Local shops say my 2019 PC needs a full rebuild for VRChat + FBT + Bigscreen Beyond. Are they ripping me off?
- Budget: ~$1,500 CAD maximum for upgrades (Prefer to spend less if possible)
- Currency: CAD (Canadian Dollars)
- Country: Canada
- Intended Display Resolution: VR Headset (Bigscreen Beyond 2e running at 2560 x 2560 pixels per eye dual-display).
- Intent: Component upgrade advice vs. Buying a pre-built [1]
Hey everyone,
I’m looking to upgrade my 2019 gaming PC to handle a very specific VR use case. I play VRChat with Full-Body Tracking (FBT) via SteamVR base stations and a Rebuff Reality 4-port hub. I am strictly capping my lobbies to a maximum of 16 people in an instance, and I use a Bigscreen Beyond 2e headset. I want a smooth, locked frame rate with no tracking stutters.
I talked to a couple of local computer repair shops about an upgrade, but both told me I cannot upgrade my PC and that I need to buy a brand-new $3,000 system. One shop claimed my motherboard is missing a "PC1 or plug-in bottleneck" for the GPU/headset, and the other said my 2019 SSD is "too old" and past its lifetime so the whole PC needs to be replaced.
I’m feeling a bit lazy and wanted a simple plug-and-play upgrade path with minimal downtime, but I feel like I'm being aggressively upsold on things I don't need.
My Current 2019 PC Specs:
- Motherboard: MSI B450 Tomahawk Max (AM4 platform)
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- GPU: EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 Super
- RAM: 32GB DDR4 (Verified 4x8GB configuration, running fine)
- PSU: Corsair CX 650W Bronze
- Case: Fractal Design Focus G Case
The Upgrade Plan I Had in Mind:
Instead of a full rebuild, I wanted to buy individual parts online and just pay a flat labor fee for a shop to drop them in:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D (Drop-in upgrade for my B450 board after a BIOS flash to handle VRChat scripts and FBT IK tracking).
- GPU: Nvidia RTX 4070 Super 12GB (To drive the high resolution of the Bigscreen Beyond headset).
- PSU: Corsair RM750e 750W Gold (To safely handle the new GPU's power spikes).
My Questions for Reddit:
- Is it true that a 2019 NVMe SSD and a PCIe 3.0 B450 motherboard will bottleneck an RTX 4070 Super so badly that I need to throw them away and spend thousands on a new rig?
- Will the 5700X3D + 4070 Super combo actually give me a smooth, stutter-free FBT experience if I strictly stick to my 16-player world limit?
- If the shops are wrong, should I just buy the three parts myself online and force a repair desk to do a flat-rate labor install, or is it worth looking for a different independent technician who won't try to gatekeep a basic drop-in upgrade?
Thanks for any insight!