Cheap Gaming computer

[Retired_member41]

Is there such a thing as a cheap gaming pc?

Yes I know you get what you pay for, and the more you spend the better it is, and yes it depends on what you need it for etc etc

Its for playing minecraft online, seems the laptop which is not that old and very shiny still, does not have something callled something open 3 graphics and every time the kids log on it says they will need it in the next minecraft update.

So a minecraft pc would be ideal, any ideas anyone?

I take it that if I just bought a new graphics card for a desktop pc, that would not sort it would it?

I would say buy one for the laptop, but the ones I have seen online are huge.

As always, thanks in advance.

 

[Skinner]

I wouldn't have thought minecraft needed that much power, but then I only used minecraft running on a *nix box.

I use an Alienware M18x, Extreme Unlocked i7 Processor, Dual SLI nVidia x80 Graphics cards, SSD Hard Drive, 32gb Corsair Vengeance Ram and I didn't get much change out of £5k so yeah Gaming Laptops will empty your pocket rapidly, unless mobility is a concern don't waste your money. I bought this mostly for video / photo editing on the go, so was essential

A high end graphics card would almost certainly solve your problem, perhaps the 680 from nVidia, now the 7xx is out, maybe a good deal to be had on them.

Have you checked peoples minecraft configs online?

 

[Skinner]

According what I read, you only need a 2xx series card, which would lead me to believe your desktop has a GMA 950 or on-board graphics card ?

 

[monaghan]

Minecraft needs a huge amount of power yet looks like something from the 1980's

The kids have an AMD A6 and an AMD A4 and these appear to be fast enough, the older PC didn't run fast enough.

OpenGL 3 has been about for years, so anything in the last few years should be able to run it. Performance can be a problem if they are running a server as well as the game client as it eats memory. Try and separate the 2 if you can to release resources for the desktop client.

 

[Retired_member41]

Two great members to the rescue. Thanks so much.

lol your computer set up has more power than all our desktops in work. And your budget is similar to that I would have for a car.

Looking at Mr M's info about gl3 I think I may have worried and maybe the minecraft disclaimer was for people worse off than me lol

Brilliant forum again for information, just read about a minecraft server and will instruct the kids very poor on site IT support to set up the desktop as a server that they can use.

And found a cheap new graphics card on ebuyer. Checked S, and it was ok but this ones better.

Ps are you the domainer who's a paparazzi?

 

[monaghan]

I've never played the silly game, but seem to know a lot about the technical elements (probably having 2 kids with minecraft accounts and lots of friends also with accounts is the cause!)

If you understand your router config, you can assign a static IP to the minecraft server and port forward the external port to this IP and your kids can play on a private server with their friends

 

[Edwin]

I take it that if I just bought a new graphics card for a desktop pc, that would not sort it would it?

I don't play Minecraft, but the answer to this sort of question is always "it depends on the PC". In other words, what have you got already?

Then it's easy (easier) to see whether upgrading the graphics card will do what you want.