New VR build

ball ox

Hi all,

I'm looking to build a machine primarily for use with the oculus rift / HTC Vive and would greatly appreciate any pointers.

I have narrowed my search down to the following components on mindfactory but am a little nervous about pulling the trigger as this is my first build and I'm worried something wont be compatible.

GPU - 4096MB MSI GeForce GTX 980 Gaming 4G Aktiv PCIe 3.0 x16 (Retail)
CPU - Intel Core i5 6500 4x 3.20GHz So.1151 BOX
MOBO - MSI Z170-A PRO Intel Z170 So.1151 Dual Channel DDR4 ATX Retail
PSU - 750 Watt Corsair CS Series Modular 80+ Gold
RAM - 8GB HyperX FURY schwarz DDR4-2400 DIMM CL15 Dual Kit
SSD - 500GB Samsung 850 Evo 2.5" (6.4cm) SATA 6Gb/s TLC Toggle (MZ-75E500B/EU)
Case - Corsair Carbide Series 200R Midi Tower ohne Netzteil schwarz

https://www.mindfactory.de/shopping_cart.php/basket_action/load_basket_extern/id/0963ad22185005fb3330c0622cd23eff4f1ca4d4c0341ce22fa

1. What is your budget? ~1k

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? VR/Gaming

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

5. Do you need a monitor? No

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? No

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? yes
8. How can you pay? Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser

9. When are you purchasing? ASAP

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Dublin

Any feedback would be much appreciated. Cheers.

MarkAnthony

Hold off. There is going to be a major sea change for VR. If you must do it now look at an AMD GPU it really looks like they are going to take the lead in the next round.

I'd also hedge my bets with an i7 and 16GB RAM.

Digital Solitude

Disagree with the i7 and 16gb RAM right now.

I'd bump CPU up to a 6600k so you've the extra power if you need it there, don't think an i7 is justified with the price.

Also switch GPU to a 390/390X if you want one right now, waiting is the best option but no one knows how long we'll be waiting, so your call there. It'll be sometime in 2016.

Build as a whole is fine though, no incompatibilities.

Whether to buy now or wait GPU wise depends on if you want to VR now or wait a while. If not immediate ID get a 380 or something and game away until the new round of GPUs.

MarkAnthony

DX12 is going to leverage more cores, some games are already seeing slight improvements with 16GB RAM. Given this is specifically a VR build if it has to be built now I'd be hedging myself as much as possible.

ball ox

Thanks for the responses guys,

Regarding i5/i7, it's purely a budget thing that has me choosing the i5. Both rift & vive list it as a min requirement though so I know it is compatible. 6600K sounds like a good shout though and only costs a little extra.
RAM is something I'll probably upgrade to 16gb at a later stage if needs be. Again, it's budget constraints that have me going for 8gb.

I was actually planning on holding off on buying the GPU until the rift itself comes out so I guess it'll probably make more sense to reassess at that stage rather than committing to anything now. Will also check out the AMD stuff.

Thanks

MarkAnthony

Please bear in mind that the specs that are out there are the bear, bear minimum for a reasonable experience in VR. We've had nothing driving the industry for years. VR is going to cause a leap forward in GPU rendering (rather than performance) and some of the load will be dumped back on to the CPU. Not enough to drive Intel forward but enough to make AMD competitive again given they are willing to give you loads more cores at low (sometime non existent) profit margins.

We're going to take a massive step back initially in image quality, there's nothing that can be done about that. The GPU simply has to deliver a min frame rate of c.90 FPS unless you want a bucket near the PC at all times.

Top Tip: Motion sickness is overcome by dealing with it, it's how I was taught when I started Aerobatics. You simply stop yourself being sick by using the muscles in your stomach, get used to that and enjoy VR

Calibos

MarkAnthony wrote: »

Please bear in mind that the specs that are out there are the bear, bear minimum for a reasonable experience in VR. We've had nothing driving the industry for years. VR is going to cause a leap forward in GPU rendering (rather than performance) and some of the load will be dumped back on to the CPU. Not enough to drive Intel forward but enough to make AMD competitive again given they are willing to give you loads more cores at low (sometime non existent) profit margins.

We're going to take a massive step back initially in image quality, there's nothing that can be done about that. The GPU simply has to deliver a min frame rate of c.90 FPS unless you want a bucket near the PC at all times.

Top Tip: Motion sickness is overcome by dealing with it, it's how I was taught when I started Aerobatics. You simply stop yourself being sick by using the muscles in your stomach, get used to that and enjoy VR

Games designed from the getgo for VR might be taking a step back in IQ in order to reach the largest possible audience with the recommended minimum spec GPU's or because most players in the game at the moment are indies without the resources to develop AAA quality. Its not for those titles that I'd be aiming higher than a GTX970 though. Its for the AAA high IQ titles that were not designed specifically for VR but are adaptable with a bit of work. AAA driving games like Project Cars, Modded Flight Sims, Space Sims like Elite Dangerous etc. Even VR hacked FPS's like GTAV, Arma, BF4. If it turns out I'm not overly susceptible to VR motion sickness or I can train myself out of it like you say at the end of your post, well, I'll be playing so much VR modded AAA content I'll be upgrading GPU's to beat the band.

I'm getting my Rift in April apparently. In the unlikely event I hear by then that Pascal Titan is coming out in May for example, I'll pop my brothers old GTX580 into my new PC and simply watch movies and TvShows in Oculus VR Cinema for a month. I don't mind paying the extra €400+ for a Titan over a 1080Ti for the privilege of that kind of power from almost the getgo over waiting 6-8 months for a 1080Ti in early 2017. If we hear by April that Titan will drop later in the Summer, I'll pick up a 970 in April and sell it cheap to my brother to replace his Girlfriends 770 when Titan Drops. If we hear by April that decent Pascal cards aren't coming till Q4, then I'll pick up a 980ti in April and upgrade to 1080ti in early 2017.

Having said all that and despite looking like a graphics whore who hopes he can get through the motion sickness in order to play all the modded for VR AAA goodness, I am also probably one of the most easily pleased with regard to graphics because I have been 'Out of the Game' literally, for donkeys years. I haven't gamed since about 2008 bar the BF3 single player campaign on my brothers PC in 2011. A 5 year step back in graphics quality because of VR you say? So BF3 level graphics?? Coooooooool!!!

Thats the thing though. A lot of the content we've seen because its mostly indies looks more like 10 year old AAA stuff IMHO though. Its going to take a couple of years for enough of a market to develop for the bigger AAA players to start showing an interest and to even get to the point where 'Made for VR' titles even get to the level of 'a few years behind 2D AAA'. By then, we'll have CV2's with eye tracking and Foveated rendering where everything including bang up to date AAA stuff will run better on a VR HMD than a 2D monitor. Our Pascal Titans or 1080Ti level cards might end up being viable cards for a lot longer than we expect much to the chagrin of the GPU companies.

No matter what way it plays out however, I know that I'll need something beastly to run Project Cars and Elite Dangerous in VR in 2016.

MarkAnthony

E:D is actually very, very well optimised.

spr1nt3r

Not sure if that's of any help but I saw similar specs PC for sale on Adverts and Donedeal. Something like VR ready. Sweet looking rig too.