Cheap VR gaming desktop?

[herc0923]

Hey all, I know you get cheap PC questions 100x a day, but in a search I'm having a hard time finding much that's VR specific.

It's time to upgrade my 13 yr old. He got his 16 yr old brother's hand-me-down's last year that we hacked into something workable but slow. He primarily runs steam games, but typically not super heavy graphic games (other than Fallout games). That may change-- he is 13. Recently he has gotten very interested in VR, and the original plan was to get him an Oculus Rift for Christmas, but his PC can't handle it, so we are upgrading the PC instead. Want to create something with the ability to upgrade further as he grows.

Approximate Purchase Date: ASAP-- was looking at some of the parts deals on Amazon today and trying to piece together something.

Budget Range: I'd prefer to keep it under 1k. The cheaper it is the better chance that he will get something other than computer parts for Christmas

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Steam is number one use. Fallout is probably one of the most demanding games that he plays.

Are you buying a monitor: No monitor needed-- he currently has a dual monitor setup, (one 1920x1080, one 1680x1050) and we actually have a 3rd we could add if we get a video card that can handle. Eventually we made get him an ultrawide, but that's a future purchase.

Parts to Upgrade: Currently he is running an Amd AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHz with only 4GB RAM (second slot is bad on the board) and a Radeon RX 460 graphics card. Power supply is a EVGA 430 watt. We do have a 8gb stick of DDR3 (hyperx Fury) and a 4GB stick (Patriot viper) hanging around in addition to the 4gb stick above. Sound card should be fine. Other than that and maybe the RAM the rest probably needs to go, right?

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: no preference, as long as I can get it before Christmas. Was interested in some of today's Amazon deals

Location: Montgomery, AL

Parts Preferences: none, though he does have a Nvidia Shield.

Overclocking: not initially

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: currently dual 1920x1080 and 1680x1050, would like to add a 3rd 1920x1080. He will likely replace with a single ultrawide at some point.

Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: want to be able to handle Oculus Rift, and also improve ability to play on Steam

 

[kindangrysliceofpie]

Hey all, I know you get cheap PC questions 100x a day, but in a search I'm having a hard time finding much that's VR specific.

It's time to upgrade my 13 yr old. He got his 16 yr old brother's hand-me-down's last year that we hacked into something workable but slow. He primarily runs steam games, but typically not super heavy graphic games (other than Fallout games). That may change-- he is 13. Recently he has gotten very interested in VR, and the original plan was to get him an Oculus Rift for Christmas, but his PC can't handle it, so we are upgrading the PC instead. Want to create something with the ability to upgrade further as he grows.

Approximate Purchase Date: ASAP-- was looking at some of the parts deals on Amazon today and trying to piece together something.

Budget Range: I'd prefer to keep it under 1k. The cheaper it is the better chance that he will get something other than computer parts for Christmas

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Steam is number one use. Fallout is probably one of the most demanding games that he plays.

Are you buying a monitor: No monitor needed-- he currently has a dual monitor setup, (one 1920x1080, one 1680x1050) and we actually have a 3rd we could add if we get a video card that can handle. Eventually we made get him an ultrawide, but that's a future purchase.

Parts to Upgrade: Currently he is running an Amd AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHz with only 4GB RAM (second slot is bad on the board) and a Radeon RX 460 graphics card. Power supply is a EVGA 430 watt. We do have a 8gb stick of DDR3 (hyperx Fury) and a 4GB stick (Patriot viper) hanging around in addition to the 4gb stick above. Sound card should be fine. Other than that and maybe the RAM the rest probably needs to go, right?

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: no preference, as long as I can get it before Christmas. Was interested in some of today's Amazon deals

Location: Montgomery, AL

Parts Preferences: none, though he does have a Nvidia Shield.

Overclocking: not initially

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: currently dual 1920x1080 and 1680x1050, would like to add a 3rd 1920x1080. He will likely replace with a single ultrawide at some point.

Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: want to be able to handle Oculus Rift, and also improve ability to play on Steam

Hey! I suggest using PCPartPicker.com. What kind of headset will he be using? Different headsets have different requirements. I’d suggest upgrading your:

CPU to a ryzen 5 2600 (or a ryzen 3 2200g, both really good processors for under $200)
Motherboard (depending on your CPU, a B350 or a B450 chipset)
RAM to 8 gigs of dual channel, DDR4 2400 or higher.
Graphics card, to a 1060 6gb or maybe a RX 580.

 

[WildCard999]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus - ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard ($129.00 @ B&H)
Memory: ADATA - XPG GAMMIX D10 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($72.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB Mini Video Card ($329.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($88.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $945.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-05 14:58 EST-0500

 

[Dugimodo]

Wildcard pretty much nailed it with that list, if that stretches the budget too far you could re-use your old case and drop to a GTX 1060 6GB but that's the minimum recommended graphics for a rift and might be an issue down the track a bit.

I have a rift and a 1070 and it's a great combo, before getting the 1070 I was using a GTX980 though and to be fair it also worked very well and is very close to a 1060 in performance.

 

[WildCard999]

I've played some VR games with people who have used a 1050 ti 4gb however it probably won't provide the best experience.

 

[herc0923]

Hey all, I know you get cheap PC questions 100x a day, but in a search I'm having a hard time finding much that's VR specific.

It's time to upgrade my 13 yr old. He got his 16 yr old brother's hand-me-down's last year that we hacked into something workable but slow. He primarily runs steam games, but typically not super heavy graphic games (other than Fallout games). That may change-- he is 13. Recently he has gotten very interested in VR, and the original plan was to get him an Oculus Rift for Christmas, but his PC can't handle it, so we are upgrading the PC instead. Want to create something with the ability to upgrade further as he grows.

Approximate Purchase Date: ASAP-- was looking at some of the parts deals on Amazon today and trying to piece together something.

Budget Range: I'd prefer to keep it under 1k. The cheaper it is the better chance that he will get something other than computer parts for Christmas

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Steam is number one use. Fallout is probably one of the most demanding games that he plays.

Are you buying a monitor: No monitor needed-- he currently has a dual monitor setup, (one 1920x1080, one 1680x1050) and we actually have a 3rd we could add if we get a video card that can handle. Eventually we made get him an ultrawide, but that's a future purchase.

Parts to Upgrade: Currently he is running an Amd AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHz with only 4GB RAM (second slot is bad on the board) and a Radeon RX 460 graphics card. Power supply is a EVGA 430 watt. We do have a 8gb stick of DDR3 (hyperx Fury) and a 4GB stick (Patriot viper) hanging around in addition to the 4gb stick above. Sound card should be fine. Other than that and maybe the RAM the rest probably needs to go, right?

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: no preference, as long as I can get it before Christmas. Was interested in some of today's Amazon deals

Location: Montgomery, AL

Parts Preferences: none, though he does have a Nvidia Shield.

Overclocking: not initially

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: currently dual 1920x1080 and 1680x1050, would like to add a 3rd 1920x1080. He will likely replace with a single ultrawide at some point.

Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: want to be able to handle Oculus Rift, and also improve ability to play on Steam

Hey! I suggest using PCPartPicker.com. What kind of headset will he be using? Different headsets have different requirements. I’d suggest upgrading your:

CPU to a ryzen 5 2600 (or a ryzen 3 2200g, both really good processors for under $200)
Motherboard (depending on your CPU, a B350 or a B450 chipset)
RAM to 8 gigs of dual channel, DDR4 2400 or higher.
Graphics card, to a 1060 6gb or maybe a RX 580.

Likely an Oculus Rift. That's the one he has shown the most interest in. We will be researching those next though Thanks for your suggestions! Why an AMD chip rather than an Intel?

 

[herc0923]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus - ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard ($129.00 @ B&H)
Memory: ADATA - XPG GAMMIX D10 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($72.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB Mini Video Card ($329.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($88.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $945.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-05 14:58 EST-0500

Why AMD? And is a 5 necessary? I'm also surprised by the 1070-- I was thinking 1060 would be sufficient. Is there a pretty big difference in performance?

 

[Dugimodo]

AMD because it's a better deal. The i5 8400 would also be a good choice but games about the same, costs more and is not as good for other workloads.

Technically yes you can use VR on a 4 core i3 8350K or Ryzen 5 2400G or similar, even an i3 8100 would probably do but with all the newer mainstream CPUs going for 6 or 8 cores now it's hard to recommend a 4 core CPU as a good choice in the long term. There are already games that can use more than 4 threads and that is likely to continue.

And yes the 1060 is sufficient, the 1070 just gives you a bt more headroom for future games.
If all you are aiming for right now is a good experience with current games and an oculus rift a 4 core CPU and a GTX 1060 6GB will get you there.
The suggested hardware will just be a bit faster and last a bit longer.

I have had an Oculus Rift since about 12 months ago, I started out with a 6700K (4 core/8 thread 4Ghz) and a GTX 980 (very very close to 1060 6GB performance) and every game I tried on it ran perfectly. I got a cheap deal on a used 1070 and upgraded just because I could but so far in the rift at least there's no real difference.

 

[WildCard999]

Dugimodo pretty much explained it all. Price to performance AMD is the better choice nowadays and considering AMD is using the AM4 socket until 2020 it gives you a much better upgrade path over Intel. A 1060/580 may be sufficient but with improvements in VR gaming you may want something a bit better.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Wildcard999 has a decent build, but I'd probably make some changes to save money so the kid gets more than just computer components for Christmas:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($73.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: ADATA - XPG GAMMIX D10 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($72.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6 GB GT OCV1 Video Card ($249.89 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $751.63
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-05 18:26 EST-0500

If you can re-use your current case, do so. If it's proprietary, replace it, but with something a little cheaper
Changed the motherboard to a less expensive one.
Dropped the GTX1070 to a GTX1060.
I did swap out the M.2 SSD for a SATAIII SSD, but there's no cost savings. Just not sure about M.2 cooling.

This save you almost $200 for other presents.

-Wolf sends

 

[kindangrysliceofpie]

Hey all, I know you get cheap PC questions 100x a day, but in a search I'm having a hard time finding much that's VR specific.

It's time to upgrade my 13 yr old. He got his 16 yr old brother's hand-me-down's last year that we hacked into something workable but slow. He primarily runs steam games, but typically not super heavy graphic games (other than Fallout games). That may change-- he is 13. Recently he has gotten very interested in VR, and the original plan was to get him an Oculus Rift for Christmas, but his PC can't handle it, so we are upgrading the PC instead. Want to create something with the ability to upgrade further as he grows.

Approximate Purchase Date: ASAP-- was looking at some of the parts deals on Amazon today and trying to piece together something.

Budget Range: I'd prefer to keep it under 1k. The cheaper it is the better chance that he will get something other than computer parts for Christmas

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Steam is number one use. Fallout is probably one of the most demanding games that he plays.

Are you buying a monitor: No monitor needed-- he currently has a dual monitor setup, (one 1920x1080, one 1680x1050) and we actually have a 3rd we could add if we get a video card that can handle. Eventually we made get him an ultrawide, but that's a future purchase.

Parts to Upgrade: Currently he is running an Amd AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHz with only 4GB RAM (second slot is bad on the board) and a Radeon RX 460 graphics card. Power supply is a EVGA 430 watt. We do have a 8gb stick of DDR3 (hyperx Fury) and a 4GB stick (Patriot viper) hanging around in addition to the 4gb stick above. Sound card should be fine. Other than that and maybe the RAM the rest probably needs to go, right?

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: no preference, as long as I can get it before Christmas. Was interested in some of today's Amazon deals

Location: Montgomery, AL

Parts Preferences: none, though he does have a Nvidia Shield.

Overclocking: not initially

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: currently dual 1920x1080 and 1680x1050, would like to add a 3rd 1920x1080. He will likely replace with a single ultrawide at some point.

Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: want to be able to handle Oculus Rift, and also improve ability to play on Steam

Hey! I suggest using PCPartPicker.com. What kind of headset will he be using? Different headsets have different requirements. I’d suggest upgrading your:

CPU to a ryzen 5 2600 (or a ryzen 3 2200g, both really good processors for under $200)
Motherboard (depending on your CPU, a B350 or a B450 chipset)
RAM to 8 gigs of dual channel, DDR4 2400 or higher.
Graphics card, to a 1060 6gb or maybe a RX 580.

Likely an Oculus Rift. That's the one he has shown the most interest in. We will be researching those next though Thanks for your suggestions! Why an AMD chip rather than an Intel?

AMD is cheapest per perfromance, and has more cores and threads. The R5 2600 perfroms the same as the i5 and is $50 cheaper. VR isn’t very CPU intensive, so I chose ryzen.

 

[ohenryy]

You would be better off with a RX580, almost 100$ cheaper...and it's faster! Crazy.
Also you can get better CPU

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ZCbVyX
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ZCbVyX/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3 GHz 8-Core Processor ($179.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock - B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($93.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: ADATA - XPG GAMMIX D10 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($72.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: PowerColor - Radeon RX 580 8 GB Video Card ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $691.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-05 21:30 EST-0500

 

[Dugimodo]

Personally I would stick with the 2600, slightly higher stock clocks, small IPC improvements, and better memory support.
I think the 1700 is a better productivity choice, but for gaming I favour the 2600.

Not that much price difference though so comes down to preference.

 

[herc0923]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus - ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard ($129.00 @ B&H)
Memory: ADATA - XPG GAMMIX D10 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($72.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB Mini Video Card ($329.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($88.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $945.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-05 14:58 EST-0500

One more question-- why the mini 1070? and would the extra 30ish bucks for the 1070ti be worth the improved benchmarks? Oh and you think just a SSD, no additional hard drive?

 

[WildCard999]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus - ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard ($129.00 @ B&H)
Memory: ADATA - XPG GAMMIX D10 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($72.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB Mini Video Card ($329.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($88.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $945.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-05 14:58 EST-0500

One more question-- why the mini 1070? and would the extra 30ish bucks for the 1070ti be worth the improved benchmarks? Oh and you think just a SSD, no additional hard drive?

The mini has dual fans so the cooling will be fine and I wanted to stay within the budget. As for the storage I figured you could reuse the HDD from the current system or 500gb would be sufficient now until someone grabbed a 2TB HDD for fairly cheap.

 

[herc0923]

Still deciding If you were going to push the budget to 1200, what would you upgrade? I've been playing with builds in parts picker but would love a second opinion.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus - Prime X470-Pro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($163.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($129.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: SanDisk - Ultra 3D 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($134.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB TURBO Video Card ($369.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Pro M Tempered Glass (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: *SeaSonic - 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($62.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $1140.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-10 20:03 EST-0500

Would it be better to upgrade the graphics card instead of some of the other parts? What about the RTX2070 as opposed to the 1070?

Editing to add a second option
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - MasterLiquid ML240L RGB 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($64.78 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: *ASRock - Fatal1ty X470 Gaming K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: *Team - Vulcan 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2800 Memory ($108.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: *Mushkin - Source 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($63.99 @ Newegg Business)
Video Card: *Gigabyte - GeForce RTX 2070 8 GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($498.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Pro M Tempered Glass (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: *EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1207.59
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-10 20:02 EST-0500