Need advice to enter the PC world
Posted by Empty-Grape1254@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 12 comments
The past month a friend of mine showed me that he had bought a gaming computer. He told me all of the things that he could do with it, and I really loved the idea of having one. I've been watching some videos about it on youtube, but I would like to have someone to give me advice on it, since I know nearly nothing about the topic. I don't have a lot of money right now, but I have about $430 dollars on saves. I don't work nor have any bills to pay since I'm a student, but I've been working odd jobs to make some money out of it. I'm into VR and I would like to have a computer with PC/VR, I have a Meta Quest 2. Any advice is apreciated. Thanks. (BTW, this is my first post on reddit)
QTpopOfficial@reddit
If you actually care about PCVR at all, expect to spend at LEAST 1500 for a decent machine thats on sale. You can absolutely get away with lower end hardware but as someone who works in the VR space, please, spend the extra money and get something mid/high range when it comes to cpu/gpu.
5070+ 7800x3d+ sorta hardware. Something in that ballpark at least.
Also with VR. If you're "serious" about the PCVR side. NVIDIA is the way to go. AMD has gotten better, but as someone who uses the crap for work, theres been far tooooo many times that having an AMD GPU would have caused issues. Its way better these days and I know plenty of people who run AMD GPUs with no major problems. So don't be scared from a good deal, just ya know, I went 5070ti build over the AMD side for that reason and "might" of spent an extra 100 bucks since it was a prebuilt this go?
If you don't care at all about the PCVR stuff and its going to be more of a "once in a while" thing. Literally any 4xxx series nvidia card or newer will be fine for almost everything at quest 2 resolutions. AMD equivalent is fine too. Same deal with the CPU, you can totally step down and take some of the budget recs in the post here people have recommended, or will recommend. You could totally have a decent little machine that can run most stuff at 1080p for a grand or so.
This is all assuming new pricing and prebuilt machines. Building your own currently is going to be a bit more expensive than the prebuilts in a lot of cases (more so with sales all over the place all the time). IF you're keen on building with used, and know enough to not get screwed over by someone, then you COULD in theory build both of those a lot cheaper if you look around for solid deals on each thing. Used GPU prices for example can end up scoring you a ton off.
Ok ramble over. Thats my IMO when it comes to the VR stuff anyways. If you didn't say anything about VR, its easy. Pick a budget and when you hit it, circle back and ask for help shopping. With VR though? Eh you have hardware requirements now. And depending on your use case shorting yourself isn't worth it. :)
Empty-Grape1254@reddit (OP)
thanks a lot, thanks to this I'm just finding out how dificult and expencive is PCVR, I knew PC was expensive and dificult, but I did not knew that VR was a whole other level. I think I'm going to stick with standalone VR for a while while I get the money and parts for the PCVR. I also think that I could strat out with the components for a normal working PC and then add the VR components to it. What do you think? (I'll make this an update)
TheWaspinator@reddit
So, the main piece of advice is graphics. VR requires a lot of graphics power to do well. You're going to want a dedicated graphics card with a much vram (video ram) as possible.
QTpopOfficial@reddit
And tbh cpu as well. VR is just hardware thirsty in general. You can get away with lower end stuff, but you really have to dive down resolution scales and all kinds of stuff. And with headsets resolutions getting higher and higher that 100% resolution in steamvr is getting harder and harder to hold locked framerates for older/mid range rigs.
But ya, lots of vram + Solid CPU.
bmf1989@reddit
You’re probably gonna need about a grand to build anything decent unless you buy everything used at a good price. Not including peripherals like a monitor/mouse/keyboard
https://pcpartpicker.com/
In the meantime you can get a build together, keep an eye of components in case a good deal pops up
Bichaelcycle@reddit
You would either have to save up atleast a thousand or try to find some good deals on facebook or ebay
Bichaelcycle@reddit
This Prebuilt isnt too bad but you could get better buying used but it depends on you to do research.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Victus-Gaming-Tower-AMD-Ryzen-5-8400F-16G-1-TB-SSD-RX-7600-Wired-Keyboard-KB-M/14003610283?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0
Confident-Pepper-562@reddit
Thats better specs than the steam machine, and probably cheaper. I'd throw bazzite on there.
BertMacklin117@reddit
Pcpartpicker is a great place to start
onion2077@reddit
I'd save up a bit more first. You'll have more choice and variety in parts that way.
Empty-Grape1254@reddit (OP)
forgot to mention. I plan on buying the components in some months, I know PCs are expencive, the 430 dollars It's just what I've saved up so far. I will be working and saving more for a PC.
PenFar9334@reddit
For 430 it's best you check the used marketplace for stuff great place if you know how to haggle and stuff. Managed to build a pretty decent 7600X PC for less than 400. As for vr though you'll definitely need to save up some more