Category: Overclockers UK

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Overclockers UK Celebrates 20th Anniversary By Knocking £120 off Vive Cosmos

This year the HTC Vive range of virtual reality (VR) headsets will be growing thank to new faceplates for the Vive Cosmos. Before things get a little too confusing there are some deals currently available for UK customers wishing to step into the Vive ecosystem, with Overclockers UK offering the biggest saving yet on the Vive Cosmos.

Vive Cosmos

The online PC specialist retailer is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a sale, discounting loads of products in the process. It just so happens that the Vive Cosmos headset is the only one in the sale, with Overclockers UK reducing the cost by £120 GBP when you enter promocode COSMOS120 at the checkout. This drops the price from £699 down to £579, a bigger saving than the previous Black Friday which only saw a £100 saving.

Certainly the best deal yet for the headset but it’s still way above main competitor, Oculus Rift S at £399. Both have done away with external sensors, offering customers easy to use inside-out tracking – Vive Cosmos boasts a 6-lens system over Rift S’ 4 cameras. One of Vive Cosmos’ main features is its modular front faceplate system with several variants announced last week.

Apart from the standard Vive Cosmos, the company will be releasing a further three models to be sold in bundles and just the faceplates themselves. The Vive Cosmos Elite offers both inside-out and external tracking capabilities using SteamVR base stations, the Vive Cosmos XR is for mixed reality (MR) use cases while the baby of the bunch the Vive Cosmos Play will be the cheapest entry – a price has yet to be confirmed.

HTC Vive Pro

Or if you’ve been thinking about upgrading your PC the Overclockers UK’s sale might be a good time to look for parts, VR-compatible GPU’s in particular. The Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 Super is currently £299.99 rather than £359.99 or how about the Asus RADEON RX 5700 XT for £349.99, down from £479.99.

If you head on over the HTC Vive’s website then you can always save £220 on the HTC Vive Pro Starter Kit which was £1,119, and now retails for £899.

VRFocus will continue to bring you the latest VR deals and updates from HTC Vive.

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Pre-Orders for TPCAST Oculus Rift Adaptor Now Available

Last month Chinese wireless technology company TPCAST made the surprise announcement that it was working on a version of its adaptor for Oculus Rift. At the time the company said it planned on launching the device by the end of Q4 2017. Now PC components retailer Overclockers UK has TPCAST listed on its website to pre-order for £349.99 GBP.

Whilst this is the first indication of an official price – very much similar to the HTC Vive version – Overclockers listing doesn’t detail a more exact launch or shipping date. What it does detail are the full specifications for the TPCAST wireless adaptor and that’s included in the box.

HTC Vive TPCAST

Ever since TPCAST first announced its wireless adaptor back in 2016 as part of the Vive X Accelerator programme there’s been a lot of interest in the company due to it being the first one to seemingly solve the major issue of tethered VR headsets. It hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing since, with the device made available in China first. Over 2017 VRFocus has reported a number of times about TPCAST being made available to pre-order in North America and Europe, with shipping windows being given but not materialising.

For example in February, Vice President HTC Vive, Europe Peter Frølun confirmed to VRFocus that TPCAST would be available to order in Europe during Q2 of 2017. Then in August a release date of 1st September for Europe came to light. Yet a quick look at online retailers and TPCAST’s own website show no stock, just pre-order listings.

So at present – looking at the current state of things – either both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive versions will appear at the same time, the HTC Vive version does see a proper western release or consumers are looking at 2018 to realistically get their hands on one.

Which is a shame. While the VR PC headset market is small, and the price of TPCAST almost equals that of Oculus Rift, there will undoubtedly be consumers who are happy to pay that price for complete wireless freedom in VR.

There’s also the problem for TPCAST that it’ll lose its lead, with companies like Intel working on WiGig or DisplayLink. Plus there’s going to be a new influx of standalone headsets like Oculus Go and Vive Focus, while not as powerful as a PC-based system offer a cheaper wireless alternative.

Whatever happens with TPCast, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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Overclockers UK Release VR Ready PC and Oculus Rift Bundle for £999

Overclockers UK, the PC gaming specialist has just announced a new virtual reality (VR) combo for Oculus Rift with Touch, featuring the headset and a VR-ready PC for $999 GBP.

Launching today, the new deal makes getting into VR even cheaper for those looking to purchase a fully compatible PC for immersive gaming. The PC features an Intel Core i5 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB graphics card, and Windows 10 64-bit as standard, which also makes for a gaming PC that can supply 1080 or 1440 resolutions.

Overclockers VR gaming PC

This deal has likely been aided by the recent price drop of the Oculus Rift, currently selling for $399 USD/£399. This reduction is for a limited time though, so it’s unclear if Overclockers UK will continue running the bundle after the price of the headset goes back up.

As with any Overclockers UK PCs, the desktop can be configured to customers on personal requirements, adding more graphical horsepower or SSD storage size for example.

Checkout the full specification rundown below, and for all the latest VR deals, keep reading VRFocus.

Spec list:

  • Processor:
    Intel Core I5-7400 3.00GHz (Kaby Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor
  • Motherboard:
    Asus H110-Plus Intel H110 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard
  • Memory:
    8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C14 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (Manufacturer TBC)
  • Graphics:
    Asus GTX 1060 6144MB Turbo Graphics Card
  • Storage:
    Seagate BarraCuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD
  • Case:
    Kolink Victory ATX Midi Tower Gaming Case – Black
  • Operating System:
    Microsoft Windows 10 64-Bit
  • Configurable Options:
    Case, Memory, Graphics Card, Solid State Drive
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Overclockers UK Racing Series Combines VR and Track Day Racing to Create an Adrenaline Fueled Competition

Between October and December 2016, PC retailer Overclockers UK held the first round of its racing series, challenging participants to showcase their racing skills in a virtual world as well as the real one. That initial round was held at the company’s store but for the second round its going on tour, heading to four locations around the UK.

Partnering with Intel, HTC Vive, Thrustmaster, XFX, Nobelchairs and Next Level Racing, the Overclockers UK Racing Series first requires entrants to set one of the six fastest laps during the round on Project CARS using the HTC Vive. If you’re one of those lucky six then you’ll be invited to the PalmerSport track day at the Bedford Autodrome. Here you’ll be able to drive the Renault Clio Cup, BMW M4 GTP, Land Rover Defender, Caterham Pursuit, Ariel Atom, Palmer JP-LM and Formula 300.

Overclockers UK Racing series - Formula 3000

These will then be whittled down to nine drivers from each of the rounds for the grand final, taking the fastest three drivers in the Formula 3000 at each track day. The grand final will then be held this summer, with another track day deciding the champion.

For round two the competition will be heading to the following locations:

  • MANCHESTER, 11th – 12th February, 9am-5pm, Britannia Suite, Country House Hotel & Spa, Palatine Road, Didsbury, Manchester, M20 2WG
  • WOLVERHAMPTON, 25th – 26th February [Further details to be confirmed]
  • SILVERSTONE CIRCUIT, 5th March [Further details to be confirmed]
  • LONDON, Saturday 18th – 19th March [Further details to be confirmed]

Just as the first round you can also head to the Overclockers store to enter, with the second round finishing on 25th March. The round two track day will then be held on Saturday 1st April. For full terms and conditions head to the official competition page for details.

For any further Overclockers updates, keep reading VRFocus.