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Treyflix

Computer specs.

20 posts in this topic

Hello everyone, I'm going to try and get a new computer soon, as the one I'm using is on it's last legs. I don't have a very good budget, I think 500$ is my max. I know I know, that's not much to work with! But, I'm not looking for overly much either. All I want is a computer that can get consistently atleast 30 FPS on normal render while recording. And perhaps fancy graphics while not recording? All of this with optifine. (because TFC is a folder mod it wont have to drop combatibility right?) Obviously it would have to do this in TFC, so the workload is a little more.

I don't know a whole lot about computers and I want to get the most powerful one I have for the price. So if anyone could help me figure out what kind of stats I would need atleast to get this kind of performance? Or even a specific computer?

Any help you can give is appreciated! :)

Cheers! Teyflix.

P.S; it would be a laptop, sorry I forgot to mention that! I want a laptop.

Edit: to clarify, I'm asking what kind of computer specs I need to get the performance in TFC I asked for. I know some one that I trust who I can ask what the best comp is if I just know what I actually need!

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Make sure it has dedicated GFX card. I play on a laptop w/o one so I can't record games or anything unless it's built into the game itself (and this laptop is over 4 years old too, if not more) so, even with optifine, I only get about 30-50fps on a good day. As soon as I start doing serious working of blocks on the surface my fps drops. So yeah, GFX card is a must. (I'm still amazed this computer can even run Portal 2 and get a consistent 30-40fps in co-op)

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Dedicated GFX card, got it. And this affects FPS or wether or not you can record? Or both?

Thanks Hydra! :D

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Dedicated gfx means they put more gfx power in it to run games, an "built in" is more just for web browsing.

Do a search on laptops in your price ranges and then look at the reviews.

The prices change often, new models all the time.

So it's best to brew a coffee and google yer arse off ^^.

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Well I was going to say that $500 is plenty but then you said it would be a laptop. You're a bit more limited as to what to buy in that case.

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Without a dedicated gpu(like Nvidia) you'll be very limited on what you can play. You can use this site to see what you can afford http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/

But beware, the higher the processor in the gpu, higher the consume of energy.

Regarding processor you can have i3, i5 and it will do or an asus but then I know nothing.

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A good place to start is : http://pcpartpicker.com/ You can really start to see pricing 'sweet spots' if you research well.

Go to newegg to get user reviews. Don't splurge on your mainboard unless you think you'll want to upgrade soon, in which case try to get a newer chipset that will support upcoming features. Get a good power supply - not necessarily expensive, but one that is well rated. A good PSU should last you a while. Check Tom's Hardware for which graphics cards and CPUs are 'best for your money'. I actually think you should look at AMD more than they are - AMD chips give you more cores for the money, and Minecraft with Optifine benefits from multiple cores. In general for gaming, having a good graphics card helps, but I think for Minecraft, the CPU matters a bit more than in other games, but I haven't seen benchmarks indicating if that's really the case. Price your CPU and mobo together - mainboards for newer chips are sometimes more expensive and could make an otherwise cheap chip more expensive than an older but more powerful chip. You should probably avoid HDDs larger than 1TB - larger ones seem to fail more often. Minecraft will really benefit from having an SSD if you can fit one into your price and don't mind skimping on space. I might consider getting a 64GB SSD and a 500GB HDD for storage. If you've already got an external or older drives, just use those and save on money, but still maybe get an SSD.

EDIT: I didn't even see the bit about you wanting a laptop. My only answer to that is don't buy a laptop.

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A $500 laptop that can run minecraft smoothly WHILE recording video? That sounds like the holy grail of laptops. I'm not sure what kind of overhead video capturing will cause as there is a number of variables involved (bitrate, resolution, audio quality, etc.), but I agree with everyone that you will not get far with any graphics that are made by intel. You may want to take a gander here, but beware that data is for vanilla minecraft: http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Hardware_performance

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Hmm, well I geuss it being a laptop isn't essential. But having a portable comp is nice... However if there is no way to get a laptop that performs like that for that price, I'm not overly opposed to just getting a PC. I mean, anything for the FPS haha!

Thanks to everybody for all the advice! Now I got a better idea of were to look around :)

Edit: I feel really stupid :P. I really know NOTHING about computer parts or specs or what makes a computer run better. Which is embarrassing because I'm young and my generation is supposed to know these things.

What would REALLY help me out is if some one could tell me what kind of specs I would need MINIMUM to get 30+FPS normal and fancy and then what I would need comfortably to get above 60FPS on far and fancy with TFC and optifine? this would really help me out cause I could then go to my uncle and tell him what I need, he'd be able to get me something as he's in the buisness. If Im just being a idiot and asking for specific numbers like this is impossible, I'm sorry, I really don't know much about computers.

Thanks for putting up with me guys!

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How often is it going to have to be moved? I find most people who say they need a laptop have a desk at their house they put it on and it never leaves there. The simple fact is a laptop is always going to cost more than a comparable desktop since you are cramming the same power into a smaller space.

The numbers you're asking for are very difficult to come up with, since no one has exact benchmark testing for a wide array and configuration of hardware. That link I provided before is the best data I could find on the subject, and that's only for non-opti vanilla. Finding optifine tfc numbers? Not really possible.

There are a few things I can highly recommend though.

1.) Get Win 7 64-bit. This will allow 4gigs+ of RAM and the use of java 64-bit that will allow you to allocate more ram to minecraft if it ever becomes required.

2.) Do not get less than 4 gigs of RAM. In my opinion, 4gigs is the new minimum for buying a computer, especially one that's going to be used for gaming. My current computer, sitting idle with win7 64-bit, is using up 2.28gigs.

3.) Avoid intel graphics. They were never designed for gaming.

4.) If possible, get a "discrete" video card. By discrete, I mean a dedicated video card that is PCI-e and can be removed from the system. The fastest video cards are going to be discrete ones, especially in your price range.

With your $500 limit, you must consider that if you have to buy windows 7, you already threw 100 bucks out the window. That leaves you 400 dollars for building a computer. In cases like this, it's advisable if you can to reuse old hardware Mice, keyboard, monitor are commonly reused hardware, but hard drives, optical drives, power supplies if adequate could also be considered. If you had a laptop before, you might be screwed as mice/keyboard/monitor can easy cut $200 out of the total.

I wish I could be more help, but I'm not really in tune with all the current model of AMD/Intel CPU's and AMD/Nvidia video cards. What I highly recommend is you see my previous link (here it is again: http://www.minecraft...are_performance) to get an idea what kind of framerates you can get on certain combinations of hardware then look up the prices of that hardware online. I highly recommend newegg.com. You should also check out http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ to get an idea what the relative speed of any given model of video card and CPU are (they're there too, just click on the tab at the top).

I don't know what kind of deals your uncle can get, but newegg has a few partially built computer combos you can buy at a discount. They are listed as "DIY PC Combos" and can be found here: http://www.newegg.co...=DIY-PC-Combos. Some of those combos can give you decent discounts, but keep in mind that they are not complete computers and may not include video cards, optical drives, hard drives, etc.

That's about all I can say for now. I'll try to give you expect specs later if I can, but hopefully this will get you on your way.

EDIT: IMO, when it comes to minecraft, CPU > GPU. If you have to choose which one to spend more on, go with the CPU.

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Yeh, I figured the numbers wouldnt be possible. It's ok though, Im fine with putting some work into this. And the main reason I would want a laptop is my profession requires traveling around the country during the summer/fall. However, my trips are usually short (if frequent) and I'm typically to focused to being playing any games, and I'd haveanother crappies laptop to bring for just surfing. It would kinda suck for my yearly trip to to Colorado, as that's two weeks long, and my November travels, but I think I'd live :P. I am still going to look around at laptops for a little bit before I give up completely. If I do build a comp, I don't think the mouse/keyboard will be a issue, I imagine my uncle will have a few laying around. Maybe not, but I'd be surprised if he didn't.

Edit: how's this? (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834200509)

I know you said no intel graphics, but it does have 2.5 gHz, which in that mincraft sheet seems to treat the performance well... I can't find out how much RAM it has for the life of me though. And really? 4 gigs as a minimum? Isnt 4 gigs a lot?

Thanks a lot for all this help GC, it really is very kind of you.

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Edit: how's this? (http://www.newegg.co...N82E16834200509)

I know you said no intel graphics, but it does have 2.5 gHz, which in that mincraft sheet seems to treat the performance well... I can't find out how much RAM it has for the life of me though. And really? 4 gigs as a minimum? Isnt 4 gigs a lot?

It has 6 GB of RAM ("6GB Memory"). Which is probably sufficient for your needs. I'm not too knowledgeable on pricing, but this seems like a good deal to me!

Do not get less than 4 GB of RAM! No, that is no longer a lot. RAM is cheap and is a great upgrade because running short on available memory will kill your computer's performance (because data is constantly swapped out to the HDD). 6 or 8 GB is even better. You want your computer to be useful for at least a couple of years. :-)

I have 4 GB in my laptop which isn't really enough for me (since I like to have a couple of dozen tabs open in Firefox) but I have a SSD which mitigates the problem. I may upgrade this year but I plan to get a new laptop next year anyway. My work laptop has 16 GB of RAM. :-)

Discrete graphics is likely to make a big difference, but I'm not sure you can expect to get that in a $500 laptop. You have a budget, so just do some comparison shopping and see what gets you the most for your money. Maybe you can find some deals (too bad back-to-school is over) or you could consider buying something used.

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Do you have a computer monitor at all? Basically, whenever you're buying a laptop, you're paying extra for more specialized parts and a new monitor. The main people go with desktop PCs is that hardware can more easily get reused and customized, mostly the case and monitor. I can give you a more step-by-step guide to putting together a PC, but if you've only ever used laptops and don't have a monitor or other hardware, and don't feel like investing the extra $150 for a decent monitor, you might still want to stick to a laptop.

EDIT:

If you're looking at Newegg, this laptop is probably okay:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246626

The graphics card in it meet minimum requirements for most games and passes recommended requirements for most slightly-older games. I cant speak as to the quality of the laptop.

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Ok, I found a pretty sweet laptop, it's a little out of my price range but I might make a exception for it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-230-236&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=3#scrollFullInfo

Its a asus, with a i5 2.53 Ghz processor, 6 gigs of ram, and a 2G dedicated GFX card. Niviedia 610m. Good reviews too, but people are Ragging on the niviedia? Any experience with this GPU?

Everything seems perfect, people are complaining about the internal speakers being crappy, but I have a stereo and nice headphones. It's only 649$ which is insane. What do you guys think?

Edit: found it on another website for 538$!

It's between this and a Asus U46E-BAL6. This one is 592$, has a i7 intel processor with 2.70GHz, and EIGHT gigs of ram. The only problem is the GPU. It's a intergrated intel HD 3000, shared memory.

So it's a i7 instead of a i5 with .2GHz more, and 2 more gigs of ram. The downfall is it's a shared memory intel GPU instead of a 2GB nivedia 610m. I don't know much about GPU's, is this trade off worth the better CPU and RAM for the integrated GPU?

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Generally, GPU performance affects game performance more than CPU performance or system memory (unless there's a lack of it). You're fine with 6 gigs of RAM. The laptop I linked to had an nVidia 640m in it. My guess is you don't want to go lower than a 630. Minecraft will still be playable on the ones you're looking at, of course. The quad-core i7 might be nice to have.

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Yeh, that ideapad is nice, but it's 599$. The ASUS is 538$ on a different site... Unless you think the 640m will make the difference! It does only have 1GB of GPU memory versus the ASUS's 2GB. What does that affect?

P.S, looking around on the minecraft performance sheet I saw a lot of people running 520-580m nVidia GT's with good FPS isn't 500 less then 600? Or am I backwards? Haha.

Found one that was running a 610m GPU with 2 more gigs of RAM and a slightly inferior processor and it was getting a good 70FPS.

Edit: oh, yeh, the 640m LE is much better then the 610m. Definitely worth the extra 60$!

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When it comes to nvidia, the first number determines the generation and the second numbers is the relative speed compared to the rest of the generation.

For example: a 610 is slower than a 640, but a 580 is faster than a 640. The reason a 610 is slower than a 640 is because the 610 model is on the lowest end of that generation (at 10) whereas the 640 is higher. The reason that 580 is faster than the 640 is a bit more complicated, but basically comes down to the fact that while it's a earlier generation, the GPU power is still much more than the 640.

Once again, while not perfect for determining the actual FPS rating you'll get in a game, http://www.videocardbenchmark.net is a great site to get a comparison to the speeds of two graphics cards. In the above example, the numbers come up:

610 - 283 (this isn't a typo)

640 - 1237

580 - 3963

Now 580 is pretty nice (it's the 4th fastest on the list after all), but you can get a decent idea that the 610 is not even close to as good as a 640 going by those numbers. If you get an nvidia ANYTHING that ends with 10 or 20, it's garbage as far as gaming is concerned. Those GPU's are meant to only be used for surfing the web really.

For reference, the highest rated intel graphics I could find was the "Intel HD i7-2760QM" (no doubt on the most expensive motherboards) and it had a score of 1,180. So whatever intel you get, it will not be as fast as the 640.

Also, that dell laptop is no longer being sold. Given it uses the same chipset that's been recalled, it's probably for the best since it makes no mention if it's B2 (recalled) or B3 (perfectly fine). I'm not sure if B2's ever shown up in laptops or not, but it's worth noting.

I did a quick search on newegg and I can't seem to find a laptop under 500 that doesn't use intel graphics so that sucks. If you could bump your price range up to 600 though, I'd certainly agree with elustran's choice. An i5 + 640 would be quite the performance for the price and form factor. I want to say the IdeaPads are based off the old Thinkpads that were thought highly of, so it would seem like a good choice all around.

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Yeh, after looking on that I realized how much the 610 sucks. I read some reviews on that levono Y480 and it seems like a really nice laptop. It MSRP's for a LOT more, so hopefully I get my money before it goes out of stock or something like that.

I'm pretty sure this is what I'm getting now, thanks a lot to everyone who helped, especially GC and Elust and thanks to Elust for the initial suggestion of the computer.

If people still have advice to contribute, feel free but I think I'm happy with this choice.

Cheers!

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Yeh, after looking on that I realized how much the 610 sucks. I read some reviews on that levono Y480 and it seems like a really nice laptop. It MSRP's for a LOT more, so hopefully I get my money before it goes out of stock or something like that.

I'm pretty sure this is what I'm getting now, thanks a lot to everyone who helped, especially GC and Elust and thanks to Elust for the initial suggestion of the computer.

Shit, now it's going to explode in your face and burn down your house or something, then you'll hunt me down and scream "WHY! I just wanted to play some Minecraft on a cheap laptop!"
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Shit, now it's going to explode in your face and burn down your house or something, then you'll hunt me down and scream "WHY! I just wanted to play some Minecraft on a cheap laptop!

Dang, paranoia issues much? Haha!

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