New Extremely High-End VR Sim Racing Build

[PogMoThoin22]

All this gear is on the way, some bits have started to arrive today so I'm getting excited. Follow along if you've an interest in top quality builds!

This is an extremely high-end VR sim racing build with carefully selected components for top performance, thermals, and quiet operation. The HAVN HS 420 VGPU case, teamed with a Ryzen 9 9950X3D and a GeForce RTX 5090, is built to handle demanding VR workloads—including the Pimax Crystal Super I'm intending to buy in future—while maintaining cool and quiet operation thanks to its airflow-focused design and premium cooling setup.
https://pimax.com/products/pimax-crystal-super

This video shows the design I'm looking for, Black with white LED. You can't buy white led fans anymore so I had to get RGB, I've no interest in other colours though I've had ~20 years of RGB lighting.





HAVN HS 420 VGPU Case
The HAVN HS 420 VGPU is praised for outstanding build quality, excellent GPU thermals, and innovative design engineered for vertical GPU mounting. Its cable management, airflow system (including a glass airflow curve), and overall accessibility provide a genuinely premium build experience. It’s currently one of the best enthusiast cases for high-performance and visually appealing builds. Excellent case cooling ensures long sim sessions remain quiet, with minimal thermal throttling. It also comes with a GPU vertical mount that supports PCIe gen5.0, most on the market only support PCIe4.0
https://www.caseking.de/en/havn-hs-420- ... V-004.html
https://havn.global/products/hs-420-vgpu

Gigabyte X870E AORUS Elite WIFI7 Motherboard
This new-gen board ensures top performance, wide compatibility, and future readiness for gaming and workstation tasks, supporting PCIe Gen5.0 graphics and ultra-fast M.2 SSDs. I need X870e to support PCIe Gen5 on the 5090!
https://amzn.eu/d/22Sfn8R

Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU
The Ryzen 9 9950X3D delivers best-in-class gaming and VR performance with 16 cores, 32 threads, and 128MB L3 cache. In VR racing and other intensive loads. It is ideal for a RTX 5090. I don't need 16 cores but coming from an Intel i7 10700K with 8 cores a 9800X3D with 8 cores didn't feel like an upgrade so I splashed out on the top dog!
https://amzn.eu/d/isx0r23

64GB TeamGroup DDR5 RAM
64GB TeamGroup DDR5 6000MHz RAM: Huge capacity and speed for multitasking, sim software, telemetry, streaming, etc. Same as before, I don't need 64GB but coming from 32GB I went for 64GB. They say 6000MHz is the sweet spot for modern AMD auto overclocking and Team Group are the top officially supported brand.
https://www.memoryc.com/72532-64gb-team ... x32gb.html

1TB NVMe SSD
Crucial T705 1TB Gen5 NVMe SSD: Blazing fast storage for ultra-low load times. This is solely for the OS, I already have a 4TB PCIe Gen4 for games and have both Nextcloud and TrueNAS for local network storage so I don't need more space. Reviews have this as one of the fastest of the new generation SSDs available.
https://amzn.eu/d/bjwIMse

1200W PSU
BeQuiet Straight Power 12 1200W PSU: Reliable, efficient, and powerful for stability and future-proofing.
https://amzn.eu/d/3KvTffA

RTX 5090 32GB
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5090 Windforce OC 32G: Absolute top-tier GPU for VR, with enough memory and horsepower for any current/future sim or VR game at ultra settings. It's a monster!
https://www.caseking.de/en/gigabyte-gef ... B-544.html

AIO CPU Cooler (3x 140mm fans)
Phanteks Glacier One 420D30 X2 DRGB AIO: Quiet, powerful cooling, fits perfectly with the HAVN case’s airflow design.
https://www.caseking.de/en/phanteks-gla ... E-949.html

CASE Cooling (5x 140mm fans)
Phanteks M25 Gen2 PWM DRGB fans: High airflow, low acoustic fans; both standard and reverse blades for optimized cooling routes. Some are reverse fans so there's no label visible when you install them to intake.
https://www.caseking.de/en/phanteks-m25 ... H-113.html
https://www.caseking.de/en/phanteks-m25 ... H-106.html
https://www.caseking.de/en/phanteks-m25 ... H-111.html

[NattyO]

I know absolutely nothing about building PC's, but one of my sons built a high-end liquid-cooled PC for gaming a couple of years ago, I'll send this to him as he may be interested in commenting. We weren't sorry to see the back of it when he moved out to go to college, as he might as well have set up a weed farm for the amount of electricity it used!

[PogMoThoin22]

Yeah, I'm in my 50s and still have a massive interest in tech. We got solar with a battery to tackle my growing electricity demand between gaming and a self hosted home lab (3x mini Pcs, rackmount router, 24port switch and PoE switch), my home consumes about 300W with nobody home

[NattyO]

Same vintage as myself so - I'm actually at the planning stage of building a large battery system myself, with the intention of making my house grid independent (I'll still stay on grid, but with the option to go off grid if I choose).

[Fratello]

Building a PC wouldn't be my thing but that looks like a great project.

I'm looking at a refurb of a 1982 amplifier. I rescued it in about 2000 and repaired a broken pcb and other stuff at that time. Hoping to notice a dufference. Makes no ecconomic sense but will keep me amused for a few evenings.

[PogMoThoin22]

I built every 10 years, then I buy upgrade kit (mobo, cpu + ram) every few years and new GPU every second generation. This time I'm buying a massive case and 1200W PSU. The fans are all 140mm not the usual 120. And the AIO water cooler is 420 (3x140mm), in comparrison my current Lenovo has a 240 (2x120) cooler. The Case, power supply, drives and SSD will last many builds and could last 10 years.

The last time I bought Lenovo pre build as there was a shortage of GPUs the time after Covid. It was €1600 for GPU at the time but €2200 for full PC. My upgrade path is fucked with the Lenovo though, it only has 850W PSU and proprietary case internals. The only thing I'm transferring is a $TB SSD I have for games.

I'm passing the Lenovo (i7 10700K, 32GB Ram, RTX 3080) to my 11 year old Son as his first PC. He has a SteamDeck, but I'd prefer if he was tinkering with a PC. My elder son (26) became a software dev after he was introduced to a PC at an early age

[knownunknown]

How far are you going with this? Will you have the oculus, and all the haptic feedback stuff like foot pedals and chair? It can get very expensive

[PogMoThoin22]

How far are you going with this? Will you have the oculus, and all the haptic feedback stuff like foot pedals and chair? It can get very expensive

Already deep deep down that rabbit hole mate with a 9Nm moza wheelbase, 2 wheels (round and GT butterfly), 3 pedals, H shifter, sequential shifter, handbrake, a full cockpit with bass shakers front and rear, haptic shakers on the pedals, Quest 2 and 3, and even a wind simulator to cool me down in the headset.

I'll post a pic later

[PogMoThoin22]

[knownunknown]

Fairly epic alright

[PogMoThoin22]

My packages got delayed by going to different depots, I got most of the gear yesterday but missing a package with GPU and case fans but it all arrived today (Friday). So I had a decent start made Thursday with the PSU and mobo with ram and cpu fitted and the case connections done. I have it together now and booting but I'm shattered so will install the OS tomorrow. I need to nip out in the morning get an 8GB USB key as the one I have is write protected.

The case is an engineering masterpiece, the first time I've not needed to use a single cable tie. I have velcro strip in the car but didn't need that either. I'll get it running and post some pics when I can control the fan colour in software. It's bloody massive, bigger than I even expected.

I'll get some decent pics when I have it sorted

[knownunknown]

8 case fans, 1 for cpu and two with extenders for the racing experience, it’s going to get loud in there but I guess that adds to the experience

/jealous

[PogMoThoin22]

The CPU is water cooled The 3 top fans are attached to a radiator.



https://www.caseking.de/en/phanteks-gla ... E-949.html

The case and rad fans barely spin, less than 900RPM for the system fans as they're 140mm not the usual 120mm and linked to the case temp. It's whisper quiet on idle. The CPU didn't go above 65' on a 15 minute CPU torture test. Of course the GPU fans are the ones that do ramp up, but when I'm racing I don't care about noise, all I can hear is car noise and wind from the wind sim