Specs for all around entertainment/media PC

[DaKittenMitten]

I am currently setting up a room for all around entertainment and media consumption in my house.  It is going to have a 4k TV and either an HTC Vive or an Oculus Rift (plus touch).  I am struggling to figure out the specs for a PC that could run both the 4K TV and VR at the same time (keeping the VR at 90fps plus).  If I am not mistaken, anything seen on the headset will also be shown on the TV.  I have never owned a VR headset before so I am not too familiar with how that would work.  Otherwise, I would be playing games of most genres.  I would like to keep the game settings medium-high.  What would be the ideal PC (mostly CPU and GPU) specs for this type of setup?

[Crunchy Dragon]

I would imagine the only GPU to even come to that kind of power would be a 1080Ti, and I'm not even sure it's fully capable of that. CPU-wise, an 8700K or maybe even a higher end X99 Xeon would probably suffice.

[DaKittenMitten]

Yeah, I might just have to turn the tv off while the headset is being used lol

[TechBruhE]

2 minutes ago, DaKittenMitten said:

Yeah, I might just have to turn the tv off while the headset is being used lol

uh I'm pretty sure the vr games wont run at 4k unless you get your hands on that alpha version of that chinky headset linus tried out, it will probably run in a window on the 4k tv. that's usually how vr games appear to run in videos I've seen, haven't taken the plunge yet. but 1080ti for sure.

[TechBruhE]

6 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I would imagine the only GPU to even come to that kind of power would be a 1080Ti, and I'm not even sure it's fully capable of that. CPU-wise, an 8700K or maybe even a higher end X99 Xeon would probably suffice.

just curious why xeon? I thought the ipc was trash?

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, shawnhovde said:

just curious why xeon? I thought the ipc was trash?

Mainly budget reasons actually, you can find them pretty cheap

[DaKittenMitten]

Just now, shawnhovde said:

uh I'm pretty sure the vr games wont run at 4k unless you get your hands on that alpha version of that chinky headset linus tried out, it will probably run in a window on the 4k tv. that's usually how vr games appear to run in videos I've seen, haven't taken the plunge yet. but 1080ti for sure.

I mean for it be running on a 4k tv at the same time.  Ill just be using the Vive, which doesn't have 4k displays to my knowledge.

[TechBruhE]

Just now, DaKittenMitten said:

I mean for it be running on a 4k tv at the same time.  Ill just be using the Vive, which doesn't have 4k displays to my knowledge.

yeah it will probably be rendering @ the vive's resolution

[DaKittenMitten]

1 minute ago, shawnhovde said:

yeah it will probably be rendering @ the vive's resolution

Oh ok, that makes sense

[TechBruhE]

3 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Mainly budget reasons actually, you can find them pretty cheap

6700k's aren't far off xeons on ebay tho

[Crunchy Dragon]

3 minutes ago, shawnhovde said:

6700k's aren't far off xeons on ebay tho

Fair point, I hadn't considered that

[TechBruhE]

4 minutes ago, DaKittenMitten said:

Oh ok, that makes sense

"HTC states that Vive has a refresh rate of 90 Hz, requiring content to be rendered at 90 frames-per-second. The device uses two screens, one per eye, each having a resolution of 1080x1200." so a 1080ti or probably a 1080 wouldn't have a problem with that and 6700k and a z170 motherboard in whatever form factor you want 2x 8gb sticks of ram, a 120/240ish gb ssd & however large hdd should be a good budget for ya. the ram and gpu will be killers atm

[DaKittenMitten]

Would a 1080 have enough power to run that if the VR showing on the tv was rendering at the headsets resolution?  If yes, could a 1080 run 4k games at medium settings with a decent framerate?

[DaKittenMitten]

Just now, DaKittenMitten said:

Would a 1080 have enough power to run that if the VR showing on the tv was rendering at the headsets resolution?  If yes, could a 1080 run 4k games at medium settings with a decent framerate?

Oh, I didn't see the msg before this while writing that one.  That works.  Thx!

[TechBruhE]

1 minute ago, DaKittenMitten said:

Would a 1080 have enough power to run that if the VR showing on the tv was rendering at the headsets resolution?  If yes, could a 1080 run 4k games at medium settings with a decent framerate?

probably I used to have 2x 1080's, but for vr  it will probably be fine, for 4k gaming, no it will struggle to stay at 60.

[DaKittenMitten]

Right now I'm thinking of having these specs:

CPU: i7-7700k (ill be overclocking about .5ghz)

GPU: 1080 (I'll add a second if it's not working out.)

RAM: 16gb of any 2800-3200mhz memory

Case: Any

Motherboard: Ill fit it to the other parts at the end

Storage: 480gb ssd (crucial mx300 is very cheap.  I'm running it now) Along with a 1-2 tb hdd.

Cooler: I'm actually not sure whether I would need water cooling, have any advice?

 

Also, would it make sense to overlock a 1070ti rather than investing in a 1080

 

 

[Himommies]

4 minutes ago, DaKittenMitten said:

Right now I'm thinking of having these specs:

CPU: i7-7700k (ill be overclocking about .5ghz)

GPU: 1080 (I'll add a second if it's not working out.)

RAM: 16gb of any 2800-3200mhz memory

Case: Any

Motherboard: Ill fit it to the other parts at the end

Storage: 480gb ssd (crucial mx300 is very cheap.  I'm running it now) Along with a 1-2 tb hdd.

Cooler: I'm actually not sure whether I would need water cooling, have any advice?

 

Also, would it make sense to overlock a 1070ti rather than investing in a 1080

 

 

Get a 8700k and you'll be good to go

[Herman Mcpootis]

29 minutes ago, shawnhovde said:

just curious why xeon? I thought the ipc was trash?

xeons run on the same archiecture as the regular consumer CPUs, just that they might have slower clock speeds.

[DaKittenMitten]

5 minutes ago, Himommies said:

Get a 8700k and you'll be good to go

Ok, thx!  Do you think one 1080 with that could give ideal performance, or is two needed for something like this?

[TechBruhE]

1 minute ago, herman mcpootis said:

xeons run on the same archiecture as the regular consumer CPUs, just that they might have slower clock speeds.

yeah, but for gaming, xeons have a lower ipc, aka your gona have less fps. 

 

 

[Herman Mcpootis]

Just now, shawnhovde said:

yeah, but for gaming, xeons have a lower ipc, aka your gona have less fps. 

 

 

the E5 xeons can still do well for gaming, and the Xeon E3s are the same as the intel i5/7s with very slight difference like a couple hundred mhz slower and no iGPU on some models.

[TechBruhE]

12 minutes ago, herman mcpootis said:

the E5 xeons can still do well for gaming, and the Xeon E3s are the same as the intel i5/7s with very slight difference like a couple hundred mhz slower and no iGPU on some models.

yeah, like he says, in some cases. and the z170/270 & z370 have higher ipc,(than x99/x299) so for a gaming/vr/htpc I was suggesting the 6700k because theres not much difference between the 6700k and 7700k, especially since I saw them on ebay ranging between $140-260. sounds like he already had his mind made up tho. ^

[Herman Mcpootis]

4 minutes ago, shawnhovde said:

yeah, like he says, in some cases. and the z170/270 & z370 have higher ipc,(than x99/x299) so for a gaming/vr/htpc I was suggesting the 6700k because theres not much difference between the 6700k and 7700k, especially since I saw them on ebay ranging between $140-260. sounds like he already had his mind made up tho. ^

the sky/kaby/coffeelake cpus have better IPC because they're on newer architectures, the 2680 would have the same IPC as a sandy bridge cpu.