I built my current PC in 2022. Did you build yours or buy it? A few years ago, GPUs were so fucking expensive that I almost didn't bother building. Luckily I found what I was looking for online and it was expensive but it was bundled with a 2TB SSD. So it was like 800, but at the time, a GTX 3070ti was going for that and more on it's own on eBay and other retailers. I think I spent just under 3k on my setup, which also included new monitors, keyboard, mouse, speakers, stuff like that. It was probably closer to 22-2300 in 2022 on my actual PC, which is:
GTX 3070ti
ASUS board - z490, which is also a gaming one
32 GB RAM
i9 10 core
Mine
is liquid cooled, which is the first time I've ever gone that route. No complaints though because I can put this thing through hell (i.e. any modern game on ultra settings, and it stays nice and cool -- and quiet as a mouse to boot due to a nice big tower and lots of quiet fans).
I don't really do any VR, though I have been tossing around the idea of getting a Quest 3 because I have a friend who really wants to play horror VR stuff like Phasmophobia as a group. Plus I love escape rooms and shit like that and I know there's some VR stuff that fits that bill. I probably will get one eventually. As my buddy said to me, "well, you could just buy one and even if you don't enjoy VR gaming, there's always VR porn..."
I did consider building it - but there's one drawback in the UK compared to the US, and that's the lack of microcenters or any equivalent. You basically get no bundle deals, you just have to buy everything individually, which significantly impacts savings you'd otherwise make by building the PC yourself.
I basically went on PC Parts Picker after doing some research and put in what I wanted. Checked the calculated cost then went to some prebuild companies in the UK to see the difference. Ultimately it was around £100 difference, which to me wasn't enough of a cost saving to justify building it myself. Especially when I'd get a 3 year repair warranty from a prebuild company. I used a company called PCSpecialist for my last two laptops and they've been solid (second one fell all the way down a flight of stairs weeks after I received it but still never missed a beat), so I put the order through them again. Their customer service has always been great, even out of warranty, and they give the option to pay over 12 months which will help give my credit score a bit of a boost. Overall it just made sense to buy a prebuild. I got to choose all of the components, which was the main thing. You're obviously limited to what they have available, but for the important parts (CPU & GPU) they had what I wanted in a 7800x3D and 4070 Ti Super. The rest I can potentially upgrade myself if need be. I was able to opt out of having an operating system as well, which reduced the cost by a good £100+.
I think I likely kept cost down by not requiring any new hard drives (will just transfer my existing SSDs to the new PC), monitors (I only game in VR really, Football Manager aside, so the monitor doesn't matter), mice, speakers, keyboards, etc. I don't want or need to upgrade any of those components, I just need the base unit and I'm good.
I may still consider liquid cooling depending on how temps play out on this build. From what I've read the 7800x3D runs on really low wattage (something like 80w) and is generally very power efficient, so a 250w air cooler should be more than enough to keep it at a decent temperature. GPU temp I'll have to keep an eye on, but hopefully that'll be reasonable as well. I'm not really a hardcore gamer in any sense, it'll just be an occasional VR session which typically doesn't last much more than an hour or two. Granted I've had some GTA V VR sessions that have lasted 5 or 6 hours, and back in the day with Elite Dangerous as well, but it's the exception rather than the norm. Elite I was never much good at, so that didn't last too long
problem with Elite in VR is that when you go on long trips you still have the headset on - it's not like when you're playing it on desktop and you can go and do something else on a separate monitor and keep an eye on the Elite window. I did at one point find a cool add-on which let you have facebook, youtube etc in the cockpit, which meant I could entertain myself on some journeys. Unfortunately the add in was ultimately a bit unstable, but when it worked it was very cool.
I've really enjoyed the Quest 2 - haven't got the 3 yet, but may do if it comes on sale at any point. I'd definitely recommend getting a Q3 if the opportunity arises, especially as you've got a solid spec PC. That opens the PCVR market up to you, which has some truly incredible experiences like Half Life Alyx and Elite Dangerous. Even VRChat can be mindblowing. Some guy created a world which is basically the FF7 Remake game areas imported into VRChat, and it's absolutely incredible. A lot of the best experiences are kind of old now, going back to 2017/2018 period, but if you've never experienced VR they will still be awesome. Especially Elite... that's just out of this world - literally as well as figuratively. Stuff like using VR Cinema and VR YouTube is pretty cool as well. GTA V in VR is insane, albeit there's a bit of work involved in getting it set up. Basically you have to download and install an old version of the game with online removed, then apply a mod patch. Once it's done then it's all good, and even though it's not an official VR game, as the mod is unofficial, it's the game I've spent the most time in by far. It's just amazing. I can't even play it flatscreen anymore.
Another cool little program, totally free, is EmuVR. Basically allows you to set up a teenage bedroom with old school TV, consoles, etc. You can put your own posters on the wall as well. From here you can watch TV (import media files into a folder and they become VHS cassettes in the game) or play on one of the old consoles. It's absolutely one of my favourite VR experiences, but only available on PCVR. Robo Recall and Google Earth are both amazing as well.
As far as VR Porn is concerned, I did test it out of curiosity and it is pretty cool in the way many VR videos are, but I've never actually made any use of it. I think it'd be too weird with the headset on, obscuring my view of everything around me, lol. All of the videos I have are just standard VR videos I found on YouTube, etc. These can also be very fun, especially if at a high resolution.
