PC gaming has been around for a tremendous amount of time and has seen a number of hills and valleys over the years. The one thing that it has always done is drive and push our computers to the limit. If it wasn’t for gaming, our computers would be much slower and much less exciting. Buying the latest and greatest gaming computer might not be in your budget today, but that doesn’t mean you can’t add some great accessories during the times between big purchases to bring some new awesomeness to your gaming rig.
Boost performance with a memory upgrade
First, consider putting an SSD (Solid State Drive) into your system. There are a number of great choices these days, and even the least expensive ones provide some benefit to your gaming experience. The most obvious one is that they are faster than normal hard drives (way faster). This is important for your gaming experience because games are notorious for requiring lots of access to data – especially the latest ones with tons of graphic bandwidth. They are more reliable than traditional hard drives, run cooler and are much more power efficient. While they aren’t as inexpensive as traditional drives on a per gigabyte basis, I’d personally opt for less space and a faster drive any day. It’s also a great way to boost your current setup and make it feel brand new without shelling out for a whole new rig.
Online gaming requires fast networking
For authors they say you are only as good as your last book. For musicians, you are only as good as your last song. For gamers, you are only as good as your network connection. You can be the best player in a multi-player universe but if network lag is getting you down, you will never live up to your own expectations. For this reason you should consider getting a gaming router if you do a lot of online gaming. You might be wondering what a gaming-specific router does better than a regular one (or say the one that might be included with your internet service). Most routers today have to deal with all sorts of traffic from Netflix, to Facebook, to checking your e-mail and playing games. To a standard router all of this traffic is treated equally and is prioritized simply on a first-come, first-served basis. When you use a gaming router, traffic that relates to gaming is given a higher priority. Known as traffic shaping, routers designed for gaming will always give you a better gaming experience whether or not you are silently fighting family members for their slice of internet pie.
Take control your way
If you are like me you love old-school gaming controllers and you feel just a little more comfortable with something that Nintendo produced in the 80s rather than some of the incredibly complex controllers of today. If you enjoy playing the older games through emulation or are enjoying newer games that have a retro feel to them you might want to consider getting a gamepad controller such as the 8BitDo NES30 Pro Bluetooth Gamepad controller. Not only do controllers like this feel like they are retro, they have the added benefit of being wireless and enjoy overall technology advancements that were just not possible in the early days. After you play certain games with this kind of controller you will never know how you got along without and you will never go back.
Share your gaming prowess
Whether you understand the phenomenon or not, people are glued to their screens watching other people play video games. It seems like everyone today has a Twitch account or someway of live-streaming what they are playing so that others can watch. The question is, how do you do this if you have just a regular computer setup? Although there are several different solutions now, I can personally vouch for the Hauppauge HD-PVR2 USB 2.0 Game Capture solution. Hauppauge has long been king when it comes to quality capture devices and now with a solution that seamlessly connects between your monitor and the output of your computer, they have seemingly done it again. You can use this solution with either a desktop or laptop setup and it couldn’t be easier to configure and start streaming in no time. Be sure to share with me your streaming ID so I can watch all the great games you are playing.
Feel the excitement
Finally, while gaming headphones can be a great way to listen to games you are playing there is still something to be said for cranking the sound in your room and sitting back to enjoy the great sound effects and music in the latest game you are playing. Great quality audio doesn’t have to be expensive these days, so solutions such as the Logitech z333 2.1 Channel Speaker System can be music to your ears and your budget. There is nothing better than cranking the tunes and getting immersive in your gaming environment.
I hope you enjoy these suggestions of some of the greatest gaming accessories you can add to your PC to create the most awesome gaming experiences. Please feel free to share your ideas on what gaming accessories you have added to your setup. Game on!
Check out some of the range of gaming accessories available at Best Buy
