VR Dev rig for £2,000-£3,000

[dr_shoe]

Hi all,

I need a rig for making VR software, can anyone help me spec?

- Not sure AMD vs Intel, I thought AMD was better value but is this still true for non-gaming use?
- For this price I was looking at a 5080, but given the current lack of supply, would I be better off just getting a 4080 or something (Need this within the next 4-6 weeks)
- I think a 1TB M.2 and a 2TB Secondary SSD should be enough
- Would prefer as small form factor as possible as I will need to move this rig from time to time (Just to a building across the street)

Thanks!

 

[Tetras]

- For this price I was looking at a 5080, but given the current lack of supply, would I be better off just getting a 4080 or something (Need this within the next 4-6 weeks)

They are in short supply too, I'm afraid, so it likely won't help you get one faster.

- Not sure AMD vs Intel, I thought AMD was better value but is this still true for non-gaming use?

It depends on budget and use case. The Core Ultra CPUs (15th gen equivalent) actually aren't that bad for productivity and you can get good deals on 12th gen. If you're going ITX, a lot of the value depends on the motherboard, since if you want a high-end one with certain features, they can be very expensive and difficult to find (in stock). I'd recommend MATX over ITX, since it gives you more options.

If you're going SFF, note the size restrictions (GPU length and number of slots) on your chosen case, since most 5080/5090s are whoppers.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core Ultra 5 245K (Arrow Lake) Socket LGA 1851 Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-INT-03113) = £289.99
• 1 x Intel Holiday Bundle - Assassin's Creed Shadows + Ubisoft Plus (SKU: DIG-INT-03637) = £0.00
• 1 x Asrock B860I Lightning WIFI (LGA 1851) DDR5 ITX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASR-04103) = £209.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance 96GB (2X48GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C32 6400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (SKU: MEM-CRS-03244) = £349.99
• 1 x Zotac GeForce RTX 4080 Super Trinity Black 16Gb Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-ZTC-01496) = £1,049.99
• 1 x Samsung 990 Pro 4TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.3c Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-SAM-00984) = £284.99
• 1 x Fractal Design Torrent Nano Black TG Dark Tint M-ITX Case (SKU: CA-0A0-FD) = £114.99
• 1 x Antec HCG 1200 Pro Platinum 1200W ATX3.1 Full modular Power Supply (SKU: POW-ATC-02747) = £209.99
• 1 x Arctic Freezer 36 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02420) = £22.99
• 2 x be quiet Pure Wings 3 140mm PWM Fan (SKU: COO-BEQ-01131) = £9.95

Total: £2,564.81 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

 

[dr_shoe]

That's great, thanks.

That case is actually really well sized for what I need.

couple question - when you say Intel options aren't that bad for productivity, how close are they to Ryzen 9s?

Is that CPU cooler going to be enough? I was expecting to spend 60-100 on one for something like this.

Cheers again

 

[Tetras]

couple question - when you say Intel options aren't that bad for productivity, how close are they to Ryzen 9s?

In the launch reviews their performance was all over the place. They're more consistent now with the updates, but there are still some circumstances they are unusually slow.

That said, for multithreaded productivity the 245K performs somewhere around the 7900/7900X and is generally faster than the 9700X.

The 9900X will beat it.

Is that CPU cooler going to be enough? I was expecting to spend 60-100 on one for something like this.

In TPU's review, the average power consumption in apps was less than 100 watts and the multithreaded power less than 150 watts, so a decent cheap air cooler like the freezer 36 or peerless assassin/phantom spirit can definitely handle this CPU.

 

[skipper847]

In the launch reviews their performance was all over the place. They're more consistent now with the updates, but there are still some circumstances they are unusually slow.

That said, for multithreaded productivity the 245K performs somewhere around the 7900/7900X and is generally faster than the 9700X.

The 9900X will beat it.


In TPU's review, the average power consumption in apps was less than 100 watts and the multithreaded power less than 150 watts, so a decent cheap air cooler like the freezer 36 or peerless assassin/phantom spirit can definitely handle this CPU.

Same one as you suggested for mine but just wondering about fan noise from this CPU fan?.

 

[Tetras]

Same one as you suggested for mine but just wondering about fan noise from this CPU fan?.

At modest load, e.g. single or lightly threaded or gaming, a decent tower cooler like those mentioned will be near silent with these CPUs (possibly with some fan curve changes to curb ramp up/down when the CPU boosts).

At full multithreaded load, you will hear it, but up to 150 watts this should be fine. If you go beyond that point regularly (or plan on buying a CPU that does), it will get noisy and I'd recommend looking at an AIO instead.

 

[mickyflinn]

Arctic Freezer 36 Review: Raising the bar for entry-level air coolers

It’s cheap, quiet, and performs well. What more could you want?

www.tomshardware.com

 

[skipper847]

At modest load, e.g. single or lightly threaded or gaming, a decent tower cooler like those mentioned will be near silent with these CPUs (possibly with some fan curve changes to curb ramp up/down when the CPU boosts).

At full multithreaded load, you will hear it, but up to 150 watts this should be fine. If you go beyond that point regularly (or plan on buying a CPU that does), it will get noisy and I'd recommend looking at an AIO instead.

What about games at 4k?.

 

[Tetras]

What about games at 4k?.

In TPU's review the 245K had an average power use of 60 watts when gaming, that should be near silent with any large tower air cooler.

 

[skipper847]

In TPU's review the 245K had an average power use of 60 watts when gaming, that should be near silent with any large tower air cooler.

Better then mine at moment mine kicks in just idle on windows 11 lol