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Official Black Friday LAPTOP Discussion Thread

Brad

By Brad
in 2014

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kdspark

kdspark

Posted
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I am wondering the same thing! I have girls 9 and 11 who love Minecraft and Roblox. That's all they really want them for, and YouTube and maybe to watch movies. I was at Best Buy yesterday and a guy kept showing me the ones with the graphics card in the $800-$1300 range. I said under $300? He said with games like Minecraft it will work fine for a while but once they start building larger worlds it will get slower and slower and may eventually stop working. I told him I didn't want to spend $800 for a 9 year old who may drop the thing! He recommended a desktop as you get more for the money. But of course the kids want to be able to take them everywhere. So I'm feeling stuck:(

 

My child has been playing both Minecraft and Roblox on my laptop for over 2 yrs. The laptop is 4 yrs old. It was a nothing fancy blackfriday special and they both work fine on it. He some days will play 6-8 hrs at it with no problems as well as watching You tube on it. I still do all my other stuff on it.

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bnb0627

bnb0627

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My child has been playing both Minecraft and Roblox on my laptop for over 2 yrs. The laptop is 4 yrs old. It was a nothing fancy blackfriday special and they both work fine on it. He some days will play 6-8 hrs at it with no problems as well as watching You tube on it. I still do all my other stuff on it.

Thank you! Makes me feel better because I just won't spend that kind of money until they are in high school.

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bribri25

bribri25

Posted
Posted

Are there any good laptop deals out there that are available for on-line purchase instead of camping out at a B&M?

 

There will be some, for sure.  Depends on how good of a machine you are looking for and what constitutes "good", but yes there's already some that will likely be put online.

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Pnambic

Pnambic

Posted
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My child has been playing both Minecraft and Roblox on my laptop for over 2 yrs. The laptop is 4 yrs old. It was a nothing fancy blackfriday special and they both work fine on it. He some days will play 6-8 hrs at it with no problems as well as watching You tube on it. I still do all my other stuff on it.

 

I have several kids who have been playing Roblox and Minecraft for quite some time as well, and if you child stays in their own personal world, you'll be fine. 

But when/if you get into the multiplayer servers, I doubt the Black Friday door buster will be able to keep the frame rates at a decent level.

 

But either way, I wish you luck.

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Pnambic

Pnambic

Posted
Posted (edited)

So these little tablets and such have that ability? I was wondering...

 

The Chromecast is a little thumb sized device you plug into the HDMI port of the TV.

Then you can use most any smartphone, tablet or laptop to "cast" stuff to the device and thus watch it on the TV.

There are many Chromecast enabled apps to make it easy too.  For example, Netflix has one. 

Just bring up the Netflix app on your smartphone, find the show you want to watch, tap the Chromecast icon and you watch it on your TV.

Edited by Pnambic
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50sjayne

50sjayne

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The Chromecast is a little thumb sized device you plug into the HDMI port of the TV.

Then you can use most any smartphone, tablet or laptop to "cast" stuff to the device and thus watch it on the TV.

There are many Chromecast enabled apps to make it easy too.  For example, Netflix has one. 

Just bring up the Netflix app on your smartphone, find the show you want to watch, tap the Chromecast icon and you watch it on your TV.

Oh--thanks, she doesn't have anything right now so I told her I'd find something for her if it was under $200. She doesn't even have tv and wants something to do when she's breastfeeding lol. Baby is only a few months old.

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Pnambic

Pnambic

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Well, many tablets have mini HDMI ports as well.  I know my sons' Nabi and Nabi 2 both do.  And my wife's off brand tablet did last year....before I dropped it and broke it...

The Samsung tablets generally don't have the HDMI ports for some reason, but like I said, you can pair just about any tablet with a Chromecast and stream Netflix to your (HDMI input equipped) TV.

And the nice thing about the Chromecast is that once the tablet has told it what source to use, it goes and gets it directly instead of having the tablet get it and then try and send it to the Chromecast.  So even a cheap door-buster tablet should be able to get the job done.

 

But if you want a laptop, it's difficult to determine from the limited information given in the ads many times whether or not the device has an HDMI port, unless the ad gives a model number to reference.

Walmart has a deal for a $159 laptop Thursday evening, but I'm not clear on whether it has an HDMI out.

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50sjayne

50sjayne

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Well, many tablets have mini HDMI ports as well.  I know my sons' Nabi and Nabi 2 both do.  And my wife's off brand tablet did last year....before I dropped it and broke it...

The Samsung tablets generally don't have the HDMI ports for some reason, but like I said, you can pair just about any tablet with a Chromecast and stream Netflix to your (HDMI input equipped) TV.

And the nice thing about the Chromecast is that once the tablet has told it what source to use, it goes and gets it directly instead of having the tablet get it and then try and send it to the Chromecast.  So even a cheap door-buster tablet should be able to get the job done.

 

But if you want a laptop, it's difficult to determine from the limited information given in the ads many times whether or not the device has an HDMI port, unless the ad gives a model number to reference.

Walmart has a deal for a $159 laptop Thursday evening, but I'm not clear on whether it has an HDMI out.

Thanks--it's getting a lot clearer now. I kind of like the best buy chrome book as I know I can get it online. I used to stand in line-- eat dinner then go stand at Best Buy but I don't want to miss the entire Holiday. You used to get cool freebies too then...

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brian

brian

Posted
Posted

Greetings

 

I am looking for a Laptop with back-lit keyboard, i clocked on the links and did not seem to find any with good deals, the Bestbuy 299 Dell laptop says backlit screen. Could someone help please?

 

Best Regards

 

Brian

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len_mullen

len_mullen

Posted
Posted (edited)

ATTN MINECRAFT AFICIONADOS: There is a Minecraft wiki which lists these requirements...
 
 

Minimum Requirements:
CPU: Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 (K8) 2.6 GHz
RAM: 2GB
GPU (Integrated): Intel HD Graphics or AMD (formerly ATI) Radeon HD Graphics with OpenGL 2.1
GPU (Discrete): Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT or AMD Radeon HD 2400 with OpenGL 3.1
HDD: At least 200MB for Game Core and Other Files
Java 6 Release 45
 
Recommended Requirements:
CPU: Intel Core i3 or AMD Athlon II (K10) 2.8 GHz
RAM: 4GB
GPU: GeForce 2xx Series or AMD Radeon HD 5xxx Series (Excluding Integrated Chipsets) with OpenGL 3.3
HDD: 1GB
Latest release of Java 7 from java.com
 
Software Requirements:
Minecraft Release 1.6 or newer. Older versions will need to be updated to current versions
Please note that some users experience issues playing Minecraft while using a mismatched version of Java for their operating system (32 or 64 bit), while using certain versions of Java 7, or while multiple versions of Java are installed

 

There is also a page which lists user's experiences with specific computers...
 
http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Hardware_performance
 
If you are considering a specific model, google the model name plus minecraft of search for that on YouTube.  A lot of people post videos of their computer playing Minecraft.  This will help you decide if something closer to minimum will work for you or if you need a machine that exceeds recommended requirements.
 

 

Today, Best Buy is selling a $350 Toshiba satellite that seems to be suitable...

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/toshiba-satellite-15-6-laptop-amd-a8-series-4gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-jet-black/8541017.p?id=1219345074266&skuId=8541017&u1=ebs2d-1d4767d1416043266465sbe&sourceName=forums&sourceId=1403778

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbzD3PYuLcg

 

(different model with similar specs)

http://www.mobil-edge.com/toshiba-satellite-c55d-b5214/
 
Finally, there is a free demo of Minecraft.  Create an account, visit the store that sells the computer you are considering (or one with similar specs) and play the demo.

Edited by len_mullen
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msomnipotent

msomnipotent

Posted
Posted (edited)

I bought this one for my daughter http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/463726/HP-Pavilion-Laptop-Computer-With-173/

 

It is a lot more than I usually spend on her for Christmas, and more than I think an almost 10 year old needs, but I'm tired of her being on my computer or phone when I need to use them and this seems like a decent deal after rebate. Plus, my husband can also use it for work since it is much better than the one he has now. I'm assuming it is fine for Minecraft and stalking her movie star crushes, but I'm technologically inept.

Edited by msomnipotent
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Pnambic

Pnambic

Posted
Posted (edited)

I bought this one for my daughter http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/463726/HP-Pavilion-Laptop-Computer-With-173/

 

It is a lot more than I usually spend on her for Christmas, and more than I think an almost 10 year old needs, but I'm tired of her being on my computer or phone when I need to use them and this seems like a decent deal after rebate. Plus, my husband can also use it for work since it is much better than the one he has now. I'm assuming it is fine for Minecraft and stalking her movie star crushes, but I'm technologically inept.

Looks like a good deal on a solid laptop.

Might be large for a 10 year old to tote around though.

Edited by Pnambic
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len_mullen

len_mullen

Posted
Posted

husband wants a laptop that is like a tablet, is there a good price on one and where

 

http://weeklyads.walmart.com/mobile/walmartusa-circular/flyer_item/50619528?grid_view=true&locale=en-US&store_code=5253&type=1

 

10.1" touchscreen
1.83GHz Intel Atom Z3735G Quad-Core processor
32GB of storage memory
Microsoft Windows 8.1 OS
Webcams, WiFi and Bluetooth
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