A short guide to building a gaming setup, including gaming desks and gaming chairs, tailored to your every need whether you’re gaming on Xbox, PlayStation, PC, or whatever else.
Console & Computer Setup Goals
What goes into a good gaming setup? For some people, the answer to that question may be complicated. You might be looking at their gaming computer and monitors, your gaming headsets and keyboard, your controllers and cameras and streaming equipment, and asking yourself: “Is this the best gaming setup I can get? Is it the gaming station I deserve?”
With the amount of different hardware on the market today, it can be hard to know what’s essential, what you need, and—most importantly—what will work the way you want it to. This article provides some easy-to-remember rules of thumb for wisely curating your gaming setup according to your individual gamer needs. Gamers, whether they’re doing it from their Xbox, PlayStation, or PC, all value comfort, convenience, and a sense of being home when they log on to play. It’s just natural.
So, where then, naturally, do we start?
When visualizing the setup you need there are three main things to consider: what you’ll be gaming on (Xbox, PlayStation, or PC, for example), how much (slash what kind of) space you’ll need, and—who could forget—the cost. These factors will have the biggest impact on what results you can expect. In this article, we established the best outcome as the only acceptable outcome.
Gaming setups, like computers and consoles in general, come in all shapes and sizes, and it can be hard to know where to start. Just look at the AED Studio Desk and Secretlab’s Magnus Gaming Desk —utterly dissimilar in size and shape, different visual styles, different functions, and different features. (Not to mention… different in price.)
Video games themselves often require (or inspire) specific conditions or accommodations, depending on the level of commitment of the player. (If you’re not one of them, you at least know someone who is.) Just think of all the differences between, say, an eSports fanatic, an open-world RPG gamer, and then someone who likes shooters. Those are three discrete images, sharing hardly any similarities.
For the shooter fans—especially ones who are into Call of Duty ®—an awesome cheat code for accelerating their setup could be unlocked by checking out the Call of Duty® gaming setup and accessories line from Eureka Ergonomic. But for the devoted Elden Ring player? Most likely there won’t be the same level of appeal—but there’s a computer setup or gaming setup option for them, too!
Because video games offer different experiences, just as gaming setups do, it makes sense to try to match the hardware. Of course, the more convenient, all-encompassing, and individually tailored your setup—the better.
Understanding that Xbox users, PlayStation users, and PC gamers all have overlapping and—most importantly— varying demands, we provided a quick guide to optimizing your setup in the ways you know it needs.
For the Console User
You’ll notice the lack of clarity in the heading around which Xbox or PlayStation generation—that was done on purpose, as we deemed it necessary to give advice for users of the latest Xbox and PlayStation as well users of the older models.
If you’re the proud owner of a PS5 or Xbox Series X (jealous), first off—congratulations. But pay attention. This marks the fundamental difference between the latest Xbox and PlayStation and their forebears—the vertical placement as opposed to horizontal placement. How to accommodate these tall-standing, new-generation consoles? Set them on your desktop, under a shelf, in a cubby, on the floor?
That will ultimately remain up to you, but the necessary vertical placement will, well, necessitate a more specific composition to your setup. Gaming desks such as the AED Studio Desk have ample room underneath the desktop to place a console—just be sure that you’re setting your gaming console down on a hardwood floor (or any kind of floor that isn’t carpeted or doesn’t have a rug on it).
If you’re using an older console that needs to be laid flat, such as a PS4 or Xbox One, then the AED—with its dual monitor shelves—makes an excellent choice, as well. Its immense versatility allows you to set your console anywhere: somewhere along its centralized desk, under a monitor shelf, on top of a monitor shelf. You get to determine where it goes best, because you’re making it fit to your setup.
If the size or the shape of the AED aren’t a fit for you, L-shaped desks such as the GTG-L60 60-Inch Gaming Desk stand out as worthy candidates. The GTG-L60, especially, makes a compelling argument for itself with a thick tempered glass surface interlaced with state-of-the-art RGB that reacts to impact, sound, music, and has programmable settings for color, pattern, and effect.
Console players will also want to invest in a gaming chair. A common enough complaint about gaming chairs is that they’re often not as comfortable as they look, and that their style tends to be more on the garish side. Fortunately for us, that’s not true for all gaming chairs. Gaming chairs such as the WARZONE Gaming Chair is a sleeper here—while it’ll obviously appeal to fans of the storied Activision franchise Call of Duty®, the aesthetic is neutral enough to maintain appeal to gamers who may favor other games. Features such as four-dimensional armrests and sophisticated reclining setting only further support the WARZONE gaming chair’s case.
For the PC User
The PC gamer’s requirements, generally speaking, are going to be different than the console gamer’s. Gamers who like to game on their PCs, as previously stated, have their own needs. Computers are bigger than consoles, you may be gaming from a keyboard. Simply put, issues that the console gamer doesn’t have to deal factor heavily into the decision-making of a PC gamer on the hunt for the best computer setup.
(Caption: The EGD 60-Inch L-Shaped Standing Gaming Desk from Eureka Ergonomic .)
(Atl text: "Gaming Desk Vs. Office Desk")
As with a console, you are going to want your PC to stay cool, and the best way to do that is to keep it out of the sun and not touching other electronics. From there, it’s a matter of avoiding carpeted floors and finding the perfect nook.
Some PC gamers prefer to place their CPUs under their desks, while others incorporate their CPUs into their setup somewhere on the surface. The placement of the CPU depends, almost entirely, on the desk—that is, the desk’s shape, its size, its holding capacity, whether or not it can adjust its height, and its materials. PC gamers might at first be drawn to gaming desks such as the VariDesk Pro Plus 36 (by Vari) due to its unique shape, multiple tiers, and height adjustability—and its construction, at least at first glance, does come off rather sophisticated. Things start getting iffy from there, though. The standing desk technology also raises a lot of questions, and doesn’t bode well for the knees of gamers, if you follow.
Standing desks that are L-shaped have started to surface, much to the delight of gamers (specifically those with computer setups). Usually, PC setups demand more space, which, by its very nature, an L-shaped desk provides in spades. The EGD 60-Inch L-Shaped Electric Standing Gaming Desk serves as a great example, with its side panel available on either the right or left side for optimal customization. With a cold rolled steel body and patented height adjustability technology that can bear over 200 pounds, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better model for the modern gaming desk.
Numerous options await when it comes to customizing your setup to your needs. PC players, perhaps more than console players, have more freedom with how they arrange their gaming stations, depending on whether they use controllers, keyboards, etc. That’s one reason why the AED 72-Inch Studio Gaming Desk , for example—with its keyboard tray and full-surface mousepad, among other features—makes perhaps the most compelling argument for being the ultimate gaming desk for gamers who play on console or PC.
With new technologies, new games and new ways of gaming emerging all the time, it can be tough to figure out just what you want from your setup. Things are always developing! The greatest setups of the past, no matter how amazing they might have been, have almost always been replaced by something even greater. Here we’ve looked at examples of what constitutes the ideal (and not-so-ideal) gaming setup, with emphasis on some of the best in the last year.
In a world where technology is always changing and new games are appearing, you have to keep abreast of the situation to know everything that’s out there. Each year, new consoles appear and existing consoles are upgraded, new games are released and new games are announced, accessories and features are introduced or modified. It keeps it fun, but it also means knowing what’s quality, what isn’t, and what’s most important. Start with some of these suggestions, and you won’t be disappointed—keyboard or controller.