Nothing but clear skies all the way with this VR-ready PC
With the new generation of virtual reality systems now available, PC suppliers have to up the ante in terms of desktop performance to comfortably cope with the high-resolution virtual worlds delivered by the likes of the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. It’s not an easy task, and there’s a fine balance between building a VR-ready system and one that’s still affordable.
Zoostorm seems to have hit the nail on the head, though, with the launch of its Stormforce 805 VR Ready Gaming and Media Desktop. It comes with an Intel i7-6700K overclocked to 4.4GHz, a Thermaltake Water 3.0 Pro liquid CPU cooler, an eyewatering 32GB of DDR4 memory, a 512GB M.2 SSD for Windows 10 and a further 4TB WD Blue mechanical hard drive.
Graphics come courtesy of an Nvidia GTX 980 Ti with 6GB of GDDR5 memory from KFA2, and running at the stock 1000MHz GPU clock, with a boost to 1076MHz, together with a memory clock of 1753MHz. That’s more than enough to drive high graphical settings in every game currently available, and crucially it’s plenty to run VR games too.
In terms of performance, our 3D Mark 11 test of the Stormforce 805 returned an impressive score of 17,898, which one of the fastest we’ve seen from a single-GPU system. For the VR side of things, that’s more than 5,000 points more than the recommended minimum.
We were also lucky enough to get hold of a HTC Vive, and running the likes of Elite: Dangerous, Space Pirate Trainer and Call of the Starseed was an incredible experience, as was The Lab. The Stormforce 805 handled everything perfectly well, and aside from the VR aspect, it ran every game in our library at the highest possible settings without any performance problems.
However, it’s not just the specification that impresses us. The Stormforce 805 is also one the most eye-catching and well presented PCs we’ve reviewed. The In Win 805 chassis, with its tempered-glass side panels, black brushed aluminium case and honeycomb-styled front panel all combine to great effect.
The two 120mm front fans emit a red glow, which neatly lights up the front panel, and inside you see a good degree of craftsmanship when it comes to the design and cable management.
There’s room for upgrading too. The good choice of ASRock Z170 Pro4S is an ideal motherboard to base this PC on, especially since it features an Ultra M.2 socket. The ATTO benchmark saw the 512GB SSD return a write speed of 458MB/s and a read speed of 541MB/s in the 8192KB test.
The Zoostorm Stormforce 805 costs £1,599.99, and while that may seem like a lot to spend on a single desktop, consider the specification, design and build quality of this PC. It’s more than enough for the next generation of gaming, as well as virtual reality. On the whole, the price isn’t too bad for a machine of this calibre.
If you’re serious about taking your gaming to the next level, then you can't go wrong with the Stormforce 805 in your arsenal. David Hayward
A superb gaming and media PC.