Oculus reveals first “Oculus Ready” PCs, in bundles starting at $1,499

Asus, Dell, and Alienware towers certified to run virtual reality.

Kyle Orland – Feb 9, 2016 6:34 PM | 129

Last month when Oculus announced the surprising $599 price for its Rift virtual reality headset, the company also promised upcoming bundles that would include the Rift and a PC that has been certified as "Oculus Ready." Today, Oculus revealed details of the first branded PCs in that Oculus Ready line, which will be available for pre-order in bundles with the Rift headset that start at $1,499.

At the low end of the line, the ASUS G11CD, Alienware X51 R3, and Dell XPS 8900 SE all barely squeak by with Oculus' recommended specs for the Rift. Those low-end Oculus Ready towers all sport an Nvidia GTX 970 graphics card, 8GB of RAM, and Intel i5 processors and sell for $1,499 to $1,599 when bundled with a Rift.

At the high end of the line, the Oculus Ready Alienware Area 51 has an Nvidia GTX 980, 16GB of RAM, and an i7 processor for a whopping $2,549 MSRP (and that's before you purchase the Rift). Asus and Alienware also offer a few Oculus Ready options somewhere in the middle of the price/power continuum.

Ars Video

Best Buy, Amazon, and the Microsoft Store will all start taking pre-orders on Rift-and-PC bundles starting on February 16, ahead of shipping to "select countries" in April (Best Buy currently lists an April 23 ship date). Bundling the PC with a Rift brings anywhere from $100 to $200 in savings off the base a la carte price for the hardware, according to the unbundled MSRPs listed on Oculus' and retailers' websites. Those who already ordered a Rift headset separately will receive offer codes to claim the same bundled savings if they subsequently buy an Oculus Ready PC.

Do-it-yourselfers who scrounge around part-picking websites may be able to get a slightly better deal on an extremely bare-bones PC that can power the Oculus Rift, but the bundled savings mean these Oculus Ready towers actually provide some decent value for the money. The Oculus Ready line should also provide an easy, "all-in" solution for eager virtual reality early adopters that have more curiosity than hardware-building prowess.

Compared to the sticker shock that accompanied the $599 Rift announcement, Oculus did a good job telegraphing the pricing for these lower-end Oculus Ready PC bundles. Last May, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe said in an interview that, for such a bundle, "at most you should be in that $1,500 range." Thanks for the warning.

The full details on the first Oculus Ready PCs can be seen in the images below, straight from Oculus' website.