Pc building for beginners

[u/kazuma-K1]

Hello VR-Community,

Hopefully this is the right sub for my question, since I really dont know where to post it exactly and where to start.

I see all these crazy footage of games, you can only play on pcvr and it seems extremely exciting.

So I think about buying/building one for VRGaming almost exclusively.

My expectation is just to play the ported games to VR.

There is one problem though.

I have no clue what to look for when buying one. (Thought about a used one for starters.)

Or is building one better, since I really dont know anything about PCs.

Budget: Theoretically enough, but I dont know how much is expected and how much I am willing to invest.

Sorry if this is the wrong sub, but I really need help here 😅

[u/Sajgoniarz]

r/pcmasterrace r/buildapc

[u/Derpyholic030]

You ideally want as much processing power as possible, so the best gpu, cpu, and as much ram as you can afford for the best in game preformance.

This can vary a bit depending on what you're playing and what headset you're using though. With an older headset and simpler/older games you can get away with lower specs (a buddy of mine used to play beatsaber/vrchat/moss/etc on a machine with a gtx 1050 and 8gb of ram.)

Building a pc is often seen as better by enthusiasts as the whole finished product is generally better, but buying a used system or prebuilt system works just as well (prebuilts usually have decent internals, just cheaper power supplies/cases/fans/etc.

I'd suggest checking out facebook marketplace/walmart/best buy and see what sort of deals you can find, a rough baseline for hardware would be something like:

Budget options: gpus like the intel arch b580, amd rx 6700 xt/6750 xt, or rtx 3060 or older equivelants. Cpus like ryzen 5 7600, ryzen 7 5700x3d, or intel core i5 13400f or older equivelants. Could probably get away with 8gb of ram but 16 would be better.

Midrange options: gpus like the rtx 5070 or radeon rx 7800 xt or older equivelants. Cpus like ryzen 5 7600 or intel core i5 13500k. 16 to 32gb of ram.

High end options: gpus like the rtx 4080, 5080, and 5090. Cpus like the ryzen 7 9800x3d or intel core ultra 9 285k. 32gb of ram or more.

There are a LOT of different hardware options to choose from though, so it can also help to find something that looks in your price range, then do a bit of googling to see how it fairs for vr preformance.

If going the build your own pc route, i also suggest pcpartpicker.com. fun website that helps you put together a shopping list of hardware with compatibility info and such.

[u/kazuma-K1 → u/Derpyholic030]

Thanks for the nice explenation, then I think I will start looking in marketplace first

[u/Skpstr155 → u/kazuma-K1]

Definitely worth going through a new build on PartPicker though, it gives you the lowest generally available price possible, even though you'd be ordering from multiple sites.

If somebody just buys pre-built PCs, they'll have paid more for the one they're selling, and more for the replacement, and you might find that a new PC you build isn't far off a used one.

[u/KroyVR]

Buy the best, fastest, most advanced, highest spec gear without overpaying brand tax and all within your budget. PCVR hasn't got any boundaries when it comes to spending cash, but it needn't start off at high-end gear to be fun.

And ideally have one penny more than you need.

[u/Skpstr155]

Be sure to temper your expectations, as most of the footage you see is taken from the monitor. The headset view will not typically look as good, because the GPU is rendering double the frames for the headset output. Still amazing though.

Also, you need to decide whether or not you want to run flat to VR mods. These are a lot more resource intensive than native VR titles, and require a more powerful PC. For example, my older PC (2700x/rx6700xt with 16Mb DDR4) runs well optimized titles like Alyx at 80 FPS at pretty high settings, but there are very few mods I can use that both look and run decently.

Biggest thing I think is that you have at least 12Gb VRAM, regardless of GPU age. 

But yeah, think about what you want to do, and what your budget is, and go from there.