Most gamers know what it takes to create an amazing gaming PC. Lots of memory, a large hard drive, and the fastest processor available all contribute to a powerful and exciting gaming experience.
But what’s a powerful machine without the components and peripherals to make it shine? Your graphics card, monitor, speakers, mouse and keyboard—these are the elements that you actually use to control and interact with a game.
Here is a list of the peripherals that can take you from merely playing a video game, to experiencing it:
Lightning Fast Graphics Card
Courtesy of ATI
Speed, speed, speed. This is the gamer’s mantra. If not in processor power, then in memory. But perhaps the most important place to have the latest and greatest performance in speed is when it comes to your video card. With the high speed action of most video games, coupled with the capabilities of high performance monitors, how efficiently your graphics card processes the video has never been more important.
Ergonomic Keyboard
People who use their keyboards merely to tap out emails or write memos take one look at disjointed, wavy, ergonomic keyboards, with the keys broken up into two or three different sections, and they wonder what in the world anyone would use such a strange keyboard for.
But gamers know, when you spend several hours in a row with your hands strategically placed at various points on the keyboard, comfort matters more than the alphabet does.
Laser Mouse
Courtesy of Microsoft
That old roller ball mouse just won’t do. And don’t even get a hardcore gamer started when it comes to laptop touchpads. In today’s gaming environments, speed and accuracy reign supreme.
Whether you’re talking about aiming a sniper rifle hundreds of yards across a World War II battlefield, or micromanaging hundreds of troops at once in a strategy game, the ultra precision of a laser tracking mouse will give you an edge over the competition.
High Performance Monitor
Some people like the intimacy of a standard 17” monitor, while others like to lean back and absorb the grandeur of a mammoth 42” display hung up on their wall. But one thing they can all agree on is that it must be an LCD screen, it must be widescreen; and if it’s not High Definition, you might as well be playing Pac-Man. And it doesn’t hurt to have as fast a refresh rate as possible, either.
Dual Monitors
Courtesy of Microsoft
If you really want to take your gaming experience to a new level, a great option is to buy two monitors instead of one. You can sit them side by side, and turn your game into a panoramic vista twice as large as it could otherwise be, or you could split it up so that you’re playing a game on one screen, and working with other windows on your second display.
Ultimately, having a dual monitor set up just doubles your options and gives you twice as much desktop space. What you do with it is up to you, but those who try it find it difficult to go back.
Surround Sound Speakers
So many modern games are just as much like watching a movie as they are playing a game, it only makes sense that you should outfit your PC area with a complete surround sound system.
Walking through the jungle has never been so engrossing than when you can actually hear the gunfire coming from ahead, while leaves crunch somewhere behind you, and the music wells up out of the rumbling subwoofer at your feet.
Over-Ear Headphones
Courtesy of Sennheiser
When surround sound isn’t a practical option, the next best thing isn’t always a standard set of speakers. For many, it’s a high quality set of over-ear headphones. These large sets, with their oversized earphones which fit snugly over your entire ear, produce remarkably crisp and detailed sound. And the bass reproduction is unparalleled among other headset designs, even rivaling expensive speaker sets with powerful subwoofers in terms of first-person satisfaction.
Ultra-comfortable Desk Chair
Nothing else matters if you’re not comfortable in your seat, so whichever design fits you best is what you need to invest in. Slick, cool leather is an ideal for many. Others like overstuffed cushions and cloth covers. Plenty of gamers even select a high quality massage chair to keep them comfortable.