good minecraft laptop

[smurfsludge]

I'm looking for a laptop that will perform well for minecraft. It's for my 8 year old son so I'm not looking to spend a lot of money. I'd like to keep it under $500. I found a Lenovo G50 80E3007FUS that looks like it would be ok? Can anyone help. Thanks

 

[geofelt]

Minecraft is single threaded and cpu limited.
The APU in the G50 is very good in graphics, but weak in cpu power.

I suggest a laptop based on intel I3.
I have had good luck with Lenovo refurbished units.
Here is a candidate from newegg for example:
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4P028U6269

Some reviewers complained that it came with windows 7 and not 8. A plus in my book.

 

[smurfsludge]

Minecraft is single threaded and cpu limited.
The APU in the G50 is very good in graphics, but weak in cpu power.

I suggest a laptop based on intel I3.
I have had good luck with Lenovo refurbished units.
Here is a candidate from newegg for example:
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4P028U6269

Some reviewers complained that it came with windows 7 and not 8. A plus in my book.

 

[smurfsludge]

Thanks. So the Intel HD graphics 4600 are good? I read somewhere that it was best to get a laptop with a graphics card and not Intel graphics. Maybe the 4600 are better than plain old Intel? I obviously don't know much about buying a laptop for games.

 

[geofelt]

There are two types of games.
1. fast action games like first person shooters.
They depend on good graphics for performance and a laptop with a discrete graphics card is better(and more expensive)
2. Strategy and simulation games such as minecraft and civilization. They are usually single threaded and cpu bound.
I can play civilization just fine on integrated graphics. HD4600 is reasonably good. With extra ram, you can dedicate to the integrated graphics, you can do even better.

 

[smurfsludge]

Acer Aspire 15.6 Inch Laptop Intel i5 Processor, 4GB Ram, 500GB Hard Drive, Windows 8 (Black)

Do you think this would work ok?

 

[Jpeg666]

Why has no one mentions AMD APU's? Also people keep mentioning terrible laptops when the OP said 500$ http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314712
500$ laptop with dedicated graphics will blow anything cheaper out of the water