Minecraft PC for smol human

[porina]

Budget (including currency): 0 if possible, will reuse existing parts, but buying new parts is not ruled out if it makes sense to do so

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Minecraft only

Other details:

 

Eventual recipient is a 9 year old girl. I know her dad, who recently bought a PC for his son, and I commented I probably have the bits to do one cheaper. Well, he's taking up the offer for his daughter. Apparently it will only run Minecraft. The son's system includes Ryzen 2600, RX550, 16GB of ram, 240GB nvme SSD + 1TB HD.

 

My only problem is, I have zero experience of Minecraft requirements. The recommended (not minimum) spec here is i5-4690, 8GB ram, 4GB SSD, GF700 series or RX200 series. Question: how well does the recommended specs run Minecraft? Do I need to aim higher than that? For now, let's assume 1080p. I don't want the practical performance level to be too different from the son's PC in case that causes conflict, but I don't know which bits might be overkill. Also that listing was for the Java version of the game. Is the other one much different? Let's assume no RTX here!

 

Possible CPUs I can use - assume I have suitable mobo/ram/cooling/psu:

i5-4590 (200 MHz lower than the recommended 4690 both base and boost)

i7-4790

R5 2600 (was going to keep this for testing. Would be paired with ITX board so SFF-ish build is a possibility)

i7-5820k (overkill?)

 

Haswell CPUs would likely go into a micro-ATX system.

 

Is 8GB of ram enough, or do I go for 16GB?

 

Possible GPUs I can use:

RX 580 8GB - already have these boxed and ready to go

GTX 970 - was going to keep this as wasn't worth selling by itself, but could be as part of a system

 

I will probably use a SATA SSD of at least 240GB, and can back it up with at least 1TB HD to match the son's PC.

 

Note this PC wont be given away, but I'd ask fair market value for the used parts, free assembly. So it doesn't make sense to go too overkill.

 

I'm thinking the Haswell route would be cheaper overall, but the Ryzen 2600 route would more closely match the son's PC, combined with RX 580 in a Thermaltake Core whatever the small cube case is, could be interesting. I'll see if I can use the Wraith Prism just to ensure RGBness.

[The Sloth]

>smol 

 

ლ,ᔑ•ﺪ͟͠•ᔐ.ლ

 

 

 

9 minutes ago, porina said:

how well does the recommended specs run Minecraft?

Really well, even the Igpu can run minecraft 1080p 60, if you turn down the chunks and download optifine. 

 

- Minecraft is a very CPU intensive game.

 

- NVIDIA cards runs it better then AMD 

9 minutes ago, porina said:

GTX 970 - was going to keep this as wasn't worth selling by itself, but could be as part of a system

 

More then enough, you can even run a few mods with it. Also download optifine for better performance. 

 

 

I would go for the 4th gen i7, but the i5 is more then enough. 

9 minutes ago, porina said:

i7-5820k (overkill?)

 

Yes, by a very massive margin. 

[Moratory1212]

like this one https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-inspiron-desktop-intel-core-i3-8gb-memory-1tb-hdd-black-with-silver-trim/6392645.p?skuId=6392645 or faster and nicer but more money https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ibuypower-gaming-desktop-intel-core-i5-9400f-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1650-super-1tb-hdd-240gb-ssd-black/6400463.p?skuId=6400463

 

[startrek03]

22 minutes ago, The Sloth said:

Yes, by a very massive margin. 

Minecraft can be very ressource hungry in some cases. Don't let blockiness fool you. An i5 should be definitely fine, though, in a first PC for 9 year old.