If you love to spend your free time gaming you’re probably gaming for 20+ hours a week. Why not your make your gaming the best experience it can be?
We know you take your gaming seriously, so make sure you PC gaming gear does the best job at letting you take your gaming to the next level. We all know that your computer hardware can make your games look prettier, but they don’t do much to enhance your performance.
To give you the best advantage in competitive PC gaming, you really need computer peripherals designed for gaming which can give you better reaction times, increased macro capabilities, better control over your games, and more.
Let’s break down the different PC gaming peripherals and talk about their importance to your game play.
Gaming Mouse
[easyazon_image align=”right” height=”500″ identifier=”B00HTK1NCS” locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41BGr8YLbcL.jpg” tag=”xxaxle-20″ width=”500″]For many gaming genres, your mouse is the most important piece of equipment that’s critical to your success. For games like first-person shooters and MOBA‘s, having accurate control over your cursor is incredibly important to your success. A mouse that isn’t accurate is going to cost you big.
When it comes to mice designed specifically for gaming, they have great features like higher DPI optical tracking for greater accuracy, quick response times, adjustable sensitivity, and extra buttons on the mouse to map as hotkeys. Some even have weights you can place or remove from your mouse to fit your preference.
Gaming Keyboard
[easyazon_image align=”right” height=”172″ identifier=”B014W3FGYU” locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41h8D-IMn5L.jpg” tag=”xxaxle-20″ width=”500″]The gaming keyboard is the next most important piece of the puzzle, but it’s not far behind the mouse and can be even more important for some games. For a game like League of Legends, you want your keystrokes to be as quick as possible and if your keyboard isn’t responsive it’s going to cost your team the game. We have a special list of the best keyboards for League of Legends!
Other games may rely heavily on hotkeys and macros, as many do for World of Warcraft and countless other MMORPGs. Some keyboards designed for gaming will have features like extra button for you to map macros to, ports for your gaming headset and mic, and shorter actuation distance than normal keyboards.
Of course, we would only ever recommend mechanical keyboards! The tactile feedback you get from a mechanical keyboard makes your regular rubber dome keyboard obsolete.
PC Gaming Steering Wheel
[easyazon_image align=”right” height=”325″ identifier=”B00Z0UWV98″ locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41K1LFBb0PL.jpg” tag=”xxaxle-20″ width=”500″]If you’re into racing games, you probably couldn’t care less about a gaming mouse or keyboard! For you, it’s all about feeling like you have complete control of the car you’re racing.
Luckily, there’s some very awesome steering wheel and pedal controls available for the PC to give you the true feeling of driving a car right from your own computer desk. Project Cars is one of the most popular PC racing games today, and it acts as a true simulator allowing you to drive the greatest cars on famous real world race tracks.
Gaming Communication
[easyazon_image align=”right” height=”500″ identifier=”B00BFOEY4I” locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41xk%2B60EIhL.jpg” tag=”xxaxle-20″ width=”450″]When you’re playing competitive online team games, communicating with voice chat gives you the ultimate advantage over your opponents. Being able to communicate and strategize on the fly saves you lots of time typing and lets you focus more on hitting your objectives in the game.
Communicating also makes things more fun and social!
Gaming Sound
[easyazon_image align=”none” height=”297″ identifier=”B004H0MQYW” locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41L9H2MATkL.jpg” tag=”xxaxle-20″ width=”500″]Sound is a critical component to many strategy games as it’s often used to notify you of events that are happening, like if you’re being attacked someplace or if a building is complete. Having a great sound system also gets yourself more immersed into your game and can make things more enjoyable.
There’s advantages and disadvantages to both headsets and surround sound speaker setups, and which you should go with it will largely depend on your environment (are you in an apartment with thin walls, do you have small children you don’t want to wake up, etc).
PC Gaming Controllers
For other types of games like action, adventure, and fighting, a gaming control like those used for console games are optimal. Dual joysticks give better real-time control in many situations where the keyboard doesn’t cut it. If you already have a gaming console, many of these controllers can pull double duty and be used for both console games and PC.
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