[GTALUG] OT: Inexpensive laptop for Minecraft?

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Matt Price

| Hello everyone! Thought I'd tap the collective brain. I'm looking for a relatively inexpensive laptop for my son, who
| mostly just plays minecraft (and occasionally needs the computer for school work, using google docs & a browser). Any
| suggestions of models, or places to buy? I'm looking for something pretty inexpensive, but with dedicated graphics that
| will allow him to play minecraft comfortably for the next year or  so at least. 


| From: William Park <opengeometry at yahoo.ca>
| 
| ‎Not sure about dedicated graphics, but ThinkPad T420‎ (refurbished) is on sale at Canada Computers again. 
| -- 

Bestbuy has them too, with a dock.  Also refurb.io
<http://forums.redflagdeals.com/refurb-io-labour-day-clearance-select-desktop-computers-laptops-1805521/>
<http://forums.redflagdeals.com/ca-refurb-io-lenovo-thinkpad-t420-i5-2nd-gen-4gb-300gb-hd-win-7-pro-261-a-1805549/>
Note: these different sources have units with different generations of
Intel processors, and I seem to recollect that that matters for GPU
power.

But I don't really think that these are great for the price
considering that they are used.  It depends on how much you value the
ThinkPad attributes (good keyboard, repairable, very well-built,
heavy).

These use the CPU chip's built-in GPU.  Although Intel's GPU has been
getting better, it was fairly poor for gaming in older generations.
Someone who knows more about Minecraft performance would perhaps know
if these GPUs are good enough.  Or use google
<http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Hardware_performance>

I would *guess* that current Intel i-series processors would have a
good enough GPU for Minecraft.  I would also guess that the GPU part
of any recent AMD APU is good for Minecraft (APU is what AMD calls
their CPU + GPU chips).  But beware: low-end AMD CPUs are very slow by
today's standards (and they go by a lot of different names).  This is
cheap but I think that it isn't quite good enough:
<http://www.nmicrovip.ca/asus-amd-a4-5000-6gb-ram-750gb-hdd-15-6-1366x768-dvdrw-windows-8-bilingual-kb-x552ea-sh41-cb-refurbished/>
A4 series are probably too weak.

Shoppers Drug Mart has a bunch of cheap notebooks on sale this
weekend.  I have no idea about their specs since SDM's ad doesn't give
model numbers!  They have a points bonus today which actually
makes a difference in the effective cost (if you are willing to bother
with their points program).