What to upgrade in my OC Build for VR Ready?

[Killer Nads]

Right, i purchased a custom OC build PC from here in 2013 when the oculus rift DK1 was being released.

I currently have a free CV Rift arriving to me in March/April time, but also want to purchase the HTC Vive cause of its awesome holodeck features! To be honest, i will probably just end up keeping one and selling the other one

Now my current PC specs are below, please can people suggest what i need to change in order to be future compatible with VR games and demos, i know the graphics card will definitely need changing, but what else? CPU? If you can recommend me a gfx card also to use to get the best experience, please do recommend! Please be a bit friendly with the explanations as i am no expert in pc building and will probably ask OC to upgrade it for me anyway


"Titan Custom System" Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz DDR3 Ivybridge Gaming PC
OcUK Logo Rectangle Gel Case Badge - Black
OcUK Tech Labs - NZXT Phantom 410 Midi-Tower Case - Black - Noise Dampened
Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail
BeQuiet Dark Rock 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2)
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9
1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI316G160C9K)
KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with a free copy of 3DMark advanced edition
Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW)
Pioneer BDC-207DBK 8x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM)
Corsair 2013 Edition Gamer Series GS 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020063-UK)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050)
BitFenix Alchemy Premium Modding LED Strip - Connect Blue 30cm Asus PCE-N53 300Mbps Dual-Band Wireless-N600 PCI-E Adapter BitFenix Spectre PRO 120mm Fan Blue LED - Black
Akasa Internal Media Card Reader with Bluetooth (AK-ICR-11) BitFenix Recon Internet-Connected Fan Controller (Black)

Thanks!

 

[chef-borjan]

I presume you have overclocked that CPU? That will be more than adequate if you have (and probably fine even if you haven't).

Your graphics card needs to come up to at least a GTX 970 or equivalent AMD card. You definitely can do this yourself. You should be fine to keep the same power supply if thats all you upgrade to, but be aware if you go above that to a 980 or a 980Ti then just be aware of your power limits (not sure about the Corsair model you have there).

Your motherboard also needs at least 3 USB 3.0 ports for the Rift (and another 2.0 if you use the controller). For the Vive you only need 1 3.0 port.

 

[Rilot]

Yup, overclock that CPU and it'll be fine.
Pop a 970 in there and you're good to go. Personally, I wouldn't spent out on a very high-end graphics card at the minute due to the new generation coming this year. Get the minimum required for a good experience now and then spend big once the new stuff is out and the new games are available for the headsets.

 

[Killer Nads]

I presume you have overclocked that CPU? That will be more than adequate if you have (and probably fine even if you haven't).

Your graphics card needs to come up to at least a GTX 970 or equivalent AMD card. You definitely can do this yourself. You should be fine to keep the same power supply if thats all you upgrade to, but be aware if you go above that to a 980 or a 980Ti then just be aware of your power limits (not sure about the Corsair model you have there).

Your motherboard also needs at least 3 USB 3.0 ports for the Rift (and another 2.0 if you use the controller). For the Vive you only need 1 3.0 port.

Nope i don't think it was ever overclocked, otherwise i would have probably remembered finding out how to do that

I want to make the graphics card a bit more future proof! So ideally i want something which is not just average but in the top range, tbh I'm not sure how the gfx card will differ for VR? If i go for a higher gfx card does all that mean is that i can run the games/demos at higher graphical settings, and they will look better in virtual reality? (I'm guessing that none will probably even use the max graphics settings or am i wrong?)

I am looking to keep the costs at a minimum especially right now with all the other costs, but still want what would ideally give me the best vr experience!

I have only 2 usb3 and 2 usb2 slots at the top of my case but the back has more then enough!

The third important thing is HDMI slot. I currently am using the DVI and HDMI slot on my graphics card for monitor and projector respectively. However, i have another HDMI and DVI slot available which i assume is on the motherboard (input is next to the keyboard/mouse slots). Can i use this HDMI slot for the headsets?

Thanks

 

[Killer Nads]

Yup, overclock that CPU and it'll be fine.
Pop a 970 in there and you're good to go. Personally, I wouldn't spent out on a very high-end graphics card at the minute due to the new generation coming this year. Get the minimum required for a good experience now and then spend big once the new stuff is out and the new games are available for the headsets.

Okay cool, so i should wait it out and keep the CPU for now? Problem is that i am already going to be sending the PC for a bunch of other fixes back to OC that is why its much easier for me to change anything major now then later down the line, where i can do small things such as gfx cards myself.

I understand that my current cpu will be fine to work with something like the geforce 970, but what about the next generation cards that you speak about? Anything special in these? or are they just upgrades like every year again?

Hmm, I'm still in two minds, should i just keep cpu now and if i decide to later change gpu again next year or so then i can upgrade the cpu then. Problem with changing cpu is that it would also probably require a change in motherboard also so almost a brand new system again!!!

 

[stephenb]

Did no one actually read the OP's first post? Looks like his CPU is already overclocked to 4.4Ghz which should be fine for VR.

....
I have only 2 usb3 and 2 usb2 slots at the top of my case but the back has more then enough!

The third important thing is HDMI slot. I currently am using the DVI and HDMI slot on my graphics card for monitor and projector respectively. However, i have another HDMI and DVI slot available which i assume is on the motherboard (input is next to the keyboard/mouse slots). Can i use this HDMI slot for the headsets?....

You should be fine for Vive in respect of your USB ports. The Rift is more particular so I'd suggested running the Oculus compatibility tool which you can get from their website (it's on the store page for the Rift).

You can't use the HDMI port from your motherboard to drive the headset display. You will need to connect this to the GPU, which will need upgrading. If you want the best experience from launch then a GTX980ti is probably going to be your best bet. As most of these only have a single HDMI out on them if you need this connection type to drive your projector as well you will need a display port to HDMI cable or connection convertor. Some cards may come with one in the box otherwise you will need to buy one or a cable.

 

[Killer Nads]

Did no one actually read the OP's first post? Looks like his CPU is already overclocked to 4.4Ghz which should be fine for VR.



You should be fine for Vive in respect of your USB ports. The Rift is more particular so I'd suggested running the Oculus compatibility tool which you can get from their website (it's on the store page for the Rift).

You can't use the HDMI port from your motherboard to drive the headset display. You will need to connect this to the GPU, which will need upgrading. If you want the best experience from launch then a GTX980ti is probably going to be your best bet. As most of these only have a single HDMI out on them if you need this connection type to drive your projector as well you will need a display port to HDMI cable or connection convertor. Some cards may come with one in the box otherwise you will need to buy one or a cable.

Okay thank you for explaining that, thats a big help and good to know.

Wow, just checked the GTX980ti cards and they are almost double at around £600 from the 970's. Perhaps i will just go for the geforce970 then atleast for now!

Yep thats fine i can use a hdmi to display port adaptor.

Also thanks for catching that the Cpu might already be overclocked. They must have done it when they built the system?

 

[bimbleuk]

I have a very similar spec i5 3570K (same motherboard + GTX 670) sat in the front room right now and it just about qualifies for VR at low quality using the Steam Vive benchmark.

When that was my main system I went from the GTX 670 to a single GTX 970 then 2 x GTX 970 and finally a GTX 980 Ti with the i5 3570K running @ 4.2 GHz. So the CPU is still very capable of running the current fastest nVidia GPU despite the prohibitive cost

I did have to upgrade to a 750W PSU when using 2 x GTX 970 as the system used to peak at ~550W under load. I finally went with a single GTX 980 Ti as it uses ~150W less power but was similar performance in games maybe even better due to varying SLI scaling.

 

[Killer Nads]

I have a very similar spec i5 3570K (same motherboard + GTX 670) sat in the front room right now and it just about qualifies for VR at low quality using the Steam Vive benchmark.

When that was my main system I went from the GTX 670 to a single GTX 970 then 2 x GTX 970 and finally a GTX 980 Ti with the i5 3570K running @ 4.2 GHz. So the CPU is still very capable of running the current fastest nVidia GPU despite the prohibitive cost

I did have to upgrade to a 750W PSU when using 2 x GTX 970 as the system used to peak at ~550W under load. I finally went with a single GTX 980 Ti as it uses ~150W less power but was similar performance in games maybe even better due to varying SLI scaling.

Ah i see, thats good to hear about the CPU. I will probably end up going for a single GTX 970 for now. That should be enough for all the stuff related to Hive and Oculus! My Hive and Oculus are both ordered too now, so I'm going to have to do the gfx update very soon. Going away for 3 weeks from next week, so perhaps i will do it on my return.

I always get confused with all the different brands of GFX available at different prices, is there a way to pick the best one for GTX 970? Seems like there is a dozen to choose from

 

[bimbleuk]

I went with MSI as I've had several AMD/nVidia MSI GFX cards before without issue but they have diversified even more these days. Too many special additions that don't add much more IMHO!

Though my 980 Ti is an EVGA AIO water cooled as they've steadily gained a good support rep over the years.

I've also currently got both headsets ordered and will try to keep the i5 3570K + GTX 670 long enough just to see how much it affects the experience.

I did have a Q6600 + HD7870 system up until yesterday, now sold, and it wasn't that far behind the i5 system but failed to reach the minimum for the VR experience rating.

 

[Kurgen]

OcUK Logo Rectangle Gel Case Badge - Black

this doesn't make pc faster

 

[Killer Nads]

OcUK Logo Rectangle Gel Case Badge - Black

this doesn't make pc faster

Are you sure about that?

I think you maybe mistaken, check again.