After what seemed like an eternity, Oculus finally opened preorders for the consumer version of its Rift last month. But the $599 virtual reality headset still requires a powerful computer to jump into digital worlds.
So Oculus partnered with some PC makers to offer bundled machines up to the task, which will be available for preorder starting Feb. 16 at 8 a.m. Pacific. The bundles include a Rift, tracking system, Xbox controller, two games and a capable computer. And users who already preordered a Rift can get a discount on the spec’ed-out PCs.
There will be five “Oculus Ready” PC bundles available for preorder next week, including options from Alienware, Asus and Dell. More computers will be added to the program as time goes on.
The cheapest PC bundle—a $1,499 ASUS G11CD—comes with a Skylake Intel Core i5 processor, Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics card and 8GB of memory. Of course, there are more expensive options, like the Alienware Area 51 for $3,150 with an Intel Core i7, Nvidia GTX 980 graphics card and 16GB of memory.
Preorders will be available from Amazon, Best Buy and Microsoft starting next Tuesday. You can check out the full starting lineup over at the Oculus blog.
