PC for VR - first build

[rosie]

My 11-year old is interested in building a PC to support VR (specifically Oculus Rift).  He's new to building & easily frustrated...but highly motivated.  We've looked into builds on PC Part Picker, but am looking for general guidance to help this be a good experience.

 

Cost:  ideally under $1K USD, but cost isn't the driver

Aim: support VR system requirements; specifics are below:

• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon R480 or greater
• Alt Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R290 or greater
• CPU: Intel i5-4590 or better
• Memory 8GB+ RAM
• Video Output: Compatible HDMI 1.3 Video Output
• USB ports: 3x USB 3.0 ports, plus 1x USB 2.0 port
• OS: Windows 10

I'm not tech-savvy, but am supportive   Any assistance would be much appreciated.

[Daniel Z.]

What are his favourite colours?

[Tom Cat]

34 minutes ago, rosie said:

My 11-year old is interested in building a PC to support VR (specifically Oculus Rift).  He's new to building & easily frustrated...but highly motivated.  We've looked into builds on PC Part Picker, but am looking for general guidance to help this be a good experience.

 

Cost:  ideally under $1K USD, but cost isn't the driver

Aim: support VR system requirements; specifics are below:

• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon R480 or greater
• Alt Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R290 or greater
• CPU: Intel i5-4590 or better
• Memory 8GB+ RAM
• Video Output: Compatible HDMI 1.3 Video Output
• USB ports: 3x USB 3.0 ports, plus 1x USB 2.0 port
• OS: Windows 10

I'm not tech-savvy, but am supportive   Any assistance would be much appreciated.

I would go with an I7 for the cpu, at least 16gb of ram, and any graphics card that says "VR ready" in the desceiption or on the box and has to be strong like 1070 or higher. VR requires a strong system. 

[ARikozuM]

Just now, Daniel Z. said:

What are his favourite colours?

Razer RGB, obviously!

[Daniel Z.]

Just now, ARikozuM said:

Razer RGB, obviously!

lol

[The Sloth]

ryzen 1600+ gtx 1070, minimums are important 

[rn8686]

R5 1600 and a 1060/1070 or RX 580. 

[Daniel Z.]

You can reduce price with less ram or SSD

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  ($197.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-AB350M-Gaming 3 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($71.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory  ($121.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial - MX300 275GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($97.89 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($59.99 @ Best Buy) 
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB G1 Gaming Video Card  ($464.79 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: Inwin - 301 White MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($41.89 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1121.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-13 22:18 EDT-0400

[Daniel Z.]

10 minutes ago, Douglas The Duck said:

I would go with an I7 for the cpu, at least 16gb of ram, and any graphics card that says "VR ready" in the desceiption or on the box. VR requires a strong system. 

that is really bad advice

[Droidbot]

Since you're new to this, check out some building videos on YouTube. This stuff isn't rocket surgery - ATX power supplies plug into ATX motherboards (or microATX) and fit into ATX cases. AM4 CPUs have 1331 pin holes on the bottom that fit into the 1331 pins on the AM4 motherboard. SATA HDDs fit into the SATA port on the motherboard, etc. 

 

Lots of people above have suggested the Ryzen 5 1600 and a 1060 or 1070 from Nvidia. Ryzen 5 is as good as Intel's latest i5 7600k for gaming and VR, and has more cores so it performs better in productivity work like editing videos and photos.

 

Feel free to ask any questions 

 

[Tom Cat]

1 minute ago, Daniel Z. said:

that is really bad advice

Look I'm just going off of what I know I've only built pc for my friends who got the parts. I've never built my own but I know what I would do. I study computer enter engineering and most of the time as we know graphic card that are VR ready are usually new models since VR is relatively new. So MOST of the time any card below nivda 1070 gtx won't work. I'm using the 1070 as my example because the OP wants a 1060. So yeah

[xDyl]

2 minutes ago, Douglas The Duck said:

Look I'm just going off of what I know I've only built pc for my friends who got the parts. I've never built my own but I know what I would do. I study computer enter engineering and most of the time as we know graphic card that are VR ready are usually new models since VR is relatively new. So MOST of the time any card below nivda 1070 gtx won't work. I'm using the 1070 as my example because the OP wants a 1060. So yeah

"VR ready" is just a selling point that all 1060+ manufacturers attach. Just saying get a card with VR read stamped on the box is not very great advice, but it is a point.

[Tom Cat]

1 minute ago, xDyl said:

"VR ready" is just a selling point that all 1060+ manufacturers attach. Just saying get a card with VR read stamped on the box is not very great advice, but it is a point. OP will need a VR ready card.

 

[Tom Cat]

I know that came out wrong. You shouldn't just buy a card that says VR ready. It also needs to be strong. So yeah

[Armakar]

Ryzen 1600 on a B350 board, decent cooler (atleast a hyper 212 evo), overclock it as much as possible (clockspeed is important in vr)

Graphics card is far more important in VR, while a 1060 and 480 are "minimum" many games support different resolutions and different graphics settings.  I advise a minimum of a 1070, or one of the new Vega 64 cards.

[Brooksie359]

honestly if you are new to building pcs I would suggest getting a i7 7700 with a cheaper b250 motherboard and 8 gb of cheap ddr4 ram. pair this with a good gpu like a 1060 and you should have a pc that is capable of vr. if you want a better experience get a 1070 but it isn't necessary. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/gtTmsJ something like this.

[Brooksie359]

4 minutes ago, Armakar said:

Ryzen 1600 on a B350 board, decent cooler (atleast a hyper 212 evo), overclock it as much as possible (clockspeed is important in vr)

Graphics card is far more important in VR, while a 1060 and 480 are "minimum" many games support different resolutions and different graphics settings.  I advise a minimum of a 1070, or one of the new Vega 64 cards.

most vr games have crap graphics so I honestly don't think its super necessary.

[Armakar]

1 minute ago, Brooksie359 said:

most vr games have crap graphics so I honestly don't think its super necessary.

The better ones, paticularly well-developed popular ones like Onward, Raw Data and Arizona Sunshine all have changeable graphics. And i'm not sure about the Rift, but the Vive has a resolution multiplier which helps ALOT

[PeachyUwUSenpai]

don't get a 290 gpu wise get at least a 1060 if not a 1070 or 1080. cpu wise doesn't matter to much vr is mostly gpu intensive even old i7s like the 3770k can do vr withought bottle necking anything so a current gen i5 would be fine

[PeachyUwUSenpai]

3 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

most vr games have crap graphics so I honestly don't think its super necessary.

crap graphics is really relative rember it needs to render 90fps at 2k not to mention keep frame times consistent. the graphics tend to be simplistic or geometrical not crap

[Brooksie359]

1 minute ago, Armakar said:

The better ones, paticularly well-developed popular ones like Onward, Raw Data and Arizona Sunshine all have changeable graphics. And i'm not sure about the Rift, but the Vive has a resolution multiplier which helps ALOT

again you make it sound like it isn't a playable experience without a 1070 or above. I mean the 1070 is nice to have but not needed for vr. i mean the gtx 970 was the original minimum for vr and the 1060 is quite a bit faster than that.

[Brooksie359]

1 minute ago, Alaradia said:

crap graphics is really relative rember it needs to render 90fps at 2k not to mention keep frame times consistent. the graphics tend to be simplistic or geometrical not crap

simple and geometrical to get good framerates with weaker gpus which would point to them being crap. also the cpu is important when trying to push 90 fps consistently because with an i5 you could easily dip below 90 fps and have inconsistent frames.

[PeachyUwUSenpai]

Just now, Brooksie359 said:

simple and geometrical to get good framerates with weaker gpus which would point to them being crap. also the cpu is important when trying to push 90 fps consistently because with an i5 you could easily dip below 90 fps and have inconsistent frames.

nope an i5 works perfectly fine even though the graphics may not be crazy it still brings 1080tis to their knees in certain games especially oculus games fps is more reliant on gpu then cpu in vr

[Brooksie359]

5 minutes ago, Alaradia said:

crap graphics is really relative rember it needs to render 90fps at 2k not to mention keep frame times consistent. the graphics tend to be simplistic or geometrical not crap

i mean it would be the same as telling me 4k minecraft isn't crap graphics. just because it is at a higher resolution doens't make the textures and graphics any less crap.

[PeachyUwUSenpai]

Just now, Brooksie359 said:

i mean it would be the same as telling me 4k minecraft isn't crap graphics. just because it is at a higher resolution doens't make the textures and graphics any less crap.

minecrafts graphics aren't crap though its aesthetics is blocky and it pulls it off really well and you can make even nicer with some shaders