If you want to hook up your Quest 2 to a PC so
that you can play PC VR games then you've got two options. Wired and wireless. Now, no
matter how good a wireless connection is, a wired connection is always going
to be faster and more reliable, and that's especially important
for fast games like Beat Saber. So, the data cable connecting your VR headset
to your PC becomes critically important. So here I'm going to take you through three cables
from Kiwi Design, Cable Creation and Syntech. And I'm going to compare them against
the significantly more expensive official cable from Meta. And let you know what's worth buying! Welcome to my Tech Gear… Let's get into it! I should point out that Kiwi Design, Cable Creation, and Syntech, have all sent
me their cables for review, but they are not paying for or sponsoring this video so
the opinion you get will be honest my own. Before we get to the data cables, you do need to
make sure that your PC is good enough to play PC VR games. Now I'm not going to go into this in
too much detail as I have covered this in other videos. But in summary, you're going to need a PC
with at least an Intel i5 or a Ryzen 5 cpu. 8GB of ram, although I would recommend 16. And at least
an xx60 nvidia graphics card. Like a 1060, a 2060, or a 3060, or a 4060, depending on when you're
watching this video, or it's AMD equivalent. For reference, my PC has a Ryzen 5600X
CPU in it paired up with 32gb of RAM and an nVidia 3060 Ti graphics card,
which has generally performed pretty well. I do get some low graphic memory
warnings in games like Half-Life: Alyx which is generally caused by the graphics
card only having 8GB of VRAM. Having said that, despite the warnings I've had no
problems whilst playing the game. Once you've got the right spec PC
then it's on to the data cable. When looking at any data cable you should consider
three main areas. There's the technical spec, like the data speeds and the charging power.
There's the physical spec, like the build, the length, the weight, of the
cable. And finally, the price. Looking at cable specs, all the cables here
support USB 3.1 with a data transfer rate of up to five gigabits per second. Now that max
is a theoretical maximum and no data cable, even the official cable from Meta, can get
anywhere near that figure. For a good data cable I would expect transfer rates around 2.5 gigabits
per second, and here all the cables here do not disappoint. They all compare favorably to this,
and also in line with the official Meta cable too. The Quest doesn't use anywhere near that
amount of bandwidth for transferring data from your PC to your headset so all these
cables are going to be more than good enough. So it's a point to all these cables
for supporting good data speeds. For power, it's a little bit more complicated. All
the cables here connect to your PC over a USB-A port which is not going to provide enough power
to charge your headset and keep it fully charged whilst playing. So whilst using these cables
you will see the Quest 2 lose power as you play, but at a slower rate than if you were playing
standalone as it is getting some power from the USB cable. You'll still be able to get hours of
gameplay out of it before it needs fully charging though so unless you plan on playing all day
without a break it's not really going to matter. The Meta cable on the other hand can keep the
headset charged as it is powering the headset over a USB-C port which can deliver more power,
up to three amps. So on pure charging power alone, it's the official cable that wins this round.
I'll give Meta plus two for winning this round, and the rest plus one as they do
charge the headset to some degree. So whilst the official cable from Meta
wins the power round, it then loses the compatibility round. This is due to the
USB-C connection. Now whilst it is a better port type, it's just not as common on
PC’s as the more traditional USB-A port. So the other three cables here are
going to be more useful to more people. So for the compatibility round, the Meta
cable loses out to these other three cables. With the cable being taken in and out of
the headset, and potentially stood on, pulled, snagged on things if you're not
careful… well, it's got to be durable. Which means has to be well made. And
to be honest, all these cables are. The Kiwi Design cable here is the thinnest
out of the three which makes it nice and flexible and the plastic outer on the cable
feels strong and well made. The USB plugs on either end have metal casings on the outside,
and reinforced plastic sleeves on the cable to help prevent the cable bending and breaking
at the USB plug end like cheaper cables can. It also comes with a velcro strap for keeping
the cable nicely attached to your headset. The Cable Creation one here
actually feels the most durable, but it is also the thickest cable here which
makes it the heaviest and the stiffest cable here as well, which I'll get to in a minute. It
does also have metal encasing on the USB plugs, like the Kiwi Design, although it
is missing the plastic sleeves. But it does come with two velcro straps for
attaching to your headset which is nice. The Syntech one feels the cheapest. The USB
plugs on either end are plastic rather than metal and the cable outer doesn't
feel as premium as the other two. It also comes with a velcro strap for
attaching the cable to your headset. It also has something the other two
don't. It has LEDs built into the USB plug that plugs into your Quest. This lights up
whenever the Quest is plugged in or it's charging. So for cable design I'm going to
give three points to the Kiwi Design, two to the Cable Creation one,
and one point to the rest. VR cables typically come in two different
lengths. They are either 10 feet or 16 feet, or in metric that's 3 or 5 meters long. Now if you are only going to play sedentary
sit-down games then a three meter cable is more than enough. For everyone else though, to
ensure you've got enough room to move around, you are going to need five meters in length. All
the cables here are five meters long, or 16 feet. So that does add more weight to the
cable, and as you're moving around, playing, you want to make sure that you
get a cable that's as light as possible that is also flexible as well so you're not
feeling dragged back by the cable as you play. The weights of these cables was actually quite
a surprise because the official cable from Meta was actually the heaviest out of
the four. It is 224 grams in weight! Next up we have the Cable Creation one. That was 211 grams. Then we've got the Syntech at 183 grams… and the Kiwi Design at 182. So there's about a 30 to 40 gram weight difference between the heaviest and
the lightest in this test. So I'm going to give plus one to
the Kiwi Design and the Syntech one here for being the lightest cables here. So given the weight, the design, the flexibility,
what are they actually like to use? Well, they all fit the Quest 2 well. The USB plugs
here fit into the PC and the Quest 2 well and they aren't likely to disconnect from either. In actual use though the cables here all do feel
very different. I definitely feel the extra weight of the Cable Creation cable for instance. It
is also the thickest and stiffest of all the cables here and it does add some cable drag. That
feeling that the cable is pulling at your head whilst you're playing. I didn't get that same
sensation with the other two cables here from Kiwi Design and Syntech because they're a lot
lighter and they're also a lot more flexible. So in use I prefer the Kiwi Design and the
Syntech one. So it's plus one to both of those. Here is where things get interesting… price.
Now all these prices are in US Dollars. The Kiwi Design one is $25 The Cable Creation one is $22 And the Syntech one is $19 Which, given the build quality of
the cables plays out about right. However, compare that to the
official cable from Meta. That's $79 US Dollars! That is significantly
more expensive than these three cables here. Now I know that the Meta cable is an
optical cable rather than a copper cable, and technically it is a better cable. But
in real world tests it doesn't really make any difference. I feel like I should knock
a point off the Meta just on price alone. Actually that's what I'm going to do!
I'm going to knock a point off the Meta, and plus one to the rest. So with all things considered, which one should
you get? Well, given that there is no real world difference in technical performance between all
of them you would have to be crazy to buy the official Meta cable. At over four times the
price of some of the others here it's just too high a price to pay for no real benefit.
So I'd definitely cross that off your list. For the other three here, I had no technical
issues with any of them. They all performed well. There were no issues with connectivity
and my data speeds remained high. However, there does need to be a winner here,
and it is very close, but for me it has to be the Kiwi Design one. It is the lightest and
most flexible of them all which just makes it the easiest to use, while still being durable
and well made, so I definitely recommend it. If you can't buy it though, and
they're out of stock or something, then the other two are no slouch either and are
more than commendable for second place runner-ups. I will place purchase links to all of them in the description down below so you can
go check them out for yourself. If you'd rather play PC VR games over a
wireless connection then be sure to check out my easy step-by-step guide on how
to set up Airlink in the link up here. Thanks for watching. If you have enjoyed the
video please don't forget to like and share it. Consider subscribing if you're not. And as always… I'll see you in the next one!
