What would I need to upgrade my boyfriend's computer for VR?

[darcy.walsh]

Hey! So, I'm wondering if anyone could help me with what I'd need to purchase as a gift for my boyfriend to upgrade his pc.
We own an HTC Vive, but I know what we're running it off probably isn't giving us the best experience we could be getting. Please excuse my lack of knowledge about computers, I'll try to keep up. It's running on a FX-8350 with 8GB of ram. We did upgrade the graphics card to a GTX 1070 when we bought the Vive, so that part should be okay, and I know there are plenty of hard drives in it.. assuming if I switched from AMD to Intel they would still be compatible? (this is literally how little I know). If I wanted to upgrade him to like an i5? i7? how many parts and pieces would I be looking at buying to make that happen? Basically, what should I be putting in my cart on Aamzon? Preferably something well suited for the Vive. I have a decent budget to work with, whatever is needed within reason. I hope this makes any amount of sense. Cheers!

 

[Wolfshadw]

Your boyfriend's system already meets or exceed the recommended system requirements for the HTC Vive. That said, there is room for improvements. The question is, "how much are you willing to spend?". A decent upgrade is probably going to run you at least $400 or up to and over $1000.

At a minimum, you're looking at a complete core system upgrade. That's the motherboard, CPU, and RAM. You can go with either AMD's Ryzen series or with Intel's latest Core I-series.

Whenever changing hardware like this, it's always recommended to reinstall the operating system (OS) as well. Depending on your current OS, you may need to purchase a new license as well.

There are some other "nice to haves" (SSD?) as well, but again, it all boils down to how much you're willing to spend.

-Wolf sends