Minecraft gaming pc build

Karim Benayad · 13 Jul 2021 at 04:17

Hey guys,

New on here and new to building a pc from scratch. But I have a 9year old daughter that wants a pc for her birthday so she can play Minecraft on it. I only want a cheap model as this is her first pc so there is plenty of room to upgrade her for other Xmas and birthdays in the future. Any recommendations on what kit to buy with a budget under £250 and I build it myself or am I better off just buying this prebuilt one from somewhere?

Spankme · 13 Jul 2021 at 08:11

At this time with all the gpu prices still highly inflated and like rocking horse poop you pretty much got no chance with that buget.. even the second hand market is ridiculous right now.

I specced out a basic office pc yesterday at 400 quid

Preytheon · 13 Jul 2021 at 11:37

Minecraft is NOT very demanding, so don't over-spend on a high end system

Something like a Ryzen 3400G should be fine (onboard graphics) will come in around £300 on eBay, but that's 2nd hand and the barebones systems for ~£300 still need a hard drive, etc.

You might be better off just getting a REALLY budget office PC (3rd gen i5) and putting a GTX1050Ti in there from the start - it would be the best performance for <£300, but it might only last a couple of years as those are getting on a bit now... this will give you a very decent render distance (i.e. more than the previous gen Xbox One S!).

Preytheon · 13 Jul 2021 at 12:08

Just as a starter:

This refurb'd office PC with 8Gb RAM, 1Tb HDD and a 6th gen i5: £160 (eBay)
(personally I'd hunt around for something similar with a 250Gb SSD instead, 8Gb RAM will be enough and you can go down to a 3rd gen i5 without giving up too much performance)....

....and a GTX1050Ti for <£90

Preytheon · 13 Jul 2021 at 12:17

Here you go:
eBay link deleted - but it was an ex-office Dell Optiplex, select i5 3rd gen + Mini Tower (more space for a graphics card) = £100

and the previous... GTX1050Ti for <£90

That system will work, but it will NOT feel fast - it really needs a SSD and then that will fly: 850 Pro 512Gb = £55

£245 all-in... just need to make sure you have the Windows license saved and then re-install Windows on the SSD (or something like Macrium Reflect Free to clone the drive onto the "new" SSD).

Tetras · 13 Jul 2021 at 14:54

You can get a 4350G pre-build for under £300, but it will only have 1 stick of 8GB RAM and that will murder performance of the GPU.

The problem with a used PC at this price is it will likely be an outdated platform that can't be upgraded.

With a pre-build you may have a very low-end motherboard and PSU, which again is going to limit upgrade potential.

If you upped the budget to £400 - £500 you could build something that will be definitely upgradeable, I'd suggest basing it around something like the B450 Tomahawk for £60, then buying a Ryzen 5 1600 for £120.

Preytheon · 13 Jul 2021 at 16:47

The Ryzen Pro's with the onboard graphics (e.g. 4350G or even the 4570G) are among the very best of any integrated graphics solutions, but they're still nowhere near the same as even a low end discrete GPU. The VERY fastest Ryzen 5000 G-series GPU is still only the spec of a GT1030 and half the speed of a GT1050Ti.

If you're going to nudge the budget up a bit above £250... I'd suggest something similar to my previous suggestion, but with a generic case, Brand-name motherboard (ASUS/Gigabyte*), 500W PSU, etc... so you can use that PC as a base to expand from in the future.

*i.e. NOT HP/Dell/Lenovo

You'll probably still end up with a GTX1050Ti and a 3rd gen i5, but just a better spec to build from in the future if you wanted to upgrade the graphic card and needed a more powerful PSU, etc. (the big companies like DELL/HP/Lenovo will only take proprietary upgrade components from those manufacturers, so tend to be a LOT more expensive and harder to source).

My son (10yr old) has a very similar spec to the one I'm recommending (albeit my old i7-3770K), but it has the same key component: a GTX1050Ti and he is able to run Minecraft with a higher render distance than his X Box One-S. He also runs Roblox and clocks some very decent frame rates in Fortnight, etc - again, better than the X Box. One twist is that he actually runs the PC with a USB cabled X Box controller, so he still has the XBox "feel" (just no fees for XBox Live).

Joxeon · 13 Jul 2021 at 17:07

If you if you want something upgradable then a cheap ryzen build is the way to go. Could probably run minecraft fine on a 2200G APU then add a descrete graphics card at a later date.

Preytheon · 14 Jul 2021 at 11:06

Agreed - doesn't need to be high spec: a B450 + Ryzen 1600 + GeForce 1050Ti wouldn't be THAT much more cost and provide way more performance AND a decent base to start from.... there's loads of decent rigs out there that are no longer bleeding edge, but still VERY usable... if the budget could go up to £400ish, then I found this (I was only looking for basic B450 + Ryzen 1600 ex-gaming rigs):

Ryzen 5 3600 + B450 + 16Gb @ £240
GTX1050 @ £90 (as above)
decent case + PSU ~£50-£80 (e.g. £70 for a BeQuiet case + Corsair 450W

TBH - that's overkill for a 9yr old's minecraft PC - more of a teenager's starter-build, ready for a RTX3060 once a few more paper-rounds

mickyflinn · 14 Jul 2021 at 11:15

@Preytheon could you please remove the links its against the forum rules.

Craig_d1 · 14 Jul 2021 at 15:06

With that kind of budget I think an xbox series s will be a lot easier and you'll get a lot more bank for your buck. It's £249.99 so right on the money, and still comes with fast memory so load times will be good.
As above, problem with such a small budget for a pc build, is that you'll end up wanting to upgrade everything, which defeats the purpose.

Preytheon · 14 Jul 2021 at 19:43

mickyflinn said:
@Preytheon could you please remove the links its against the forum rules.

Done - sorry!! I thought it was just against the rules to pitch your own parts and links to eBay, but given this forum is owned by a retailer, I guess it makes sense too just have a blanket ban on external links.

FYI - it definitely wasn't my own stuff - I was just trying to show that for people who can't afford the new kit, there are some real bargains out there for people who don't mind slightly older/2nd hand stuff (even the dedicated gamers need to flog some of their stuff on to afford the new stuff

)

Joxeon · 14 Jul 2021 at 19:47

Preytheon said:
Done - sorry!! I thought it was just against the rules to pitch your own parts and links to eBay, but given this forum is owned by a retailer, I guess it makes sense too just have a blanket ban on external links.

FYI - it definitely wasn't my own stuff - I was just trying to show that for people who can't afford the new kit, there are some real bargains out there for people who don't mind slightly older/2nd hand stuff (even the dedicated gamers need to flog some of their stuff on to afford the new stuff )

The trouble building with old parts though is your essentially spending out on dead end hardware so will all need replacing sooner or later whereas spending a bit more even on a budget ryzen setup is that you can upgrade it as you go with Bdays / xmas' etc.

You might start out with a B450 and a 2200g for cheap then just by dropping in a 5600X and RTX 3060ti it becomes quite a high end machine.