Gaming/VR rig recommendations

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Discussion

Order66

Original Poster:

6,726 posts

248 months

Tuesday 17th October 2017
quotequote all
Its been a large number of years since I self-built a PC, but I want to get heavily back into PC gaming (particularly for racing sims - iRacing, Assetto Corsa and Project Cars 2). So if any of you knowledgeable PC-gaming folks could help out that would be much appreciated...

I already have a Thrustmaster T300 GTE steering wheel that I use for the PS4 and it seems I could use with the PC.

What I'm looking for:
Something pre-built, don't have the time/inclination to self-build.
Somewhat future proof - a few years at least before I have to consider "will my PC run this?"

What I'd like to achieve:
Be able to play any of the current crop of games at max settings.
Be VR capable (so I can run Project Cars 2 in max VR settings).
Have impressive/immersive visuals for any other non-VR games.

So I'm looking for recommendations for:
What PC to buy that will work out of the box?
What monitor(s) and setup is recommended - i.e. 2/3 monitors? What resolution should they support?
What VR headset/setup is currently best (or is imminent and worth waiting for)?

I don't have a budget limit as-such, however I don't want to spend money unnecessarily. If the PC/monitors could come in around the £2.5K mark or less that would be good, happy to go higher if there is real value in the extra cash, happy to go lower if that is overkill.

Type R Tom

3,859 posts

148 months

Tuesday 17th October 2017
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Do you really need 2+ monitors if using VR? Kind of does the same thing!

mp3manager

4,254 posts

195 months

Tuesday 17th October 2017
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1) Never bought a pre-built PC so can't really help you there on what are the current best buys.

2) Monitors? 27'' and above and must have G-SYNC, if you have an nVidia GPU. So you're looking at £600-£700 for a decent IPS panel...so if you want a multi-monitor setup, it's getting expensive.

3) I have a Rift CV1 and I'm very happy with it. Project Cars, Dirt Rally and Euro/American Truck Sim are all very convincing when in-game, although motion sickness can be a problem for some.



Edited by mp3manager on Tuesday 17th October 10:17

Order66

Original Poster:

6,726 posts

248 months

Tuesday 17th October 2017
quotequote all
Type R Tom said:
Do you really need 2+ monitors if using VR? Kind of does the same thing!
My son will be using it also - not entirely sure if he'll get on with VR, so needs to do either/or

deckster

9,630 posts

254 months

Tuesday 17th October 2017
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£2.5k gets you a lot of PC. I don't have any specific recommendations, but the graphics card is your single biggest expense, and also the single biggest factor that determines your gaming performance. The NVidia GTX 1080ti is currently king of crop but expect incremental replacements every year or so.

Apart from that, anything with a recent i5 or i7 will do you fine; get the biggest SSD you can (1TB SSD plus a 2TB platter drive will do you fine) ant 16GB of decent quality RAM. 32GB if you really want but frankly that's willy-waving for gaming purposes. You should be able to get that lot for under £1500 no problem.

Can't help on VR specifically, although personally I am waiting for the next-gen to come along, and simultaneously increase resolution to something decent (at least, 2x1080p) and lower prices. I may be waiting some time...

One thing you don't mention and particularly for racing is immersion - VR is great, a wheel is great; however a proper seat/cockpit setup is, for immersion purposes, massively better than just cranking up the display settings. A decent racing seat/wheel/pedals/gearbox/3-screen setup makes a huge difference and, if you buy carefully, won't be too far off your £2.5k budget.

mp3manager

4,254 posts

195 months

Tuesday 17th October 2017
quotequote all
deckster said:
Apart from that, anything with a recent i5 or i7 will do you fine; get the biggest SSD you can (1TB SSD plus a 2TB platter drive will do you fine) ant 16GB of decent quality RAM. 32GB if you really want but frankly that's willy-waving for gaming purposes. You should be able to get that lot for under £1500 no problem.
I'd change that to the fastest SSD, which would be an M.2 NVME drive. I have a Samsung 950 Pro and it just stomps all over any SATA SSD, which although are cheaper per GB, are just too slow for gaming.

|

Edited by mp3manager on Tuesday 17th October 10:41

130R

6,807 posts

205 months

Tuesday 17th October 2017
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Key things I would go for at that budget would be: i7 8700K / 16GB or 32GB 3000MHz + RAM / GTX 1080 Ti / M.2 SSD (primary OS drive). I doubt you want to custom watercool so you will need to decide between AIO and air cooling the CPU. Air cooling (Noctua make very good coolers) is less to worry about as nothing can go wrong. For a mid tower case I can recommend the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX (I have one and it's great, although airflow not the absolute best especially if top mounting a radiator).

For the monitor I think the Dell S2716DG is supposed to be very good. It is a TN panel but that is less of a lottery than IPS when looking at 2560x1440 G-Sync 144Hz monitors.

VR is either the Rift or VIVE. They are both good but the Rift seems much cheaper at the moment.

Order66

Original Poster:

6,726 posts

248 months

Tuesday 17th October 2017
quotequote all
So, thinking about the monitors, I wonder if a very wide single screen would be simpler - how would this be:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/34-asus-pg348q-nvi...

With this rig:
https://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/configurator/simulator-...

gr1340

975 posts

202 months

Tuesday 17th October 2017
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Does £180 of RAM (DDR4 3000mhz) perform much better than the £40 RAM (DDR4 2133mhz) I bought last year?

Seems rather a lot for little gain imho.

parabolica

6,703 posts

183 months

Tuesday 17th October 2017
quotequote all
Go to something like PCpartpicker.com and have a look at their build guide for a high-end rig, then use that as a benchmark for trying to find something pre-built. I've always gone pre-built in the past (although I've never had specific requirements, just general PC use) however I'm tempted to self-build a gaming rig, but I prefer small form-factor and there doesn't seem to be much self-build options around that at the moment. Also consider whether you want to go intel or Ryzen CPU; Ryzen has been getting a lot of praise recently from those building high-end gaming rigs.

chris285

811 posts

131 months

Tuesday 17th October 2017
quotequote all
Widescreen have had issues with game support in the past, i am not sure if that has been addressed or not at this stage but it could be an expensive trial.

Personally i'd go a single 27" gync monitor with a VR headset, as chances are you would use the headset where supported and then a good monitor for any other games but if you are soley talking about VR gaming for racing games then i'd say monitor is less important

I think you are spot on with the scan link to max everything out, but as you have noticed reaching for everything is not cheap and to do a top end rig with a gsync monitor and a VR headset you are probably talking over 3k so i think you will have to choose where you want to cut back. You could get a simple HD panel for you are going for VR experience and then get either a Vive or Rift for your racing sims, not sure which is better for this i might add but i think you will have to compromise somewhere

I'd also say if it was me i'd want more than a 550w PSU in as well, i know the latest cards are less power hungry but i'd still want a little more headroom myself.

mp3manager

4,254 posts

195 months

Tuesday 17th October 2017
quotequote all
Yeah, something a bit more beefy than 550w would be good for a little more headroom, also I'd choose Win 10 Pro rather than Home because you can defer updates for months, whereas Home installs updates straight away and if there's any problems, you're SOL.

Edited by mp3manager on Tuesday 17th October 12:48

chris285

811 posts

131 months

Tuesday 17th October 2017
quotequote all
I have built my PC's for the last 10-15yrs now since my first purchase, and i tend to upgrade parts rather than replace so the cost is spread out as it doesn't tend to be upgraded at the same time. It also means i can put in parts i want rather than what i can select from a list, for example i have a 1000w PSU which is far ahead of any needs i have but it just gives me headroom i like plus it has a fanless mode so it won't kick in until 40%

However this is not for everyone, and unfortunatley when you buy pre built you have to replace everything and a VR/High end gaming rig is at the top end of the scale and you are talking 2k+ for any tower before talking about monitors and headsets etc

Order66

Original Poster:

6,726 posts

248 months

Wednesday 18th October 2017
quotequote all
Ok, so I've read what you've said, done some research and heading in the direction of self-building. I've not built a PC for 10yrs+ but have done in the past, not afraid of installing drives/memory or the OS - my unfamiliarity is with the currently nature of CPU/GPUs and their cooling requirements. Self building lets me get some savings on cost, and perhaps get something a bit more targeted for my needs.

I don't intend to overclock anything - no knowledge here and reckon the components will be fine for current gaming as they stand. Happy to be corrected here.

So I've used Scan's system as a base, and looking at:
Corsair Carbide 400Q case - £84.45 Amazon
Asus ROG Strix Z270H Mobo - £121.99 Scan
Intel Core i7 7700K - £289.77 Amazon
Corsair H100 CPU cooler - £69.98 Scan
2x8Gb Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz memory - £163.86 Amazon
EVGA 1080 Ti SC2 GPU - £728.99 Amazon
650W Corsair RMx PSU - £89.99 Scan
1Tb Crucial MX300 M.2 SSD - £261.59

Is there anything else I am missing/need? (I have Win 10 Pro licenses from work, so not an issue). Any comments/improvements to be had?

I've basically stuck to the Asus motherboard as I don't know enough about the differences to select something else.

PC = £1810.62 total. Monitor £984.97. Oculus £399.

Type R Tom

3,859 posts

148 months

Wednesday 18th October 2017
quotequote all
Order66 said:
Ok, so I've read what you've said, done some research and heading in the direction of self-building. I've not built a PC for 10yrs+ but have done in the past, not afraid of installing drives/memory or the OS - my unfamiliarity is with the currently nature of CPU/GPUs and their cooling requirements. Self building lets me get some savings on cost, and perhaps get something a bit more targeted for my needs.

I don't intend to overclock anything - no knowledge here and reckon the components will be fine for current gaming as they stand. Happy to be corrected here.

So I've used Scan's system as a base, and looking at:
Corsair Carbide 400Q case - £84.45 Amazon
Asus ROG Strix Z270H Mobo - £121.99 Scan
Intel Core i7 7700K - £289.77 Amazon
Corsair H100 CPU cooler - £69.98 Scan
2x8Gb Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz memory - £163.86 Amazon
EVGA 1080 Ti SC2 GPU - £728.99 Amazon
650W Corsair RMx PSU - £89.99 Scan
1Tb Crucial MX300 M.2 SSD - £261.59

Is there anything else I am missing/need? (I have Win 10 Pro licenses from work, so not an issue). Any comments/improvements to be had?

I've basically stuck to the Asus motherboard as I don't know enough about the differences to select something else.

PC = £1810.62 total. Monitor £984.97. Oculus £399.
I'd look at a bit more power if I was you and make sure its at least gold standard. If you aren't going to OC save money by not buying a K processor and Z270 motherboard as you won't be using the feature. Also the cooler would be overkill so money can be saved there. Overclocking is easy though so it could help in future making the above irrelevant.

Are you planning to game on the SSD? Otherwise I'd add another HHD for normal storage. Don't forget to add a couple of case fans

chris285

811 posts

131 months

Wednesday 18th October 2017
quotequote all
Type R Tom said:
I'd look at a bit more power if I was you and make sure its at least gold standard. If you aren't going to OC save money by not buying a K processor and Z270 motherboard as you won't be using the feature. Also the cooler would be overkill so money can be saved there. Overclocking is easy though so it could help in future making the above irrelevant.

Are you planning to game on the SSD? Otherwise I'd add another HHD for normal storage. Don't forget to add a couple of case fans
Agreed on this, especially on SSD side look at say a 256/512GB for the OS and a game or 2 and then get a mech drive secondary for storage etc

Yeah stock CPU you can not buy the K series and get the 7700, and just get a decent air cooler i'd say as while i love my h100i it has a finite lifespan due to the closed system design

I'd say a 7-800w gold rated PSU is a bit better imo

chris285

811 posts

131 months

Wednesday 18th October 2017
quotequote all
Intel Core i7-7700 3.6 GHz QuadCore 8 MB Cache CPU - Black £259.00
ASUS LGA 1151 PRIME Z270-A Intel ATX Motherboard - Black - £117.30
Corsair CMK16GX4M2A2400C16 Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 2400 MHz C16 XMP 2.0 - Black £153.29
ARCTIC Freezer 13 - £24.99
EVGA 750 GQ, 80+ GOLD 750W, Semi Modular, EVGA ECO Mode, 5 Year Warranty - £86.99
Corsair CC-9011105-WW Carbide Series 270R Windowed Mid-Tower ATX/Micro ATX Performance Computer Case - Black - £62.71
Samsung mz-v6e250bw M.2 SSD 960 Evo, 250 GB - £120.97
Seagate BarraCuda 2 TB 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive - £56.70
MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 TI ARMOR 11G OC 11 GB GDDR5X 352-Bit Memory DVI/HDMI/DP PCI Express 3 Graphics Card - Black - £681.74

This was just from Amazon i drew up this list

Total - £1563.69

Not forgetting mouse and keyboard of course

ZesPak

24,423 posts

195 months

Wednesday 18th October 2017
quotequote all
mp3manager said:
I'd change that to the fastest SSD, which would be an M.2 NVME drive. I have a Samsung 950 Pro and it just stomps all over any SATA SSD, which although are cheaper per GB, are just too slow for gaming.
I'd like to believe that, but all real test I've seen or read offer minimal performance benefit, especially for gaming.

Have you got a couple of links to back up that extreme quote?

Anyway, saying a regular Sata SSD is "just too slow for gaming" is just plain wrong and gives me little hope in the rest of your statement.

Edited by ZesPak on Wednesday 18th October 13:18

Order66

Original Poster:

6,726 posts

248 months

Wednesday 18th October 2017
quotequote all
chris285 said:
Agreed on this, especially on SSD side look at say a 256/512GB for the OS and a game or 2 and then get a mech drive secondary for storage etc

Yeah stock CPU you can not buy the K series and get the 7700, and just get a decent air cooler i'd say as while i love my h100i it has a finite lifespan due to the closed system design

I'd say a 7-800w gold rated PSU is a bit better imo
Ok, yes I was intending on a 850w gold PSU, mistyped and included the lower one above. On the SSD side - I will use the machine for other purposes and dislike a low capacity system drive. I also have huge NAS capability here so no need for a 2nd storage drive (unless there is a gaming specific reason for it) - so prefer the larger single SSD.

While I say I won't overclock - that's initially - I would like to acquire the knowledge to do all this, so something capable for a bit of extra money is fine.

Is there a better alternative to the h100i cooler? What kind of lifespan are we talking about?

As for the case fans - the case comes with 2 fans pre-installed, I presume this is sufficient.

MintyScot

848 posts

191 months

Wednesday 18th October 2017
quotequote all
ZesPak said:
I'd like to believe that, but all real test I've seen or read offer minimal performance benefit, especially for gaming.

Have you got a couple of links to back up that extreme quote?

Anyway, saying a regular Sata SSD is "just too slow for gaming" is just plain wrong and gives me little hope in the rest of your statement.

Edited by ZesPak on Wednesday 18th October 13:18
Agreed Sata SSD's are more than sufficient for gaming. Infact conventional HDD's are just fine. An SSD is a luxury.

I myself run a Samsung 960 Evo 256GB M.2 SSD for my C drive and an 850 Evo 1TB Sata SSD for my games.

I actually installed Civ 6 on a spare conventional drive in error and the only difference between it and the SSD was the longer game load times which is understandable but still reasonable.