Looking to see what people would advise for a VR PC rig and looking mostly for a ryzen build and looking mostly at information on cpu, mobo ram and gpu but mostly looking for information cpu and mobo with why a certain one over the other.
I mean I built a work PC for my wife recently 3600x, tomahawk max mobo and 3200cl16 ram running windows 7, for reasons, and very happy with it and as such I did some research on some mobo so I know in the b450 line the msi boards are all pretty good and up there with some good vrms enough that it’s not worth getting the more expensive boards.
For a VR PC though I wager there other considerations to take into account so is a tomahawk max a good option or better to look for a x570 board, I know the msi x570 line is kind of sucky so would avoid those, but no idea which x570 boards are really good etc
Also what cpu, seems like VR might want a little more than a 6 core ryzen, As for the ram I gather you would want 3600c16 ram ideally.
Thoughts on what people here think is an “ideal” VR build?
Since you are looking at VRMs and such, I assume you will be overclocking things. Make sure your GPU is pre-binned to the top ‘factory overclock’ spec, and has the highest power target limit (best possible heatsink). Like the ‘EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Ftw3 Ultra’ I am using.
CPU side, Ryzen is ok for VR applications, except possibly X-Plane 11 and some DCS World use cases. I still have my doubts about anything except the very best i9-9900k until proven otherwise beyond doubt. If you are going for the absolute best possible performance, especially single-core, Intel may still offer better performance in unoptimized applications, synthetic benchmarks aside.
Motherboard, pick something on Silicon Lottery’s QVL, and maybe get as many real VRM phases as possible.
Thanks for the trust, though I am only running 2600X myself .
On my 2600X (https://community.openmr.ai/t/i-built-a-new-pc-for-vr-on-a-budget-kind-of/9823) I have never felt starved on core/threads, but I am not a heavy VR user either (play(ed) mostly Elite and Beatsaber ). If you are into simulators, you are probably even less inclined to hit the core/thread limit as most sims nowadays seems to be built on prehistoric engines based on single-threaded archs.
Since you already stated you wanted AMD build, I guess you know why and are aware of the current state of AMD CPU vs Intel ones.
Few remarks on the mobo, memory and CPU anyway:
On my x470 board, I found out that what is crucial is a reliable USB support. I have basically all rear USB ports used (although not at the same time), and while I saw some quirks myself, I did not have to resort to PCI-USB addon cards to resolve them. USB is important for lighthouse tracking and if you plan to use Pimax headset you will need this part to work reliably. I cannot recommend any board though just give it as a point to consider.
Ideally you want Samsung B-die modules, which may disguise themselves as 3200/CL14 or 3600/CL16, or whatever and run them at that speed. They are most reliable and (relatively) the most expensive.
I am split on x570 boards. They seem more like a gen1 than an x470 upgrade. x570 should have AMD’s own USB implementation, but how good is that I cannot tell. It offers PCIx 4.0 but at the cost of a significant power consumption increase (and therefore worse thermals).
Anyway, as already mentioned, you will get better value when spending the budget on GPU than on anything else, so it is just a question of getting some balanced CPU/mobo/mem combo and fit it with the best GPU you can afford.
Nice some replies already! I know for gpu you want to get as strong as you can afford so for now a 2080ti but I am not building right now and will be building at the end of Q3 or so this year or so.
That means hopefully the new gpu will be out and maybe even the ryzen 4k cpu.
Some good insights here like the silicon lottery qvl and the thing about looking for a mobo with good USB support.
EDIT: thanks for the link to your build risa2000! I just read your OP and feel like I have very much the same mindset you have when you wrote it up. I also am not much into the bling bling, especially on ram. I don’t mind a little glow from fans but too much it just annoying at night…I got a piece of tape hiding the blue led on the front of my CM HAF 932 case as I find it very annoying in the evening almost like a laser in my eyes lol.
Like yourself I have had mostly intel builds, in fact the PC I am using now is my old i5-750@4gz and frankly while she been real good has earned retirement or maybe repurposing into something other than my main PC. Son is using a i5 3570k@4.2ghz and my wife the new 3600x build I got her during black fridays sales just gone by. While I have been quite happy with the intels like you I feel like encouraging AMD and for very much the same reasons as you too.
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). If you are into simulators, you are probably even less inclined to hit the core/thread limit as most sims nowadays seems to be built on prehistoric engines based on single-threaded archs.