Cheapest OCULUS READY PC from scratch

PIXEL · Apr 2, 2016

I’ve an iMac (stop laughing at the back) and want to keep it for work (the making a living kind of thing) but would like to have some fun in VR using a CV1 which arrives via a birthday present back order, soon™

TBH I hate windows so justy want a computer that will run CV1 quietly and as economically as poss as opposed to fans blasting and lights dimming to play a game + no overclocking heartache.

So:
Minimum amount of SSD, enough for ED and windows 7 pro (owned on disk)
Just enough RAM
Power supply
Fast enough CPU
1.HDMI+3.USB3
Motherboard -
GFX card – 980i?
Quiet cooling for me and all
…and a box.. twinkling lights/led's not required (-:

Spec suggestions under a grand (£) would be appreciated - Can you beat this below?

https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/wiki/requirements
HOW MUCH WOULD IT COST TO BUILD AN OCULUS READY PC from scratch?:
Cheapest: ~$800 (NVIDIA | AMD) / ~£700 (NVIDIA | AMD) | ~€900 (NVIDIA | AMD)
Quality: ~$1050 (NVIDIA | AMD) / ~£920 (NVIDIA | AMD)

Thanks in advance...[praise]

Jesse30 · Apr 2, 2016

I could put together something for you.

Zeeman · Apr 2, 2016

If you're willing to buy second hand stuff, I'm sure you could get away with it for much less.

I have an i5 4690K, Corsair 650w gold power supply, Asus Ranger VII, 16GB ram, 240GB SSD, and an Asus GTX 970 - grand total was about $1000AU (about £500). It could probably do VR reasonably well, though a GTX980 and an i7 would make sure of it. The GTX970 and the power supply were the only things I bought brand new (I got impatient), though at this stage, I'd hang out for the new Nvidia cards before committing to anything. I'm building a second PC for ED (I'm about to start living in two countries) and am pretty much just waiting for the new graphics cards to turn up, though I do have a spare GTX760 floating around to tide me over for the second machine.

Z...

Jesse30 · Apr 2, 2016

https://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingCart.aspx?Submit=view

Good enough build to start with Vr, any other game on your monitor all Ultra settings. It comes with three free games

Jesse30 · Apr 2, 2016

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/130H8ZVP5N219/ref=cm_wl_list_o_2?

As requested. If you look for sales and be patient you will find better deals, do not downgrade the graphics card, CPU or power supply and you should be good.

PIXEL · Apr 4, 2016

Jesse30 said:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/130H8ZVP5N219/ref=cm_wl_list_o_2?

As requested. If you look for sales and be patient you will find better deals, do not downgrade the graphics card, CPU or power supply and you should be good.

Thanks for the help...
I just got an email from Oculus saying the CV1 will be a little bit late - late April - so have a good while to work out options for PC build. Def no compromise on the graphics card as it seems to be the most important and expensive part of a set-up to run VR.
Only need a relatively small SSD as i'm not planning on using windows for anything else but a few games/VR fun. Just wander how low (price-wise) one can go in the UK for all the parts.
'Patience is a virtue' as they say

Frank · Apr 4, 2016

240 Gig SSDs are very affordable now. I don't know if you were thinking about extending your storage later with some spinning rust. You'd better be warned that the Oculus is quite restrictive in where its games are stored. At the moment they all go onto your main drive.

PIXEL · Apr 4, 2016

I have plenty of spinning metal and SSD's Thunderbolted to my iMac - I just need the 'bare (quiet) necessities' to play a few windows dependent games

rennarda · Apr 4, 2016

I was in the same boat, also being a Mac user by day. I build up a PC over at the end of 2014 for about £800, then added a GTX970 when I got my Rift. Prices will be lower now

Start with the GFX card - I would have said get a 980 if you can afford it, but tbh with the 1.3 runtime I don't really see a reason to get one other than bragging rights; the 970 runs Elite perfectly and it's a lot cheaper. I have 8GB of RAM in my machine, and never had problems there either, so 16GB for a gaming machine is probably overkill. Also, I have an i5 and not an i7, and again no problems running any top-tier games.

So, start with the best GFX card you can get within reason, and build up around that, but be aware of diminishing returns on your investment when you start getting to the very high end.

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Frank said:
240 Gig SSDs are very affordable now. I don't know if you were thinking about extending your storage later with some spinning rust. You'd better be warned that the Oculus is quite restrictive in where its games are stored. At the moment they all go onto your main drive.

This is worth highlighting, because I only have a small SSD boot drive but a larger spinning secondary drive. Elite lives on my boot drive (through choice), Origin and Steam are good about letting you install elsewhere, but the Oculus app isn't ! Games and apps have to go on your boot drive, so plan accordingly.

PIXEL · Apr 4, 2016

just enough to get VR working well

@rennarda - Thanks[up] that is good sound advice and really good to hear you are able to run VR and ED with your spec - excellent news. I'm certainly not going for bragging rights

...and very interesting to learn that the Oculus program has to go on the bootdrive... can you or anyone post here to say how big that installation is?

jabokai · Apr 4, 2016

Oculus will have a solution to that in the next few weeks - "The team's releasing an update that enables installation of Oculus software and apps to drives other than your system drive (typically, C:\Program Files (x86)\Oculus) in one of the first Rift updates (likely the next 2-3 weeks). In the meantime, there is an unofficial workaround you can use to move your existing Oculus software and all installed games to a different drive."

Source

PIXEL · Apr 21, 2016

quality on a budget

So it would seem that a GTX970 isn't good enough for ED in VR reading the forums - a pity since the 970's are half the price of a 980ti ! Can anyone tell me what (£300) visual difference would be between the two in VR on a CV1?

Am still trying to get a list together of quality components to build a PC on a budget so welcome help esp with GPU and motherboard... so much has changed since I last built a PC in the 80's

B1ll Adama · Apr 21, 2016

I have a 970 along with a 4790k.. overclocked both of them and performance is fine... ED works a treat on planets + stations.

CV1 though, not Vive.

Wolfox · Apr 21, 2016

PIXEL said:
So it would seem that a GTX970 isn't good enough for ED in VR reading the forums - a pity since the 970's are half the price of a 980ti ! Can anyone tell me what (£300) visual difference would be between the two in VR on a CV1?

Am still trying to get a list together of quality components to build a PC on a budget so welcome help esp with GPU and motherboard... so much has changed since I last built a PC in the 80's

Why so much doubts? 980ti and you are good for a long time, make sure your motherboard supports SLI that might become more usable in the future and take another 980ti, that with Pascal around, the 980ti will be cheaper.

If you get cheap now think of the period before you have to change it. 970 in January and 980 in November same year, but 980ti in january will keep up for a 1080 after 2 years.

Slopey · Apr 21, 2016

PIXEL said:
So it would seem that a GTX970 isn't good enough for ED in VR reading the forums - a pity since the 970's are half the price of a 980ti ! Can anyone tell me what (£300) visual difference would be between the two in VR on a CV1?

Am still trying to get a list together of quality components to build a PC on a budget so welcome help esp with GPU and motherboard... so much has changed since I last built a PC in the 80's

A 970 is fine - I'm running a 4Gb one with both the Rift and Vive. The Rift is fine with it with the Async Timewarp it has. Not seen any issues in the Vive either as yet to be honest. If you want to future-proof a bit, then 980 would be better, but as you say, it's more expensive if it's not going to be your main machine.

HeavyGroovez · Apr 21, 2016

970 does the job just fine and as Slopey says the Carmack black magic that is ATW keeps your framerate pinned so you dont get any judder at all.

BUT you need to be sensible with your fidelity settings - If you are a fidelity ho and want to run heavy AA/Supersampling a 980Ti is essential, 970 cant handle it in my experience with the DK2.

PIXEL · Apr 28, 2016

Motherboard / CPU suggestions any one?

Seems a few other folk are starting to ask similar question about a new build on a budget to get VR up and running to a reasonable standard..

So far I've understood:
970 is the min spec but <980 (980ti) is better
SSD for fast programs if only running windows and a few games + 8gb of any ram to match spec of cpu
CPU?? i7, i5 generation this and that.. what the... does it matter?
Motherboard (inc 3 USB3's) ... ummm still not sure about that one esp the SLI option as it is not supported at present and in the end it would mean buying another GFX card.. seems a bit expensive way to go forward... so a cheap m-board to run the GFX card is needed.
A cheap, yet quiet Power supply (min 650watts?) and a very very boring case (no fancy glass side or led's etc) is what I'm also after - I've an old Aluminium Mac pro case I could convert[alien] .. could save some money and noise and sell the contents on fleabay

Can't wait for the CV1 to arrive. Estimated late May, I just want to build a quiet PC on a budget to plug it into (-:

Beachlight7 · Apr 29, 2016

As your ideal is based on buying something cheap and easy wouldnt it be better to wait til october when the psvr comes out and you would have a guaranteed setup with 120fps smooth play, and a small console box powering it.
You could cancel the oculus, and you would not need to see anything to do with windows or microsoft. Waiting is difficult though....

PIXEL · Apr 29, 2016

PSVR.. umm yes intriguing... I'm a patient type but won't the graphics be sub standard ? How is playstation going to have the hardware to provide the resolution/definition comparable to VR via windows PC - and be cheaper?

Beachlight7 · Apr 29, 2016

PIXEL said:
PSVR.. umm yes intriguing... I'm a patient type but won't the graphics be sub standard ? How is playstation going to have the hardware to provide the resolution/definition comparable to VR via windows PC - and be cheaper?

There is a new playstation coming out this year which is more than twice as powerful as the PS4, this will allow it to perform well in VR. I expect it will cost about £350, and the PSVR is £350 also. A bundle VR package would make sense too I expect. The key is the VR immersive experience, the PSVR has a lower resolution (1080p), but Rift and Vive can not offer 120fps, no matter how many titan x you join together it will still be 90fps, a 25% reduction in the virtual world you're in. The starting point is cheaper and the experience good, perhaps better we will see. And from that point there will be VR headset upgrades, Sony have said the VR standard is not fixed and there will be an upgrade cycle, same for Rift and Vive I guess. PSVR and console is the easiest way into VR, if it has the software you want. ED is coming to the Sony console we know that.
An interesting discussion would be for people who had a powerful PC already, would they choose to have their favourite VR game running in 1080p @ 120fps or in 1200p @ 90fps. To be fair you would need a review but I know how important frame rate is for being in the VR world and not nauseated by head tracking delays.