In this guide I will try to give a map for those who have to orient themselves in buying a PC for VR. Before starting I believe it is right to make some premises:
- I have divided the configurations into 4 price ranges, from entry level to enthusiast. Each range has a cost range that can vary based on the choice of components and market fluctuations. However, next to each component I will indicate a reference price.
- All prices refer to Amazon, which remains the starting shop thanks above all to its return policies, essential for me in case you buy a wrong component. However, there are other very reliable sites in Italy, among all I would mention ePRICE, NextHS, Bpm-power and HW1.
- The bands may seem calibrated a little too high when compared to those commonly used with reference to flat games, but VR needs more resources and for this a mid-range for virtual reality gaming, for example, is closer to a high end for traditional gaming.
- For each band I will match a recommended viewer. Obviously, with the most demanding configurations, even the cheapest viewers can work well, but it doesn’t make much sense to buy a PC for more than 2000 euros if you then use it with a low resolution viewer.
- In the configurations I did not consider mouse, keyboard and monitor. In fact, if the PC is used exclusively for VR, these peripherals can be recycled from old PCs or purchased used for a few tens of euros. Obviously, if someone wants to play also flat will have to increase his budget.
- The recommended cases are all in the mid-tower ATX version. This is to avoid any kind of incompatibility and difficulty in assembly, and without reaching the encumbrance of full-towers. Furthermore, the choice of the case is also very influenced by personal aesthetic taste, so don’t take it as an absolute mantra. There are other smaller formats (from micro-ATX to mini-ITX) that allow you to create more compact PCs, but watch out for the choice of components and their assembly!
- Configurations consider only new components. You can also build a great PC by looking into the second-hand world: video cards like the GTX 1080 (regular or Ti version), as well as the evergreen i7 7700k CPU are still excellent, and don’t make you regret the newest hardware. Used vehicles, however, always involve very high risks: the guarantee, if it is not already terminated, often remains linked to the old owner. Vendors sometimes shoot out-of-bounds prices just looking for some chicken to pluck. If you accidentally purchase a component that is not compatible with your configuration, it is not possible to return it. And you never know how the old owner treated the product before selling it. In short, in the pit of PC hardware, the second-hand market is only for the most experienced users.
October 2020 update
October is definitely the month of AMD: after the presentation of the Zen 3 architecture as regards the CPUs (which took place on October 8) we are all waiting for the announcement of video cards based on RDNA 2 (set for October 28). If the new Ryzen 5000 series, with the first models available from November 5th, seem to have bridged the gap with Intel even in single-core performance (with obvious advantages also in-game), we hope that AMD will be able to do the same too. with the new GPUs against Nvidia.
If you had missed it, the colossus of Santa Clara has already taken the veil off its new models, and with the presentation of the new RTX 3000 series it has finally shaken up a market that has so far been too static.
In fact, Nvidia finally proposes solutions that not only detach the 2000 series, but they make the 1000 series cards, still widely used in VR, obsolete. From the benchmarks released in recent days, the RTX 3080 seems to exceed the RTX 2080 by about 70% on average, a remarkable result if we think that the latter card at launch cost more than one hundred euros more.
Unfortunately, the downside is that it seems that until January the stocks will be limited: in these days among other things we are observing a competition between bots that buy them in bulk as soon as they come out to place them at auction at much higher prices, and bots who make bets of more than 20,000 euros, effectively making these auctions null and void. In this close fight between Gundam and Jeeg virtual robots, it is us normal users who pay for it, for whom it is almost impossible to grab a card. In any case, if you want to stay updated on availability, I recommend that you visit this page often.
Furthermore, the Nvidia line-up is not yet 100% complete: in addition to the already presented RTX 3090 (which should however guarantee only 10-15% more in games according to the bench) and RTX 3070 (out on October 29 and which should provide similar performance to an RTX 2080 Ti) it is rumored an RTX 3060 Ti or SUPER capable of attacking the mid-range with a price of less than 400 euros.In this guide I can only recommend the solutions available now, but be warned: if you grit your teeth for a few more months you can assemble a much more performing configuration for the same price.
Speaking instead of viewers, October is also the month of Oculus with the release in the digital stores of Oculus Quest 2 (find the review here) which replaces the current Quest, already out of production. Although the Quest 2 is mainly a mobile viewer, its higher resolution panel and the refresh that will reach 90 Hz make it great when connected to the PC with Oculus Link or Virtual Desktop. Furthermore, the Rift S seems to be no longer sold starting next spring, so even here carefully consider what to choose, perhaps orienting yourself more towards the excellent HP Reverb G2. The G2 will be released in early November (for those who pre-ordered it), so in less than a month the comparisons will be wasted.
To conclude there is the SSD speech: the next Playstation 5 seems to focus strongly on this aspect, given that to date on PC only a high-end SSD with PCI-Express 4.0 support could compete with that of PS5. So it would make sense to focus on support for the new standard, for now only available if you buy an AMD motherboard with a mid-to-high-end chipset.
It must be said that the performance of the Xbox Series X SSD will be comparable to that of a medium-low-end NVMe SSD, so the old PCI-Express 3.0 is sufficient. We know how the multiplatforms always adjust to the performance of the “inferior” console, so it may be that the PS5 SSD will be used only in the exclusives (a bit like happened for the Playstation 3 CPU), effectively making the PCI-Express 4.0 a “useless” standard even in the next generation. So it would make sense to focus on support for the new standard, for now only available if you buy an AMD motherboard with a mid-to-high-end chipset. It must be said that the performance of the Xbox Series X SSD will be comparable to that of a medium-low-end NVMe SSD, so the old PCI-Express 3.0 is sufficient.
We know how the multiplatforms always adjust to the performance of the “inferior” console, so it may be that the PS5 SSD will be used only in the exclusives (a bit like happened for the Playstation 3 CPU), effectively making the PCI-Express 4.0 a “useless” standard even in the next generation. So it would make sense to focus on support for the new standard, for now only available if you buy an AMD motherboard with a mid-to-high-end chipset. It must be said that the performance of the Xbox Series X SSD will be comparable to that of a medium-low-end NVMe SSD, so the old PCI-Express 3.0 is sufficient. We know how the multiplatforms always adjust to the performance of the “inferior” console, so it may be that the PS5 SSD will be used only in the exclusives (a bit like happened for the Playstation 3 CPU), effectively making the PCI-Express 4.0 a “useless” standard even in the next generation.
It must be said that the performance of the Xbox Series X SSD will be comparable to that of a medium-low-end NVMe SSD, so the old PCI-Express 3.0 is sufficient. We know how the multiplatforms always adjust to the performance of the “inferior” console, so it may be that the PS5 SSD will be used only in the exclusives (a bit like happened for the Playstation 3 CPU), effectively making the PCI-Express 4.0 a “useless” standard even in the next generation. It must be said that the performance of the Xbox Series X SSD will be comparable to that of a medium-low-end NVMe SSD, so the old PCI-Express 3.0 is sufficient. We know how the multiplatforms always adjust to the performance of the “inferior” console, so it may be that the PS5 SSD will be used only in the exclusives (a bit like happened for the Playstation 3 CPU), effectively making the PCI-Express 4.0 a “useless” standard even in the next generation.
Processor / motherboard / ram
INTEL
Core i5-9400F (138€) / MSI B365M PRO-VH (59€) / Patriot Viper 4 2x8gb DDR4 3200MHz (81€) – TOT. 278€
AMD
Ryzen 3 3300X (150€) / MSI B450M Pro-M2 MAX (70€) / Patriot Viper 4 2x8gb DDR4 3200MHz (81€) – TOT. 301€
CPU cooler
DEEPCOOL GAMMAXX 400 (25€)
Video Card
NVIDIA
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER OC 6gb (255€)
Archiving
Sabrent SSD Interno 512GB Rocket NVMe PCIe 3.0 (85€)
Case / power supply
Aerocool CYLONW (51€) / Kolink Classic Power 80 Plus Bronze 600 W (54€)
Recommended viewers
Oculus Rift S, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift CV1 (used only)
The entry-level range represents the bare minimum to approach virtual reality in a decent way. This does not mean, however, that we will have to give up playing some titles because they are too demanding: with this configuration, in fact, it will be possible to approach even the most technically complex games such as Asgard’s Wrath or Half-Life: Alyx, obviously in medium-low details, forgetting ourselves immediately of the meaning of supersampling.
Perhaps only the most demanding car and flight simulators could be hardly manageable. No problem with lighter games like Beat Saber. Starting from the CPU, the choice falls on two processors without frills but which do not act as a bottleneck even for higher-end video cards.
AMD with its new Ryzen 3 3300X sets the law in the low end,As for the GPU instead, waiting for the new releases in this price range that perhaps we will not see very soon, it is really hard to recommend an AMD card: the 5500xt is not powerful enough as well as the old RX 590 and the 5600xt remains too expensive. There remains the 1660 Super which in terms of performance is comparable to the 1070, a card that many still use in VR with satisfaction.
I also recommend in this range to move towards an NVMe disk: you spend a little more but we will be ready for the next consoles that will focus a lot on this aspect. Obviously, the choice of the viewer must also be weighted to the capabilities of the machine: for this reason I consider it wise to use a viewer of the past generation (the Vive or the first Rift) or at most the Rift S which has the same requirements as the CV1. Beware that the latter is now only used (being out of production) even if at a very affordable price (200 euros and even less).
Processor / motherboard / ram
INTEL
Core i5-10400F (164€) / ASUS PRIME H470-PLUS (135€) / Patriot Viper 4 2x8gb DDR4 3200MHz (81€) – TOT. 380€
AMD
Ryzen 5 3600 (202€) / ASUS PRIME B550-PLUS (139€) / Patriot Viper 4 2x8gb DDR4 3200MHz (81€) – TOT. 422€
CPU cooler
Noctua NH-U12S (60€)
Video Card
NVIDIA
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 OC 6gb (320€) o Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC 8gb (448€)
AMD
Asus ROG Strix Radeon RX 5700 XT OC (425€)
Archiving
Sabrent SSD Interno 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIe 3.0 (150€)
Case / power supply
Sharkoon TG6 RGB (82€) / Corsair TX650M 80 Plus Gold 650W (103€)
Recommended viewers
Oculus Rift S, Oculus Quest 2 with link or Virtual Desktop (better with Nvidia GPU), HTC Vive, Valve Index (at low refresh)
The mid-range has always been the one most observed by gamers (and the one with the best price-performance ratio), and in fact it is precisely here that we find the greatest possibilities of choice. In particular, there is no definitive video card, for this reason 4 solutions are available in a range of about 100 €, because with any of them you fall on your feet.
Attention that the RTX 3060 could soon be presented, ready to upset the performance in this range.In terms of performance, the ranking is RTX 2060 <RX 5700 <RTX 2060 Super <RX 5700 XT, with AMD winning for the same price. Nvidia responds with ray tracing (actually useless for now in VR) and slightly more complete driver support. Here it is really a question of deciding whether to save a few tens of euros w
aiting for the new generation, or immediately invest in something more performing. Only those who want to use the Quest with the link as a viewer should orient themselves more towards Nvidia, due to the new video encoding chip on board the Turing series which greatly improves the performance of the streaming. As for the CPU, Intel comes into play with its tenth generation.
AMD responds with the new B550 chipset, ready to disrupt the mid-low range with support for PCI-Express 4. 0 for the NVMe disk. Even the new Intel Z490 on paper is able to support the new standard, a pity that the 10 series of CPUs does not allow it, postponing everything to the next gen. The preference of the viewer is almost entirely directed towards Oculus: who will play only on the PC with the cable will choose the Rift S, or the new Quest 2 if attracted by the possibility of using it also wireless.
In a more secluded position I would recommend the Vive only to those who want to stay in the SteamVR ecosystem at all costs, and the Index only to those who are ready to exploit it to the minimum of its possibilities as regards the refresh rate, waiting for the budget for a PC upgrade. The preference of the viewer is almost entirely directed towards Oculus: who will play only on the PC with the cable will choose the Rift S, or the new Quest 2 if attracted by the possibility of using it also wireless. In a more secluded position I would recommend the Vive only to those who want to stay in the SteamVR ecosystem at all costs, and the Index only to those who are ready to exploit it to the minimum of its possibilities as regards the refresh rate, waiting for the budget for a PC upgrade.
The preference of the viewer is almost entirely directed towards Oculus: who will play only on the PC with the cable will choose the Rift S, or the new Quest 2 if attracted by the possibility of using it also wireless. In a more secluded position I would recommend the Vive only to those who want to stay in the SteamVR ecosystem at all costs, and the Index only to those who are ready to exploit it to the minimum of its possibilities as regards the refresh rate, waiting for the budget for a PC upgrade.
Processor / motherboard / ram
INTEL
Core i5-10600K (266€) / MSI MPG Z490 GAMING PLUS (162€) / Patriot Viper RGB DDR4 3600 2X8gb (107€) – TOT. 535€
AMD
Ryzen 7 3800X (331€) / MSI MPG X570 GAMING PLUS (157€) / Patriot Viper RGB DDR4 3600 2X8gb (107€) – TOT. 595€
CPU cooler
NZXT Kraken X53 240mm (119€)
Video Card
NVIDIA
WAIT FOR THE RTX 3070 !!!!!!
or
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 Super WINDFORCE OC 8gb (516€)
Archiving
Sabrent SSD Interno 1TB Rocket Nvme PCIe 4.0 (200€)
Case / power supply
Lian Li PC-O11 (156€) / Asus ROG STRIX 750G 750 Watt (152€)
Recommended viewers
Oculus Rift S, Valve Index, Oculus Quest 2 con link o Virtual Desktop, HTC Vive Pro, HTC Vive Cosmos, HP Reverb G2, Pimax 5K
With a high-end PC, you can enjoy VR to the fullest of its current possibilities. Whether you choose a Rift S abounding with supersampling, or an Index pushing more on the refresh, the experience will always be excellent: unfortunately, all this has a cost that comes close to the € 2000 threshold. For the moment, only the RTX 2070 Super is available in this range, but beware: the RTX 3070 will be released in less than a month, it will cost exactly the same as the 2070 Super but according to Nvidia it will have similar performance to a 2080 Ti, for warnings …AMD has not yet arrived in this range, we will see what it will present on October 28th.
Fortunately, on the CPU side there is much more competition, and whether you turn to Intel or AMD, with the considerations made above, you buy a great product at a more than honest price. Too bad that in gaming, especially at high resolutions, the CPU counts much less than the GPU: in fact if you want to save something (especially if you are not very interested in overclocking and RGB) just insert the video card in the medium configuration and you will get performance not much lower.
From this range I have inserted an SSD that uses the PCI-Express 4.0 standard, as previously mentioned for now only possible with the AMD B550 and X570 chipsets. Maybe it will take years on PC to see games that take advantage of all the available speed of these SSDs, although Sony’s choices for its PS5 could mean the future isn’t that far off.
Having said that with a similar PC it is also possible to use high resolution viewers such as the Pimax 5K and the HP Reverb which in a few weeks comes out with the G2 version (recommended above all for simulators even if the tracking of the G2 seems to be very similar to that of the Rift S), as well as HTC’s newer headsets such as the Vive Pro and Cosmos.
Processor / motherboard / ram
INTEL
Intel Core i9-10900KF (640€) / ASUS ROG STRIX Z490-F Gaming (255€) / Patriot Viper RGB DDR4 4133 4x8gb (248€) – TOT. 1143€
CPU cooler
NZXT Kraken Z73 360mm (267€)
Video Card
NVIDIA
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 10gb (700-800€)
Archiving
Sabrent SSD Interno 2TB Rocket Nvme PCIe 4.0 (390€)
Case / power supply
ASUS ROG Strix Helios (267 €) / Asus ROG-THOR-1200P Platinum 1200 W (349 €)
Recommended viewers
Oculus Quest 2 con link o Virtual Desktop, Valve Index, HP Reverb G2, Pimax 5K, Pimax 8K
The enthusiast band in the imagination of those who want to assemble a PC has always been more an exercise in style than a real necessity. With VR, however, this statement loses its meaning, given that if you want to make the most of the possibilities both in terms of resolution and refresh rate of the most demanding viewers, you must necessarily buy the maximum of what the market offers today. Of course, if you want to save something you can aim for a slightly less performing motherboard, put 16 GB of ram instead of 32, but the concept does not change.
Unfortunately, the only sensible card in this range, the RTX 3080, is practically unobtainable. The RTX 3090 as already mentioned is not a card designed for gaming, so right now the only advice I can give you is to keep an eye on availability, also helping you with the page that I linked to you. Beware of scams though, the price of these cards can vary depending on the model, but should always be below 800 euros.
The Pimax 8k is already available, the 5k and the Index are still hungry for resources if you want to exploit them 100%. If you want my advice, the game at the moment is not worth the candle, unless you are passionate about simulators, currently the heaviest genre in VR (remember that soon a certain Flight Simulator will also be released in VR).
But the guide is intended to be aimed at everyone, even those who want the best experience that virtual reality can offer today and have no wallet problems. For all the others, however, the fun is not lacking, never as in this historical moment for the VR is the saying “whoever is satisfied enjoys”.
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