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Warning: long post, but you asked, so... ;-) Note: Recycling some of my older comments with specifics for your post.

What CPU and GPU do/will you have? Do you have enough room to walk around, or just enough to swing your arms? What kind of games do you prefer? These answers have an impact on the "best" headset (HMD) for you. Think of it this way: what's the best car? The answer is different if your priorities are fuel economy, cargo space, towing capacity, or top speed/acceleration.

"Best" Games:

"Best games" is really subjective. Do you like puzzle games? Action? RTS? "Experiences" Racing/flying/space simulators? FPS? (Note: FPS in VR is very different from FPS on a screen.) Each platform has enough good games that this shouldn't impact your buying decision much. I have favorites on each, but Oculus has the most exclusives. (Often considered a bad thing for the VR industry.)

I own the Vive (non-Pro), Rift, and Samsung Odyssey, and I've used the PSVR (briefly) so my comments are based on use of all three.

Easiest to use for a newbie:

The Rift is slightly easier to use than the Vive (though not by much) due to its streamlined and consumer-oriented user experience, at the cost of capability and options. The Vive has more options flexibility but can sometimes be a little more hassle to troubleshoot if things go wrong. Then again, fixing it when things go wrong is less likely to require a complete reinstall like Oculus does. Windows Mixed Reality setup is easy but it's clearly a Microsoft experience. It's like the Rift was designed by marketers, the Vive by engineers, and WMR by a project manager. Winner: Rift, by a hair, with WMR limping along in the rear.

Oculus Rift:

Lighter and easier to deal with. Has built-in audio. Some really nice platform exclusives, though there is a way to play those on the Vive. (More on that shortly.) Cheaper than the Vive, and cheapest option in general other than some Windows Mixed Reality HMDs that you should probably avoid. Tracking is slightly inferior to the Vive, but not much. Seated/standing experiences work slightly better than roomscale. However, roomscale is feasible on the Rift with only two sensors by mounting them in opposite corners of your play area. Requires at least 3 USB 3 ports, 4 if you add a 3rd sensor. Games/apps purchased through the Oculus Store won't work on another HMD (barring 3rd party hacks/apps like LibreVR/ReVive, limiting your future hardware upgrade options so buy any non-Oculus exclusives through the Steam store. Touch controllers are the current king for controllers, but Knuckle controllers for Vive/SteamVR are pending. (More on that shortly.) More pronounced "god rays" than the Vive. The business practices and politics of Facebook/Oculus are questionable, if you care about that sort of thing. HTC just opened its VR store to Oculus users so you have more buying options than you used to, though I prefer buying through Steam.

HTC Vive:

The Vive Pro is more than double the Vive's cost and isn't that much better, so I won't go into it much here. The Vive has somewhat better tracking than the Rift and Roomscale works slightly better, in my experience. No built-in audio on the regular Vive but this is resolved with the Deluxe Audio Strap, albeit for $100 more. Games are (usually) purchased through Steam, which means you can take advantage of Steam sales, buy games at a discount (sometimes 80-90% off!) from third-party sites like Humble Bundle, Green Man Gaming, etc. Note, however, that the Rift is compatible with most VR games on Steam, too. You can also play Rift exclusives using free, third-party software called ReVive, but that this is not officially supported and not every game works. (Tricks Rift titles into thinking a Rift is connected.) Controllers are meh but work fine; just not as intuitive or comfortable as the Rift's. When (might be a while) the Knuckles controllers finally come out, they'll probably be the best. The Vive is more glasses-friendly but those who are just nearsighted won't necessarily need to wear glasses at all. There's a new wireless adapter that's nice but only applies if you're driving it with a desktop PC because it uses a PCIe card rather than USB. For non-wireless, one nice thing about the Vive is that the HMD only uses one USB 3.0 and one HDMI port. The Lighthouses (base stations) only need power and don't require USB.

Samsung Odyssey (WMR):

Higher resolution display, on par with the Vive Pro, which equates to a much less pronounced "screen door effect" (gridlines between pixels) than others. This is very nice for detailed games like racing games or flight/space sims with small dials or text. Significantly lesser support for games and experiences. That said, just because an app doesn't explicitly state it works with WMR doesn't mean it won't... but it might not. Controllers are pretty bad compared to the others and it's easy to accidentally end up in a menu. Tracking is also worse (uses inside-out tracking, so no sensors), but still significantly better than I thought it would be. This won't matter much if at all for seated or standing experiences; just for roomscale. The benefit is that you can do VR on the go with a gaming laptop. (At least a 1070 Max Q, though a full 1070 or 1080 is recommended.) The cable is significantly shorter than the others so roomscale is somewhat limited. There are specific cases (for example: archery games) where the controllers will end up out of view of the HMD's cameras, breaking tracking. While tracking isn't perfect, it's "good enough" and I bring it with me regularly.

Other Windows Mixed Reality HMDs:

The Lenovo Explorer gets some good reviews and sometimes goes on sale for as little as $170 with controllers. (Note: it can be found cheaper without controllers but you need controllers for most VR experiences.) It's important to note that the Lenovo Explorer (and all other WMR HMDs other than the the Samsung Odyssey) lacks IPD adjustment to save cost. IPD means interpupilary distance and is the distance between your eyes. However, using an HMD without the right IPD can cause nausea, blurriness, and headaches and can ruin your VR experience so I'd recommend one that has it. The Samsung Odyssey and Lenovo Explorer are the only WMR that I've heard consistently good things about. The others are cheap but lack features, perform poorly, or both. Note: WMR requires Windows to be completely up to date and will hang upon installlation (when you plug in your HMD) with no apparent reason why. Update Windows before using.

PSVR:

Poor quality lenses and tracking that isn't on par with the others, even WMR. This is what you buy if you own a Playstation and can't afford/aren't interested in buying or building a gaming PC. Some nice exclusives, though. IPD adjustment isn't great.

A note about VR graphics:

To avoid nausea, VR generally has to run at about 90 Hz, which can reduce model/texture complexity. However, people have done amazing things with VR so you simply don't notice. Lone Echo (Oculus exclusive), for example, has stunning visuals. (Story, mechanics, and pure immersive feeling are also excellent.) Lone Echo is VR done right, and feels like an AAA title. The Climb is another example of incredible visuals and reasonable immersion. The Climb is currently making the rounds (again) of Reddit via this GIF. Skyrim VR is another example of impressive visuals in VR. Skyrim is somewhat dated, but yes; those incredible photorealistic immersion mods from desktop Skyrim work in VR and you can totally play Skyrim VR seated. Follow this guide and remove Immersive Armor (buggy), replace WICO with TCM, and you're set... after 6 hours of setup. ;-) All of that said... you're looking at a 1080p monitor magnified by relatively cheap optics no matter which rout you go. You are going to notice the pixels, but you'll forget about it pretty quickly as you get distracted by the experiences and visuals. The only exception will be games with small details like flight/space sims. These really need higher res than VR can realistically provide though this may change with 20-series GPUs. For everything else, you'll mostly forget about the issue.

Cable lengths:

All VR HMD cables are too short. You can buy extension cables, but some work and some don't... sometimes with no apparent reason. I've found this HDMI cable and this USB extension cable works to extend the HDM for both the Vive and the Rift, and this USB extension cable works to extend Rift cameras. If you buy both a Vive and a Rift at some point, the extension cables I linked for the HMDs can go to the Vive's breakout box and then either the Vive or Rift can plug into that with success. The Samsung Odyssey does NOT work when plugged into the Vive's breakout box but I haven't yet tested the extension cables so it might work if the breakout box isn't present.

TL;DR:

My recommendation for first-time VR on a budget is the Oculus Rift unless you can afford the Vive (so long as you can also afford the Delux Audio Strap), in which case I'd recommend the Vive. The Samsung Odyssee is also a decent solution but at its price point I'd generally recommend the others unless the majority of your usage will be seated, in highly-detailed simulators or similar games, or unless you bring it with you a lot.

Yeah, it can be a little overwhelming to figure out where to start. Some good answers already in this thread. The good news is it's actually a lot more straight-forward than it appears. The main source of confusion/apparent complexity comes from the fact that right now both the prior gen and new gen models are still on the market, making it appear that there are a ton of headsets. In reality, there are only four that matter:

Oculus Quest: VR for people that don't have or don't want to buy a decent gaming PC. Cordless, entirely self-contained, no PC needed, no external sensors needed, but limited by the mobile hardware specs. MSRP: $399 USD

Oculus Rift S: really the go-to for a first-time VR headset. Great display that solves most of the clarity issues of older headsets, great controllers, uses inside-out tracking like the Quest (i.e. no external sensors to setup), and pretty reasonable PC hardware spec requirements to run it. So quick and easy to setup that once I finished downloading the software installer, I was up and playing VR in only about 10 minutes. The relatively tiny sound is the only real commonplace complaint, but it does have a headphone jack on the headset. $399 USD

The Valve Index: currently the super high-end of VR gaming. Higher resolution display than the Rift S, higher refresh rate, fancy finger-tracking controllers. Also getting some flack for some quality control issues on its thumbsticks. The only one of the new gen VR headsets to still require external sensors and a base station, which are pretty big negatives for VR newbies since that complicates setup and calibration. Due to the higher specs, it also needs a super high-end PC to really get the most out of it. $999 USD for the starter kit, which does include everything you need to get started, although many users recommend purchasing a third lighthouse sensor (the kit comes with two).

The HTC Cosmos: HTC's replacement for the Vive. Not out yet, so exact specs, pricing, and release date are still unknown. However, it has been confirmed that it will use inside-out tracking (so no external sensors to mess with), and cost less than $1000. The latest unofficial rumors are that it is expected to launch this September, and it's expected to have both specs and pricing somewhere between the Rift S and the Index. Worth keeping an eye on.

What not to bother with:
The Vive. Vive was the premium VR headset of its era, so it's not that there is anything wrong with it per se, it's just outdated and obsolete tech. The display and controllers are just inferior to all of the newer kits.

Windows Mixed Reality (WMR): this one is probably responsible for the VR market looking crowded, since this is a standard defined by MS and not a specific headset, and lots of different manufacturers make or have made WMR headsets. So when you see PC VR headsets from Lenovo, HP, Asus, Acer, Dell, Samsung, etc, they are all just competing WMR headsets. The head strap and display vary in quality, but they all use the same controllers, which are generally considered to be inferior to Vive, Oculus, and Index controllers. The main appeal originally of WMR was to make VR cheaper and easier to get into since WMR has the least expensive headset options, and it was the first to use inside-out tracking so no external sensors. However, its inside-out tracking is done with only two forward-facing cameras, so the tracking is significantly inferior to Quest (four onboard cameras) or Rift S (five onboard cameras) inside-out tracking.

As for specs, your graphics card meets the min, but is at the very low-end of the min. You should be able to run older or less demanding VR games just fine, but may have to run newer or visually more sophisticated VR games at low graphics settings to maintain stable framerate. I would expect Beatsaber to run fine.

One last note: VR headsets, the Rift S in particular, can be pretty picky about your USB 3.0 ports. Specifically, ASMedia USB controllers that many motherboards use tend to cause lots of problems with Oculus headsets. This Inatek add-in USB 3.0 controller has solved lots of people's VR headset issues, is officially suggested by Oculus tech support, and is pretty inexpensive at only around $23. If you decide to pick up a VR headset, might be wise to proactively check your USB 3.0 controller and if it's ASMedia just go ahead and order the Intek USB 3.0 controller along with the headset.

For seated stuff like Elite or the racing games, I mounted a pair of these little bass transducers to my chair:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002ZPTBI/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and power them with this little cheap-o amplifier:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N5D5ONB/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They are incredible, and the whole setup was less than $150. Pretty awesome little devices.

The full Index bundle comes with some kind of mount/stand, but I don't know much about them. My Index kit was the $749 bundle, so I just reused my existing Vive Lighthouse 1.0 units.

Those are attached to some DJ stands I picked up years ago.

Honestly any wall mount for cameras or such should work, even a Rift Sensor mount. The Rift Sensors and Lighthouse Basestations all use standard mounting standard 1/4" threads. So pretty much standard camera equipment mounts work. (Including lighting stands, if you don't want to drill into your walls.)

Dual 8's, things get really demanding on RAM these days, and you'll find the jump a bigger upgrade than a different CPU. Just make sure you match the specs of the one in there. Looking at that link you need to be looking for a 8gb single stick, DDR4 at 2666mhz. This is amazon as an example to show you the sort of thing you need.

Edit:To answer
>is that a thing you can do even?

By the looks of it the motherboard in that supports upto 64GB of RAM in 4x16gb configuration. So yes and with plenty to spare :)

I have a simple cheap setup that i use for VR flight and racing sims. It provides a nice rumble, granted it's not as precise as something like simvibe but it gets the job done.

i have the following hardware:

• Amp - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0070Z87YO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  
• pwr adapter for amp - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TUMDWG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  
• 2x bass shakers - https://www.amazon.com/AuraSound-AST-2B-4-Shaker-Tactile-Transducer/dp/B0002ZPTBI/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=aurasound&qid=1565363135&s=gateway&sr=8-1
  
  
• 3.5mm headphone to RCA audio cable - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D5H8KO2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  Then i just use voicemeeter banana to sort out the audio. - https://www.vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/banana.htm
  
  I take the headphone/soundcard audio + VR HMD audio and route it to the voicemeeter virtual VAIO device, and make that the default audio device in windows. Also, I limit the bass frequencies on the output that goes to the amp/shakers using Voicemeeter EQ.

Congrats! You're gonna have a blast with your new Rift S.

Start with games rated as Comfort or Comfortable. I'd avoid SkyrimVR for a bit until you get more used to VR. SkyrimVR is a bit janky and is more likely to induce nausea, especially if it has a hard time maintaining 80fps, which is likely (and even moreso with mods.) The game isn't a very good showcase or introduction to VR, as it was shoehorned in and not fully optimized for VR.

For SkyrimVR mods, check out this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimvr/comments/amf5u3/skyrim_vr_specific_mods/

Highly recommended games to start out with are Superhot VR, Space Pirate Trainer, Rec Room, I Expect You To Die, Beat Saber, Robo Recall, Dead & Buried, Job/Vacation Simulator.

For movement controls, stick with teleportations until you get your VR legs.

Take breaks often the first week or two.

Don't be alarmed when you experience what's called virtual reality disassociation (where you briefly wonder if your hands or objects you pick up are real or VR.) This sensation usually goes away after a few days.

If you experience motion sickness or nausea, don't force it and take a break. Not everyone experiences this, but those that do will find the feeling goes away with more use. Ginger tablets or gums can help alleviate this.

You may want to consider getting a ceiling cable suspension system to keep the headset cord out of your way: https://smile.amazon.com/Managment-Suspension-Playstation-Microsoft-Accessories/dp/B0777H24ZG/

Don't use a liquid cleanser on the lenses, just use a soft microfiber cloth to wipe it in a circular motion. Also don't leave the lenses exposed to direct sunlight, as the magnified rays would burn the display screen.

Intel Core i9-9900K Desktop Processor 8 Cores up to 5.0 GHz Turbo unlocked LGA1151 300 Series 95W

ASUS GeForce RTX 2080 O8G ROG STRIX OC Edition GDDR6 HDMI DP 1.4 Type-C graphics card

ASUS TUF Z390-Plus Gaming (Intel 8th and 9th Gen) ATX Motherboard 802.11ac Wi-Fi USB 3.1 Gen2

ASUS ROG RYUO 240 RGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler 240mm Radiator Dual 120mm 4-Pin PWM Fan

ASUS ROG Strix XG49VQ 49” Curved Gaming FreeSync Monitor 144Hz Dual Full HD HDR

Samsung 970 PRO 512GB - NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD MZ-V7P512BW

EVGA Supernova 750 G3, 80 Plus Gold 750W, New HDB Fan Power Supply 220-G3-0750-X1

G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 16GB 2 x 8GB 288-Pin DDR4 3000MHz PC4 24000 Desktop Memory

Razer LIAN LI PC-O11 Dynamic Black Tempered Glass ATX Mid Tower Razer

Razer Huntsman Elite Gaming Keyboard - Instant Actuation - Chroma RGB Lighting

Razer Naga Trinity Gaming Mouse: 16,000 DPI Optical Sensor Mechanical Switches

I wouldn't recommend going under the minimum specs. I did that with my first headset the HTC Vive and would get sick so fast due to FPS lower than 90 at times. Keep in mind I never get motion sickness. But I would say that you should get a GTX 1060 and then buy the Rift S. You won't regret it.

I would recommend this one https://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-GeForce-ZT-P10600A-10L-Compact-Graphics/dp/B07SLKXR6S

I own a Zotac 1070ti and it is amazing and this one is a reallllly good price

In fact, I think I found the same exact product on the US site. 🙂 https://www.amazon.com/Managment-Suspension-Playstation-Microsoft-Accessories/dp/B0777H24ZG/

When you say not the best quality: What are your complaints?

Do you feel like you had to trade much going from a wireless to a wired solution?

I use the Levi's bandanas.

Levi's Men's 100% Cotton Bandana Headband Gift Sets, Assorted, One Size https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009YQX1SO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ev2jDbARNV5N8

On top of what others said:

 

Oculus claimed 2 VR Awards 2017: the best headset & the best hardware: Touch Controllers

 

Those are the most common complains people had about the Rift:

• Customer service not responsive enough
  
  
• Compatibility issues with USB 3.0
  
  
• For some users headset and sensors lose connection all the time
  
  
• Possibility of software conflicts
  
  
• Some users reported the headset’s earphones randomly losing connection
  
  
• God rays
  
  
• Some users reported the trigger of the Touch Controller getting stuck
  
  
• Putting the headset on cumbersome for people in glasses
  
  
• Some games require taking off the headset to complete the installation
  
   
  
  Bear in mind that Vive is not perfect either. I haven't seen a similar list for it, however, if you read one star reviews on Amazon you will have the idea.
  

I already ordered this

https://www.amazon.com/IOGEAR-Bluetooth-Micro-Adapter-GBU521/dp/B007GFX0PY/ref=sr_1_9?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1540078169&sr=1-9&keywords=bluetooth+4.0

​

so that should work fine

Separate. Decent ones can be had for a reasonable price. These have worked fine for me although I only use them for taking the setup to other locations, not on a regular basis.

MRTV made a video

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0179MXKU8

No, you need Bluetooth 4.0 for the motion controllers to be paired with your system.

Unfortunately if you don't have any adapters available nearby that support 4.0 you'll have to order online.

This is the USB adapter recommended by Microsoft.

• https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Bluetooth-Adapter-Raspberry-Compatible/dp/B009ZIILLI/