Is it possible to build a Minecraft PC for under £400?

WiZZyWiGG

WiZZyWiGG

WiZZyWiGG

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Hey all,

For my sons 12th birthday he has asked for a PC that can run Minecraft, this sounded easy to me at first but then I realised he plays on servers with hundreds of players and huge worlds, so performance is an issue.

Is it possible to build a PC that can handle this for £400 or less?

Cheers.
 
I've not played Minecraft in a long time so things might have changed but when I had a whirl with it back in the alpha testing stage to get good performance on the big servers mostly required a CPU with strong 1-2 thread performance some reasonably decent RAM and wasn't too demanding on the GPU.

Do you need a monitor also in that budget?
 
Rroff said:
I've not played Minecraft in a long time so things might have changed but when I had a whirl with it back in the alpha testing stage to get good performance on the big servers mostly required a CPU with strong 1-2 thread performance some reasonably decent RAM and wasn't too demanding on the GPU.

Do you need a monitor also in that budget?
Click to expand...

my friend just got a new system as his i3 was struggling, i would think i5 or FX 4 core

Edit: no thinking now that was WOW
 
Minecraft benchmark;
50163.png

(from september 2012 AMD Trinity review)

That top entry is the integrated graphics on the AMD A10-5800k, so an APU build might well be perfect. And cheap.
 
should have been a little more clear, no need for a screen. I have a decent spare one I can give him.

So just all the components for the box is needed. Plus Windows.
 
IIRC the game is Open GL based so for compatibility reasons and to avoid any potential hassle with future game updates I'd reccomend using an nVidia GPU if possible as they have the better Open GL support.

If you don't need a monitor then a reasonable base system around an i3 is probably possible though AMD for the CPU might give better options for spending money elsewhere i.e. if possible it would be better to get a small SSD even if its just for the game as well as a HDD as that can speed up loading times with Minecraft a lot due to the way it works.

P4Clock said:
my friend just got a new system as his i3 was struggling, i would think i5 or FX 4 core

Edit: no thinking now that was WOW
Click to expand...

Wasn't suggesting going for less than 4 cores (or 2 core + hyperthread) but the game benefits more than anything from CPUs that have strong performance when running a lesser number of threads rather than CPUs that are at their best when things are spread over lots of slower threads.
 
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As per that graph above even the lower end of current GPUs can handle minecraft around about 60fps so its not massively demanding on that aspect but I'd reccomend going a bit above the minimum as it would give a better overall experience and be useful if he wants to play other stuff but no need to go mad on the GPU aspect.
 
My brother uses a A6-5400k and runs Minecraft fine with a texture pack and mods on a 'Hacked' server with 200+ people.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x AMD A8-6600K 3.90GHz (Socket FM2) APU Richland Quad Core Processor (AD660KWOHLBOX) £71.99
1 x Antec Value Builder Bundle - Antec Three Hundred Gaming Case & VP450P 450W '80 Plus' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A88X-D3H AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Motherboard £62.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £42.98
Total : £376.03 (includes shipping : ).



Kaveri is £50 more and would allow for more FPS.

Remember, Install Optifine as a must, they're also some texture packs which help with performance.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Kaveri 7700K 10 Compute Core APU w/ Radeon R7 Graphics (4 CPU + 6 GPU Compute Cores) - Retail £119.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Antec Value Builder Bundle - Antec Three Hundred Gaming Case & VP450P 450W '80 Plus' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A88X-D3H AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Motherboard £62.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-252-SE) £24
Total : £402.95 (includes shipping : ).



Used the same B grade HDD for my brother, works great.
 
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The GPU is almost irrelevant for Minecraft performance. CPU + RAM is what matters most and If you use Optifine with 64bit Java 7 and 8GB of RAM you will absolutely fly. My i5-3320 laptop kills it. I've even run it on low with a 1.3GHz dual core laptop with a gma 4500mhd using Optifine and Java 7 with medium draw distance.

My recommendation is the new Pentium Anniversary chip with an R9 270 and 8GB of RAM. Pick an ASUS H series motherboard as you can overclock k series chips with them.
 
Being an Intel user through and through for my PC I really hadn't looked into the AMD CPUS... interesting.

Looks like they might save a load of money by not having to buy a separate GPU.
 
JonSmith said:
My chip with an R9 270 and 8GB of RAM. Pick an ASUS H series motherboard as you can overclock k series chips with them.
Click to expand...

Yeah good luck doing that for £400.

This should be a good starting point. £20 over but I can't make any more cuts without sacrificing quality significantly.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-6800K Black Edition 4.10GHz (Socket FM2) APU Richland Quad Core Processor (AD680KWOHLBOX) £103.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Fury 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (SHFS37A-120G) £54.98
1 x Gigabyte F2A88XM-HD3 AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £49.99
1 x Cooler Master N200 NSE-200-KKN1 Midi-Tower - Black £36.95
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 300W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £29.99
Total : £420.38 (includes shipping : £11.25).



The alternative I think is an R7 250 + bottom-end Pentium, which is slightly more cash again and might not be much better.
 
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ThaReaperGuy said:
Mine above has Kaveri, under £400. :p
Sacrifice the SSD as it won't help with Minecraft.
Click to expand...

Sorry Reaper didn't actually look closely at yours!

Choosing between Richland+SSD and Kaveri+HDD I'd go for the SSD every time. Kaveri is so bottlenecked by DDR3 that it doesn't make sense IMO.

Also the N200 is a nicer case (IMO) and I'd trust the PSU more than your bundled one.
 
Wow, thanks for all the responses people. These are mega helpful as I was kind of assuming it might be mega difficult but it seems like its actually pretty doable.
 
My son plays it on my ageing E5200 / HD4850 / 8GB DDR2 machine and it copes well enough so I reckon any up to date hardware will make it more than playable, if not the fastest thing on earth.

One thing to bear in mind though - at 12 it won't be too long before he wants to progress to more taxing games so keep an upgrade path in mind.
 
paintguy said:
One thing to bear in mind though - at 12 it won't be too long before he wants to progress to more taxing games so keep an upgrade path in mind.
Click to expand...

Yes.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R7 250X 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £69.95
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £63.98
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G1600HC9DC01) £55.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £52.99
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £37.99
1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Power Supply (100-W1-0500-KR) £35.99
1 x Zalman T3 Micro -ATX Case USB 3.0 - Black £20.99
Total : £422.47 (includes shipping : £8.00).




This could be upgraded to i5/i7 (non-K) and R9 270X/GTX 760 (or other more powerful cards if PSU is upgraded too). And includes a quality SSD. The 250X card is slightly more powerful than the most powerful Kaveri APU.

Or nevermind the SSD for now, and get a nice windowed/LED fan case as he's 12 years old, and 1TB storage:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R7 250X 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £69.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G1600HC9DC01) £55.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £52.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £42.98
1 x Zalman Z3-Plus Midi-Tower - Black £39.95
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £37.99
1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Power Supply (100-W1-0500-KR) £35.99
Total : £420.43 (includes shipping : £8.00).




It's possible to make an i3 + 250X build as well but I would start off with the Pentium-K, as once you overclock it there shouldn't be a great deal of difference, and an O/C'd Pentium could be even better for some things that only require 1-2 cores/threads. So for me the upgrade path would be Pentium-K to i5.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4130 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £82.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R7 250X 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £69.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G1600HC9DC01) £55.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 500GB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA050) HDD £35.99
1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Power Supply (100-W1-0500-KR) £35.99
1 x MSI H81M-P33 Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £33.95
1 x Zalman T3 Micro -ATX Case USB 3.0 - Black £20.99
Total : £420.43 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
These all look great, I suspect once all family members have chipped in his total funds will be closer to £300 than £400 but he has a little money of his own still saved up.

The AMD APU's seem like pretty decent bang for their buck for a Minecraft machine... although yeah I do wonder how long it will be before he moves onto other things. He does already have a Xbox 360 for other games though.
 
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