Can anyone recommend a laptop?

I have a buddy who isn't technical and is looking for something that meets all of these requirements:1) Is able to handle minecraft 2) Great school use laptop 3) No more than $400.00 4) Preferably windows 7 I've done quite a bit of looking into this but would like to see if you folks could provide some insight. Requirement number 3 kills me when searching.

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--chris--

Good choice on win 7, metro is a real PITA with touchpads. I am not sure how difficult it will be to find a laptop with Win 7 though. Maybe its still offered if you order direct? Seems like everything ships with 8 now.

I like the AMD APU's for something like this. The A4 or A6 series should be in the price range from HP. Something sub $400 will probably have 4Gb of ram, but another $50 can double that. Should be able to handle MC on medium settings no problem, max settings with a tiny bit of stutter when rendering the "long view".

NovaHax

Does it really take a lot to be able to run Minecraft? To be honest, I don't know anything about the game...besides having seen people play it at coffee shops. But it looks like 8 bit graphics in a 3D environment...I can't imagine it being too process intensive. Won't pretty much any netbook running Win7 do the trick?

**Excuse my ignorance is my assumption about Minecraft is way off-base**

CodeBlox

You've got it right about minecraft, it's not a very demanding game at all.

devils_haircut

I would agree with --chris-- about snagging an HP with the A4 or A6 APU. They can be had in that price range. Another option is to check eBay for lightly used laptops. You might be able to find something with a bit more power for less if it's 6-12 months old and lightly used. I pickup used laptops on eBay all the time, fix them, and resell them for a small profit. You can find some that are well taken care of.

the_Grinch

Lenovo. We had them at my old job and I swear by them. You can get a decent one with Windows 7 for around $400.

N2IT

Lenovo or Dell would be the safe pick. Work bought me a Vizio only 4 gbs of ram (weak I know) ssd and i7 mobile processor. I really like the way it boots and how it feels on my lap. The hinges are really strong too which is hard to find for your price point as silly as that might sound. I can't stand wobbly hinges UGH.

--chris--

NovaHax wrote: »

Does it really take a lot to be able to run Minecraft? To be honest, I don't know anything about the game...besides having seen people play it at coffee shops. But it looks like 8 bit graphics in a 3D environment...I can't imagine it being too process intensive. Won't pretty much any netbook running Win7 do the trick?

**Excuse my ignorance is my assumption about Minecraft is way off-base**

On minimum settings, its a very low demand game. On max settings (which really just pushed out the render distance to almost infinity) it can make my 260 Nvidia's fan spin up to 90%. It use to eat up ram as well, but I think they worked on that since the early days.