New laptop/desk top

[BenD]

laptops are great for portability. i have a laptop and a desktop but. what heppens if say 6 months down the line you decided i really wanna try vr with the laptop your limited to the upgrades that you can do where as if you buy a half decent desktop from the likes of overclockers or scan theres room to upgrade the internal components mainly the graphics card. im not saying laptops are a bad idea but to get the same type of performance in a laptop that will last you your going to be spending big pennies. and anyone who tells you that either can be future proof is not telling the truth as the tech changes so so fast in the pc component world. just soemthing to think about. laptop wise your still going to be looking at expensive laptops but i can see where your coming from being able to use it where ever.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-gl62mvr-nvidia-gtx-1060-3gb-gddr5-15.6-fhd-intel-i5-7300hq-gaming-laptop-lt-26s-ms.html

id be looking at something like that which would enable you to use vr id of thought

[BenD]

id also add this is all in my own opinion. im not a professional pc builder but have been building them for around 15 years. one of the biggest problems the same with anything is you get to a certain price level and the specs arent that different from the next model down and when your looking at the differences your chasing milliseconds.

if it were me and i was looking at builiding a system to do what you wanted

a few main specs id be looking at

id be looking for a 3.0ghz processor or above so your not stressing it all the time, a minimum 2gb graphics card but would opt for a 3gb with gddr5 if possible and a hdmi port if you looking to go vr . id want a minium of 8gb of ram but a minimum clock speed of 2400mhz and decent brand like corsair, id also want a small ssd drive for the operating sytem but being as you dont intend on running any other games or anything you could get away with sticking your simulator on it also the case needs to be able to fit the graphcs card as some of them are massive so bear that in mind and then your going to need something like a 600watt power suplly with dedicated 12volt rails for the graphics card. and then youll need a mother board to fit the correct processor socket and again a decent brand i tend to stick with msi ive had the same board for over 6 years and its still going strong. like i say though all in my own opinion

[Peter (Monty)]

Ben is right, you'll get a hell of a lot more PC for £800 than you will in a laptop. If this is meant for use at home, and you have space for a computer desk, I would thoroughly recommend buying or building a desktop. Laptops are a compromise, you pay for that portability with performance particularly as their cooling capacity is always limited. As said the other huge advantage with a desktop is that you can upgrade components as you see fit.

I built my gaming PC in 2011 for around £1200. Not an insignificant amount but probably half what the same specs would have cost in a factory built one, and 7 years later it can still run brand new high-end games on medium graphics, the graphics card being the only limiting factor. I used an i5 2500K which is a 3.3GHz quad core, but I've overclocked it to 4.0GHz before without issue, so it's still perfectly capable.

The only upgrade I've done since then is an updated CPU cooler which was about £35. I'm finally thinking about upgrading the graphics card which will revitalise it for another several years for a couple of hundred pounds.

SSD is a good shout, they have become way more affordable in recent years, that's the other upgrade I've been considering.

If you head down this route I'm happy to help with component selection or any other questions, let me know.

[Peter Robinson]

Www.novatech.co UK 

These have the spec your looking for

[Vogalogue]

On ‎04‎/‎06‎/‎2018 at 13:01, Peter (Monty) said:

You can build a perfectly capable desktop for way less than a factory built one and it's so easy these days. I've built 3 or 4 PCs now and usually just get all the parts off Amazon.

Really?

I thought those days had passed, the mid range pre assembled ones are so cheap, you simply can't get the parts at the price if you are bot buying in volume.

That said I tend to build with "enthusiast grade" stuff... which tends to get a bit silly.

[Vogalogue]

Re Laptops and desktops, I'll echo the above, if you don't need to use it out and about get a desktop. you get a lot more bang for your buck, you can make them a lot quieter, and sit and use it with better posture.

I have a Work provided laptop, but 99% of the time I use it via remote desktop on my PC... its means less clutter, and I can put it at the other end of the house so I can't hear the fans!

[Ianboom]

I'm still undecided what to do!

I've spoken to another guy who has The Oculus Rift headset and he says it's really good and to go for the top spec, but for an RC helicopter simulator, it's not worth the extra £700.

I think my best plan is to get a desktop that will run my sim but buy one that can be upgraded, so possibly a top spec motherboard/processor, but without the extra memory and video board??

[Peter (Monty)]

Sounds alright, although I suspect your simulator may struggle a little using integrated graphics.

Step one is decide how much you're willing to spend, otherwise it can get out of hand very quickly. The budget will rule out some options immediately.

[BenD]

once you get to a certain stage also you can be chasing milliseconds of perfromance and it can cost thousands. if it were me id buy one capable of doing the vr and be done with it lol worry about paying for it another day