An affordable virtual reality ready PC will cost how much?!

The largest detractor to the adoption of virtual reality headsets, at least the first generation, just has to be price.

The minimum necessary investment, we’re talking about just buying the darn thing, is around R9,500 for the Oculus Rift and a mighty R12,300 for the HTC Vive – that’s before you factor in the price of building a VR capable rig.

You could always buy an Oculus Rift Ready PC, which are essentially HTC Vive ready as well given similar hardware requirements, but they’re far more expensive – or are they?

So, we thought we’d source as affordable a VR capable build as we could, or there about. That is to say, there will be preferences for a particular brand or favoured features offered, for example, but it’s the prices that matter most.

We also thought to emulate the Oculus Rift Ready structure—focussing only on the CPU, GPU, motherboard, memory, chassis, PSU and storage—thereby giving us a final build with which to compare to the pre-built systems available.

Minimum Requirements:

GPU: NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD R9 290 equivalent or greater
CPU: Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
Memory: 8GB+ RAM
Video Output: Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
USB Ports: 3x USB 3.0 ports plus 1x USB 2.0 port (it seems that report was right on the money)
OS: Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or newer

With the particular hardware recommended in mind, there’s really no need to include the cost of a mouse and keyboard, especially because neither the HTC Vive nor the Oculus Rift will actually require such devices.

We’re also going to assume you already own a monitor as well as the OS necessary to use a headset – the OS being a fixed price and given the specifications necessary for VR really any 1080p or 1440p will do.

So, just how much will an “affordable” VR ready PC set you back?

GPU:

PowerColor PCS + AXR9 390 – R5,899

Sapphire Radeon R9 390 – R6,551

Gigabyte GV-N970IXOC – R5,799

EVGA GeForce GTX 970 – R6,499

CPU:

In the terms of the CPUs recommended by both parties, you really only have a choice between LGA1150 and LGA1151 Intel CPUs.

AMD CPUs don’t really have support in SA, driving costs up and increasing the difficulty of not only locating but replacing said CPUs.

It’s gotten to a point where an Intel CPU will pound its equivalently priced AMD CPU into the dust.

While many are recommending the LGA1150 based i5-4590, Skylake CPUs like the i5-6500 are equally priced, perform just as well and offer more future upgradability.

Just keep in mind that if you’re unwilling to swap your motherboard out for an LGA1151, you cannot choose the Skylake CPU. Should you be going for a new build, however, we would recommend the Skylake route.

Intel i5-4590 (LGA1150) – R3,843

Intel i5-6500 (LGA1151) – R3,799

Motherboard:

ASUS Z97-K (LGA1150) – R2,058 – Can be overclocked

Gigabyte Z170M-D3H (LGA1151) – R2,356 – Can be overclocked

Gigabyte GA-B150M-D3H (LGA1151) – R1,478 – Can’t be overclocked

Memory:

G.Skill, 8GB, DDR3-1600 (LGA1150) – R739

Corsair ValueSelect, 8GB, DDR4-2133 (LGA1151) – R749

PSU & Chassis:

Cooler Master CMP-350 – R1,309

Storage:

Seagate Barracuda, 1TB – R968

Crucial MX100, 128GB – R899

LGA1150: R15,615
LGA1151: R15,001, but will set you back R15,879 if you want overclocking.

While we would recommend a board that allows overclocking, a very inexpensive way to garner more performance should you require it, it’s the rough average price of these three builds that we’re interested in.

Even when saving a significant amount through the use of a chassis/PSU bundle, the only one we’d recommend by the way, that’s still a lot of money – keep in mind that we chose the most affordable of the four suggested GPUs.

You might be thanking: “Hang on, the cheapest Oculus Rift Ready PC is cheaper?!” Not exactly.

The ASUS G11CD may cost just $949 (R14,527 at the time of writing), but when you consider the effect of local inflation and shipping, those PCs will be a lot more expensive once they reach our shores.

As an example of that, a GTX 970 will cost, as near as makes no difference, R1000 more locally than it will internationally, and that’s usually courtesy of a sale or two.

The scariest thing of all is that we haven’t factored in inflation or shipping to either headset yet.

Should you opt for the most affordable of the three options given above as well as an Oculus Rift (the cheaper of the two headsets), you’re looking to pay R25,115, and that’s without the cost of importing the Oculus Rift.

Unless you’ve got a beastly rig already, we wouldn’t recommend going VR until the technology gets a lot cheaper.

Consider waiting for second or even third generation headsets first; by then, PCs capable of supporting VR will cost less as well.