cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

My system just died on me

falken76
Expert Consultant
My computer just died on me.  It's over 7 years old and has died before when rain water poured on it.  It just fixed itself somehow after months of sitting doing nothing.  It was bound to happen sooner or later.  My god prices have gotten insane!  I haven't been in the market for 7 years now.  Is this what I should expect or have I not shopped around enough?

Motherboard + I7 7700k
Case
16 gigs ram
600 watt power supply
----------------------------------
$730?!  Is that a rip off?  It seems like it.  I still have to provide all the HDDs, the video card, Windows, the monitors, keyboard, CD rom(Only because I have them lying around the house, I hardly use them anymore)

It seems like I could buy a pre-built machine for less than this and rip out the junk and put my stuff in it, but I've looked and their cases are so damn small, I don't think this 1060 6GB will fit in most of them, the card is HUGE.

No wonder PC VR is so out of reach for so many people, $730 for a barebones system that won't run without hundreds of other dollars worth of components and software before you even buy the HMD.

If I wanted to add on some of those fancy motherboards that get mentioned here so often, the price goes up by aprox $130 to $150.  Where do you guys buy your components?  Is this the best I can expect for this type of equipment?  
46 REPLIES 46

WreckLuse68
Heroic Explorer
Once you have a working system it's best to just keep upgrading individual components when money allows or when you see deals...you can always ebay the stuff you replace to lessen the cost...My PC is a labour of love for me and has been for many years and all done on a tight budget but it runs most of what I throw at it but its getting near that time where a new CPU is needed...which means a new motherboard for sure etc etc...it's a never ending struggle lol.
When Einstein was asked how it felt to be the smartest man on Earth, he replied, “I wouldn’t know. Ask Nikola Tesla”.

falken76
Expert Consultant
Damn the shit is just super expensive again now.  It seems it was slightly cheaper almost a decade ago.  And all of this is sale prices, including what I quoted.  By the time I have money the sales will be done so I expect the cost to actually be $100 more.  Good lord.  My credit cards with the damn near usuary APR are so fat they're about to puke.  Looks like I'm stuck with this piece of shit AMD that overheats if I go full screen on Hulu for a while.  

Snot_Shot
Expert Protege
Opinions are like a$$holes, everyone has one. So here is my one:
It all comes down to "need it vs want it" and for 700$ you can build a decent PC to run Rift no problem.
I7 CPU is nice but I5 will run Rift it no problem. Anything wrong with AMD?
650W power supply? For what? Are you going to mine bitcoins with 5 GPU's? Good quality 500W PSU is more than enough to run good gaming rig. Like way more!
Aftermarket CPU fan!? Eh? Oh yeas you will need this one for sure, it will bump your HMD resolution to 8K native!

Shop smart buddy.


hoppingbunny123
Rising Star
He keeps his pc for 7 years plus though a i7 7700k would last him this rift and the new gen rift too. He would just need a new video card for the new rift and he could get that in 2019.

PC noise is nothing to snot shot at.

cybereality
Grand Champion
I think on the high-end, PCs and parts have gotten more expensive. But on the low-end, they are much cheaper. For example, you can get a Chromebook for $200 (or less) that would be enough to do web browsing, media consumption, and maybe some simple work. 10 years ago, even a basic laptop would cost you around $600. But GPU prices have gone through the roof, like with Nvidia launching a $3,000 Titan V, that would be been insane not that long ago. I remember when $500 was considered "a lot" for a video card, lol. 
AMD Ryzen 7 1800X | MSI X370 Titanium | G.Skill 16GB DDR4 3200 | EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 | Corsair Hydro H110i Gigabyte RX Vega 64 x2 | Samsung 960 Evo M.2 500GB | Seagate FireCuda SSHD 2TB | Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV

falken76
Expert Consultant

Snot_Shot said:

Opinions are like a$$holes, everyone has one. So here is my one:
It all comes down to "need it vs want it" and for 700$ you can build a decent PC to run Rift no problem.
I7 CPU is nice but I5 will run Rift it no problem. Anything wrong with AMD?
650W power supply? For what? Are you going to mine bitcoins with 5 GPU's? Good quality 500W PSU is more than enough to run good gaming rig. Like way more!
Aftermarket CPU fan!? Eh? Oh yeas you will need this one for sure, it will bump your HMD resolution to 8K native!

Shop smart buddy.




I use my machine for more than just Virtual Reality.  My old system was an I7.  I will mainly use it for Solidworks and 3dsmax.  The 600 watt power supply is just what I had in my old machine.  Keep in mind it was 7 years old and the good video cards at that time recommended a 600 watt power supply.  My 1060 card is huge and I'm sure it needs at least the 500 watts, the power supply isn't even expensive.  The biggest shock was the cost of ram.  I thought it would be less, but it's probably 10 times as fast as last time I bought ram.  What do you mean about the Aftermarket CPU fan?  Nobody mentioned anything about a CPU fan.

falken76
Expert Consultant


I think on the high-end, PCs and parts have gotten more expensive. But on the low-end, they are much cheaper. For example, you can get a Chromebook for $200 (or less) that would be enough to do web browsing, media consumption, and maybe some simple work. 10 years ago, even a basic laptop would cost you around $600. But GPU prices have gone through the roof, like with Nvidia launching a $3,000 Titan V, that would be been insane not that long ago. I remember when $500 was considered "a lot" for a video card, lol. 


You're absolutely right.  I still consider $250 to be quite a bit for a GFX card.  I'll never be one of those guys that SLI's 2 $700 cards together, well not likely at least.  I'm seeing some machines that are put together with some components I want like the CPU, but the cases are so small these video cards probably won't even fit in them.  I forgot I had a bank account I dumped money into when the rain fell on this computer last year.  I have enough to buy the computer, now I'm just worried about the rift being finicky with the USB on the motherboard.  My old motherboard had 3.1 USB on it and by some grace of god it never really had USB problems that were not user related.

I don't want to spend a ton of money on the fancy board, just something that is known to work with rift.  Are any of these motherboards known to cause conflicts with the rift?

MSI B150M Mortar
MSI H170A PC Mate
Gigabyte GA-B250M

Are these garbage?  They're affordable so I'm afraid that translates to trash.  Any thoughts?

Snot_Shot
Expert Protege


falken76 said:


I use my machine for more than just Virtual Reality.  My old system was an I7.  I will mainly use it for Solidworks and 3dsmax.  The 600 watt power supply is just what I had in my old machine.  Keep in mind it was 7 years old and the good video cards at that time recommended a 600 watt power supply.  My 1060 card is huge and I'm sure it needs at least the 500 watts, the power supply isn't even expensive.  The biggest shock was the cost of ram.  I thought it would be less, but it's probably 10 times as fast as last time I bought ram.  What do you mean about the Aftermarket CPU fan?  Nobody mentioned anything about a CPU fan.


Sorry I am completely lost here...You was talking about a PC to run Rift. You dont even need 500W PSU to run 1060 GPU. Hoppingbunny mentioned aftermarket cooler for 62$ and whoever recommended you 600W PSU 7 years ago lied to you.
I am not even sure why we are talking about upgrading/getting you new system when you could just replace failed part?