As the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift have been launched in the market, gamers are curious to enter the world of Virtual Gaming. But it isn’t very pocket-friendly, and the majority couldn’t afford it. Paklap.pk brings an alternate way to use your Alienware Notebook for VR which is going to save you money and space.

What you need is a 6th Generation Intel Core Series CPU which was sold in late 2015. Such a PC will have the necessary connector that we are looking for. Now the next thing that you need to get is an external graphics amplifier which would support a high power desktop card just like Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU. It would cost around 200 dollars and will change your old incompatible Alienware to a beast that could easily run anything that the Virtual World introduces.

Follow the instructions below to successfully convert your Alienware notebook into a VR compatible machine.

System Requirements:

The usage of Vive and Rift is only possible if your PC meets some requirements. The machine should have at least an INTEL Core i7-6700HK processor, Windows 7 or above, a 1920 x 1080 display, HDMI 1.4, 2 USB 3.0 ports and an 8 GB RAM. Also, an AMD Radeon R9 290 GPU or Nvidia GTX 970 GPU is the minimum graphic card that is needed.

The headsets' requirement could vary from each other. Vive can be used even with 4GB of RAM with either HDMI 1.4 or DisplayPort 1.2 and at least one USB 2.0. On the other hand, the Rift requires 8GB of RAM, HDMI 1.3, and 3 USB 3.0 ports and one USB 2.0 port.

Once the requirements are marked done on the checklist, update the relevant software such as Steam VR, Oculus Home, and Nvidia's GeForce Experience.

The Gear:

To demonstrate the method, let us use an Alienware 17 R3, which has an Intel i7- 6700 CPU with 1TB HDD, 8 GB RAM and a Nvidia GeForce 970M GPU with 3GB of Video-RAM. The card homed in the graphics amplifier is the latest graphic card Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU. The card resting in the amplifier successfully ensures that now you can use both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Keep a Philips head screwdriver along. It will come in handy.

The Setup:

Till this point, all your PC requirements have been checked. Last few steps to go.

1. Look at the back of the amplifier, there is a switch. Drag it to the left, release the clasp, and pull the lid upward to open the amplifier’s interior.

2. To place the GPU in the slot, remove the 2 screws on the top. Put the graphics card into the PCIe slot.

3. Now put the screws back, plug in the connector and close the lid.

4. Whether you have the Alienware 13, 15 or 17, there is a port on the back of the laptop. Connect the amplifier’s power cord to the port.

5. After that, the amplifier is connected, start up your laptop. You will be asked to restart the computer. Click yes. Once restarted, you are ready to go.

6. Connect your headset and “Welcome to the world of VR”.

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