While building a gaming rig is an incredibly satisfying experience for any PC gamer, there are a few accessories that should be bought at the same time that could prove invaluable to keeping your system stable and running smoothly.
There are many different accessories that you could buy, and the number of choices can be overwhelming at first. You should use this as a reference list to help choose what might be most useful for your situation. But, before buying them be sure to read the reviews and Try10 is the best place to find out about it, with the best deals.
So, here are 10 accessories you should buy when building a gaming rig.
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A Gaming Monitor
The first and most important accessory to buy is a gaming monitor. While you can use any old monitor, gaming monitors are specifically made for fast-paced games where every frame counts. A gaming monitor will have faster response times on top of more vibrant colors which can prove invaluable in some titles.
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Optical Drive
While optical drives are on the way out, for now they still exist so it would be wise to pick one up, especially if you do not have an internet connection that’s all that reliable or if your downloads tend to take a while. There are also some games that simply only come on disk. With the rise of Steam selling digital versions of their games, optical drives becoming less necessary but until then it is wise to keep one around.
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Mouse Pad
A mouse pad is a great accessory to pick up for your new gaming rig if you do not have one already or if you would simply like to upgrade what you already have. A high quality mouse pad can add precision and speed while using a mouse which can be especially useful in FPS titles where every shot counts.
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Headset
For the ultimate sound experience, pick up a headset that’s designed specifically for gamers. You will find that many headsets come with speakers either on the ears or on the actual headband itself so that you get an all-encompassing sound experience while playing games. They are ideal for use when playing online multiplayer matches since being able hear footsteps during matches adds another layer of strategy to the mix.
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Surge Protector
While a power surge that would affect your rig is quite unlikely, it will not hurt to pick up a surge protector to keep those electronics safe from any surges that might appear in your area. You can also use them with other electronics or simply as an extension for outlets since many modern setups only have one outlet available on the wall. This way you can plug multiple devices into them without having to worry about overloading the single outlet available.
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SSD (Solid State Drive)
Solid state drives are valuable accessories to invest in because they help improve load times and overall performance across the board by reducing access time significantly over traditional HDDs (hard disk drives). While most gamers do not have the budget to pick up an SSD, these devices will tremendously improve your rig and you can always use it for other things as well such as a boot disk or if you just need extra storage space.
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Computer Hardware
If your budget allows for this, why not buy computer hardware with your new gaming rig? There are thousands of different internal components that one could choose from so finding ones that fit both your price range and specifications is crucial. It also helps to go over various reviews since some pieces might be more compatible than others. If you’re unsure, AMD and Intel generally work well together even though they may compete against each other in terms of market share. However, these companies design their own motherboards which means that they will work well together.
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External Drive
External drives can come in handy when building a gaming rig and they’re not just useful if you want to backup files, although that is another use for them other than gaming. So, external drives are great for showing off your favorite pictures or videos while playing on your main rig without having to risk losing the data should something go wrong during a transfer process. Just make sure you pick up an enclosure designed with gamers in mind such as one with built-in fans and fast transfer speeds via USB 3.0.
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Gaming Router
Gaming routers will greatly improve your game’s latency in addition to providing more bandwidth for downloading updates or even playing online multiplayer matches with other gamers. Of course, this means that you will need the corresponding hardware to actually take advantage of these benefits in the first place, but if you’ve looked over proper reviews of your favorite games then you will be able to get a feel for what router might best suite your needs if at all possible.
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A Good PSU (Power Supply Unit)
This might be the most important part of any computer build since you will need to pick up one that can handle whatever hardware you might end up putting into your new gaming rig. That means that it needs to have enough wattage to power all of the components in addition to not creating too much excess noise or heat. Fortunately, many brands these days know gamers are an important market so picking out good quality PSUs should not be terribly difficult.
Conclusion
If you’re building a new gaming PC then your choice of an operating system is up to you. You may want to go with either Windows 7, 8 or even Linux depending on your personal preferences so feel free to install whatever software tickles your fancy. Just keep in mind that there are certain games out there that will only work on Windows while some others might also run on Linux depending on which version you get.
Remember the hardware components mentioned above and try to stick to them since they will help lower the cost of buying computer parts for new gamers while still providing excellent performance. If possible, get at least 6GB of RAM (Random Access Memory) along with at least 240-250 GB (Gigabytes) of storage space (preferably an SSD). Other important specs to consider are a Blu-ray drive (for watching movies at the highest resolutions) and built-in speakers.
