MSI was proud to become the first company to offer a VR-ready laptop earlier this year, and now it’s looking to expand its offerings with the newly-announced VR Boost Kit.
Based on the name, you might think that the VR Boost Kit would consist of some essential components to upgrade your PC and make it ready for headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. In reality, the device is simply a handy – if completely unessential – 5.25 inch drive bay that acts as an extension cable of sorts for USB and HDMI ports, both of which are required for headsets. Specially, it has two USB 3.0 connectors and one HDMI connector, which the company notes can be used with any MSI VR Ready graphics card and motherboard.
The drive bay is fitted to the front of your PC, working with “almost all” mATX and ATX PC cases. This essentially allows you a bit more space when using headsets, which could be especially helpful when playing Room-Scale titles on the Vive. It comes with a black matte finish, though you can fix a silver matte cover to it if that fits better with your rig. MSI hasn’t yet said when the kit will go on sale and how much it will be available for; we wouldn’t fork out too much for the added confidence it offers, though.
Elsewhere, MSI is offering up some rather more intriguing products to enhance your VR experience. Earlier in the year the company announced a ‘Backpack PC‘ which you could actually wear yourself and then walk around VR environments without the Vive’s wire constantly tugging at the back of your head. It’s a niche item and a rather primitive workaround for VR’s wire problem, but it certainly beats suddenly being yanked out of an experience when you forget that you’re really standing in the real world with limitations.
The VR Boost Kit, though, is perhaps a more realistic solution for expanding player’s freedom in VR for now.
