Virtual reality has hit the home in a big way, but unless you have been saving up your hard-earned for some time, it might be that it’s just that little bit too unaffordable.
If this is the case, then it’s worth checking out the below HTC Vive Black Friday deals - which shave a nice chunk of change off the HTC Vive and the PC rig you need to power the thing.
If you haven’t heard, the HTC Vive is currently the best way to get VR in the home. It’s certainly not the cheapest, but it has the power to produce stunning virtual reality vistas, has the backing of some mighty games publishers and the hardware is the most polished around.
Black Friday Quick Links:
- Amazon Black Friday
- John Lewis Black Friday
- Currys Black Friday
- Argos Black Friday
- Tesco direct Black Friday
- Boots Black Friday
- Debenhams Black Friday
- Carphone Warehouse Black Friday
- Mobiles.co.uk Black Friday
- Mobile Phones Direct Black Friday
Here are some of the bits of kit for your HTC Vive rig that you should look out for on Black Friday…
An HTC Vive
Yeah, a bit obvious we know, but you definitely need the HTC Vive if you want an HTC Vive rig in your home. Duh. Currently, there is only one version of the Vive available - but that’s no bad thing because it is a 5-star product. According to our resident VR nut Nick Pino: “Pure and simple, the HTC Vive is awesome. It’s pure, objective proof that entertainment isn't done evolving.”
The actual quality of the HTC Vive will very much determine what your PC setup is like, so we recommend you look at the following...
A decent graphics card
The specs for the HTC Vive recommend the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 480, equivalent or better.
Both cards are excellent in their own right, so it’s really down to taste and PC preference which one you go for. We reckon that the GTX 1060 is “one of Nvidia's best price-to-performance cards ever”, while its rival the RX 480 offers “another value-driven card that delivers the goods."
A fantastic processor
When it comes to the brains of your VR setup, an Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350 processor, equivalent or better, is needed. To make sure you have made the right choice, it’s worth checking out our Best CPU Guide, where we breakdown the benefits of Intel and AMD.
As Desire Athow points out: “You would likely be disappointed if you handed over a small fortune just to build a machine exclusively for cranking out documents. Likewise, thinking you could save money by skimping on the CPU in your gaming rig would be an equally misguided decision.”
A nice chunk of RAM
HTC recommends that you have at least 4GB of RAM in your machine. While most machines should have this, if yours doesn’t then we have the guide for you.
Everything you need to know about upgrading your RAM will hold your hand through the RAM upgrading process and make sure that you get more bang for your buck when it comes to your gaming setup.
Or, check out these 3 ready made gaming machines
If you don’t fancy putting your own PC together for the HTC Vive, then it’s recommended that you check out the following gaming PCs...
1. HP Envy Phoenix
Primed for VR, the HP Envy Phoenix packs mountains of storage, memory, ports and over-clocking capability. It’s also liquid cooled, which is, er, the coolest way to make sure your PC doesn’t overheat.
Alienware Aurora R5
The Alienware Aurora R5 is a lean, mean gaming machine. It’s VR ready and offers high-end gaming at a fair price. As Kevin Lee notes in our review: “The Alienware Aurora R5 is a gorgeous and well-planned system light on space and price, but heavy on power and potential."
MSI GT80
The MSI GT80 is so powerful that it’s like a foldable desktop. Not only is it equipped with an Intel i7 processor and two NVIDIA cards, it also picks up geek points because it has a mechanical keyboard - not that you will be tapping away on the machine, as you will be using it to get into the world of VR!
In our review we said: “After you double down on a truly expensive piece of tech, there's no better feeling than knowing it can easily take on everything you throw at it.”
- Best Black Friday deals 2016: grab a bargain, you deserve it.
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