Gaming is a hugely personal experience, one of direct interaction between the gamer and their device of choice. This being the case, the equipment we use naturally takes on a huge importance in the quality of our experience.
From the fundamentals of mice, keyboards and controllers through to the more exotic joysticks and custom peripherals, gaming peripherals are big business these days, with a vast array of choice out there. You only have to look at the items on offer from companies like Razer, Roccat and the like to see that the gaming public set great store by what they use to access their games of choice and, more importantly, are willing to pay for the right equipment. Read more …
So here you are. You’ve got your CPU, Motherboard and RAM. You have your graphics card and main storage, alongside your case and power supply. Your various peripherals and your monitor have arrived and it’s time to put everything together. This is the point where things become a little trickier.
If you’re not experienced with putting together a PC from scratch, then this is not something you should undertake lightly. Find a friend with some real experience, or speak to a local PC repair shop, about getting some assistance. The last thing that you want to do is to ruin some crucial component through mishandling or improper installation. As such, this article isn’t going to break down every little step in building your final PC, for two main reasons. The first is that it would make the article far too long; I’d need to write for days to cover everything you need to know. It would probably require a whole new series of articles to do the topic any justice. The second reason is that Zero1Gaming is a gaming website, and there are countless other sites out there that will be able to assist you with the nitty-gritty should you encounter any problems.
What I intend with this article is to point out a few common flaws that most people make when building a PC, alongside one or two shortcuts or tips that I’ve come across in my time working with PCs. If you have any questions that you’d like to ask about anything I’ve said across the span of any of my articles, you can do so in the comments below. With that said, we’ll begin with the construction of your PC. Read more …
It’s all very well having the major components of your dream gaming PC delivered and installed, but it’s equally important not to forget the smaller items. Keyboards, mice, speakers, headphones and even optical drives are crucial items that, despite recent advances in technology, are still absolute requirements for a modern gaming rig.
With the advent of touch-screen technology, iOS, Android and Windows 8, everything appears to be moving towards poking things directly with your finger, as opposed to indirectly with your mouse. Some consoles seem to be going a step beyond this, requiring you to simply dance around like an idiot in front of your telly to play games, without touching a thing. As fluid and intuitive as touch interfaces can be for selecting and organising windows, apps or data, there’s really nothing that’s come close to the precise control offered for just about everything else that a mouse and keyboard provides. Read more …
It’s all very well having the major components of your dream gaming PC delivered and installed, but it’s equally important not to forget the smaller items. Keyboards, mice, speakers, headphones and even optical drives are crucial items that, despite recent advances in technology, are still absolute requirements for a modern gaming rig. Read more …
For the most part, anything that’s labelled as being “for gamers” should – in my experience – be taken with a pinch of salt. There are any number of companies out there who will slap a giant “GAMING” label on something in an effort to solicit sales from those who think that they’ll gain an extra edge over the competition. For consoles, a lot of the time this audience is the standard Call of Duty or Halo crowd. There are an increasing number of “professional” controllers being produced, with specialised buttons, triggers, rockers, lights and all manner of associated bells and whistles. Gone are the days of the simple TURBO button to beat your friends at a game of Mario Party.
True story – I can still tap faster on my own.
I wasn’t entirely surprised when soft drink and energy beverage companies began to market their various liquids as “gamer fuel” or “designed for gamers”, either. However, the specific gaming benefits gained from pumping varying degrees of caffeine, taurine, quinine and all the other -ines you can think of through your bloodstream are never adequately defined. Marathon gaming sessions could certainly be aided by a token amount of wake-up juice, but much better would be a short break, a snack and perhaps some natural light.
Of course, I say all of this being perfectly guilty of partaking of all of the above. Back in 2005, I was the proud owner of a brand new Alienware PC; a fantastic way to spend my student loan, I’m sure you’ll agree. In later years, I was thrilled to be able to sample the fabled “Mana Potion” drink, which one of my friends had managed to get delivered to the UK. But from experience comes knowledge; I know better than to waste money on premium items that aren’t worth the extra cash. I could just as easily have built a gaming PC from scratch and saved myself hundreds of pounds, or grabbed a cup of coffee and made myself a ham and pickle sandwich.
It might surprise you, then, to hear that I recently invested in two pieces of ostensibly “gamer”-targeted equipment – a Logitech keyboard and mouse from their G-series peripherals.
The Logitech G15, Original Model
First, some back-story. I have owned three Logitech gaming keyboards in the past, two of which were the original Logitech G15. When I first saw it, I was instantly enamoured with its LCD screen, on which a variety of different applets could be run: simple things for the most part, like a clock or CPU load monitor. But among its other uses were the ability to integrate with Windows Live Messenger to tell you if you had a new email, or display the title and artist of a song on a media display. Even better, since this was on a separate LCD display, you could be doing other things – presumably gaming – and still get information from your PC. Additionally, some games released their own applets for the G15 – now, I could see at a glance my character’s stats in World of Warcraft.
With the addition of a back-light, several media keys, a gaming mode (where the Windows key and other keys that might accidentally tab you out of a game were temporarily disabled) and no less than 18 programmable “G-keys”, the G15 was my dream keyboard. When I accidentally spilled some beer on it one day and it refused to type anything except the letter O any more, I was devastated. So I bought another one, which lasted me until about a month ago. I decided that the flickering, weakening back-light, coupled with the wrist-worn plastics, merited a new purchase. Since the G15 had been through a second version since my last purchase and had since been discontinued, I was faced with the daunting prospect of ordering a completely new keyboard for the first time in years.
The Logitech G510 – Inferior Successor
Without thinking, I ordered the G510; in every way, the G15’s spiritual successor. Every feature that the G15 possessed, the G510 matched… or so I thought. When it arrived, the experience was completely unexpected. Unresponsive keys, an Escape key that stuck every few presses, a tiny LCD screen and a general feel of cheapness; an aura of failure seemed to surround my new keyboard, which was not what I’d come to expect from Logitech.
You see, as well as the G15, I had been using the G9 Laser Mouse for some years. Very few things frustrate me more on a daily basis than an unresponsive mouse – the G9 was the answer to many of my frustrated questions, including “Why can’t they just make a mouse that bloody works?!” With a precision laser tracking system, interchangeable grips and even adjustable weights, it proved to be exactly what I needed. When it, too, began to experience problems after many, many years of use (for example, phantom clicks: when you click once, but the mouse thinks you clicked twice) I decided to replace it with the G9x: again, the successor to the G9 in every way. The difference is that I love my G9x just as much as I loved my G9 – not so with my new G510.
The Logitech G9x – Almost identical to the G9
It was only then that I stepped back and remembered everything I knew about “gaming”-oriented hardware. Had I been fooled again? Was I once more buying into nothing more than a brand name and overpriced, unnecessary features? If I look back, I truthfully have to say that I was, to some greater or lesser degree. I rarely if ever used any of the 18 programmable keys on my G15, for example. The LCD screen was used every day, though… but did I really need to know the instant that I got a new email? In some circumstances, possibly yes; it was also convenient to be able to see the time at a glance, without having to consult my phone or tab out of a game (the only other clock in my room is by my bed).
Even my beloved G9 and subsequent G9x have features that I never took full advantage of. I pick a single DPI setting and stick to it. I never switch to the “free-spinning” scroll wheel except to play with it like a kid with a toy car, starting it whirling and waiting to see how long it takes for it to stop. I was confused and slightly annoyed with myself; these were pretty pricey bits of kit and it turns out that I might have been just as well off with a bog standard, off-the-shelf model of keyboard and mouse from the beginning. I sent the G510 back to Logitech and asked for a refund, then sat down and really thought about what I wanted from my keyboard and mouse.
Check back later this week for the second part of this article, where my choices and reasoning are revealed!
