First laptop for child

[rmcron5296]

Good evening everyone! I am looking to get advice on which laptop my sister and brother in law should get my nephew. First off he is 13, but he has taken care of his mom's and my mom's laptops with no problems. I have had to do a few minor repairs or tweaks, but nothing too bad. They have around $400-$500 to spend.

He plays Minecraft, Terraria, Dungeon Defenders, and other assorted Steam and browser games and he and his brother would like to try some of the more hardware intensive games, but they can't because of the single core, integrated graphics, and just all around crappiness. He is currently playing on the crap replacement HP sent me in their lawsuit that barely equals a quarter of what I paid for my original laptop but that's for another day.

I was browsing Newegg and found these. Let me know what you think please.

This one is the one that I am leaning towards, but don't hesitate to offer a different once.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215186

And here is a link to 5 laptops being compared. If you like any of them or can find another in the $400-$500 price range please let me know! Thanks for any help and I hope you all have a good night

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006740%204020&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=32%7C34-215-186%5E34-215-186-TS%2C34-215-257%5E34-215-257-02%23%2C34-200-342%5E34-200-342-TS%2C34-215-234%5E34-215-234-01%23%2C34-215-253%5E34-215-253-02%23

 

[jaguarskx]

I wouldn't look any further than the one you linked. That is the one I would recommend.

 

[mouse24]

I looked around trying to find one... I couldn't do it... what the issues were is that it CAN'T be on integrated graphics, it has to be atleast a 64xx or better and the processor speed has to be higher then 2.0ghz to run minecraft at acceptable speeds (with the Optifine mod which significantly increases the fps of minecraft, if you dont' have it already, download it and see if it helps)

What are the specs of the laptop they are using now?

 

[rmcron5296]

One of my nephews is using an Acer that is about a year old and runs it fine as well as most Steam games excluding Skyrim and the like. My other nephew is 13 so he will be getting the new one as the one he is on is terrible. HP/Nvidia had a lawsuit against them due to problems with graphics cards dying, having lines appears on screen, as well as other problems and they sent me a $350 Compaq Presario replacement for my $1400 purchase...

It's a single core, integrated graphics, 4 gigs of ram paper weight. It can run Minecraft, but with the render settings on low, low light, and medium on one other setting I can remember at the moment. It runs Terraria fine as well. Anything past those two games and it's unbearable.

@mouse24 The first laptop I liked has a dedicated card. A 1gb 6470. They won't be doing any hardcore gaming on these at all. Just some cheaper Steam games, Minecraft, Terraria, and other stuff I aren't able to get on their 360s.

I'm really liking the first linked laptop I have up there. It's in my range, marked down, and has a dedicated card for the extra oomph. Not much, but enough to keep him happy for a bit, and his parents say they want me to build him a desk top next year so who knows