Need advice on getting a MR ultra computer.

[anon(5415472)]

Meet Chuckles my friendly MR headset holder

My Lenovo Explorer headset finally arrived. (Yippee YAY!!) It looks good, it feels good, it even smells good! :grin: This disclaimer probably invalidates any chance of me winning the oculus rift contest but in order to get advice you'd have to know where I'm coming from. I think Windows MR headsets are better in my opinion than OR anyway so no biggie.

Thing is I bought the headset first before a VR ready computer. This isn't really any sort of oversight on my part, I just really committed into getting a VR headset during the $199 sale during the holidays that I thought I'd try to make it work using registry hacks first then failing that, getting a VR ready computer.

My headset arrived last week and I tried all sorts of bypasses, registry tweaks and etc on my venerable but still awesome surface pro 2 but no dice.

So.... here we are. What's the cheapest computer that you can recommend that's reasonably future proof and that I could use for some light dev work. ( I get computers every 4-5 years or so ).

1. prefer to have thunderbolt 3
2. pen enabled
3. at least 1050ti or can run MR ultra
4. removable battery if possible but not necessary
5. possible discount on getting windows 10 pro instead of just home.
6. at least quad-core.

I was checking out the MSI-gl62m for $699 on the microsoftstore during the spring sale but it quickly ran out of stock before I pulled the trigger ( Regret ). If you know of a deal similar or better, please let me know!

 

[anon(5415472)]

Anyone? :unhappy:

NVM, I decided to build one myself. I'm going for the Ryzen 5 2400g which has integrated vega 11 which apparently can run MR headsets without any latency according to youtube. I'll get a gtx1060 if I need to in the future. 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD, all I need is a board that's able to run MR headsets without having do an onerous bios update to get MR to work. I'm also looking for a reasonably cheap but still great looking case.

 

[Cale Hunt]

Sorry for the late reply, Kram Devil! Interesting that you've decided to build something yourself. Rich Edmonds has a ton of content on building your own rig that you can check out if you need a bit of a hand. Sounds like you know what you're doing, though.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-build-pc-ultimate-step-step-guide

 

[anon(5415472)]

Sorry for the late reply, Kram Devil! Interesting that you've decided to build something yourself. Rich Edmonds has a ton of content on building your own rig that you can check out if you need a bit of a hand. Sounds like you know what you're doing, though.

Hi There,

Thank you for the advice. I was planning of building my own PC and I went to a huge mall that was having a huge mall-wide sale during this period. Apparently there's no truth in advertising because they said PCs and components are not part of it. Huh. Intead of mall-wide perhaps they should have said "mall-wide" or *mall-wide

I looked around.
To get a ryzen 5 2400g PC with 8gb of ram, B350 motherboard, 1TB 5400rpm HDD, a simple case with no RGB, optional gtx 1050ti 4gb, windows 10 pro, a basic monitor, a mouse and keyboard it would be almost the same price as the discounted dell 15" 7000 gaming laptop. I opted to get the dell gaming laptop.

Oh I wish I pulled the trigger on the MSI-gl62m when it was on sale for just $699 on the microsoft store. I shouldn't have hesitated. It had thunderbolt 3. That makes it future-proof as far as I'm concerned as all you need to do if the onboard graphics gets too old 3-4 years from now is to just use an egpu thru the thunderbolt 3 port.

 

[AndyCalling]

Well, the good thing about a desktop rig is that you never have to replace it. It is completely future proof in that way. I've had the 'same' PC since the end of the 90s. Sure, it's had every component replaced many times over, including the case. It's a bit like Trigger's Broom (Only Fools & Horses reference there...). The point is I upgraded one component at a time. One big spend, then smaller upgrade prices for the rest of my days. Laptops generally can't follow that strategy, you have to pony up for a whole new PC every time you upgrade. The cheaper option is pretty much always the desktop build over the lifetime of the PC. To demonstrate, you will want to upgrade that vid card at some point. Valve state a GTX1070 as a minimum for VR in Steam (though many games can run on less). They say that to avoid disappointment I expect. I know the vid cards cost a lot, but I bought my 1080 a few days after release. When I had an old AMD FX CPU. A good upgrade, but done with the future in mind. My CPU and mobo caught up much later when Ryzen happened. No need to shell out all the cash at once.

 

[anon(5415472)]

Well, the good thing about a desktop rig is that you never have to replace it. It is completely future proof in that way. I've had the 'same' PC since the end of the 90s. Sure, it's had every component replaced many times over, including the case. It's a bit like Trigger's Broom (Only Fools & Horses reference there...). The point is I upgraded one component at a time. One big spend, then smaller upgrade prices for the rest of my days. Laptops generally can't follow that strategy.

This is true. It's one of the things I considered when choosing a laptop or a desktop computer. The idea that you could swap out outdated components with newer ones while leaving the rest intact is appealing. The only things you can upgrade on a laptop are memory and the harddrive, you're stuck with the cpu and gpu.

However, from what I'm seeing cpu innovation has slowed to a crawl with leaps between generations not as huge as they were before. We're still stuck at 14nm and Moore's law is stuttering. From what I understand instead of going for 10nm intel is instead cramming more cores and getting AMD graphics which is nice but it also tells me that I don't have to go for an intel 8th gen if I had to.

eGPUs are also now available so laptops with thunderbolt 3 ports could now upgrade their graphics in a way, that's why I was looking for a thunderbolt 3 laptop. A note of caution, a 1080 egpu will act as a 1060 if you're using a 7th gen intel chip due to cpu bottleneck.

Ultimately I went for a laptop for portability. I didn't want to lug around a huge case when I want to move around the house (or outside ) for VR.

 

[AndyCalling]

Really? I think Zen is a huge leap in design and in multi-core CPU technology. Add to that Zen 2 at 7nm is only months away now and the AMD world really does not feel stagnant. I believe it will drive Intel too. They have grudgingly moved to an Infinity Fabric clone in their newer designs because they can see what's coming. Die shrinks aren't the only way to improve a CPU, and if Intel want to keep everyone's attention they are going to need to compete properly in the multi-core area too. AMD's offer of more for less is hard to ignore.

 

[AndyCalling]

Oh yea, I do like the eGPU idea. Only problem is you need the CPU to run whatever vid card you buy next, and that probably hasn't been released yet. Being able to upgrade GPU without CPU seems a bit of a limiting factor, sounds like what I did but without a way out by upgrading the CPU and mobo (though I'll not need a new mobo for my next CPU as Zen 2 7nm will work with current mobos). You'd have to get a new laptop instead. What you get in return is dramatic (compared to a desktop) portability, which is the only reason why I'd buy a laptop over building a desktop. If I don't need the portability in a device, a laptop only equals a load of needless compromise coupled with a higher cost.

 

[anon(5415472)]

I ultimately went with portability. I didn't even realize until I finally went with the laptop how big portability was for me. Guess you discover something about yourself everyday, huh. I'd do VR in the kitchen. I'd do VR in the garage. I'd VR in the garden. I'd be definitely doing VR in my bedroom. Constantly.... wink wink nudge nudge. I'd VR in the airport ( maybe not there ). I'll just get a new laptop, tablet, surface phone or car or whatever 4-5 years from now.

 

[krisguy]

I'm planning on doing both. I have a desktop rig at home for Mixer streaming, my HTC Vive, and Photoshop. I'm looking at picking up either a Lenovo or ROG laptop that would allow me to use an inside-out headset (Probably the HP WMR) on the go.