Minecraft He plays the windows bedrock version. I don't have a budget to get him an $800 dollar laptop for Christmas. I had a really good laptop a couple of years ago with a hard drive crash that I was wondering if I could replace with a new one I would spend the time and a little money to fix it. Here are the current specs
Processor - Intel Core i7 CPU Q720 1.6hz (4 - core) -
Ram - 6 GB
Graphics - ATI Mobility Radeon HD5470
Hard Drive - HDD 1TB
You can test the demo version:
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/minecraft-for-windows/9nblggh2jhxj
>> Link to Curseforge <<
I cant test the computer.. The current hard drive is not working but I am asking the above question as to not try and fix the current one if the specs aren't decent. a simple hard drive replacement can be done easily but would rather not wast time and money if its not going to run Minecraft.
I have an AMD Atholon II 2GB ram and 2Tb hdd all in one comp from 2011 that runs Minecraft up til 1.12 just fine. It starts to stutter at 1.13 and pretty much goes into BSOD if I attempt to run 1.14
You'll be fine with your specs. Actually you'll probably be able to run 1.14 without an issue. I'm jealous
Age only becomes a factor dependent on the wear and tear of the components. How often was the laptop used? What was it's primary use? These things determine hardware's lifespan. Given the specs, which are reasonable and better than mine, they should be able to run recent versions of MC rather alright
My only concern would be what exactly caused the HDD to fail. Was it aged or was it a PSU problem? With a dead PSU that always risk the chance of shorting out the motherboard in which case the laptop is trash and needs to be repaced entirely
I create minecraft dream journal animations and spooky occult animations. You should click the link, watch and subscribe
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVcdWGi7tb8Ck5C9Qj4m7EA
@elektropunch - This is great information and good to hear. Sorry if I am unknowledgeable on Minecraft terminology or computer stuff, in general, I am somewhat of a novice. When you mention 1.14 vs 1.12 are you talking about clock speed or a different upgraded version? Am I able to set a setting to make it run 1.12 so that it runs smoother? If so how do I do that?
I am honestly not too concerned with the hard drive crash... Not entirely sure why it crashed and If it fully crashed or not. I upgraded to ROG laptop for my use and let the wife and kids use this particular laptop and it got stuck on boot loop startup so it may be recoverable just havent spent time with it. New Hard drive would be the worst case. I was mainly using it for work and I did do some Graphic design work within illustrator but other than that the computer would not have been taxed or used for gaming. I used it daily for a working environment with spreadsheets and emails etc.
Note what they said:
The system requirements have massively increased over the years; for example, this is what they called for when 1.6 was the latest version:
Just a year later it was increased so the minimum was now at least as high or higher than the previous recommended (in fact, a GeForce 9600 is 3 generations newer than the previous recommended, which was simply any 6000 series GPU. Note that GPUs have changed numbering schemes many times; NVIDIA used to number GPUs using a 4 digit number (6800, 7600, 9600), later they dropped down to 3 digits (210, 780, 970) before going back to 4 (1080, 2080, 3080), so this can cause confusion when looking at the requirements. Likewise, "Intel Core i3" by itself is quite meaningless; they likely meant one of the first generation "Core" CPUs given that the corresponding Athlon II was launched in 2009):
For comparison, these are the latest requirements, and it has been this way for quite a while now; I'd expect 1.18 to be much more demanding due to 2x the effective world depth (I had no issues with modding the game to have up to 3x the ground depth back when I had a system from the mid-2000s, but that was on a much older version of the game as well):
In other words, you can only assume that a given computer can run a given version of the game; anything newer and all bets are off, which goes for all software (for example, my computer does not support Windows 11, though this is more due to lacking certain hardware features than performance, but this does apply to Minecraft as well, for example, if your GPU doesn't support OpenGL 3.2+ then it can't run any version past 1.16, no matter how well older versions run).
That said, the OP mentioned Bedrock Edition, which is supposedly far more optimized than Java so I'd expect you could run it on much older hardware, given that it has the proper driver support (this has caught many people off-guard; a system that ran the game on Windows 7 can no longer do so in Windows 10 because there are no drivers and the default drivers that comes with Windows only have basic functionality. Of course, Bedrock can only run on Windows 10/11, as suggested by its name on that platform), though the requirements that are listed in the Wiki are still well ahead of what you have, and unlike Java Edition you can't downgrade to older versions of Bedrock/Windows 10 Edition, and as with Java Edition there have been reports of performance issues in newer versions:
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
As with anything you get what you pay for. At the time I am posting this, this laptop is costing about 510$ but I suggest you make up your mind about it now because there are only 2 left in stock, and you may never get another chance at this ever again, It's a Dell Inspiron laptop which has an AMD Ryzen CPU, quad core, and no doubt a Vega integrated graphics chipset, it also has a 256gb SSD with Windows 10 installed and 8gb of RAM. I understand your limited budget but the people who make these devices also have their own bills to pay for, sometimes we need to accept the fact that there are simply some things we can't afford. And no, the laptop you've suggested isn't going to be good enough, forget about it, all it's going to do is be a waste of money.
https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-15-6-inch-Quad-Core-Windows/dp/B094L3BYRP/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=quad core amd laptop&qid=1639914759&s=electronics&sr=1-9
As I have continued to research and I talked with my son he would definitely need something more higher-end. He said would not be able to play with his friends playing on an older version. .. It's crazy to me.. the computer needed to run Minecraft.. As I always viewed the game as more of a low-end game as far as graphics etc but it definitely has evolved over the years. I would love to by this laptop above however I just started working with a non profit that helps rescue kids from trafficking. So my income has dwindled significantly hence the Christmas on a budget this year. Thanks, everyone for the help. Saving me on time money and effort.
You're welcome, I would consider that laptop to be the bare minimum to run Minecraft at any acceptable level of performance at this point. Older versions in Java may be different but I'm guessing your son wants to play the latest version with the Caves and Cliffs update, so your out of luck here. Yeah it kind of sucks that the game is starting to need expensive hardware to run it properly, you can blame Mojang for their bad coding practices for that though, the game isn't very optimized so it ends up needing a much more powerful computer than it should. If you're not modding the game or using any high resolution texture packs, there's no excuse for the games excessive hardware requirements imo. TheMasterCaver has demonstrated what can be done with weaker hardware.
1.12 and 1.14 are versions of minecraft:
1.12 world of color update (I think)
1.14 village and pillage update
Not even my hello world works :'C
(But powerpoint does xd)
Btw what does api stand for?