Is there anything more important than your gaming setup? Sure, paying bills is pretty important. As is being financially solvent, and eating well. But that’s all boring adult stuff. Who needs boring adult stuff? We need huge TV screens and desktops with ludicrously expensive RAM shoved into them.
We’ve shared our gaming setups below, and now we want to see yours! Feel free to share photos of your setup (or just send through a description) in this week’s Tell GR.
“My fiancee would murder me if I stuffed this house with more technology”
Paul Tamburro, executive editor: “Considering I spend the majority of my time in my office, I wanted to make sure I enjoy looking at it. I bought the house I currently live in under a year ago, so it’s still a work-in-progress, but I’ve pretty much packed in all the hardware I need (for now). I predominantly play games on my PC (GTX 1080, i7-7700), and recently invested in an LG 34UC99-W 34-inch ultrawide monitor. I have a second, much smaller ASUS monitor at the top of my desk that I almost solely news for emails/Slack. Pretty much everything else is Razer, from my Huntsman Elite keyboard to my Nommo Chroma speakers. I’m a sucker for anything with customizable lighting, as you can tell from the above photos.
I have a regular PS4, Nintendo Switch, and a 44-inch 4K TV in my office, while in my living room I have my PS4 Pro, Xbox One X, PSVR, and a second Switch hooked up to a 50-inch 4K TV. There’s a GameCube down there, too, because it’s one of the few old consoles that still holds up today and I’ll never be without it. My next step is to invest in a surround sound system, but I think my fiancee would murder me if I continued to stuff this house with more technology.”
“If I have to have a vice I’d rather it be this than anything else”
Jason Faulkner, senior editor: “My main setup is a tangled mess since I’m constantly rearranging and have more stuff than space. I have a shelf for the high-dollar retro stuff that I try and keep real neat and tidy. Unfortunately, a lot of my games for older systems are in storage, because I no longer have room for more shelves. Right now I have a PC, PS4 Pro, Xbox One, and Switch running through a Denon S730H AV receiver. For retro stuff, I have a Wii, Sony SL-HF2000 Betamax player, Sony SLV-R1000 VHS player, and Pioneer CLD-D704 laserdisc player, all running through a Panasonic DMR-ES25 DVD recorder which I then run through a Framemeister X-RGB mini for upscaling. The computer in the front (obscured by the period-appropriate Microsoft Comfort Keyboard) is my latest project and is a Pentium 3, Win 98 machine running through an OSSC which is just about where I want it.
“This collection is a labor of love for my fiancee and me, and fortunately, a lot of it was dirt cheap compared to what things are going for now. Some of it was really good local or eBay deals and some of it was stuff I had to restore. Given the way retro games and electronics have skyrocketed in the past few years, we wanted to make sure we got our dream systems before it became cost-prohibitive. We’ve probably spent too much time and money on it, but if I have to have a vice I’d rather it be this than anything else.”
“It makes livestreaming a lot less stressful”
Mack Ashworth, lead editor, UK: “In my living room, I have the PS4 Pro and a number of custom controllers that I was provided for review. I roll my PC into this room for single-player and casual co-op titles. The TV is a cheap yet cheerful TCL 65″ 4K screen. Another cheap yet cheerful product is the JBL 2.1 soundbar, which gets the job done.
My gaming/work PC lives in the office, along with the standard PS4. I have two monitors, one 144 Hz 1080p panel and one 60 Hz 4K screen. My PC specs are: Ryzen 7 1700, 32 GB RAM 3200 MHz, RTX 2060, an Avermedia Live Gamer 4K, and a whole bunch of storage. Sitting atop the PS4 are two more custom controllers, with one for the PS4 and one for PC games. I use the new PlayStation Gold headset for closed-back audio listening (recording podcasts or livestreaming) and the open-back Philips Fidelio X2 headphones for music, videos, gaming while not live.
My speakers are the Acoustic Energy Aego M 2.1 from a long while back. The Shure SM7B microphone is powered by the GoXLR interface. I combine this with the Stream Deck Mini to make livestreaming a lot less stressful. The keyboard is a MantisTek GK3-61 with pudding keycaps, while the mouse is the G502 LIGHTSPEED (review coming soon). Oh, and there’s a phone charger, a Pebble Time Steel charger, and a dusty fan.”
“The layers of dust that show up are the only new things about my modest setup”
Michael Leri, features editor: “My setup is very basic. Besides the new computer, most of my stuff is old. I’ve had my speakers since 2003 and my TV since around 2011 or so. The layers of dust that show up every few weeks are just about the only new things about my modest setup.”
