High-end VR Development Build

[ZefanS]

I'm looking at building a PC that will support the consumer version Oculus Rift, with extra power, as it will be used for developing more than playing games. My maximum budget is approximately $10,000 so I'm looking to build something rather high end (the money needs to be spent this fiscal year).

These are the minimum specs published by Oculus:

Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD R9 290 equivalent or greater
CPU: Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
Memory: 8GB+ RAM
Video Output: Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
USB Ports: 3x USB 3.0 ports plus 1x USB 2.0 port
OS: Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or newer

I would, however, like to exceed these specs, as I will be using this rig for 3D modelling/development and data analysis, as well as for running VR apps. It should ideally be a useful rig for several years to come even if it no longer supports the newest VR applications.

I've been doing some research and searching and have come up with a build that seems to fit my needs, but as I've never actually built a PC before I would appreciate if it could be looked over for anything that doesn't make sense, or that I've overlooked.

Here's what I'm currently thinking. It's based on the highest-end build suggested here: http://www.logicalincrements.com/articles/vrguide/

CPU: Intel Core i7-5960X Extreme Edition
Motherboard: ASUS X99-A/USB 3.1
GPU: 1x NVIDIA GTX TITAN X & 1x NVIDIA GTX 980 Ti
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 P2 80+ Platinum (1600W, fully modular)
Memory: 64GB DDR4-2133 (8x 8GB)
Storage: 1x 512GB PCIe M.2 SSD & 1x 4TB 7200RPM SATA III HDD
Case: Enthoo Primo Aluminum ATX tower
Cooling: Cooler Master Nepton 280L 140mm liquid cooling
Optical Drive: SATA CD/DVD combo drive

This comes to approximately $5000 before shipping costs. Peripherals are all taken care of already so this (assuming it will run with just an OS, keyboard, mouse, and monitor) is all I need. Assuming I can keep the cost to around or under $5000, I'll buy 2 rigs.

As far as I can tell from the specs, these parts should all work together. If I've overlooked something please point it out. I'm also just wondering if I've made any silly choices. If there are more efficient, logical choices for any of the components, that's the information I'm looking for.

About the GPU choice: Since the Rift can't currently make use of SLI, it only needs one card. That, combined with the fact that the NIVIDIA Pascal architecture will likely be released fairly soon, influenced the decision to cut cost a little by getting the 980 Ti instead of 2 TITAN Xs. I will likely re-evaluate the GPU setup in the near-ish future.

 

[beany323]

not sure you can run a titan and a 980 ti. if you got the cash.. x2 titans. (waste of cash Imho) get 2 980ti's.


just saw last sentence... lol.. i am not one to answer all the components.. i just think you can get just as much machine for less cash. good luck and looking forward to other comments and suggestions.

 

[ZefanS]

Interesting, I'll look into running the different cards. You're probably right about the 980Ti's.

I've been doing more research and decided to change the PSU and cooling, cut the memory to 32GB, and get a different case. Save some cash and basically get the same thing.

Looking at the Fractal Define R5.

 

[ZefanS]

I've been looking into the differences between workstation and gaming cards, and I'm wondering if it would make sense and be possible to run one GTX 980Ti for the Rift and, say, one Quadro M5000 for doing rendering and other development work.

 

[beany323]

hot sure if you can run 2 different cards.. i use a mac at work and while not doing any major heavy lifting, (cad , some graphics and trying to learn 3d) i have no issues.

 

[beany323]

fyi, tht is a nice mb..

 

[Fallen Kell]

When does your fiscal year end? The reason I ask is because the video cards are going to be completely obsolete come July/August when we finally see new manufacturing process cards. And by completely obsolete I am talking possibly a 2x or more performance by the new cards (in so cases upwards of 10x).

 

[nanaki333]

with dx12 out now, only a matter of time before it starts gaining significant traffic, you may want to look in to having not only a high end nvidia card, but also something like a Fury Nano as well. that way you can future proof it to dev a dx12 VR game possibly and get to know the dual GPU system. the tech demos that came out showed that dx12 (i can't remember the game) gave the best performance with 1 card from each vendor vs dual from the both.