Should I buy a ps4 vr headset or a new pc?

[anceintsz]

New pc costs $633 but vr headset gear with Skyrim vr costs $449 is vr really worth it? What's it like?

 

[Barty1884]

Do you want to game in VR? If so, there's really only one option there for you.

A new gaming rig is going to be tough (new, at least) to get anything remotely decent for VR (+the cost of VR gear)

 

[anceintsz]

Yeah I want to game with vr but the same time I need a new pc because mine keeps crashing and restarting all the time

 

[Barty1884]

Might be worth trying to fix that, opposed to building a new rig if it's not necessary. If you need a replacement MB/HDD/PSU etc, you should have sufficient budget available (if you'd pay >$600 for a new rig) AND still get your VR headset.

Can you post your full system spec? And details of the issues...

 

[anceintsz]

It's just a $300 laptop with an amd apu that is getting too old to use now. What is vr like?

 

[Barty1884]

Ah, ok.

With that being the case, a new rig may be a better idea than a VR headset for the PS4, if it's something you want.

Personally, I'd look to something like this for now:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($198.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - B350M MORTAR Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($69.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Silicon Power - Slim S55 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($67.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card ($178.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Lite 3.1 TG MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($43.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($41.89 @ Newegg)
Total: $701.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-01-11 11:32 EST-0500

Solid 1080p Medium-High/60Hz gaming with the 1050TI, and the 6c/12t CPU/MB pairing would pair with stronger GPUs in future (if you wanted to upgrade to a 1070 or greater for VR, for example).

That leaves out an HDD, and does go a little over budget - so there are a couple of tweaks to bring some cost down, but I like that setup.
The HDD from your old laptop could be reused (Assuming it's in good health).

 

[anceintsz]

So I should probably go with a new pc? Just really curious to experience vr I want to know what it's like

 

[Barty1884]

It depends what you want the new PC for.

If you predominantly game on PS4, and think that's likely to be the case with/without a new PC, then the VR headset makes the most sense.

If you have other tasks you want to perform that the PS4 can't handle (or handle well), then the PC might make the most sense.

I can't make that decision for you. If it were me, I'd opt for the PC - If/when I want to explore VR, I want it to be a bit more 'advanced' than it is today - and on higher-end hardware than the PS4 offers.

 

[anceintsz]

Could you describe what its like in your experience?

 

[Barty1884]

I don't have first hand experience, I'm just basing my opinion on reviews etc - you want a high refresh rate (generally) and powerful GPUs as essentially you're driving two displays. That's not really achievable on 'affordable' hardware currently - although consoles are able to get very respectable performance for their price-point.

I'd prefer to wait for VR to 'mature' some..... but that's just my opinion.

It may be worth seeing if you can demo PS4's VR experience somewhere (do stores still exist with consoles set up for testing?).

 

[anceintsz]

I don't have first hand experience, I'm just basing my opinion on reviews etc - you want a high refresh rate (generally) and powerful GPUs as essentially you're driving two displays. That's not really achievable on 'affordable' hardware currently - although consoles are able to get very respectable performance for their price-point.

I'd prefer to wait for VR to 'mature' some..... but that's just my opinion.

It may be worth seeing if you can demo PS4's VR experience somewhere (do stores still exist with consoles set up for testing?).

The only store here for gaming is gamestop and in this small town we're lucky to get 1 normal ps4 demo test setup. I guess i'll watch a couple hours of skyrim vr and see how it is and how it looks. Yet my girlfriend said I should also stick to the new pc as I will be doing a lot more with it than just on the ps4. Thanks for the help man!