What to upgrade next?

Rob Turbo · 9 Sep 2017 at 13:54

I built my current PC from scratch in 2013, it was the first time I've had the spare cash to get quality all in one go, almost, it was spread out over a few months, but it was assembled as a new PC, not a series of upgrades on an old one, the spec was,

Processor - Intel i5 3570k @ 4.3ghz with Coolermaster Hyper 612S
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H
RAM - 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz Kingston HyperX Genesis
Storage - 128GB Samsung 840 PRO SSD / WD Green 3TB HDD
Graphics - KFA2 GTX 660
PSU - XFX PRO Series 650w
Monitor - Acer GD245HQ 23.6" 120Hz 3D
Speakers - Logitech Z506 5.1 Surround Sound

I recently upgraded the graphics card to an Asus GTX 1080 Turbo along with an Oculus Rift & Touch bundle, current keyboard is a Razer Blackwidow Chroma, mouse is a Logitech G502 Proteus.

The main use for the PC now is VR gaming, I hadn't played games for quite some time before getting the Rift! Occasionally I'll get a message pop up saying it's taking a while to load and that I should check the game window on the monitor, it's always just taking it's time though and I just have to wait, I don't know if this is normal or if something's holding it back.

Would I benefit from more/different RAM? A processor upgrade would be most costly (needing a CPU, motherboard and RAM) and I'm not sure the performance increase would be worth the price tag?

I'm still using Windows 7, I got the free Windows 10 upgrade, absolutely hated it so went back to 7 a few weeks later, I was also using Windows Insider builds on another PC for a few months, they were truly awful, that PC is now running Linux! I'm not sure if I could still go back to 10 for free or if I'd have to buy it now, I've noticed a few games on the Rift store needing Windows 10 and can see this becoming more common, so I might need to try it again, or I could just ditch PCs and hit the gym hard again!

Would VR games benefit from being installed on an SSD? I could add another SSD and use it as an Oculus/Steam library.

Any other suggestions?

Rob Turbo · 9 Sep 2017 at 21:34

I've decided to give Windows 10 another go, it's been a long time since I first tried it, it might be better now, I've made a disk image of my SSD and I'm downloading Windows 10 update now.

Is the Team Group Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 any good? Never heard of them but can't be that bad if you get a lifetime warranty, only other 2400MHz 16GB kit in stock is Kingston HyperX Savage Red 16GB (2x8GB) for an extra £40.

With the RAM I could get a 250GB Samsung 850 EVO, or I could get just the RAM now, wait a few weeks to maybe a couple of months then get a bigger SSD. I'm not sure I need bigger, my current Oculus and Steam folders are less than 100GB combined, but you know how it is with storage!

Rob Turbo · 9 Sep 2017 at 22:12

hornetstinger said:
Speakers. Little point having a good PC and having crappy PC speakers.

I'm not too bothered about the speakers, I don't have a problem with the audio quality as it is, most of what I listen to is through the Rift headphones now anyway.

Rob Turbo · 10 Sep 2017 at 11:06

masto said:
To make Windows 10 a bit more bearable I'd recommend installing Classic Shell. It gives you a nice old fashioned menu so you do have to deal with the stupid default menu.

I also turn of cortana and other drivel and use anti-beacon to disable all of the telemetry.

Thanks, I've installed both! It seems slower than Windows 7, especially loading The Lab, I'm overdue a clean install though, I might schedule a format for next weekend.

I'm awfully tempted by a new CPU/motherboard/RAM combo now, it's always the same, set out to upgrade one thing and shortly after find myself with a whole new build!

Rob Turbo · 10 Sep 2017 at 17:16

I went for the clean install of Windows 10, now my Rift doesn't work, Windows and Oculus home know it's there but when I put it on the display stays off, after going through all the drivers I tried running Oculus Compatibility Check again, now it says my USB controller isn't compatible! HOW?? it had no problem with it in Windows 7, or Windows 10 update, just the clean install with the exact same drivers!

Bye bye Windows 10!

Rob Turbo · 12 Sep 2017 at 17:04

The problem I have with Windows 10 is there's always something that doesn't work, the first time I upgraded was when it was first released and it kept downloading a graphics driver that I didn't have the hardware for, trying to install it but it would fail, on the next boot it would uninstall it before loading Windows, then download it again and start the whole thing over and over, there seemed to be no way of stopping it, this was before fiber broadband was available around here, I had around 2-3Mbps connection, downloading around 3-400mb every time I started Windows!

I'm back onto Windows 10 again, thankfully the install process is quick and easy, no need for a product key, it just needs an internet connection and it activates itself at first boot. I was pointed in the direction of a fix for the USB problems in the VR section, now I have everything working but Oculus home thinks all my USB ports are 2 rather than 3, it still works fine so I'm leaving it at that. Aside from not liking a few things I've had no other problems yet, Classic Shell is a must though!