Build my kid a gaming/VR computer or just buy one?

[ElAzul]

I built a few computers back in the day but I have no effing clue what I am looking at now. My son showed me a computer on Amazon for $500 that was geared towards gaming and came with no operating system. Should we lean towards something like that or build? Can those that know the current go to equipment spec some parts for me in the $500-$1,000 range? My son doesn't need it to do anything other than gaming and VR probably definitely some pornhub that he won't admit to

 

[Brobee]

Oculus makes a stand alone unit that’s supposed to be pretty good. The oculus quest doesn’t require a hook up to a computer and can be upgraded later to work with a computer through a link cable. It’s a good way to dip your toes into the VR pool.


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[ElAzul]

Oculus makes a stand alone unit that’s supposed to be pretty good. The oculus quest doesn’t require a hook up to a computer and can be upgraded later to work with a computer through a link cable. It’s a good way to dip your toes into the VR pool.


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He wants the rift for his birthday next week. It's time for a new computer so figured I would cover all the bases

 

[SBMech]

Build it. Buy a tower, and follow one of the many newegg or youtube videos on how to build a system.

For like 1200 you can have something that rules VR and every new game recently. Bonus is that it's a real computer, he can use to do schoolwork research etc.

Well...and better porn too rofl!

Something just built for VR with no OS seems like a ripoff.

 

[Jed-O]

What kind of motor oil does it take?

 

[C-2]

If it's a tower, you might start with a refurbished Dell workstation as a base, with a Xeon, or dual Xeon processors. Tons of them on eBay and some will let you upgrade components, like big video cards and more RAM, multiple drives etc.

I bought one last year for my daughter for $250, Xeon processor, 128GB SSD, 16GB RAM, new Windows 10 pro and setup took less than 5 minutes with no bloatware. She Minecraft's the crap out of it without a hiccup. You can find $3-$10K machines selling for hundreds of dollars.

Xeon processors are meant to run 24/7/365 under load, just like a marine boat motor vs. a car motor.

Buy as much RAM as the budget and motherboard allow. That's what's nice about buying a used workstation - they have all the good parts - good cooling, big power sources and plenty of room to add components. The only downside to the workstations is they are somewhat dated and might not have USB3 and other similar type components.

 

[Flatsix66]

For VR to get good frame rate you need to pay attention to graphics and GPU processor capabilities. The GPUs can get expensive. Also for Rift you need three USB 3.0 ports. See minimum requirements https://support.oculus.com/248749509016567/

 

[JUSTWANNARACE]

I built a few computers back in the day but I have no effing clue what I am looking at now. My son showed me a computer on Amazon for $500 that was geared towards gaming and came with no operating system. Should we lean towards something like that or build? Can those that know the current go to equipment spec some parts for me in the $500-$1,000 range? My son doesn't need it to do anything other than gaming and VR probably definitely some pornhub that he won't admit to

You're on your own on this one..lol I can get porn hub, and now found out Reddit has porn.. so anything else is Greek to me!!

Weather is finally starting to get decent so I'll be contacting you if you want to jump in.. Beer is the only requirement that you bring...lil

 

[trophybug19]

If you want to buy look at NZXT. Probably best built and priced out there. I priced out the parts they used and it came close to what i could buy the parts for through microcenter. Not a lot if mark up on their end. If you want to build check out jays2cents on youtube. Lot of build guis for a price point you are looking for. Off the top of my head for a $600 system 1080p gaming and vr is possible. Im not to up on the vr requirements but for $600 an AMD ryzen 2600. A b450 motherboard from Asrock, 16gb of at least 3200mhz memory and a 250gb ssd. Parts are scarce right now so prices are up. Good luck with your decision.

 

[WaterMike]

Paul's Hardware YouTube has tons of info videos. He has a site that matches components together. I've watched a lot of his stuff prepping to build a sim racing computer.

paulshardware - Saved Part Lists - PCPartPicker

Saved Part Lists

pcpartpicker.com

 

[WaterMike]

He also also has an ebay store with finished units with OS already. I have no affiliation with him.

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ebay.com