If you’ve spent the last few months in lockdown, or your home has now become your office, you would have no doubt looked at your office or gaming space and thought it could do with a makeover.
Whether you’re working with an existing setup that needs enhancing, or if you’ve custom built your PC and need peripherals and accessories to match the aesthetic, here are some tips and products to help you achieve your ideal battle station setup.
Gaming Desk
A good place to start when (re)setting up your space, is the desk itself.
Clear everything off the desk, stand back and look at it. As exciting as this sounds, this becomes your blank canvas of which to paint your vision.
There are a multitude of options when choosing a gaming desk, it all comes down to what setup you have/want, and what style you’re going for.
Shameless Plug: Powerwave offers 2 sized gaming desks; one is an RGB gaming desk that comes with in-built RGB lights, and the other is an XL gaming desk that is best suited for dual monitor setups.
If you’re running a dual monitor setup, or are considering adding an ultrawide monitor to your existing setup, measure up the desk-top space to see if there will be enough space for the monitor(s). You can get the dimensions of monitors from the retailer/manufacturers websites before you purchase to ensure they will fit.
If you realise you need a new gaming desk, check the manufacturer’s specifications for its dimensions, then measure your office space to make sure it’ll fit where you want it.
Don’t forget to allow for some extra space on the sides to hold things like a headset stand, audio interface, webcam, or any streaming equipment you may have.
Aestheticism
Once you’ve worked out what size desk you’re going for, it’s a good time to consider what sort of aesthetic you want to go with.
There are many styles you can go with, a popular setup being made up of RGB LED lit peripherals and parts; giving a true gaming/futuristic vibe.
Of course you’ll need to determine how much RGB you want – RGB everything? Or just a few of the main peripherals?
If you’ve custom built a PC and installed RGB RAM, CPU cooler, fans etc, it’s safe to say you want to RGB everything. Outside of the case, here are some RGB items you can add to your setup:
- Gaming Chairs
- Keyboard / Mouse
- Mouse Pad
- LED Strip Lighting (to put around your desk/windows)
- Gaming Desk
Some gamers use minimal RGB and allow the colours of keyboards & mice to shine; others may opt for no RGB at all, but go for a plant/organic setup.
Image credit: cyph3r https://bit.ly/38XMRlC
As mentioned, there are many different styles and tastes out there; for some battle station inspo, hit up reddit here.
Another source of inspiration is to think of a game you love, or a game you’ll be streaming heaps; like @storybyosmosis did. He has gone with a Cyberpunk theme (using our Neon City gaming mouse pad – see pic below).
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Update your peripherals
A great way to boost your gaming space is to upgrade your keyboard, mouse, and mouse pad. There are heaps of options available in this space, and you can find something to suit your aesthetic.
Besides, if you’ve been grinding away for the last couple of years, it’s probably a good time to get a new keyboard and mouse anyway.
Once you’ve found a keyboard & mouse you’re happy with, next look at what they rest on; the mouse pad. Once again, there are heaps of options in this space; you can get a mouse pad to rest under the mouse only, or you can get extended mouse pads that will sit beneath you keyboard and mouse, with enough width to rest your hands on too.
An XL sized mouse pad will be large enough to fit a keyboard and mouse on.
This is the Powerwave RGB XL Mouse Pad (pic by @cutiejea).
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Cable management
We’re talking PC setups here, so we’re dealing with a lot of cables. To achieve a nice, clean setup, cable management is a necessary evil. Necessary evil because it’s painful to do, but when done right, it elevates your setup completely.
You don’t really need to buy anything expensive to ensure clean cable management; it’s a matter of looking at all the cables and working out how to hide them, or at least tie them together so they don’t look like complete chaos (like my work desk).
Bad cable management – My office desk
To start with, if you’re planning on storing your tower under the desk, make sure your desk has one of those cable management holes. You can feed your monitor cables along with other peripheral cables down there to keep them out of sight and out of mind.
Further to this, you can invest in some sandwich ties and blu-tack to group cables together, and to sort them neatly down your desk then into your tower.
Ideally, you want to reduce the amount of cables on your desk. If you’re using wired headphones, you’ll need a headset stand that can accommodate not only the headset but the cable too. For example, at home I use AKG K92’s and they have a super long cable, so I use the Powerwave Headset Stand that allows me to wrap the cable around when not in use.
Cable management will take a bit of practice and patience but your gaming space will be all the better for it. If you’re looking at cable management for your custom built PC, well that’s a different story.
Conclusion
Upgrading your battle station or home office doesn’t have to be a massive task. Generally, you can just add or update a few items to get great results.
Having an aesthetically pleasing and clean setup, you’ll be more inclined to use your space, and will help promote creativity and productivity.
Of course, we sell a few PC accessories that will help upgrade your gaming space, and we do so at competitive prices.
If you use and like our products, tag us on Instagram to be featured on our page! @powerwaveaccessories
