https://pcpartpicker.com/user/zeronothing/saved/#view=Cc8BZL

I ended up getting a Rift S for my birthday this year and discovered my 2012 beast no longer cuts it, ended up grabbing a 1060 for $120 and it works pretty well for Beat Saber, though it struggles a bit.

I'd like to bring this to family/friends and possibly have it behind my TV for parties, so mini-ITX HTPC seems to be the way to go. I'd like it to fit in my suitcase or backback without issue to take on planes.

Thoughts and concerns are appreciated, as I'm definitely going for budget here, and will likely use this to also play SC2, since my i5 3570k just isn't strong enough for a 10 year old game pushed to its limits, but I know that newer CPUs handle SC2's awful optimizations much better.

I'm also not sure which parts, if any, will go on sale for black friday, but I was planning on buying popular brands that are likely to drop in price and get a rebate from my credit card, so I could have this by Thanksgiving.

Damn Rift buyers. Don't you think it's a bit BS that they are making exclusives for their headsets? It's not like you get exclusives for different brands of monitors...

Anyway, welcome to VRmasterrace. You gotta install Blade & Sorcery and play it right now. Trust me, you won't regret it.

After that, get Lone Echo (rift exclusive). It's probably the best AAA VR title in existence right now.

So, I'll start off by saying I'm not as familiar with VR as I am with other areas. I approached this as I would building a PC that can run reasonably taxing games and fit in a living room entertainment center. To that end:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($208.42 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i chromax.black 33.84 CFM CPU Cooler ($53.44 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO WIFI Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($124.12 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill NT 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($55.62 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel 760p Series 128 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($45.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 8 GB XC GAMING Video Card ($517.57 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone GD09B HTPC Case ($100.56 @ B&H)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($87.72 @ B&H)
Total: $1193.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-28 05:35 EDT-0400

I think the core cpu/board/ram is solid for whatever is needed, though you may want to scale GPU and storage to your individual needs. I think this should check all the necessary boxes and although not cheap it provides a lot of value.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 28 2019, 9:36 am by Excalibur.

Really, an ATX case? Hard pass on that. I'm putting this in a suitcase, so I'll stick with the super flat Fractal. At 10L it's slightly bigger than what I want, but I figure it's decent enough, and the Dr. Zaber stuff is impossible to find.

As for QLC vs TLC, I don't plan on doing much substantial, I just want a somewhat fast efficiency, with extra storage space. Reviews are pretty mixed. I suppose QLC is fine as an expansion drive, but not really as an OS drive, so I'll grab a 970 EVO instead and hope it drops on BF.

My understanding was that Ryzen, especially the newer ones benefited significantly from higher clocked RAM.

The most CPU intensive thing I'm going to do is starcraft 2 custom maps, which I'm currently getting around 1 fps with my intel 3570k. I'd like to bump that to at least 10 fps. I'm really looking for something around the $800 mark. The prices have changed on my build (because of course they do).

I took a second stab at it to try and cut down some corners. Honestly the most intensive game I really want to play is beat saber.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($117.58 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($119.85 @ OutletPC)
Memory: GeIL EVO SPEAR 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($89.97 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card ($329.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Node 202 HTPC Case ($68.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair SF 450 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply ($83.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $870.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-29 03:07 EDT-0400

I'm not sure that the 3600 is worth 80% more for maybe 15% performance. That being said I like the 7nm process more, and it's newer so maybe it will go on sale for black friday and I can get it for much cheaper. Minimum 1% fps also seems really good according to at least one review, so I might pony up. I'm not overclocking, so I'm fine with the stock cooler. If it doesn't work out, grabbing the Noctua is definitely my 2nd bet, but if I can save $50, that's $50.

Memory is whatever, but I think it's worth $5 for the in spec RAM. You did convince me to upgrade to a 2060 though, as the cheap 1660 Tis seems to be selling out really fast. I don't like how big the 2060 is at 205mm, but the fractal will fit it, so whatever.

Originally I had planned to get the included SFX power supply with the case, so my original price was about $730.

Sounds Like a great build for the price, only a cheaper graph card might bump the price lower alot while not loosing much performance. But as its bit over mid range card it might b worth the price

Well I have a Radeon 7950 and that is still a beast of a card for my purposes, but Oculus wouldn't run on it (despite me being sure it would). I grabbed a 3 GB 1060 for $120 and it works fine for my purposes, so I figure a 1660 Ti would do fine. I can't seem to find a decent one anymore below $250 though.

I have a 1060 gtx for My media pc it runs the stuff i need, its 8 years old mostly used it for assassins creed metro2033 and elder scrolls skyrim back then. im not playing those more, now im back to scbw xd kinda love ds for scbw. A 250 card should perform good price wise but sometimes it Pays to go abit donno the cards now a days. Radeon dosent update drivers for your radeon7950?

Issue is 7950 is literally blacklisted.

Have you considered the GTX 1660 Super? (Random link because couldnt find it on pcpartpicker)
It's only ever so slightly slower than a 1660 Ti but should be chunk cheaper and probably in better stock.

Well damn, not sure why adding faster VRAM helps out so much, but such is life. In for a 1660 Super then. Really strange to price such amazing performance down to $230. My 2060 I had priced was 20% better, but this way I can boost the CPU up to the Ryzen 5 3600 and get hopefully better performance in starcraft 2.

I ended up grabbing this build. I haven't built a computer in so long, will be interesting to see if it all works out.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($194.79 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($119.85 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Mushkin PILOT 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($63.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Super 6 GB OC Video Card ($239.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Node 202 HTPC Case ($68.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair SF 450 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply ($84.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $832.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-30 19:30 EDT-0400