Geek’s Blog

Gaming Essentials 2023

Calling all gaming geeks, we’ve got your gaming essentials sorted for 2023! Here is your ultimate guide to the essential gear, gadgets, and accessories for casual and serious gamers alike! All provided by Geeks on Wheels’ own Geek development manager and gaming expert, Reuben! So, if you’re seeking the ultimate gaming experience or looking to indulge your gaming-fanatic kids, you’ll want to check out this blog!

So, why is Reuben such an expert in gaming? He commentated for the Overwatch Contenders Korea, the first ever NZEHL 2022 up in Auckland and the Overwatch World Cup Trials for New Zealand, Australia and Singapore.

Reuben also hosted his own Valorant tournament in Christchurch called Te Otautahi Ace and won the Apex Legends Arena 12 Tournament!

And these are a few of the numerous reasons you can definitely trust you’re getting the best gaming essentials advice from this guy!

Gaming Chair

First and foremost, one of the most critical things for a gaming set-up is your chair! If your chair isn’t right, then those lengthy gaming sessions can lead to poor posture, back pain, or let’s hope not, a broken chair! When browsing for a gaming chair you should look out for comfortability ratings, sitting hours, and any other cool features you might be interested in such as design and colour!

Our top picks in gaming chairs at the moment are:

Mouse

Now, probably the most useful tool in a gamers kit is the trusty and essential mouse! It allows a gamer to move their view quicker, click faster and ultimately have an edge against their gaming opponents! Mice can now come with extra buttons allowing for extra opportunity when using in-game abilities. Or, you can get a super lightweight mouse to glide across your desk!

A hurdle you might run into when it comes to choosing your mouse is whether to go for wired or wireless. Most of the time, a wired connection will have a faster “response” time but might feel a bit more restricting. Whereas a wireless connection can have a longer “response” time but will offer more freedom of movement. Either way, nowadays, wireless has close to perfect response times. So, a lot of gamers would recommend opting for wireless over wired!

Also, if you’re noticing the confusing term DPI when browsing for your new mouse, DPI is essentially how quickly a mouse will move across your screen. The lower the DPI, the slower it will take to move from the left side to the right side of your screen.

Our top picks in gaming mice at the moment are:

Wireless mice:

Wired mice:

Keyboard

Next up, just as critical as a mouse, we have a gaming keyboard! If your keyboard is quick, responsive, and able to execute your commands as desired, then you can be ahead of the competition! Before going out and buying any old keyboard, consider what you play! Do you play an FPS where you don’t need lots of keys but would rather have a smaller 60% keyboard that gives you more mouse room? Or do you play a MOBA where you need lots of buttons to be able to do all your abilities as you play?

Our tops picks in gaming keyboards at the moment are:

Monitor

Coming next, we’ve got the gaming monitor, serving as the gamer’s eyes! It’s your view into whatever it is you’re playing and so consequently, having a good quality monitor is an important part of your gaming essentials! Two major parts to pay attention to is, the size and the hertz (Hz). The higher the Hz on a monitor the more a screen can refresh/update an image displayed. As such, it will give a smoother and more responsive visual experience. For gaming, this can be essential to seeing something quicker than before.

Our top pick for a gaming monitor is:

Headphones

Another major component for your gaming essentials is a good pair of headphones! The more you can hear whilst immersed in your game, the better advantage you will have. You won’t want an opponent sneaking up on you because you don’t hear them coming with your not-so-good pair of headphones!

Again, you will have to have a conversation about wired or wireless. Wireless will have a slight delay in audio being received, so wired can sometimes be more reliable. However, if you’re known to be a ‘jump up and dance around the room’ kind of celebrator when you win, then maybe a wireless pair of headphones is the way to go!

Our top picks for gaming headphones are:

RGB and LED strip

Now that we’ve gone over some of the major gaming essentials, let’s look at some more fun and out-there gaming gadgets and accessories!

If you really want to create an immersive gaming experience for yourself, then RGB lighting is the way to go! You can get all sorts of things set up with RGB lights now including RGB keyboards, mice, RAM, fans, headphones, and cases. Pair that with some lighting strips around your designated gaming room or desk, and your space will be illuminating a futuristic atmosphere!

VR headset

Now if you want to take immersing yourself to the next level, then VR might be for you. It is essentially a headset you wear, that has a screen to make it feel as though you’re in a different reality. VR, short for virtual reality, is constantly growing, changing, and upgrading. Not long ago, you would need a computer that was VR-ready, now a lot of VR headsets can run stand-alone with a computer as a backup option for more intense games.

What VR headsets are out there?

  • The best available right now is the Meta Quest 2. It has great graphics, can run stand-alone to itself with no extra devices necessary! However, you’ll have to make sure you have a Facebook account before use!
  • Offering the best hardware of all its VR alternatives, we have the Valve Index. This one requires a PC, offers stunning visuals, high comfort levels, and great audio! However, some downsides include a higher cost and a complex set-up.
  • The HTC Vive Pro 2 is a great device with an awesome display and advanced tracking of where you are! This is the most expensive option for VR headsets, and it also has a complex set-up.

We’ve covered a lot of gaming essentials in this blog, but we’d be going on for hours if we were to name them all! So, if you want to get your ultimate gaming set up designed for yourself or someone special, give us a call at 0800 424 335 to Book a Geek today! You’ll get your own personal Geek to come out and help you figure it out!