Oculus VR announced today that pre-orders for a series of PC bundles designed for its VR headset will begin February 16, to make sure your rig is 100% Rift-ready the easy way.
The bundles will include "Oculus Ready" PCs from Alienware, Asus and Dell that meet the demanding recommended specifications for the Oculus Rift, and will be available from Amazon, Best Buy and Microsoft Stores.
Prices will start at $1,499 (about £1,036, AU$2,120), going up to more than $3,000 (about £2,073, AU$4,245). On its own, the Oculus Rift costs $599 (£499, AU$649).
The bundles will be available in select countries and only in limited quantities, Oculus said in a blog post, and will begin shipping in April. Meanwhile, the Rift is set to start shipping late March.
Is your PC VR ready?
Both the Oculus Rift and its closest competitor, the HTC Vive headset, require powerful PC hardware to ensure everything runs smoothly. This means that, while neither will be as accessible as Google Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR, either will make for a much more immersive experience.
For the bundles offered on the lowest end, you get an Asus-made case with a sixth-generation Intel Core i5 processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics card, 8GB of memory and a 1TB hard drive (HDD). On the highest end, you get a Dell-made Alienware chassis with a current Intel Core i7 chip, a GTX 980 GPU and 16GB of memory – plus, both a 128GB solid-state drive and 2TB HDD.
If you've already pre-ordered a Rift, but want to upgrade to a bundle as well, Oculus will provide you with a discount code to use toward purchasing one of the PCs. The code will be available on your order page on February 16, and chances are you're going to want it.
