Hi all,

I noticed that a lot of users are having issues due to lag and low frames per seconds. First I would like to tell people that this can have multiple issues. We are going to solve all of these issues with this from basic user to pro builder guide.

Please read the entire guide I know for sure you will have learned something when you finish reading it. At the end of the guide are links to the PCs I have build in the last year with guides on how I built them and lots of pictures.

1st issue stating the obvious:
Java isn't the best coding language used for games.

2nd issue PC performance:

Note: I know that many minecraft players are very young and will not be able to use this guide, but for these players ask your mom or dad to help you solve this issue using this guide.

We shall begin "the PC as a body":

The human body has many parts which all differ in function, so does a PC. This guide will use the human body as a metaphore for a PC to help you understand what the part do and what they are for.

The body parts which will be explained:

- Brain processing power (CPU)
- Backbone (Motherboard)
- Nerve system (RAM)
- Brain memory abillity (HDD/ SSD)
- Heart (PSU)
- Skin (Fans/ coolers)
- Case (Body)
- Legs (GPU)

Brain processing power:
CPU is an abreviation for Central Processing Unit it is also known as a processor, just like the brain it is the center for all processes. In our body everything we do is controlled by the brain and the brain keeps track of all these processes. Without a brain our body wouldn't be able to make decisions and wouldn't do a thing, just like a PC can't make decisions without the CPU.

Backbone:
Without a backbone a brain wouldn't have a connection with our body all our nerves run through our spine into our body. The motherboard represents our backbone connecting our brain to all other body parts. A strong backbone is capable of supporting a strong brain, just like a strong CPU needs a strong motherboard to support all the data it needs to send to the body parts. Motherboards come in different chipsets, a chipset is basicly the condition of the body. The more advance the chipset (price is a good indication for this), the more potential you can get out of your CPU.

Nerve system:
As mentioned in the backbone (motherboard) explanation a brain needs a spine to run nerves through, however how do we call these nerves in a PC? In a PC the nerves are represented by the RAM which stands for Random Access Memory, but what is it and what does it do? Basicly RAM is there to send the electrical signals our brains produce to the body parts which these signals are intended for. RAM is a type of memory which can store data for a limited amount of time, it can store data as long as it has power. Just like a chicken who lost his head will still be able to walk for a small amount of time the RAM is able to store data for a small amount of time.

Brain memory abillity:
The main function of a brain is described in the Brain processing power (CPU) explanation, however the brain has more functions than that. The other function we are going to discuss is a different part of the brain, just like the brain a PC uses a different part for this function. We are talking about the part which stores our memories and thoughts. A PC uses a HDD or SSD for this function HDD means Hard Drive Disk and SSD means Solid State Drive. Both the HDD and SSD have the same function but work differently, the only thing you need to know is that a HDD is slower but way cheaper and that a SSD is faster and way more expensive.

Heart:
Blood is used in the body as a transport system for energy and oxygen, the blood however can't get to the places it need to go without the heart. The heart is the energy delivery system of the human body, just like a PSU (Power Supply Unit) for the PC. A powerful body requires a strong heart as it needs to pump around all the energy and oxygen containing blood to keep the body powerful. A powerful PC requires a powerful PSU to power all the components of the PC, just like a strong heart in a powerful body.

Skin:
We have all started to sweat for some reason during the summer, but why do we sweat? Sweating is our bodies signal to show that it is lacking cooling and that it is too hot. Because we have such a high amount of skin surface the skin is perfect for cooling. How does this work? Well very close under our skin are our blood vessels, that is why when you cut yourself on excident you start bleeding. Sweat is pushed out of the skin through our pores to help our skin cool our blood vessels (remember blood travels through the entire body therefore cooling the entire body). The larger the surface area of the skin the better the cooling, therefore the larger the surface area of the CPU cooler the better the cooling. You could see the sweat as cooling paste helping the CPU cooler to cool better.

Body:
A human wouldn't be complete without a body. There are people who are good looking but lack the intelligence and there are people who look somewhat less attractive but are very smart. This is the same for the PC case which is actually the body of the PC. There are highly aesteticly pleasing PC cases which lack functionality and there are cases which look less pleasing but have way more functionality. A PC case is really a personal preference. The only thing you need to look for is:" what do i need ".

Legs:
Now we are going to talk about the piece de resistance, the flagship of all PCs. The GPU also known as Graphics Processing Unit is the main part used for gaming and all other visual performance of a PC.

The better the GPU the better the performance of games. WRONG !!! Not true at all. All athletes need strong legs because they need to run a lot, but you can't only train your legs (remember never skip leg day). If an athlete has very strong legs but lacks stamina he won't be going very far. This is also the case for a PC, you can't just buy a really powerful GPU and expect your PC to run perfectly as the GPU will be held back by other parts in the PC. This phenomenon is known as bottlenecking.

All parts have to be in sync to get the most performance out of a PC. You can't expect a 50$ CPU to keep up with a 500$ GPU, because the GPU is just way out of the league for the CPU. In other words the CPU won't be able to keep up with the data the GPU is sending to the CPU.




On with the gaming:

Lets have a look at what Mojang has to say about PC performance and Minecraft (Source)

Minimum Requirements: (without these requirements Minecraft isn't even able to start)

• 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: (these requirements will give 30 frames per seconds at almost all given time)

• 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

But what does this all mean?:

Well we now know what the parts are but how do we decide which parts we need to upgrade on our current PC, or which part we need to build a new PC?

As there are a million parts available and I don't have all the time in the world I will be looking at the recommended requirements only and we will be building a PC together which has all the recommended components or better.

My next guide will be called : " What parts and performance fits my needs ", the guide will be written either today or tomorrow.

Intel build: $534,94-

CPU:
- Intel Core i3 4330 $139.99-
Motherboard:
- Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3 $79.99-
RAM:
- Kinston HyperX 4GB $39.99-
HDD:
WD BLACK SERIES WD1003FZEX 1TB $84.99-
PSU:
CORSAIR CX series CX430 $39.99-
CPU cooler:
Comes with CPU $0,-
Case:
Your choice (maybe you already have one)
GPU:
GIGABYTE GV-N75TOC-2GI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB $149.99-


AMD build: $514.19-

CPU:
- AMD FX 6300 $119.99-
Motherboard:
- GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P $79.99-
RAM:
- Kinston HyperX 4GB $39.99-
HDD:
WD BLACK SERIES WD1003FZEX 1TB $84.99-
PSU:
CORSAIR CX series CX430 $39.99-
CPU cooler:
Comes with CPU $0,-
Case:
Your choice (maybe you already have one)
GPU:
GIGABYTE GV-N75TOC-2GI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB $149.99-

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If you have the time and want to see the PCs I have build in the last year have a look at these, these are all my work. Please leave a like and I hope you enjoyed reading my PC performance guide.

My PC: Dominating Obsidian
Thomas Build: Switching from console to PC
Matthijs Build: Bro build
Wessel Build: Corsair Gaming
Bertus Build: Corsair Bookkeeping
Julian Build: High-end Gaming on a low budget

If you guys need any help building PCs, selecting parts or any other PC performance issues please let me know

 

If you can make a detailed list of all the parts you have now and the amount of money you can spend on new parts, I am more than happy to find great value/ performance parts for you.

 

Hi @idkhowtoplay,

Hope you enjoyed reading the guide, I will be adding more of these guides on PC building in the near future. Next guide will be called :" what parts and performance fits my needs ".

I will definitly make some guides on software and tools just like speccy you mentioned. I always use speccy on old PCs it's such a great little programe.

 

I disagree, a good language would run perfectly fine without state of the art coding. Something like CryENGINE from Crytek used to make a game like Far Cry. Not does this game look much better it also performs better at the same hardware used to play minecraft. The real disadvantage of Java is that it is quiet CPU intensive while other programming languages are more GPU intensive. You are right about the crossplatform abillity of Java though. In my opinion a different coding language has to be used for Minecraft just like Minecraft for PS3 and XBox 360.

Everyone has the right of an opinion and I admire your post, hope you enjoyed reading the guide. I did change the statement a bit though :p.

 

Next tutorial will be written sunday

 

Hi Onscene,

If you need any help let me know, I also built one together with @asabrown using Skype most of the time as we live 3000 miles from each other.

 

Almost impossible nowadays, as long as you don't touch the pins with your fingers of course :p CPUs can only get inserted in one way, if it is placed wrong you won't be able to close the lock. I bought a Motherboard with twisted pins a couple of weeks ago for my SteamOS build, I managed to bend them back. The build will be uploaded to PCpartpicker when I finish working on the custom PC case I am building together with one of my best friends.

 

PCpartpicker is a really nice website for first time builders and also very satisfying for advanced builders.