Help! Another Hardware/build thread

[RatPhink]

So I want me some ED VR. I'm going to start putting a new build together in the next few weeks and I have a few questions that I haven't been able to answer on my own.

So my goal is to be able to play ED in VR at as high of settings as is currently practical. I would like to do this for the least amount of coin possible(shocking I know). I am willing to spend what it takes to get there, I see no point in spending as much as it takes to make VR work and not go the rest of the way and make it as epic as it can be. However I have a family to support, and so don't want to throw away money on flagship parts that wont bring proportionate returns. For now assume that I'm only looking at Elite.

My current planned build is as follows.
I have a case, 1000w PSU, CM Hyper 612 v2 cooler, and a 1T HDD that I will be recycling from an older build. So the list of parts yet to be purchased is...

GPU:ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 DUAL-8G 8GB 1500-1700Mhz
CPU: i5 6600K
Mobo: best z170 I can get for under $120$ at the time of purchase(I'm not too picky on Mobos) right now there is an open box Asrock extreme4 on newegg for $115$
RAM: vengeance DDR4 3200 16gb(2x8)
SSD: SamSung 850 evo 500gb
win 10 pro 64
Oculus Rift
X-56 HOTAS

My main concern is that I might be over spending in some places and under spending in others. I find a lot of info about minimum build requirements for VR , and it's easy to just buy the most expensive parts, but I'm trying to find the (current)minimum specs for high performance.

particular areas of concern are:

Am I correct that the real world performance difference in ED between the 1070 and 1080 are negligible? Do I need to go up to the 1080? could I get away with an even cheaper card without sacrificing any real performance. (note that I'm not much interested in spending extra for "future proofing")

Am I correct that the i7 is unnecessary for a high end experience? I know that ED is a fairly CPU heavy game and I'm worried that I've scalped the build with i5.

Help me Slash the red ink! Where can I save? Have I gone as cheap as I can? Am I already sacrificing too much in performance?

 

[Alec Turner]

Am I correct that the real world performance difference in ED between the 1070 and 1080 are negligible? Do I need to go up to the 1080? could I get away with an even cheaper card without sacrificing any real performance. (note that I'm not much interested in spending extra for "future proofing")

"negligible" - wow, really? Hadn't heard this before ... I'll be watching the answers to this with interest. I'm currently preparing myself to buy a 1080 (having played Oculus ED with a 970 and decided that I need MOAARRRR powah!).

Am I correct that the i7 is unnecessary for a high end experience? I know that ED is a fairly CPU heavy game and I'm worried that I've scalped the build with i5.

People will no doubt say you should really get an i7 but my own research led me to the same conclusion as you - that an i5 was fine for gaming.

 

[RatPhink]

Maybe "negligible" was too strong a word. I haven't read anything that spoke specifically to ED, but I found several posts and even a consumer review that indicated that the difference in experience between the two cards was minimal in most current games. For me it would come down to: is the 1070 good enough for high settings VR in ED? and is the difference worth the price gap between the two? Anyone on here with a 1070 and finding it wanting?

 

[TorTorden_VR]

I have a 980ti, it does OK, but the more I have tweaked and played in vr and ED.
The mere 30% boost a 1080 would get me isn't enough, certainly not for the money.

In fact I don't think a pascal titan would get me where I want to be, nearly all settings ultra, hmd supersampling of 1.5 an never go below 90 genuine fps, to get that I would need at least twice the performance of my current card.

I would actually be very suprised if that hardware exists before late 2018.

 

[Globusdiablo]

...

My current planned build is as follows.
I have a case, 1000w PSU, CM Hyper 612 v2 cooler, and a 1T HDD that I will be recycling from an older build. So the list of parts yet to be purchased is...

GPU:ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 DUAL-8G 8GB 1500-1700Mhz
CPU: i5 6600K
Mobo: best z170 I can get for under $120$ at the time of purchase(I'm not too picky on Mobos) right now there is an open box Asrock extreme4 on newegg for $115$
RAM: vengeance DDR4 3200 16gb(2x8)
SSD: SamSung 850 evo 500gb
win 10 pro 64
Oculus Rift
X-56 HOTAS

...

Looks sweet to me.

The i5 6600K is the perfect gaming CPU. Overclocks easily to rock solid 4.2-4.4 with standard mobo optimisation (you have heat management in check I see ). Read any serious review, and they all agree. Anything higher is out the window (if it's just for gaming).

Choice of HMD and HOTAS? Whatever floats your boat. I opted for the entry level Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X (a bargain at that price point - highly recommended), but if you really need all those buttons...

I'm holding my breath on the HMDs. Christmas is coming = pricedrops/sales? Sony have hinted at a PC version of their PSVR, and other makes are in the pipeline for 2017.

Difference between 1070 and 1080 is by no means negligible. But is it worth the price bump? Do you want to be able to tweak those SS settings to the max? But the GPU race is always on, so go with what feels right for you. I opted for the ASUS Strix 1080 (A8 version *winks at Alec*), and I'm loving it. Sweet piece of pricey tech.

Good hunting and fly safe Commander.

 

[[VR] Frank_G]

Its a pretty decent build. One thing to consider is the joystick in my opinion.
I owned an X-55 and while the button layout is almost second to none, it has some critical design flaws that continued over to the X-56. The throttle unit rends to wear off the cables in the throttle levers, as they rub over an edge of the case. Expect it to die within a year or two. Second is the stick. It still doesent come of the center position without a little jump, making FA off piloting not really a precise option and it doesnt re-center correctly to a full zero position. Third is the service. If you have a problem, you will be on your own, besides getting strange eMails like, take a look on our download section, maybe the issue is resolved once a new driver build is released...
I would recommend a Thrustmaster setup. The new T.16000 is ideal for Elite. In combination with the new rudder system, or a second joystick, this is a very decent control setup, while the build quality and the driver software is much better. Personally, i go with a Thrustmadter Warthog and rudders, because i love to play othe flight sims too, but for a spacegame the above configuration would reign supreme. Just my two cents.

 

[RatPhink]

@Globusdiablo In your opinion was the 1080 worth it? Would you cringe at the thought of downgrading to a 1070? I don't want to pay the price, but I really really don't want to regret not paying the price.

@TorTorden I'm aware that the GPU industry has a lot of catching up to do. I just want to jump in with the best(or near unto it) VR experience I can at the moment.

@Frank_G I spent a lot of time wringing my hands over the HOTAS. what it came down to for me was ascetics. The HOTAS is more for immersion then for practical controls for me.(I've actually gotten pretty good at FA off with my xbox controller) I had a mad cats cyborg a number of years ago when I was playing X-3, flying with a stick is just so much more enjoyable(although I didn't really care for that one). The X-55/56 and the warthog are the only sets that I find ascetically pleasing enough to spend that kind of money on. The Z/yaw axis on the stick plus the cheaper price is what put me over to the madcats despite the reported QC issues. it does seem as though a lot of the x-55s that got out there didn't have the issues you hear about. a lot of people on this forum and elsewhere have used them without issue. I thinks is just matter of returning them till you don't get a lemon. and the RNG gods have always treated me well. I'm pretty good with a soldering iron and I love fixing and fabricating electrical components, when it brakes the madcats will just give me that much more entertainment.

 

[Moonax IRL]

Maybe "negligible" was too strong a word. I haven't read anything that spoke specifically to ED, but I found several posts and even a consumer review that indicated that the difference in experience between the two cards was minimal in most current games. For me it would come down to: is the 1070 good enough for high settings VR in ED? and is the difference worth the price gap between the two? Anyone on here with a 1070 and finding it wanting?

I have the Zotac amp extreme 1070 and it's a fantastic card, +500 mem and 2100mhz OC on the core. Runs near silent on 50% fan with temps of 55c at full tilt plus 5yr guarantee. I`m running elite at 1080p (HDTV) with 1.75 SS and its locked at 60fps (vsync) everywhere maybe with the very odd dip to around 56fps on planets at times. The 1080 for me is not worth the big jump in price for little performance increase also you can resell you 1070 in the future more readily I`d say, I sold my previous 970 G1 after 2 yrs to help buy the 1070. There is a big market for the X70 version GPUs as they are more affordable and have near 90% of the performance of the 980/1080 GPUs.

 

[Globusdiablo]

...In your opinion was the 1080 worth it? Would you cringe at the thought of downgrading to a 1070? I don't want to pay the price, but I really really don't want to regret not paying the price...

Absolutely. I recently bought a completely new build (much like the one your looking at) in anticipation of VR, and I wanted the best I could get at a certain price point.

I was expecting the 1080 to be priced around the same as the 980 release, so I was disappointed and it was definitely a stretch to the 1080, but I wanted to "future proof" it for VR.

The 1070 is an awesome card also, and if I was planning to stay on a single monitor I would have bought one of those in a heartbeat. Absolutely best value for money.

On an aside, no matter what you decide on, don't buy founders edition as it has inferior cooling to the custom cards.

Edit: And my 1080 runs anything I throw at my single monitor solution in ultra settings without even breaking a sweat.

 

[Alec Turner]

I have the Zotac amp extreme 1070 and it's a fantastic card, +500 mem and 2100mhz OC on the core. Runs near silent on 50% fan with temps of 55c at full tilt plus 5yr guarantee. I`m running elite at 1080p (HDTV) with 1.75 SS and its locked at 60fps (vsync) everywhere maybe with the very odd dip to around 56fps on planets at times. The 1080 for me is not worth the big jump in price for little performance increase also you can resell you 1070 in the future more readily I`d say, I sold my previous 970 G1 after 2 yrs to help buy the 1070. There is a big market for the X70 version GPUs as they are more affordable and have near 90% of the performance of the 980/1080 GPUs.

The issue here is VR tho' which is a whole other ballgame. My Zotac 970 can run ED at 60fps on a 1920x1080 screen with everything set to Ultra. But when I'm using the Oculus I definitely have to turn things down quite a bit in order to achieve anything like the 90fps required for a motion sickness free experience.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

...
Edit: And my 1080 runs anything I throw at my single monitor solution in ultra settings without even breaking a sweat.

If we are talking single screen, my 980ti runs pretty much anything at max settings on my 3440x1440.
But VR is a whole other ball of wax.

 

[Globusdiablo]

If we are talking single screen, my 980ti runs pretty much anything at max settings on my 3440x1440.
But VR is a whole other ball of wax.

Indeed. But being a bit of a noise freak I do enjoy playing my games on my single screen without the gfx fans taking off. Man, they hardly even activate (they don't kick in until 60 degree C if I remember correctly).

I had a 980ti for a short time, though it was a founders edition in a cramped case. An excellent card but it sounded like I needed to strap the case down most of the time.

 

[RatPhink]

Yeah, I'm really only worried about the 1070s performance in VR. I know it will handle anything I can throw at it with my current monitor. If I wasn't going with VR I'd probably be shooting for an AMD card and probably another tier down. The whole build is really motivated by VR though, if I wasn't reaching for it I'd probably stick with my current rig for a few more years.

My style is to run a rig into the ground. I'm perfectly comfortable just reducing the settings in new games as my system gets more and more outdated. Then when a new game comes along that I really want to play, but my setup just can't hack it I start over. My hope is that the 1070, or if not then the 1080, will be able to at least keep VR games playable for the next 3-4 years, at which time I suspect that the VR tech will be reaching maturity and some truly amazing set ups will be available for decent prices.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Just don't skimp out on the PSU

 

[blastard]

Until recently I was running a 970 for VR (the rest of my pc spec is in my sig). Got a 1080 two weeks ago and am well happy. Will go for a 6-series i5 and z170 mb soon to remove the bottleneck. i7 with 'threading' wont make much difference for Ed (but would if you do hi-spec vid editing). I'd say your build would be a good investment (even with 1070). I also have a 850w psu to run it all.

Once you start playing in VR I doubt you'll ever go back to monitor play in ED (I haven't in 18mths).
o7

edit: I'm running a Palit 1080 super jetstream. Great cooling and super quiet - the fans don't come on until 50 degrees C and even then they are super quiet (just over 600 squid from overclockers).