Building a VR Supercomputer: A Journey to Immersive Experiences

I've gotten so used to seeing RGB lights on everything now that my cats are no longer cute they're just dull and uncustomized. But, when it comes to extreme cooling solutions like the Windforce cooler, I'm all in. The card stays super cool when overclocked thanks to the Windforce cooler which also features software-controlled RGB illumination on both the windforce emblem and the triple fan assembly. This is a must-have feature for any serious gamer or VR enthusiast.

My trusty sidekick has been H series AO coolers in my personal desktop since 2011, and unlike a homeless guy named Chuck, they've never taken a leak on me. I'm looking forward to dialing in some cool overclocks with their latest 240mm model. While the cooler already looks pretty badass, I will be swapping out the stock radiator fans for these SP 1220s hopefully Corsair won't be mad that I ditched them for themselves.

Storage is a crucial component of any high-performance system. In my case, I've chosen to stay away from mechanical drives altogether to improve Acoustics and reduce loading times. After all, by the time I'm done waiting for the Oculus Rift to arrive, I won't have any patience left for my games to load. The Crucial MX200 is a great bang-for-the-buck option that delivers outstanding performance consistency and reliability, available for as low as 29 cents per gigabyte.

Powering the system is EVGA's GQ 650W power supply, which sports a semi-modular design with a quiet 130mm fan. But what's even quieter than that? No fan at the back of the power supply is an Eco switch that enables fanless mode for zero RPM silent operation. The unit includes flat black cables for easy and attractive Cable Management while carrying an 80+ certification for gold-rated efficiency.

One of the components I'm most excited to work with today is the Corsair Carbide Series 600c case. This latest addition features a latch side panel window for creeping on your hardware, an inverted internal layout that flips the components upside down, and benefits include direct airflow, greater visibility of the graphics card, and scaring your friends into thinking you've done something horribly wrong.

The 600c delivers a substantial amount of air flow out of the box, but I couldn't help but toss some AF series fans for a more custom appearance. Winding down with some bling accessories we have an RGB LED kit and additional strip from Cable Mod to complement the lighting on our GTX 980. They've also been so kind as to supply a pack of their WH sleeved extensions, which, granted, do nothing for our frame rates but look very nice.

The total cost of all these parts with Amazon pricing comes out to $1,910 – it's not exactly an impulse buy, and your wallet will likely be offended. But hopefully, what we have here is a PC that will provide one of the most immersive and fluid VR experiences for the next few years.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, let's build a computer! Oh down down down down get down get down get down and just like that our pile of hardware has transformed into a fully operational VR system. The 600c was a piece of cake with tons of space for cable management and plenty of features to speed up the build process. The full-size case window paired with the Cable Mod strips really scores the rig some style points as well.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to play with the lights on the GTX 980 so let me know in the comments if you'd like to see a full system lighting demo in a future video. One erroneous decision I made during this build was overlooking the case's 140mm fan support at the front and replacing them with two 120s like some dirty pleb, but rest assured, a pair of SP40s should be arriving on my doorstep any minute now.

So, overall, I really like how this build turned out – with a fresh copy of Windows still yet to be installed, I'm feeling pretty confident that our new system here will do some damage in the VR space. But more than anything, I just can't wait till I can verify that for myself. That's going to do it for now guys before you go don't forget to toss me a big fat like on this video – If you enjoyed it also feel free to check the description below where you can buy an awesome sauce shirt or bookmark my Amazon affiliate link, and as always, I'm Cow with Awesome Sauce Network. Thank you guys for watching subscribe to the channel if you haven't already, and I'll see you all in the next video.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys so in case you didn't hear the news mainstream virtual reality is finally a reality I should probably cut that out as we've seen across the interwebs early adopters everywhere have already begun receiving the first retail units of the Oculus Rift with the HTC VI hot on its heels so I thought it would be fun to build a VR ready PC to celebrate what's arguably the biggest launch in gaming history since Flappy Bird now of course the term VR ready PC is very broad since any system that meets or exceeds the recommended specs for VR essentially falls into that category well the objective of today's build aims to surpass those suggested requirements in almost every area to give us some additional performance and an overall smoother VR experience for the next few years behold the highly recommended VR ready PC which will set you back just north of 1900 buckaroos now don't have a panic attack you can easily spend about half this amount and still build a VR capable machine today's system just packs in some extra horsepower to ensure our heads aren't barely above water as for for testing I actually did manage to pre-order the Oculus Rift while attending CES back in January and I would have made the first wave of shipments had I not woken up naked on Las Vegas Boulevard the morning after an unnamed industry party so as fate should have it we'll have to sit tight for now before stressing this rig in a VR environment in the meantime let me know in the comments if you want to see some non-vr benchmarks and I'll get right on it on that note that's enough rambling for me I think VR prices have already fallen so without further Ado let's dive into the hardware we'll be using for today's build for our CPU I've chosen the Intel Core i 56600 k Oculus and HTC recommend a COR I 54590 or better so I've gone the better route with a faster and unlock Skylake chip since our workload is mostly reliant on the GPU I refrain from spending more on a 6700k perhaps I'll do a comparison later to see what difference in i7 and hyperthreading makes with VR and direct X12 to take advantage of the cpu's overclocking capabilities I decided on the EVGA z170 for the win the all black profile is stealthier than a farted Comic-Con it also Sports a highly efficient vrm with 5-ph pwm storage options including nvme pcie and plenty of USB ports for sweet VR headset love making additional features like surface mounted power Coss and an onboard CPU temp monitor make this a motherboard I'd like to fondle for memory we have a 16 gig dual Channel kit of Corsair Dominator Platinum ddr4 at 3,000 MHz to be safe we're doubling the recommended capacity for additional Headroom and why not given the increasing affordability of ddr4 that's right I'm calling you cheap the Platinum Series is known for their intrusted reliability and performance but who am I kidding I just want something sexy to look at when I take my VR headset off the heat spreaders they're so beautiful to handle the bulk of our workload I wanted a GPU that would not only tear through the current lineup of VR games but be able to handle the next wave of titles as well so here we have the gigabyte gtx980 extreme you know they're serious when they spell extreme with an X the card stays super cool when overclocked thanks to the windforce cooler which also features software controlled RGB illumination on both the windforce emblem and the triple fan assembly I've gotten so used to seeing RGB lights on everything now that my cats are no longer cute they're just dull and uncustomized cooling R 6600 K is the h100 iv2 from Corsair I've been using H series AO coolers in my personal desktop since 2011 and unlike a homeless guy named Chuck they've never taken a leak on me so I'm looking forward to dialing in some cool overclocks with their latest 240 mm model while the cooler already looks pretty badass I will be swapping out the stock radiator fans for these SP 1220s hopefully Corsair won't be mad that I ditched them for themselves for storage I chose to stay away from mechanical drives altogether to improve Acoustics and reduce loading times after all by the time I'm done waiting for the Oculus Rift to arrive I won't have any patience left for my games to load if you're in the market for a similar setup The crucial mx200 is a great bang for the buck option that delivers outstanding performance consistency and reliability for as low as 29 cents a gig here we have 250 for our boot drive and a 1 tby model reserved for our video games powering the system is EVGA GQ 650 W power supply the unit Sports a semi-modular design with a quiet 130 mm fan but you know what's even quieter than that no fan at the back of the power supply is an Eco switch that enables fanless mode for zero RPM silent operation the unit includes flat black cables for easy and attractive Cable Management while carrying an 80 plus certification for gold rated efficiency now one of the components I'm most excited to work with today is the Corsair 600c the latest addition to the carbide series features a latch side panel window for creeping on your Hardware with an inverted internal layout that flips the components upside down benefits of this orientation include direct air flow greater visibility of the graphics card and scaring your friends into thinking you've done something horribly wrong the case delivers a substantial amount of air flow out of the box but I couldn't help but tossing some AF series fans for a more custom appearance winding down with some bling accessories we have an RGB LED kit and additional strip from cable mod to complement the lighting on our gtx980 they've also been so kind as to supply a pack of their wh sleeved extensions which granted do nothing for our frame rates but look very nice and those are all the things for the thing we're about to build and you can find links to everything in the description below at the time of making this video the total cost of all these parts with Amazon pricing comes out to $1,910 it's not exactly an Impulse by and your wallet will likely be offended and start a Facebook group but hopefully what we have here is a PC that will provide one of the most immersive and fluid VR experiences for the next few years on that note ladies and Gentlemen let's build a computer oh down down down down get down get down get down and just like that our pile of Hardware has transformed into a fully operational VR Sex Panther for the most part this was a pretty straightforward build assembly in the 600c was a piece of cake with tons of space for cable management and plenty of features to speed up the build process the full-size case window paired with the cable mod strips really scores the rig some style points as well unfortunately I didn't have time to play with the lights on the GTX 980 so let me know in the comments if you'd like to see a full system lighting demo in a future video One erroneous decision I made during this build was overlooking the cas's 140 mm fan support at the front and replacing them with two 120s like some dirty pleb but rest assured a pair of sp40s should be arriving on my doorstep any minute now so I'll be swapping those in later overall I really like how this build turned out with a fresh copy of Windows still yet to be installed I'm feeling pretty confident that our new system here will do some damage in the VR space but more than anything I just can't wait till I can verify that for myself that's going to do it for now guys before you go don't forget to toss me a big fat like on this video If you enjoyed it also feel free to check the description below where you can buy an awesome sauce shirt or bookmark my Amazon affiliate link you use it when you buy stuff as always I'm cow with awesome sauce Network thank you guys for watching subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and I'll see youall in the next videowhat's up guys so in case you didn't hear the news mainstream virtual reality is finally a reality I should probably cut that out as we've seen across the interwebs early adopters everywhere have already begun receiving the first retail units of the Oculus Rift with the HTC VI hot on its heels so I thought it would be fun to build a VR ready PC to celebrate what's arguably the biggest launch in gaming history since Flappy Bird now of course the term VR ready PC is very broad since any system that meets or exceeds the recommended specs for VR essentially falls into that category well the objective of today's build aims to surpass those suggested requirements in almost every area to give us some additional performance and an overall smoother VR experience for the next few years behold the highly recommended VR ready PC which will set you back just north of 1900 buckaroos now don't have a panic attack you can easily spend about half this amount and still build a VR capable machine today's system just packs in some extra horsepower to ensure our heads aren't barely above water as for for testing I actually did manage to pre-order the Oculus Rift while attending CES back in January and I would have made the first wave of shipments had I not woken up naked on Las Vegas Boulevard the morning after an unnamed industry party so as fate should have it we'll have to sit tight for now before stressing this rig in a VR environment in the meantime let me know in the comments if you want to see some non-vr benchmarks and I'll get right on it on that note that's enough rambling for me I think VR prices have already fallen so without further Ado let's dive into the hardware we'll be using for today's build for our CPU I've chosen the Intel Core i 56600 k Oculus and HTC recommend a COR I 54590 or better so I've gone the better route with a faster and unlock Skylake chip since our workload is mostly reliant on the GPU I refrain from spending more on a 6700k perhaps I'll do a comparison later to see what difference in i7 and hyperthreading makes with VR and direct X12 to take advantage of the cpu's overclocking capabilities I decided on the EVGA z170 for the win the all black profile is stealthier than a farted Comic-Con it also Sports a highly efficient vrm with 5-ph pwm storage options including nvme pcie and plenty of USB ports for sweet VR headset love making additional features like surface mounted power Coss and an onboard CPU temp monitor make this a motherboard I'd like to fondle for memory we have a 16 gig dual Channel kit of Corsair Dominator Platinum ddr4 at 3,000 MHz to be safe we're doubling the recommended capacity for additional Headroom and why not given the increasing affordability of ddr4 that's right I'm calling you cheap the Platinum Series is known for their intrusted reliability and performance but who am I kidding I just want something sexy to look at when I take my VR headset off the heat spreaders they're so beautiful to handle the bulk of our workload I wanted a GPU that would not only tear through the current lineup of VR games but be able to handle the next wave of titles as well so here we have the gigabyte gtx980 extreme you know they're serious when they spell extreme with an X the card stays super cool when overclocked thanks to the windforce cooler which also features software controlled RGB illumination on both the windforce emblem and the triple fan assembly I've gotten so used to seeing RGB lights on everything now that my cats are no longer cute they're just dull and uncustomized cooling R 6600 K is the h100 iv2 from Corsair I've been using H series AO coolers in my personal desktop since 2011 and unlike a homeless guy named Chuck they've never taken a leak on me so I'm looking forward to dialing in some cool overclocks with their latest 240 mm model while the cooler already looks pretty badass I will be swapping out the stock radiator fans for these SP 1220s hopefully Corsair won't be mad that I ditched them for themselves for storage I chose to stay away from mechanical drives altogether to improve Acoustics and reduce loading times after all by the time I'm done waiting for the Oculus Rift to arrive I won't have any patience left for my games to load if you're in the market for a similar setup The crucial mx200 is a great bang for the buck option that delivers outstanding performance consistency and reliability for as low as 29 cents a gig here we have 250 for our boot drive and a 1 tby model reserved for our video games powering the system is EVGA GQ 650 W power supply the unit Sports a semi-modular design with a quiet 130 mm fan but you know what's even quieter than that no fan at the back of the power supply is an Eco switch that enables fanless mode for zero RPM silent operation the unit includes flat black cables for easy and attractive Cable Management while carrying an 80 plus certification for gold rated efficiency now one of the components I'm most excited to work with today is the Corsair 600c the latest addition to the carbide series features a latch side panel window for creeping on your Hardware with an inverted internal layout that flips the components upside down benefits of this orientation include direct air flow greater visibility of the graphics card and scaring your friends into thinking you've done something horribly wrong the case delivers a substantial amount of air flow out of the box but I couldn't help but tossing some AF series fans for a more custom appearance winding down with some bling accessories we have an RGB LED kit and additional strip from cable mod to complement the lighting on our gtx980 they've also been so kind as to supply a pack of their wh sleeved extensions which granted do nothing for our frame rates but look very nice and those are all the things for the thing we're about to build and you can find links to everything in the description below at the time of making this video the total cost of all these parts with Amazon pricing comes out to $1,910 it's not exactly an Impulse by and your wallet will likely be offended and start a Facebook group but hopefully what we have here is a PC that will provide one of the most immersive and fluid VR experiences for the next few years on that note ladies and Gentlemen let's build a computer oh down down down down get down get down get down and just like that our pile of Hardware has transformed into a fully operational VR Sex Panther for the most part this was a pretty straightforward build assembly in the 600c was a piece of cake with tons of space for cable management and plenty of features to speed up the build process the full-size case window paired with the cable mod strips really scores the rig some style points as well unfortunately I didn't have time to play with the lights on the GTX 980 so let me know in the comments if you'd like to see a full system lighting demo in a future video One erroneous decision I made during this build was overlooking the cas's 140 mm fan support at the front and replacing them with two 120s like some dirty pleb but rest assured a pair of sp40s should be arriving on my doorstep any minute now so I'll be swapping those in later overall I really like how this build turned out with a fresh copy of Windows still yet to be installed I'm feeling pretty confident that our new system here will do some damage in the VR space but more than anything I just can't wait till I can verify that for myself that's going to do it for now guys before you go don't forget to toss me a big fat like on this video If you enjoyed it also feel free to check the description below where you can buy an awesome sauce shirt or bookmark my Amazon affiliate link you use it when you buy stuff as always I'm cow with awesome sauce Network thank you guys for watching subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and I'll see youall in the next video\n"