Hardware Question

d8veh · Feb 15, 2017

The time has come to update my PC and get a new VR headset. I'm not particularly limited by cash and I don't play any games other than ED, so I want a setup that's optimised for ED. I have tried the DK2, which was sort of OK apart from all the problems with the galaxy map, and it did make me feel a bit sick after an hour or so. I would therefore want a system that could work equally well with monitor/s.

Could someone advise me what components and features I need in my new system?

Alec Turner · Feb 15, 2017

Rather than embarking on a whole new Vive/Oculus/VR discussion here I thought I'd just point you at the "Stuff to do with VR" section of my "best of the forum" thread ...

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...here)-thread?p=4997022&viewfull=1#post4997022

There's some good info and feedback in those other threads (I've got the Oculus CV1 and absolutely love it but the Vive is great too).

As for graphics card, you can run VR quite happily with a GTX 970 but if you're not cash limited then I can vouch for the 1080 as a terrific card for VR.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/304028-Which-GTX-1080

[HJ]-RedRaven · Feb 16, 2017

Alec has some good points summarised in his megathread, as stated.

Also on a Oculus CV1 here. The resolution is better than the DK2 and improved refresh rate will help with the motion sickness too. Vive is also fairly equivalent - both have their pluses and minuses. Both now have hand controllers and will do roomscale.

Orange bits below will get you 99% of the best experience possible.

A decent 4-core i5 minimum, or i7 above 3.5GHz will handle ED easily, in VR or 2D.
16GB of RAM will be fine. 32GB is overkill for ED although it may be worthwhile if you stream/multitask a lot or if the PC has to last several years.
A solid-state drive will load ED faster than any regular spinning platter hard disk.
And obviously, VR is tough on graphics cards - getting the best you can is important for VR. Due to the relatively low resolution of current headsets, you do need supersampling to improve the visuals (imo), and a faster card will probably last until the next generation of headsets (probably, heh). Been a while since I owned an AMD GPU but currently I'm running a 1080GTX GPU aswell.

Wood67 · Feb 16, 2017

I rebuilt my pc over christmas, largely because of ED. What started as a cpu/gpu update eventually turned into an upgrade of pretty much everything. I figure on a 3 year amortization for the mobo/cpu so went with the Skylake and i7 6770k, with a GTX 1070. That was about a week or so before Cabylake came out (though the cpu socket is still the same). For fun I also got a AIO watercooler, and then decided to put it all in a new case and upgraded to a SSD a couple of weeks later. It was the new case that gave the game away to my wife - up to that point I was just 're-arranging the cabling' lol! VR (Rift) is now very smooth (ASW still enables at times though). I used to have a 3 monitor setup as well, together with TrackIR, but the extra ones are now in the loft.

If you change the mobo/cpu you will almost certainly need to re-register Windows. There's a nice digital sign option (possibly on already) which means the process can be automated. The other thing to watch out for is any other registered software tied to your system settings. I do a lot of music work, so much of my DAW add-ons needed to be registered again - move those licences to the cloud if you can before you start tinkering.

d8veh · Feb 16, 2017

I've ordered this. If there's anything that needs changing, could you let me know?
https://www.thepccustomiser.com/builder?id=PCC-17-47-G84B

Wood67 · Feb 17, 2017

Very nice. The SSD is probably just about big enough for the OS, but I would be inclined to increase it to at least a 500Gb, or even 1TB. I have the Samsung Evo 1Tb which is excellent. Also, you'll certainly need another HDD for your apps/data. You can add a 2-3Tb mechanical drive very cheaply.

Also - not sure how handy you are, but you could probably build the same spec yourself (the components are very similar to mine) for less if you wanted to. Takes a little while, but it's good fun!

Alec Turner · Feb 17, 2017

d8veh said:
I've ordered this. If there's anything that needs changing, could you let me know?
https://www.thepccustomiser.com/builder?id=PCC-17-47-G84B

One thing I would say is to maybe just check which version of the Asus Strix ROG 1080 you're getting. There are three, the 8G, the A8G and the 08G. They're all subtly different and it's often not clear which one you're getting. I discovered all this while investigating my own 1080 (I got the Asus too, the A8G version) ..

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/304028-Which-GTX-1080

d8veh · Feb 17, 2017

Thanks for your comments. I have all my other drives in a 4-way SSD caddy bay thingy, which I will fit when the PC arrives.

dogbite · Feb 17, 2017

d8veh said:
I've ordered this. If there's anything that needs changing, could you let me know?
https://www.thepccustomiser.com/builder?id=PCC-17-47-G84B

A bigger ssd might be handy. The I7 as opposed to say any I5 from Sandy Bridge on would likely yield about the same performance in most VR situations including ED. That said, games like DCS see significant improvement from cpu (clock mostly) and ddr4, so your covered for titles that are more cpu intensive. Of course, the GTX 1080 is the best so far. Can't lose there. Have fun with your new rig and welcome to the new world.