ITX PC for Oculus Rift

[Behrens]

1. Budget & Location

I live in Melbourne, so all prices are in AUD

Budget is not super strict, but I plan to sell my current PC for ~$1000 and save up another ~$1500 for a total budget of $2300 - $2700

2. Aim
I've caught the SFF bug, so I wanted to make my new PC (built for the Rift) as small as possible. I play a large range of games, everything from League of Legends to GTAV (performance wise)

 

3. Monitors
I currently have 2x1080p monitors, but plan to upgrade to 2x1440p and buy the consumer Oculus Rift on release. 

 

4. Peripherals
Nope.

5. Why are you upgrading?
I'm currently sitting on a Gigabyte GTX 770 4GB, which doesn't meet the recommended specs for the Rift. I also want to be able to push the settings a little higher on games like GTAV.
 

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So on the the real thread. my question is an age old one - bottlenecks. My current plan is the following:

• $109   - SilverStone Raven RVZ01B                                 
• $215   - ASUS Z97I-Plus                                             
• $311   - Intel Core i5 4690                                          
• $45     - Cooler Master GeminII M4 CPU Cooler         
• $32     - Noctua NF-F12                                                   (To replace CPU cooler fan)
• $184   - 16GB Kingston DDR3 1600MHz                      
• $168   - SilverStone 600W SFX PSU                             
• $316   - Samsung 850 EVO 500GB M.2 SSD             
• $107   - Seagate 2TB HDD                                          
• $1100 - GTX 980ti 6GB Reference card                    (Price is estimate) (Reference card is a must as airflow is limited around the GPU, except for a good amount of intake for a blower style card)

TOTAL = ~$2587

 

My question is whether or not the 980ti will be bottlenecked by the core i5. I could go down to a 980 and up to a 4790k with an H80i and go for a moderate overclock, if it is likely that the CPU will limit the performance of the GPU. For reference the Rift is said to run at 2x 2160x1200, which roughly equates to a triple 1080p demand (Source).

 

[Manny Calavera]

so are you saying when you have your rift on you will be worried about how your pc looks, but you dont care if you vomiting in rift because cpu is slow? 120hz is tough.

 

just go x99 m8. you have the money, dont spend it on gimmick if your goal is perf.

 

once you remove gpu bottleneck ( or lower settings so it draws frames very fast, even 770 can run rift if you lower settings all the way down) you are left with cpu time. you can dramatically shorten it if you overclock or get better one. just look at this, theese are at stock btw.

 

http://gamegpu.ru/test-video-cards/igry-2014-goda-protiv-protsessorov-test-gpu.html

 

you definitly dont want cpu bottleneck. you can adjust graphical settings, but you cannot adjust cpu time that is calculating.

[Behrens]

No my question is whether I will get better FPS with a 4690 + GTX 980ti OR a 4790k + GTX980, specifically with the Oculus Rift

[Manny Calavera]

No my question is whether I will get better FPS with a 4690 + GTX 980ti OR a 4790k + GTX980, specifically with the Oculus Rift

second one, but wait for price drops when new gpus come out. especially in australia with your prices. get new gpu when it comes out. 980 is expensive. Wait.

Even better would be 4790k and 980ti, but you seem to want to look at pretty shoebox...

 

 

Why 2nd better? I edited my post so you probably didnt read. Its because you can adjust graphical settings to get higher fps. But you cannot remove or shorten the time CPU is calculating stuff. So CPU is definitly the bottleneck.

 

 

But gpu is still limiting factor, dont get me wrong. Its just in your case, that you OBVIOUSLY can afford better gpu and better cpu, but you dont want to and that is just moronic when you consider oculus rift has crazy requirements.

Dont even dream about running 120 fps high settings high res triple A titles with anything lower than overclocked x99 + dual titans x or better.

[Behrens]

I'm not sure what you think I'm doing wrong, so ill write out my justifications for each of my parts:

 

• Case/PSU - I go to a lot of LAN parties and have a rather small amount of desk space, so a cool little ITX build will do wonders for both

 

• Mobo - Legendary ASUS reliability combined with all the features I need (M.2, overclocking), but not the overkill Maximus 

 

• RAM - I like to use a lot of programs in the background while gaming, so 16GB is the way to go. 

 

• Storage - My current 250GB SSD always seems to be full, so I went with a larger one. As mentioned I play a wide range of games so a mechanical drive is necessary for mass storage.

 

• CPU/Cooling - I dont do any heavily threaded tasks (photo/video editing, ect), the only demanding task for this PC will be gaming. Therefore I thought the i5 4690 should be sufficient. I am hesitant to buy the k model and overclock due to the restricted airflow in the slim case. This could be solved with a 120mm AIO liquid cooler, if necessary. 

 

• GPU - The upcomming 980ti was chosen for its (rumoured) incredible performance, which should be my best bet for driving the massive 4320 by 1200 90hz display on the Rift. 

 

 

It isn't my intention to purchase this system immediately, I plan to wait 2-3 months for prices to settle after the new GPU launches.

 

My question was a simple one: Will the listed system drive the highest possible FPS, or would I be better suited buying a 980 instead, and using the savings overclocking a 4790k with an AIO liquid cooler. The two options are roughly the same price, but one with a heavier focus on GPU and one with a focus on CPU.