New VR PC Recommendations / Feedback

[RicePerson]

Budget (including currency): USD$1000 - $2000

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Primarily VR (No Man's Sky, Pistol Whip, Beat Saber, other Indie VR games), Cyberpunk 2077, Pacific Drive, No Man's Sky (non-VR as well), Control.

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc):

New PC. I have a gaming laptop (ASUS - ROG Zephyrus 15.6" WQHD 165Hz Gaming Laptop-AMD Ryzen 9-16GB DDR5 Memory-NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060-512GB), but it's never been great with VR (especially with the annoying low amount of VRAM). Wanting to get a Steam Frame when it comes out, and decided to just take the plunge.

 

What I've started with (based on one of PC Part Picker's guide PCs):

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bm7sqH

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($188.94 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($35.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *ASRock B850M-X R2.0 Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory  ($211.99 @ B&H) 
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($109.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI SHADOW 3X OC GeForce RTX 5070 12 GB Video Card  ($545.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Corsair 3500X ARGB ATX Mid Tower Case  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: *Cooler Master MWE Gold 750 V3 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.98 @ Amazon) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Home OEM - DVD 64-bit  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1532.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-11-17 12:34 EST-0500

 

I don't know much about the picking of PC parts (haven't really been keeping up with the current hotness), but I am confident about building it.

Please let me know if I am way off the mark with this one, and if you have any ideas on how to improve this build (or even just a build that you think would be better), please let me know!

[Kobathor]

If your budget goes up to $2,000, I'd go for a more powerful graphics card for sure. I have a 9070 XT and it runs VR great (Quest 2). The 5070 Ti is a little better than the 9070 XT in some games but is more expensive. Both will comfortably fit in your given budget. 

 

Cheapest 9070 XT right now: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Q8sMnQ/asrock-challenger-radeon-rx-9070-xt-16-gb-video-card-rx9070xt-cl-16g (Only $55 more than the 5070 you picked for a good performance bump)

 

Cheapest 5070 Ti right now: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/q6dMnQ/msi-ventus-3x-oc-black-geforce-rtx-5070-ti-16-gb-video-card-geforce-rtx-5070-ti-16g-ventus-3x-oc-black

[filpo]

58 minutes ago, RicePerson said:

Budget (including currency): USD$1000 - $2000

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Primarily VR (No Man's Sky, Pistol Whip, Beat Saber, other Indie VR games), Cyberpunk 2077, Pacific Drive, No Man's Sky (non-VR as well), Control.

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc):

New PC. I have a gaming laptop (ASUS - ROG Zephyrus 15.6" WQHD 165Hz Gaming Laptop-AMD Ryzen 9-16GB DDR5 Memory-NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060-512GB), but it's never been great with VR (especially with the annoying low amount of VRAM). Wanting to get a Steam Frame when it comes out, and decided to just take the plunge.

 

What I've started with (based on one of PC Part Picker's guide PCs):

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bm7sqH

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($188.94 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($35.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *ASRock B850M-X R2.0 Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory  ($211.99 @ B&H) 
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($109.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI SHADOW 3X OC GeForce RTX 5070 12 GB Video Card  ($545.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Corsair 3500X ARGB ATX Mid Tower Case  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: *Cooler Master MWE Gold 750 V3 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.98 @ Amazon) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Home OEM - DVD 64-bit  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1532.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-11-17 12:34 EST-0500

 

I don't know much about the picking of PC parts (haven't really been keeping up with the current hotness), but I am confident about building it.

Please let me know if I am way off the mark with this one, and if you have any ideas on how to improve this build (or even just a build that you think would be better), please let me know!

Go for a 5080, we get a 50% performance increase on average vs 5070

2TB of storage is essentially the same price and you won't feel much of a performance difference if any

DDR5 is stupid expensive now, at least used DDR4 is under $100 

750W is a bit low for that price considering the unit I put in is A tier and 1000W

Case is a bit costly

And so is motherboard considering what it is

Here's what I'd go for 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700K 3.4 GHz 20-Core Processor  ($334.99 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III Pro A-RGB 360 77 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($105.49 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital WD Blue SN5000 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($124.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: PNY OC GeForce RTX 5080 16 GB Video Card  ($989.00 @ Walmart) 
Case: Lian Li Vector V100R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($74.98 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: MSI MPG A1000GS PCIE5 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($109.99 @ MSI) 
Custom: Used Z790 Pro wifi DDR4 ($165.00)
Custom: 2x16GB 3200 CL16 vengeance LPX ($97.00)
Total: $2001.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-11-17 13:43 EST-0500

[Why_Me]

1 hour ago, RicePerson said:

Budget (including currency): USD$1000 - $2000

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Primarily VR (No Man's Sky, Pistol Whip, Beat Saber, other Indie VR games), Cyberpunk 2077, Pacific Drive, No Man's Sky (non-VR as well), Control.

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc):

New PC. I have a gaming laptop (ASUS - ROG Zephyrus 15.6" WQHD 165Hz Gaming Laptop-AMD Ryzen 9-16GB DDR5 Memory-NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060-512GB), but it's never been great with VR (especially with the annoying low amount of VRAM). Wanting to get a Steam Frame when it comes out, and decided to just take the plunge.

 

What I've started with (based on one of PC Part Picker's guide PCs):

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bm7sqH

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($188.94 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($35.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *ASRock B850M-X R2.0 Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory  ($211.99 @ B&H) 
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($109.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI SHADOW 3X OC GeForce RTX 5070 12 GB Video Card  ($545.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Corsair 3500X ARGB ATX Mid Tower Case  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: *Cooler Master MWE Gold 750 V3 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.98 @ Amazon) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Home OEM - DVD 64-bit  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1532.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-11-17 12:34 EST-0500

 

I don't know much about the picking of PC parts (haven't really been keeping up with the current hotness), but I am confident about building it.

Please let me know if I am way off the mark with this one, and if you have any ideas on how to improve this build (or even just a build that you think would be better), please let me know!

What resolution will you be gaming at?

[RicePerson]

18 minutes ago, Why_Me said:

What resolution will you be gaming at?

1440p

[Why_Me]

19 minutes ago, RicePerson said:

1440p at the most. 1080p is fine.

This card is ideal for 1440 seeing how VR favors Nvidia. Look for a board with better VRM's, size up on your SSD, look for low profile RAM so that the heatsinks don't impede that dual tower cpu cooler, DDR5-6000 CL30 if you intend on gaming (low latency ftw) and btw air coolers don't work so well with fish tank cases (basic physics).

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/windows-11-free-or-cheap

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 5 9600X 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($187.81 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($37.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *Gigabyte B850 GAMING X WIFI6E ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($149.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: *Klevv BOLT V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($225.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: *Gigabyte AORUS Gen4 7300 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($149.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: *Zotac GAMING SOLID CORE GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB Video Card  ($749.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: *Montech AIR 903 MAX ATX Mid Tower Case  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: *ASRock Steel Legend SL-850G 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1691.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-11-17 14:16 EST-0500

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core OEM/Tray Processor  ($375.99 @ iBUYPOWER) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($37.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *Gigabyte B850 GAMING X WIFI6E ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($149.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: *Klevv BOLT V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($225.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: *Gigabyte AORUS Gen4 7300 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($149.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: *Zotac GAMING SOLID CORE GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB Video Card  ($749.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: *Montech AIR 903 MAX ATX Mid Tower Case  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: *ASRock Steel Legend SL-850G 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1879.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-11-17 14:16 EST-0500

 

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B850-GAMING-X-WIFI6E-rev-1x

 

https://www.asrock.com/Power-Supply/SteelLegend/SL-850G/ 

 

https://www.cybenetics.com/evaluations/psus/2548/

 

https://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/asrock-steel-legend-sl-850g-psu-review/6/

 

https://www.montechpc.com/air-903-max 

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/montech-air-903-max/ 

[RicePerson]

3 minutes ago, Why_Me said:

This card is ideal for 1440 seeing how VR favors Nvidia. Look for a board with better VRM's, size up on your SSD, look for low profile RAM so that the heatsinks don't impede that dual tower cpu cooler, DDR5-6000 CL30 if you intend on gaming (low latency ftw) and btw air coolers don't work so well with fish tank cases (basic physics).

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/windows-11-free-or-cheap

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 5 9600X 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($187.81 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($37.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *Gigabyte B850 GAMING X WIFI6E ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($149.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: *Klevv BOLT V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($225.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: *Gigabyte AORUS Gen4 7300 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($149.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: *Zotac GAMING SOLID CORE GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB Video Card  ($749.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: *Montech AIR 903 MAX ATX Mid Tower Case  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: *ASRock Steel Legend SL-850G 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1691.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-11-17 14:16 EST-0500

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core OEM/Tray Processor  ($375.99 @ iBUYPOWER) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($37.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *Gigabyte B850 GAMING X WIFI6E ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($149.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: *Klevv BOLT V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($225.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: *Gigabyte AORUS Gen4 7300 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($149.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: *Zotac GAMING SOLID CORE GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB Video Card  ($749.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: *Montech AIR 903 MAX ATX Mid Tower Case  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: *ASRock Steel Legend SL-850G 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1879.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-11-17 14:16 EST-0500

 

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B850-GAMING-X-WIFI6E-rev-1x

 

https://www.asrock.com/Power-Supply/SteelLegend/SL-850G/ 

 

https://www.cybenetics.com/evaluations/psus/2548/

 

https://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/asrock-steel-legend-sl-850g-psu-review/6/

 

https://www.montechpc.com/air-903-max 

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/montech-air-903-max/ 

Very informative! Thank you!

[Voland]

Sorry for late answer, but keep in mind that for Steam Frame you will render much higher resolution. The screen has almost the same resolution like Quest 3, where to render 1:1 pixels is used 3072 × 3216 px per eye, which after distortion correction gives a native display resolution. Ofc it's used only in PCVR because Quest can't do it standalone. It's also great to use high frame rate in VR, so for sure I would get better GPU than 5070 if it's possible.