There is a bit of a spike in laptop prices today, But are still some machines that are in the $500 range. And those are best for low graphics-intensive games like Minecraft. According to the latest statistics, Minecraft has taken fifth place in the list of most popular games on Twitch.
Are you fond of playing Minecraft Games just like me? Well, this article is specifically for gamers and people like you who love to play games But with a budget laptop. In this article, we feature a list of the best laptops for Minecraft under $500.
Top 8 Best Laptops for Minecraft under $500
After 10 days of research, we have brought for you the cheapest laptops, which can run Minecraft without any issues. But before that, let’s see what the Minecraft.net officials suggest to us regarding the minimum specs of the laptops, which could run the game smoothly.
What are the system requirements for Minecraft?
The main components of a computer are CPU, GPU, and RAM. You need to check this information to know if you can run this game on your computer.
Minimum System Requirements for Minecraft
These are the minimum system requirements for Minecraft and make sure your computer meets the minimum requirements.
1. Operating System Windows 7 and higher
2. CPU Intel Core i3-3210 3.2 GHz / AMD A8-7600 APU 3.1 GHz or equivalent
3. GPU Intel HD Graphics 4000 or AMD Radeon R5 series | NVIDIA GeForce 400 series or AMD Radeon HD 7000 series
4. 180 MB hard drive to 1 GB of available space
5. Memory 4GB RAM
Recommended system requirements for Minecraft
The recommended system requirements represent the ideal situation to run the program. And the recommended system requirements for Minecraft for PC are as follows:
1. Windows 10 64-bit operating system
2. Intel Core i5 4690 Processor | AMD A10 7800 or equivalent
3. NVIDIA GeForce 700 Series GPUs | AMD Radeon Rx 200 series
4. HDD 4 GB (SSD recommended) available space
5. Memory 8GB RAM
1. Acer Aspire 5
Acer is the Best Cheap Gaming Laptop for Minecraft for Under $500. Acer is doing a remarkable job when it comes to making the budget laptop with powerful specs. Consequently, the latest Aspire 5 is a gaming laptop priced at $500 that is bound to satisfy all gamers around the world who are on a tight budget.
Talking about the exterior of the laptop, it comes in a beautiful silver-colored finish and stands out in appearance from any other common laptop on the market. Also, it comes with great ergonomics that make it comfortable to hold.
The laptop is powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 5 Hexa-core processor paired with 8GB of RAM. It has a 15.6-inch Full-HD IPS display with fairly slim bezels and comes with Acer’s proprietary Color Intelligence system that helps reduce eye strain by reducing harmful blue color.
Storage on the laptop is backed by a 256GB SSD that’s fast and offers plenty of room to store your favorite games, photos, music, movies, and other data. The laptop comes with a long list of ports and also has a good heat exhaust system making it a perfect choice for gamers and all other hardcore users.
It supports the newest and fastest Wi-Fi 6, which will help improve ping and latency in online gaming. When it comes to the graphics of the laptop, it comes with AMD Radeon Graphics, which outperforms Intel’s integrated graphics.
All in all, the laptop offers an excellent set of specs for just over $500, but considering the design and performance of this laptop, we think it’s worth it.
2. HP 15-dy2021nr
The HP 15-dy2021nr is one of the best gaming laptops in the $500 price range. It offers powerful hardware packaged inside a durable, professional-looking chassis that weighs just 3.7 pounds. It comes with the newest 11th Gen Intel Core i5 quad-core processor paired with 8GB of RAM, and thanks to integrated Intel UHD graphics, this laptop can run some of the newest games on low to high graphics settings.
Additionally, it offers 256GB of SSD storage, which is small for a gaming laptop but is much faster than traditional hard drives. Overall the performance of this laptop is excellent and although you will have to lower the graphics settings in games to have smooth gameplay, it is a good budget gaming laptop.
However, the display on the HP 15-dy2021nr is a bit disappointing. It comes with a 15-inch Full HD IPS panel, which is great in terms of color reproduction, but its brightness is only 220 nits, which is too low even for working indoors in a brightly lit room, and it’s almost impossible to use the laptop in direct sunlight.
However, if you always use the laptop in an environment with medium to low lighting, you’ll be fine. Overall, it’s a great panel for both media consumption and daily productivity tasks. It also has a matte coating, which cuts glare and helps you see the screen easily.
Overall, the HP 15-dy2021nr is a very good laptop that ticks some of the most important boxes that make any laptop great for gaming. So it’s one of our most recommended best gaming laptops for Minecraft under $500 right now.
3. ASUS F512
Technically, this laptop is above $500. But of course, the sale price is not far from 700 dollars. Not to mention, it’s worth the extra investment. Therefore, it was consciously included in this list of the best gaming laptops. From AMD Quad-Core R5-3500U CPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, to integrated AMD Radeon Vega 8 graphics and more, this laptop has some good specs to brag about.
Of course, it also allows you to upgrade the RAM and SSD if needed. If you feel the need to improve the performance of the laptop, nothing is stopping you from doing so. It has empty slots for product expansion. The best part is that you will rarely notice a drop in performance.
From the perspective of someone who uses this laptop to play games or work from home, this laptop gets full marks. Although not designed specifically for gaming, you can play light to medium games without any hiccups. From the battery, you can easily expect 4-5 hours of continuous performance on a full charge. Of course, the battery life would depend on the activity.
Give and take, wait an hour or so, depending on what programs you run on the laptop. Another good thing about this laptop is that it has a good 4-way NanoEdge display which makes the laptop keep the minimum dimensions and overall space. Yes, the screen-to-body resolution ratio is almost 90%.
What also stands out is the ErgoLift hinge design of this laptop. Automatically offers a gentle keyboard tilt for a better-than-usual typing experience. Believe it or not, typing on this device hardly requires any effort.
The laptop looks very modern and stylish as a well great choice for the best laptop for Minecraft for under $500. Of course, the operational speed is also solid. 8GB RAM allows you to run most programs quickly. Also, this laptop turns on and off quickly. Plus, it’s light enough to easily travel with.
4. Newest HP Pavilion
This best budget laptop for Minecraft is under $500 this laptop is more than capable of great gaming, video editing, and other similar tasks. So you can not only imagine but also expect great performance from this laptop. It weighs around 3.95 pounds, which is considerably light for a 15.6-inch laptop.
Also, the battery on this thing doesn’t run out quickly. It starts to wear off only after 7-8 hours of continuous use. The reload speed is also commendable. It goes from zero to fifty percent in less than an hour. It also delivers within a reasonable amount of time, as reported by a large number of previous buyers.
This HP Pavilion laptop comes with solid product specifications to keep you productive and entertained for hours on end. Means, the included Intel Pentium Silver processor, UHD graphics, 4GB RAM, and 128GB SSD work their magic at all times.
An integrating dual-array digital microphones, stereo speakers, and a backlit keyboard to liven things up. It also has a fan to cool down the machine when it seems to get hot. You will barely hear any noise from the fan.
The best part is that this laptop comes fully loaded with almost everything you need to get started right out of the box. Of course, the price is also fair. You rarely find such products for a low selling price.
Not to mention that the red color looks amazing on this device. It’s an immediate attention-getter, to say the least. For the looks alone, I’d be willing to throw a lot of money.
It also has the necessary functions to improve the safety and performance of the product. For example, it includes Microsoft Windows 10 in ‘S’ mode. Needless to say, you can quickly get out of this mode if you want.
5. Lenovo Ideapad 3 Best for Gaming
The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 is the perfect laptop for gamers who want to play Minecraft and enjoy more like these games because its ultra-portable form factor and all the powerful hardware and features make it the perfect choice for gamers who don’t want to spend their fortune buying their next gaming laptop.
Talking about the design of the laptop, it is a very slim-looking laptop that weighs only 3.3 pounds. There’s nothing exceptional about its design, but overall it’s an attractive laptop and blends in well in all sorts of environments.
The laptop has a 14-inch Full HD display with an anti-glare coating for extended gaming sessions and its bezels are small, making gaming and watching movies immersive. The laptop is powered by an AMD Ryzen 5 quad-core processor with powerful Radeon Vega 8 graphics and a decent 8GB of RAM.
Also, the laptop comes with a fast 256GB SSD which gives it a slight edge over other gaming laptops in this price range. The laptop also comes with great battery life, making it on our list of the best budget gaming laptops under $500.
6. Dell Inspiron 15 5000
Dell is back on the market with its latest budget laptop in the form of the Dell Inspiron 5505. This is an interesting variant of the Inspiron series of laptops from Dell as it offers great performance for the asking price. Starting with the not-so-great things, it has a 15.6-inch Full HD screen, which isn’t bright enough and the colors look bland too.
Other than that, the page up and page down keys on your keyboard are placed next to the arrow keys, which is not the ideal position for it as it can result in a lot of accidental key presses. Otherwise, it’s a great keyboard overall even for long-distance typing tasks.
However, not everything is bad. It is powered by an 11th Gen Intel Core i3-1115G4 Processor and with paired 8GB of RAM and 128GB SSD It’s also a fairly light machine weighing just 3.7 pounds, which is very good considering the size of this laptop.
While its dull display makes it difficult for us to recommend the Dell Inspiron 15 5000 to content creators, it’s certainly one of the best budget gaming laptops around.
With the best performing hardware for the price and plenty of options for future upgradeability, it’s a great option for budget buyers looking for the best gaming laptops for Minecraft and many games on the market.
7. ASUS VivoBook 15
ASUS VivoBook 15 is one of the best all-around budget gaming laptops for people looking for the best mix of work and entertainment within $500. It’s a well-built laptop like all other VivoBook laptop series with excellent ergonomics and ease of use.
It has a 15.6-inch Full HD LED screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. Under the hood, the laptop is powered by an AMD Ryzen 5 processor which enables it to handle most of the gaming and other essential tasks. For
This is a great gaming laptop for Minecraft and also multitasking, the laptop comes with 16GB DDR4 of RAM, and for data storage, it comes with a fast 256GB SSD. It also has an additional RAM slot to increase the RAM in the future.
As far as the software of the laptop is concerned, it comes with Windows 10 Home which makes it compatible with all PC gaming. The laptop plays most of the new computer games like Minecraft smoothly along with the powerful integrated Radeon Vega 8 graphics.
Also, it barely heats up even in intense and continuous gaming sessions. The laptop runs quietly with less sound and is hands down the best gaming laptop under $500 right now.
8. HP 17
This HP laptop is a perfect affordable Best Gaming Laptops for Minecraft. it has a powerful graphic that promises to provide very stable yet powerful performance for gamers and home or office use this laptop is under $575. It offers 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 and integrated graphics, making it a capable laptop for light gaming.
It can run games like GTA 5 at around 50fps on reduced graphics settings, which is not bad for a laptop that costs less than $500. It comes with 8GB of RAM to take care of multitasking and offers a 256GB SSD for storage. The laptop has a 17.3-inch HD touch screen that offers colorful and sharp images.
As far as the design and appearance of the laptop go, the laptop looks neat and sleek is a bit lighter than the other 17-inch laptops, and comes with an Intel Iris Xe graphic card.
To conclude, this laptop from HP is a very affordable and powerful gaming laptop and surely one of the best options if you are looking for a 17-inch gaming laptop under $500.
Update your Graphics Card For Gaming
Your graphics card plays a critical role in gaming. If your graphics card cannot fully play its role, it will reduce your gaming experience. Therefore, it is recommended to keep your graphics card driver updated. Also, keeping updating your drivers regularly can keep your devices in a healthy state which will keep you out of trouble.
The Truth about $500 Gaming Laptops!
Buying a gaming laptop for under $500 can be pretty subjective. Obviously, at this budget, you can’t expect the laptop to run most graphics-intensive games at higher frame rates because $500 is still a starting range to buy the gaming laptop.
That said, I’m not underrating sub-$500 gaming laptops by any means. They are the best cheap and powerful laptops for gaming but the fact is that they will only be able to run the older games like CS GO, League of Legends, Minecraft, etc.
You can’t expect to run the newer game titles like PUBG, Fortnite, or GTA 5 on these laptops because they are not capable enough to run them. There may be a chance that some budget laptops will run these games, but they will still struggle to deliver smooth gameplay.
Therefore, I recommend that you increase your budget to at least $800 because gaming laptops in the $800 price range are capable enough to run most new games with decent graphics settings.
People also Asked
How to Choose the Best Laptops Under $500?
Selecting the best gaming laptop under $500 for you depends on where you are with your budget. Our top models, the Acer Aspire 5 and HP 15-dy2021nr, typically range from $400 to $500, so you won’t need to expand your budget more from $500 to $1000.
Even if these laptops are probably out of budget right now, you should acknowledge the maintenance if you can, as they feature Intel Core i3 processors, which you won’t be looking for in most sub-$500 laptops.
However, if you don’t mind using ChromeOS, you might be better off using a Chromebook. It’s affordable, and since the OS is shredded, it’ll perform better than your average Windows 10 laptop for the related price.
Laptops like the HP Chromebook 15, HP Chromebook x2, and Samsung Chromebook 4 are examples of great Chromebooks you can buy for under $500.
Can Games Be Played Without a Dedicated Graphics Card?
Yes. You can run games without a dedicated graphics card, but these games have lower settings and lower frame rates than others.
How to Upgrade RAM and Storage on a Laptop?
A: The procedure can be modified for different laptops. The common method is to open the compartment under the laptop and replace or add the parts you need. Make sure you don’t damage the laptop in the process.
Is a Gaming Laptop under $500 Worth It?
The main point I want to make is this: If you’re a gamer with a budget of $500, building your gaming desktop or buying a pre-built PC gives you a lot more performance.
But some gamers need the mobility offered by their laptops for school and work (for example, to travel). Choosing the top two options on the list would be best if you work on a tight budget and need to be mobile, while still wanting to play.
You might be able to get away with using the other options if you’re primarily going to be playing games that don’t require a lot of input.
Is Core-i5 Processor Good for Gaming?
In 2019, Core-i5 processors were a minimum requirement for many games. However, it is good enough to enjoy the game.
Can you get a Good Laptop for $500?
As long as you focus primarily on the specs, power, and performance of your sub-500 gaming laptop, you should be able to find a fairly decently powerful gaming laptop for this budget.
So yes, you can get a good, even great, gaming laptop for this budget. However, if you bump up your budget a bit, you’ll get a much better gaming laptop that crushes the $500 gaming laptop.
Is 8GB of RAM Enough in a $500 Gaming Laptop?
Yes, 8GB of RAM is enough in your $500 gaming laptop; Since the rest of the specs aren’t that overloaded, 8GB of RAM wouldn’t be a bottleneck by any means.
Is 4GB of RAM Enough for a $500 Gaming Laptop?
It’s not the best experience for gaming using a 4GB RAM gaming laptop. However, it would be better if you can find a gaming laptop under $500 that offers at least 8GB of RAM, like the best option I’ve featured in this article, the HP 14 Laptop.
What is the Best Gaming Laptop 2022 under 500?
Every year, the best gaming laptop under $500 keeps changing as new laptops hit the market. So I advise you to bookmark this article to see the latest available at that time. Right now, it’s the HP 14 laptop
Conclusion
In the list of 8 best laptops for Minecraft under $500, it is really hard to conclude. The listed machines are all better and capable of beating each other in different aspects. However, after looking closely at the full list, I’d say it depends on your requirements.
What kind of laptop is right for you? If you like a stylish and attractive laptop, then the best one I recommend is the Asus VivoBook. Also, when it comes to performance. There is not a big difference between the eight products.
However, there is a difference between nineteen and twenty. Also, we have chosen laptops from different brands and give you the flexibility to select your favorite brand.
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