Hardware Configuration to Mount a PC for Virtual Reality

Hardware Configuration to Mount a PC for Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is itself a medium and is the best way to enjoy certain genres of video games thanks to its level of immersion, but this requires a well-equipped PC. That is why we have decided to make a small guide to guide your purchase much better when buying a VR Ready PC.

If there is an experience that I think cannot be described in words and that requires experiencing it, it is virtual reality. Unfortunately it is still a technology for only a few and its standardization is being carried away from the PC with suboptimal and poor quality experience.

Virtual Reality, a world apart with certain considerations

Realidad-Virtual-01

One of the advantages that the PC has is that the advance in specifications and technology is so fast that the adoption of new technologies that previously required premium systems at first gradually start to work in lower ranges. This is the case of Virtual Reality, where any dedicated graphics card from the lower-middle range onwards can run most of the games on the market without problems.

But, virtual reality on the PC is different from the one that Oculus wants to popularize using high-end mobile smartphones, but with very poor power compared to the PC where the premium experience is sought. Assembling a PC for virtual reality today is more complex than it seems, since depending on the type of HMD unit you use and its characteristics, we will find completely different configurations.

The situation of virtual reality on PC

Half-Life Alyx VR Ready PC

For now, the most popular game for virtual reality on PC is Half-Life: Alyx, not only because it is part of the classic Half-Life saga and is exclusive to PC, but because it does not require a very powerful system to play. In reality, VR as a platform has moved in a direction that may seem unnatural to us if we look at the advancement of the PC, but that makes sense because of the way virtual reality works.

The universal norm in virtual reality is that the time between when we perform an action and see the result on the screen has to be less than 20 ms, which not only includes rendering the image less than 20 ms in the image buffer, but The entire process is complete and thus forces the GPU to run at extremely high frame rates, resulting in loss of detail in games.

The basic components in our VR Ready PC

VR Ready PC

Everything previously explained causes us not only to need a powerful GPU but also a CPU, since it is at the beginning of each frame or game loop where the CPU acts performing the pertinent calculations and creating the display and computation lists for the GPU, so the faster the CPU the better. And when we say fast we are not referring to clock speed, but it is best to opt for a latest generation CPU.

Intel Core i5-11400F PC VR Ready

The CPU we have chosen is the Intel Core-i5 11400F , a six-core CPU that has the best value for money on the market for now, so we will not go over the price.

Obviously you can choose a more powerful CPU from the latest Intel range and even if you want to opt for AMD, but we have considered the 11400F as an ideal starting point for our VR Ready system.

ASUS B560 PC VR Ready

The choice of the processor determines the motherboard that we are going to choose, so we have to choose a motherboard with an Intel chipset. We consider the combination of the 11400F with the B560 chipset to be the best in terms of value for money.

Our choice? the ASUS TUF Gaming B560-PLUS WiFi , which gives us the essential PCI Express 4.0 ports to connect both a graphics card and one of the latest generation NVMe SSDs that make use of this standard. As for its memory support, it supports up to 4 memory slots, having support for up to 128 GB DDR4-3200.

RAM and storage

RAM CORSAIR

For RAM, our choice is the Corsair Vengeance LPX kit of two 16 GB DIMMS each, although if you are tight on budget you can choose the kit with 8 GB modules. The reason why we recommend 32 GB is none other than 16 GB is going to become the new standard and it is best to have spare RAM for performance.

Samsung 980 SSD

Regarding storage, we are not going to recommend a conventional hard drive, since the search times add to the total latency of the system, so the best thing is an NVMe, which we are going to recommend PCI Express 4.0 and 1 TB, with the Samsung 980 Pro M.2 being the model we have chosen.

Box and power supply

Corsair 680XR PC VR Ready

Another element that we have chosen from Corsair is the box, which is a Corsair Crystal 680X , while in the rest of the components we are making minimum recommendations we believe that the choice of the box is important and it must be well refrigerated and especially if we are speaking of running games and applications for virtual reality, which need a lot of CPU and GPU power, putting these at high clock speeds.

RM750X

Next is the power supply, we have thought of a Corsair RM750x , which is a 750W PSU that is 80 Plus Gold certified. So it is an excellent option for the PC configuration that we have chosen.

Choosing the graphics card for our VR Ready PC

ASUS TUF RTX 3060 Ti

The choice of the graphics card for VR is not an easy decision, obviously the more powerful a card is then the better. But we have to consider the balance between price and performance. Our choice? The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is for us the best option for virtual reality due to its excellent value for money. It is also an excellent GPU for mainstream PC games as well. Our choice? The ASUS TUF RTX 3060 Ti Gaming is the ideal model in terms of value for money that we are looking for for our VR Ready PC.

Another reason why we have chosen this card is because the NVIDIA DLSS allows us to increase the rendering speed, remember that the frame rate is very important for good performance in virtual reality. So the best thing is to ensure the most of the gaming experience.

With this we already have our PC VR Ready ready, which would be as follows:

Components Model
CPU Intel Core-i5 11400F
Base plate ASUS TUF Gaming B560-PLUS WiFi
Box Corsair Crystal 680X
Power supply Corsair RM750x
RAM Corsair Vengeance LPX
Storage Samsung 980 Pro M.2
Graphic card ASUS TUF RTX 3060 Ti Gaming