I'm going to buy a new prebuilt PC next week. I'm almost certain I'll buy a Windows PC and making a PC is not my thing. I haven't been a gamer since the late 1970s so I'm a bit behind the curve.
What peripherals should I buy?
I know that's vague but I sincerely don't know what kind of games I'll end up liking.
How much should I budget for it?
~$300? I have no idea. For the short term - I want the basic core stuff I need and maybe a bell and whistle or two.
I want to avoid going crazy and buying specialized stuff like a wheel and pedals set. If I decide that driving games are my thing - I can always buy that later.
Should I buy a headset right off the bat?
Do you use a headset? My mental image is that I don't want to talk to anybody or listen to anybody because there are a lot of trolls out there. But am I wrong? Are there games where a headset is worth it? I'll let you define "worth it".
Also - how much does a good headset cost?
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Edit
I thought I needed to budget more for peripherals. It seems I don't. And - I don't need to buy everything next week anyway. There's no rush and my gaming needs might turn out to be (very) modest anyway. Current plan
- Keyboard. My current keyboard is beyond crap anyway.
- Gaming mouse?
- Microphone headset?
- Speakers? Maybe not. For reasons I don't want to explain - no speakers might be better.
Fuck a headset. Mic quality is typically dog shit compared to a stand alone mic.
I recommend you buy a nice pair of quality headphones instead. You're gonna either want those or a nice set of speakers, but typically the headphones are going to be cheaper.
If you decide you want to do some online gaming or voice calls in the future, you can always buy a standalone desktop mic for like $50-100 and the sound quality will be immaculate.
I mean you can definitely get a headset combo for cheaper so it's not necessarily worth it unless you really like crisp audio quality. I listen to a lot of music too so it was worth it to me to save up and get a nice pair of headphones for like $120. Been using them for like 10 years.
Regardless I would say buy something with a replaceable cable. Those cables tend to go bad before anything else and it's a lot cheaper to buy a new one for $10 than replace an entire device.