Caelum's Guide to making a mid-range VR computer for 2015: THE STORAGE

Caelum's Guide to making a mid-range VR computer for 2015

THE STORAGE:

This one will be a bit shorter because I'm not that much of an expert on storage in PC's. I do know what has been recommended to me for these builds, honestly I think it's a bit much although the expected bonuses are exponential. So to make your games and system load quick you'll need around 120gb of SSD. This will be very helpful, but we all know that all those games aren't small. So an additional TB of HDD will be where your money is really going to be spent. Both will be around $100 and is just a piece that modern computers don't come without. You'll be needing lots of space (A good thing about these are you can carry them over to your new computer after just add any more you need.) The only other thing I can think to comment on is that you're probably looking at a 2.5 inch drive for both. This is a pricey area and one that if your cutting a close budget would be better to cut down on rather than say your CPU. If you're going for a lower budget I'd reccomend a terabyte of SSD and be done with it.




PERIPHERALS: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/02/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr_18.html

CASE, POWER SUPPLY, OPTICAL DRIVE, AND OPERATING SYSTEM: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/02/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr_10.html

Next: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/02/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr.html
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Caelum's Guide to making a mid-range VR computer for 2015: THE MEMORY

Caelum's Guide to making a mid-range VR computer for 2015

THE MEMORY:

The memory is pretty easy but you need to choose it before the motherboard. For this build your pretty much going to need 8gb of DDR3. Maybe you could do with 4gb but I wouldn't recommend it and 16gb should be more than enough. You can get this in one thing of 8gb or 2 things of 4gb or 4 things of 2gb. The more you have the easier it will be to upgrade as long as your motherboard supports it so keep the idea of how much upgrading you'll be wanting to do. I'm personally doing 2 sticks of 4gb DDR3.




INTRO: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/01/vr-computer-for-dummies-and-poor-people.html
PERIPHERALS: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/02/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr_18.html

CASE, POWER SUPPLY, OPTICAL DRIVE, AND OPERATING SYSTEM: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/02/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr_10.html

NEXT: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/01/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr_4.html
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Caelum's Guide to making a mid-range VR computer for 2015: THE MOTHERBOARD

Caelum's Guide to making a mid-range VR computer for 2015

THE MOTHERBOARD:

To get a motherboard you need to narrow down which will work for you, only some will because of  your cpu and the amount of ram you chose here:

http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/01/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr_59.html

PERIPHERALS: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/02/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr_18.html

CASE, POWER SUPPLY, OPTICAL DRIVE, AND OPERATING SYSTEM: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/02/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr_10.html


So for finding compatible motherboards I recommend using PC part picker, starting a system build, finding your chosen cpu, then add your ram (remember to get a 2x or 4x or single in the right number of gigs). You don't have to choose the exact ram your going to buy this is just so you only get a compatible motherboard. Now add a motherboard, it should auto show you only compatible motherboards.

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/

Now that you got a nice list, WHICH ONE!? Well there are a few things that you will want out of a motherboard, one of the main will be have two video out ports. This is so you can have one to a monitor or tv, the second of course to your HMD. The ideal one would have 2 HDMI outs although VGAseems to work fine as the oculus comes with a VGA to HDMI (which the dk2 uses). So dual HDMI, dual VGA, or a hybrid will be what you need. The other thing I like is minimum of one usb 3.0 port although this is up to you. Other than that there aren't a lot of factors that affect your VR play so get the cheapest one with the specs you need ( keep in mind as a general rule that less money equals less quality so if your getting yours dirt cheap it may not last as long as you expect it. so be wary of how low of a price you get one for).





NEXT: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/01/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr_94.html
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Caelum's Guide to making a mid-range VR computer for 2015: THE CPU

Caelum's Guide to making a mid-range VR computer for 2015

PERIPHERALS: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/02/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr_18.html

CASE, POWER SUPPLY, OPTICAL DRIVE, AND OPERATING SYSTEM: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/02/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr_10.html

THE CPU:

Finding the right CPU for your mid range computer will (like every component) be dependent on your budget. I recommend choosing one now (if you haven't already) because I guarantee it will speed up this process immensely.

This piece will be around $150-$200 because you'll want to spend around $400 for your cpu, and gpu in general. For the newest gen you need a cpu with 4 cores or quad core. Most mid to hi have 4+ with much fewer having 2 toward the lower quality proccesers. The other stat you should pay attention to is the clock speed. I'm more iffy in this subject but it sounds like as long as your comparing withing the same family and core number you want something above 3.0 with 4.0 being all you'll ever need. So 3.1 should be the cheapest. that you really need for vr gaming. A higher CPU will be a factor for people who do more multitasking, and video rendering, exporting. ect. For the basic email and youtube guy 3.0-3.5 should be more than enough. Just close your tabs before gaming.

AMD or INTEL

You'll hear this a lot. There are pretty much one of two people you're going to get your CPU from and its INTEL or AMD. To some this is like the heated battle between the Playstation and Xbox your loyal to one or the other. To me its more like the battle between the Playstation and Xbox, you get whichever works best for you and you let it sit there and look fancy. The only major things I should mention are only certain motherboards work with either intel or amd but for this guide were choosing our motherboard after so it won't matter. The same goes for video cards( NVIDIA vs Radeon)

Some recommended are the:
Intel core:



15-4690k
15-4460
15-3330
15-470


these are all Intel because there all I've looked at so far but choose the best for you.

Next the memory: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/01/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr_59.html
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VR Computer for dummies (and poor people) INTRO

If you're a new 2015 VR enthusiast it's likely you want to play all the newest games and demos for your HMD, and with oculus CV1 just around the corner you can't wait for all the new content to come pouring in. Only one problem, your "high tech" gaming rig could hardly play solitaire if you overclocked every piece in it. It's not worth trying to upgrade one thing or salvage many parts without massive bottleneck, so you gotta rebuild." HEY! but caelum, if you said CV1 is a commin' won't all the new hardware be right behind it?"

This is the problem, you need something before building your full dive computer around 2016-17 (the best time to build a vr dream machine.) But if you do do anything now it'll mean rebuilding in less than a 2 years which means I won't get my moneys worth outta the top gen stuff now. Welcome:

 Caelum's Guide to making a mid-range VR computer for 2015

 I tried to come up with a better title but "the drive for a VR hard drive" just wasn't sticking.

 So what you're probably looking at is a $500-$1,500 tower for your (we're assuming although this could easy transfer to other HMD's of similar caliber.) This will play the new gen games and demo's at medium to low quality with high frame rates. Now medium to low!? who wants that. and that will be the sad truth of this guide, the important thing is to be getting the 75 frames per second with millisecond tracking to photon latency. The graphics will help but all in all that's what will get you good vr experiences. I would love to bump it but all ready what your getting won't have seen it's full life before you'll throw away that half juiced lemon for a brand new one. Remember this is a tide you over PC so don't get too excited for what you'll get out of this. You'll most likely have to build it yourself unless you have someone do it for you. I believe places like memory express do this. So; without further ado let us begin with the CPU.

See post: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/01/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr.html


PERIPHERALS: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/02/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr_18.html

CASE, POWER SUPPLY, OPTICAL DRIVE, AND OPERATING SYSTEM: http://phantasmagoricvr.blogspot.com/2015/02/caelums-guide-to-making-mid-range-vr_10.html
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Phantasmagoric VR

The title of this blog may seem like jiberish although it does have a real meaning: (fan-taz-muh-gawr-ik) 
having a fantastic or deceptive appearance, as something in a dream or created by the imagination.
 

having the appearance of an optical illusion, especially one produced by a magic lantern.
 

changing or shifting, as a scene made up of many elements.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/phantasmagoric
Which at the moment describes a lot of the vr content out there. Oh! yes and the VR part of the title stands for virtual reality. 
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