Building a PC for High Fidelity Virtual Reality

Picking out the right PC or laptop for virtual reality can be daunting and confusing. We spent many hours at the computer center picking apart the various options and testing them back in our lab. The absolute cheapest you can spend building your own is ~$550, where as high-quality will run $1,500. Want to really go over the top? We did, and spent $2,200. As you’d imagine there are trade offs.

“High fidelity” virtual reality is simply the higher-end content. The bigger graphics, the more impressive interactivity, room scale, and so on. Today we will take a look at how to build a monstrous PC to power our virtual reality for today, tomorrow and well into the future. Think of this as an investment.

However, this computer is more than you need. It is an aggressive approach that will serve you much longer than building on the cheap. It is as reasonably future-proof as possible. The total price came out to about $2,100.
Now, if you simply want to buy a VR ready computer or laptop, scroll to the end, as the following is all about building your own!
But, if you want to pick apart the building blocks that creating this mega-machine, then let’s begin!
To start, let map out the minimum specs needed for our VR-powering device.

System requirements for Oculus:
• Video Card: NVIDIA: GTX 1050 Ti / GTX 960 or greater | AMD: RX 470 / R9 390 / R9 290 or greater
• CPU: Intel i3-6100 / AMD FX 4350 or greater
• Memory: 8GB RAM or greater
• Video Output: free HDMI 1.3 output
• USB Ports: 1x USB 3.0 port plus 2x USB 2.0 ports (3x USB 3.0 recommended)
• Operating System: Windows 10 (64 bit)
Check your CPU with the Rift compatibility tool

System requirements for HTC Vive:
• Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX970, or AMD Radeon R9 290 equivalent or greater
• CPU: Intel i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350 equivalent or greater
• Memory: 4GB RAM or greater
• Video output: HDMI 1.4 or DisplayPort 1.2 or newer
• USB ports: One USB 2.0 or greater
• Operating system: Windows 7 SP1 or newer

Check your CPU with Vive compatibility tool

These above specs are for the lifetime of your headset. When you update your VR rig, you might need a different CPU, more maybe just a new graphics card. If you take the time to build a PC now all this will be very easy in the future.

THE MONSTOROURSLY BADASS VR PC WE RECOMMEND YOU BUILD IF YOU’RE SERIOUS ABOUT VIRTUAL REALITY

Your computer won’t be a little fella, but will be sturdy, strong, fast and smart.

To start, we pick a casing, also known as the tower. Many believe the boxy computers are a thing of the past, but simply they are for those doing more powerful computing. We chose H440 ATX. A quick overview its BIG which means it can hold many parts. It has fans, steel racks for hard drives and supports liquid cooling. It also looks it might transform into Ironman’s Audi R8.
GPU, also known as the Video/Graphics Card: This is important. To render 3D environments and special effects in real time you need serious computing power. The GPU manages the special effects (shadows, reflections et cetera), 3D visualization, like Computer Aided Design (CAD) or more powerful 3D modeling and VFX platforms (such as 3DS Max, Modo or Maya, and many others), and large display environments, as in how many monitors you are using (your HMD is a monitor, too). At the end of the day, the video card is responsible for eliminating display stutter and input lag, therefore, the more beastly your GPU is, the smoother, faster and more immersive your VR experience will be. Ours is a MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Armor. Marvel here

CPU, Central Processing Unit), also commonly referred to as the “Processor”, we chose a core i7. This is about speed and multitasking. The more “core”s your CPU has, the more it can process. As in quad-core can process twice as much as duel-core (generally speaking). The learn more about Core processors and hyper-threading technologies, check out HowToGeek article here.

Our RAM memory is the 16GB Dominator by Corsair. it’s fast and keeps our performance top speed. The computer’s screen remembering what windows you have open, and are doing in the computer lives here.

Next, we have a Solid State (SSD) Intel Hard Drive 540s Series 2.5” 480GB SATA III. SSDs are considered far more durable than mechanical hard drives, due to a lack of mechanical parts. The moving part make it more susceptible to damage from movement, forceful contact, or simply wearing over time. But, we built a PC, and are not likely to move it around much, so to save little on money and up the total storage, our second hard drive is mechanical, a Western Digital 1TB. The tower has plenty of space to add plenty more down the road

Gigabyte has new Motherboards: Intel Thunderbolts and they support all future technology that won’t trickle down to the mass consumers for many, many years. Ours is the Z170X. Higher end motherboards lend themselves to more upgrades down the road. Unless you plan on overclocking, you don’t need to go all out here.

Our cooling system, we went a step above the standard for VR because we know it’s going to get hot. We have liquid cooling, which can be upgraded later to dual-liquid cooling, in a Corsair Hydro Series H60. Another good option, manufactured in Taiwan, is Cooler Master Seidon 120V Plus, specially designed, pressure tested and requires zero maintenance for years.
For the power supply we opted for a SuperNOVA 859 G2. Full Modular, and 80 Plus Gold certified, 100-240 V 50/60Hz. You can trust the power will be supplied.

Operating System: Windows 7 (64 Bit) will work for VR, but certain apps, like Minecraft VR, BigScreen, Virtual Desktop, all require Windows 10. Additionally, you’ll need to meet greater hardware requirements ( i5-6400+ and GTX 970+/RX 480+). Simply, Windows 10 will provide you a smoother performance with fewer problems

Too complicated? Don’t have the time? Rather buy a VR-ready laptop or PC?
Here are some good choices:
Laptops: A reasonable range is from $1,400 to $3,600. It can be a little less or a little more, but there is our ballpark for your virtual reality needs, and here we’ve selected the best value laptops if your primary objective is to play Oculus Rift and HC Vive, portably.

$1,399 - ASUS 17.3" Republic of Gamers Strix GL702VM Notebook
$1,599 - MSI GE72VR 6RF Apache Pro-009US
$1,799 - Razer Blade
$3,599 - MSI GT73VR 6RF Titan Pro-201US Signature Edition Gaming Laptop

PCs: As usual, you trade portability for durability, power and price. These PCs here are less dollar for dollar on specs, but they are towers, stationary, leave-at-home computers. Check out the diverse options we listed here as best value for your money, with the exception of the $5k Asus, which we had to include because it is so gargantuanly amazing. Just copying and pasting it’s hyperlink had be salivating.

$799 - Alienware Aurora
$1,599 - Lenovo IdeaCentre y900-34ISZ
$1,771 - Falcon Northwest Talon
$4,999 – ASUS ROG GT51CA-XB71K-GTX1080SLI

The bottom line is that there are many options and the best thing you can do is learn the process yourself by buying the individual parts and building the PC. You do not need much experience, especially if you’re a digital native. Go to the computer store, ask questions, raise concerns and actively learn. THAT is the best way to build a computer.

Game on people. The world of virtual reality is going to change the physical world as we know it. Get on board, because the train is leaving with or without you!!