New Machine: Preparing for Oculus Rift

[rosco6912]

My brother has enlisted my nerd ways to build him an oculus rift machine in anticipation of the consumer hmd this spring.

I am settled on a GTX 980 or 980 Ti; probably 16gb Ram (type and speed depending on CPU and chipset).

I am a little stumped on what would be an appropriate CPU, should I go for an i5 or i7? What is well priced right now? I reckon Skylake is best choice for future "proofing" (yes this is a fantasy).

As for motherboard, there really isn't much need for anything other than what I've mentioned, I guess maybe the option to do SLI down the road after support develops. Maybe there's some new cutting edge chipset features I should want if only I knew about them!?

I've been out of the rig building game for 6 years or so!

Total budget for case, PSU, SSD, cpu, chipset, and video card is $1800-2200.

What does the all knowing hive mind think is a solid choice for cpu? Say three options: (a) under $300; (b) under $450; and (c) under $600. (Prices not including motherboard, but please include your motherboard recs too!!).


The metric I find most valuable is "bang for the buck," so what would you suggest if it was YOUR money!?

 

[Arachnotronic]

If your brother is cool with overclocking, then buy a 5820K, a good cooler, and overclock to 4.3GHz+. This is the best "future proof" CPU solution, IMO.

 

[nsafreak]

For the CPU I would probably go with an i7 5820K and overclock it unless the Skylake i7s drop in price a good bit as they're a bit overpriced in online stores currently. I also wouldn't get set on a 980 Ti either, Pascal is just around the corner and will potentially have some large performance gains. It'd be pretty bad to purchase a nice 980 Ti and have it outclassed by a recently released Pascal based GPU that is either the same price or slightly more.

 

[Erithan13]

CPU choice is between the 6700k and 5820k, the i5s are not worth looking at for future proofing and the i7 is a far stronger match for a high end GPU. I don't think you can really beat the overclocked 5820 option especially with the high pricing on Skylake at the moment.

As above, with a new generation of GPUs coming this year (from NV and AMD) it's not worth spending huge amounts on a GPU right now. If I were you I'd get at most a GTX 970 or R9 390 and hold onto the rest of the cash until the new generation drops. If you were OK with going secondhand a used R9 290 represents great value and still offers good enough performance to tide you over.

 

[rosco6912]

Dang guys, I didn't even think about GPU product cycle...

Maybe best to wait for pascal and build then, and maybe by then Skylake comes down in price? Or is the 5820 so great that it's worth avoiding the new Skylake chipset/ram altogether?? Thanks!

 

[Ken g6]

Maybe best to wait for pascal and build then, and maybe by then Skylake comes down in price?

Yes, I think it makes sense to wait.

Or is the 5820 so great that it's worth avoiding the new Skylake chipset/ram altogether??

There should be a 6000-series of Broadwell-E chips coming out sometime soon too. We don't yet know how they'll overclock.

 

[rosco6912]

Yes, I think it makes sense to wait.


There should be a 6000-series of Broadwell-E chips coming out sometime soon too. We don't yet know how they'll overclock.

Thanks for the feedback

 

[rosco6912]

Question: is there any reason to AMD over Nvidia? Is there any reason to splurge on the forthcoming dual GPU cards (e.g., Nvidia: double gm200's)?

Starting to get lost in this aspect as well!

 

[Ken g6]

Well now we know Oculus Rift will have a UHD display. AMD is better at such high resolutions usually.

No reason to choose one dual card over two single cards.

 

[rosco6912]

Hmm is AMD's "pascal" competitor slated for launch this year? Maybe I look for a used 290 or 390 until the new AMD?