Let's talk hardware.

gleamingsands · March 2016

Not sure if there is already a post about this, but I wanted to see what everyone is running and talk about suggestions.
Never hurts to take a survey of what people have and what actually works, so let's have at it.

Intel Core i7 4790K @ 4.00GHz 46 °C
16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 933MHz (10-11-10-30)
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. Z97X-UD3H-BK-CF (SOCKET 0) 28 °C
VS278 ([email protected])
VE228 ([email protected])
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (EVGA) 43 °C
USB 3.0 x9

Storage

232GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250G SCSI Disk Device (SSD) 36 °C
931GB Seagate ST1000DX 001-1NS162 SCSI Disk Device (SATA) 34 °C
931GB Western Digital WDC WD10EADS-22M2B0 (SATA) 35 °C
1863GB Seagate ST2000DX001-1NS164 (SATA) 35 °C
3726GB Jmicron SCSI Disk Device (USB (SATA)) 34 °C

Kijutsu · March 2016

Not sure what the temp. data's about but:
i5 4670K @ 4.1
16 Dual-channel DDRS @ 800. 10 10 10 27
MSI Z87-G45 Gaming motherboard
HIS R9 290x until the polaris or pascal
USB 3.0 x?(at least 3)
2 monitors setup

Storage, about 4TB in 4 drives full of porn and one SSD drive for Windows and a few games.

No Omni or Rift... yet

edmg · March 2016

Currently it's i7-3770 + GTX970 + 32GB RAM. 120GB SSD + 3TB game drive + 4TB RAID for video editing.

But I'm expecting to build a new PC with a mid-range i7 and GTX 1070 later this year, just for VR.

xxann5 · March 2016

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor	$374.99 @ SuperBiiz
CPU Cooler	CRYORIG R1 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler	$79.99 @ Newegg
Thermal Compound	Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste	$6.89 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	MSI Z170A GAMING M5 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$162.98 @ Newegg
Memory	Kingston Savage 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$195.00 @ Amazon
Storage	Samsung 950 PRO 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$181.95 @ SuperBiiz
Storage	Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$119.99 @ SuperBiiz
Storage	Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$119.99 @ SuperBiiz
Storage	Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$119.99 @ SuperBiiz
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card	$639.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNOVA P2 1200W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$215.98 @ Newegg
Case Fan	Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan	$19.24 @ Amazon
Case Fan	Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan	$19.24 @ Amazon
Case Fan	Noctua NF-R8 redux-1800 PWM 31.4 CFM 80mm Fan	$13.45 @ OutletPC
Case Fan	Noctua NF-R8 redux-1800 PWM 31.4 CFM 80mm Fan	$13.45 @ OutletPC
Other	Tripp Lite LC1800	$141.99

A few notes:
The Samsung 950 is unbelievably fast. With no other drives enabled in the bios it takes 8 seconds from cold boot to chrome open and usable. Worth every penny.

My case is the 4U22EPS650 4U Rackmount Server Case I love this case. I did a custom paint job on the interior as well as custom cable sleeving for the case front panel power/LED cables. (Yes i know its a rackmount case with no window and no one will ever see it unless i show them, but i have been trying to keep busy waiting for VR!

As for temperatures my CPU has never been over 30C and my GPU nas never hit 40C my Nerdroom is in a shockingly cold basement. I am sure those temps will increase a bit once summer hits where I am.

gleamingsands · March 2016

@ Xxann I would be interested in seeing some pics of that setup, sounds intense.

I've been giving some serious consideration to building a 6700k rig myself and either relegating my current computer to the task of music production, processor intensive but almost completely indifferent to graphical power, or giving it to my video editor as a more powerful video editing tool than the AMD processor she currently uses. I hesitate on the latter because I know that the reason my computer seems to stand up so well to video editing(it's almost twice as fast at rendering) comes from the combination of the 980ti and Intel 4790k. First I need to see that the fps gain will be substantial enough to justify another $600.00 in parts. I work in electronic scrap, so I get quite a bit of hardware for nothing. Pic related, it's where your computer will end up: crushed together with a bunch of other computers on a ship bound for China, Japan, or Belgium.

xxann5 · March 2016

WOW that's allot of motherboards! LOL

Its doubtful you would see much of an improvement, if any, from moving from a 4790K to a 6700K. The 4790K is more than capable of providing calls to a 980ti fast enough for the GPU to still be the bottleneck. one acception to this are CPU heavy games, such as City Skylines. The only reason I went with the 6700K is because I was using a 6 year old AMD CPU, that sucked when I got it, I actually cant even remember which one it is LOL.

I will snap some picks and post them when I get home. One think I forgot to mention is the that the only piece if hardware i don't currently have for that build is the 980ti. I currently have a 660 which compliments the shiftiness of my CPU LOL. I was holding out, hopping that Nvidea was going to release Pascal before the Vive came out but its not looking like that is the case. So I will be biting the bullet and buying the Gigabyte 980ti in the next week or so.

gleamingsands · March 2016

I highly recommend NewEgg's payment programs.
No interest for 12 months when you buy something as expensive as the 980Ti, and they stand behind their products.

xxann5 · March 2016

Hell ya @gleamingsands NewEgg all the way! the few times I have had to deal with there support have been good experiences. They also almost always have the lowest price. And they not only stand up to patent trolls they go on the offensive! http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/01/newegg-sues-patent-troll-that-dropped-its-case/

kzintzi · March 2016

I'm running:

i76700K @4.0G
16GB DDR4
ASUS PRO MB
video card will be some kind of Rift compliant thing once I have the Rift in my house (waiting until then as new video cards should be announced soon)
storage is a little weird.. I've got 10TB in the house overall but it's spread between storage LAN, and local disk.. I'm going to get myself a new 500GB SSD sometime soon - for performance

gleamingsands · March 2016

@kzintzi I personally recommend you stick to the 256gb SSD, the real world benefit is negligible for gaming outside of loading screens and you can get very much the same effect out of a 1tb SSHD. The 256gb Samsung Evo and Pro are excellent choices that won't break the bank, and they're much cheaper their 500gb counterparts. That's the results I've seen anyhow.

kzintzi · March 2016

thanks for that @gleamingsands, that's good info

xxann5 · March 2016

I find the best use for SSD's is for the OS drive. Windows loves to read and write to C: After getting the Samsung 950 pro I will never use a non NVMe drive ever again. The computer is so much more responsive. For example starting Chrome or Firefox is unbelievably fast to open. There open and loading my homepage almost before i finish clicking. Also booting cold takes 10 to 15 seconds, and it only takes that long because of all the other hard drives that the BIOS needs to initialize. It really is amazing.

However I still install all my games to a 2T mechanical hard drive as there really is little benefit as @gleamingsands said.

edmg · March 2016

One problem is that many games spend so much time playing stupid videos before they start up that disk performance makes little difference to the amount of time required to get into them.

Kind of like our servers at work that take six minutes to get out of the BIOS. Five seconds or fifty seconds to boot the OS from there doesn't much matter.

Sponge101 · March 2016

Been holding out on commenting until I've decided what my final VR hardware will be--Here it is:

CPU: i7-6700k
GPU: GTX 1080 (or whatever its name will be)
Mobo: ASUS Z170-A
PSU: Corsair AX860i
RAM: CORSAIR 16GB DDR4 2400, CAS 10, CMD16GX4M2B2400C10
Storage: 950 pro and 850 EVO + other drives
Liquid Cooling: Corsair H80i V2
Case: Corsair 760T (white)
Sound Card: (yes, I still use one) Asus Xonar D1
Peripherals:
Flight Stick: Logitech G940
Wheels: Logitech G27
Keyboard: Logitech G19s
Mouse: Logitech G700s
Head Phones: Steelseries H
Controller: PS3 and Navigation

Okay, that's mine. Everyone seems to be ready for VR--now we just need the Omni.

xxann5 · March 2016

You have more will power than I do @Sponge101 No way i could wait after the HMD's are released for Pascal.

gleamingsands · March 2016

@Sponge101 My only consolation is that I will have a more than reasonable excuse to upgrade my build in a few months. Pascal man...

Kijutsu · March 2016

We've been waiting for the Rift and Omni for years so waiting a few months for a new video card is nothing hahah!

kzintzi · March 2016

so I've worked out the joysticks I'm going to use, which is the CH Pro (the one with the red buttons), CH Pro Throttle, and the CH Footpedals.... I've been looking at reviews and so forth and had a real hard time not going the warthog but decided I wanted a less firm spring.. ah first world problems, where would we be with out you?

Days till Shipment :7
Days till the family forget who I am: 97

Sponge101 · March 2016

@xxann5. The last time we talked about this I believe you had a 680 and I had 2 480s; they are roughly equal in horsepower. We're all trying to figure out a complex problem: how much fps do we need for VR. I know the recommendation is 970 but I seriously can't accept that. Moreover, with the Omni, what is the right fps for a comfortable experience? So many questions and so many subjective variables (one person will need more or less fps). When I was researching my list above I chose to go with the best for me where I will be getting as much fps as I could afford. Time will tell if I need to do SLI but one thing is for sure--Great VR is EXPENSIVE!

@kzintzi. You should start a countdown thread--it'd be entertaining

@Kijutsu. And it will give me time to figure out how to afford some of that stuff

@gleamingsands. There's a lot of hype for Pascal. Hope it's a reality.

xxann5 · March 2016

@Kijutsu There is absolutely no way in hell im going to get my Vive and not be able to immediately use it.

@Sponge101 VR is not EXPENSIVE, its VERY EXPENSIVE! Yes I have a 680. Which can still play most games on medium to high settings at 60FPS. One thing that everyone in the VR industry no matter what company they are from or HMD camp, agrees with is that FPS needs to be 90 at the minimum. I do believe that a GTX 970 or AMD equivalent will be the minimum spec. I have decided to get 980ti and not get the first gen Pascal. The 980ti is a known quantity, its known how well it performs and what it costs and the type of experience it will give you. We know nothing about Pascal, its all speculation. One thing that bothers me is that all there performance measurements from Nvidea are all per watt performance. Well how many watts are these cards going to pull? It is also fairly clear that the first cards will use GDDR5X and not HBM. Again however this is still all speculation.

Let's talk hardware.

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