Hardware Upgrades
With 2015 having been such a big year for AAA games and 2016 looking set to be just as jam-packed, now is the best time for PC gamers to upgrade their hardware to run the latest games at high settings. Whatever it is their computer is lacking, there are options to upgrade their rig from SSD drives to the latest graphics cards. Beginning with an SSD (Solid State Drive), gamers will see much faster load times to anything that is installed onto this drive, rather than the traditional hard disk drive.
An SSD can see a huge reduction in the amount of time it takes to load up a game or boot up your whole operating system from being powered off. These are going pretty cheap for a 120gb size now from the likes of Amazon, too. On the other hand, upgrading things such as RAM or a graphics card will help with running multiple applications and graphics quality respectively.
16gb of RAM is an ideal amount to now have in a PC that will predominantly be used for games and will ensure it remains future-proof, too. As for graphics cards, this can be a little trickier as NVIDIA and AMD are releasing new cards faster than Usain Bolt can run 100 meters. However, the NVIDIA GTX 970 and AMD R9 290X are two cards which we can strongly recommend as high-performance options but without the massive price tag of some of the cards at the very top of the range.
A Great Sounding Headset
Give a gamer a great game and they’ll play for hours on end and into the early hours of the morning. Therefore, grabbing a headset almost makes perfect sense, enabling them to play late into the night without filling the surrounding area with roars of a dragon, booming explosions, or screeching tires. The Corsair VOID RGB Wireless headset offers studio-quality sound with both its audio output and microphone input.
Priced at $119.99 on Amazon, the Corsair comes in at a very competitive price for a wireless headset for PC. If you’re looking for something even more premium, the Astro A40 TRs are probably the best sounding headset you can get your hands on, but you will pay significantly more and they won’t be wireless. Whether wireless is a preferential to you and your budget will ultimately be the deciding factors for you when choosing between these two headsets, but either way, the PC gamer you’re buying for is going to be very happy whichever headset you buy.
Merchandise
Gamers love merchandise almost as much as they love games. Regardless of what form it comes in gamers love to show off their love for gaming, whether it’s a Mass Effect t-shirt that can be bought from ThinkGeek.com with all manner of other gaming related merchandise, or a Companion Cube plush as pictured above from Amazon.com.
If you’ve seen your PC gaming loved one playing a particular game, there’s a high chance that Pop! Vinyl has released a mini figurine of one of the characters from it. These mini figures have become increasingly popular over the past few years and are a great and affordable way to show you’ve been paying attention to their hobby.
Alternatively, if you want to push the boat out a bit more, many popular game franchises have huge figurines, signed collectibles, and more that you can often find at the games official store website or on offer at the likes of eBay. Just be careful anything you buy is 100% authentic if it’s claiming to be signed, though.
Keyboard and Mouse
The keyboard and mouse are possibly the most important part of a gamer’s accessory set up. If they’re playing a lot of twitch-based games, then having the right keyboard and mouse can definitely be a contributing factor between winning and losing. Alternatively, a nice colorful looking mouse and keyboard can make their PC setup look like something from a sci-fi movie and who doesn’t want to pretend to be in one of those?
Razer is the go-to for PC mice and keyboards, although they can be rather pricey. While the price tag may seem a bit extreme, the quality and little extras that Razer puts into their peripherals more than justify this. With their Blackwidow Chroma Keyboard boasting a huge 10 million more keystrokes in their mechanical switches lifespans in comparison to standard mechanical switches, 16.8 million (yes, you read that right) customizable color options, programmable keys and a ton of handy options included, you begin to see this isn’t any ordinary keyboard.
Priced at $139.99, the Razer Blackwidow Tournament Edition Chroma Keyboard is certain to keep your PC gamer content for years to come. Combine this with a Razer mouse that range from anywhere between $59.99 to $149.99 and you’ve got the perfect combo of PC peripherals for that special someone.
Steam Credit
If they’re content with their entire gaming set up, have a collection of figurines slowly taking over their house, and wear too many gaming related piece of clothing with jokes you don’t understand on already, then you can always take the safe bet of grabbing some Steam credit. Steam has the biggest library of games available on the PC and includes a huge variety of indie and AAA titles to keep every gamer content. With a huge Steam sale more than likely on the cards to go live around the holiday period, too, they’re certainly going to find a way to spend the credit you buy them.
And that’s all of our PC gift ideas for 2015, do you have any questions or need any advice on any of the gifts we’ve suggested? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll make sure we get back to you.
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