The Holiday Gift Guide for the Gamer on your List

MicroCenterOfficial

Intro and Logitech PRO Gaming Headset by @Shoan041

With the Holidays fast approaching, finding gifts for all your loved ones is becoming a top priority. We all know how difficult it can be to find the perfect present for each person, especially if you aren’t sure what they need. Gamers can be exceptionally difficult to shop for given the wide range of gaming peripherals, and doubly so when you aren't sure exactly what they want. That's why we had our Champions put their heads together and come up with some of their favorite gifts for the gamer on your shopping list!

Logitech PRO Gaming Headset

A headset is an integral part of any gamer's arsenal. As a result, there are hundreds on the market with a wide range of prices and quality, making it incredibly tricky to find the best price-to-quality ratio. Thankfully, between myself and @elcurr below, we've got your gaming headsets covered!

Personally, I recommend the Logitech PRO Gaming Headset. It comes in at a very reasonable price for a headset this good. Wired headsets like this one have excellent sound and a good microphone, so your gamer can communicate with their team and friends while playing. The DAC - or Digital to Analogue Converter - that comes with this headset has  7.1 Surround Sound, which is very important so they can hear when someone is approaching them from different angles. Of course, let's not forget that we don’t always want to hear their game sounds (and neither do their friends - microphones can pick up any sound!). With ample padding, only the gamer will be able to hear everything happening on-screen. But that padding isn't just audio dampening. Comfort is just as important! Logitech used aluminum to keep the headset lightweight with steel at key points to reinforce for longevity. The memory foam leatherette pads help to reduce ear pressure and keep them comfortable for hours of gaming! 

You can’t go wrong with the Logitech PRO Gaming Headset for your PC gamer this season!

SteelSeries Arctis Prime Gaming Headset by @elcurr

If you were to walk into Micro Center and ask me for recommendations for a gaming headset, I would recommend the Steelseries Arctis Prime. The Arctis Prime headset would make a perfect gift for the holidays. I know I would be happy if someone gifted me those (if I didn’t already own them myself)!

For starters, I love the quality of the headset and the price won't break your budget - always important when holiday shopping! The headband is made of a lightweight steel and aluminum alloy, ensuring durability with an added stretchable material underneath that comfortably conforms to your head for hours of comfortable wear. Speaking of comfort, the ear cups are extremely soft and fit nicely around your ears allowing for long-term gaming sessions. Not only does the headset provides noise canceling in the headphones proper so you can stay focused throughout the game, but the microphone is also noise gated, so everyone on the other end of your Discord call doesn’t hear everything going on around you. But, perhaps most importantly, the Steelseries Arctis Prime Headset would make a perfect gift for any gamer as it is compatible with all gaming platforms - no need to guess what system they'll be used with!

Lenovo Legion 5 15.6” Gaming Laptop Computer Platinum Collection by @Julia_V

If you are looking for a gaming laptop as a gift this holiday season, the Micro Center Platinum Collection Lenovo Legion 5 Gaming Laptop is an excellent choice that packs plenty of power into value. I love a lot of things about it – the combination of specs, the fast and vibrant display, and its sleek gray appearance. While this laptop is geared towards gaming, it’s also a machine built to do everything with blistering performance, whether you're at home or on the go. 

When I first saw the Legion 5, I was impressed by the impressive colors and the fast refresh rate on the laptop. Since then, my appreciation for it has only grown. The Legion 5 packs an 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 6800H processor, and an NVIDIA RTX 3060 GPU. These specs are by no means entry-level, as it will easily handle many of the latest games at excellent frame rates. This laptop also comes with 16 GB of DDR5-4800 RAM and a 1TB Solid State Drive. The large SSD will allow you to store plenty of games on the laptop for years to come. For connectivity, the Legion comes with a Gigabit Ethernet port and Wifi 6E, allowing for the best network performance at all times. The built-in display is an excellent Anti-Glare IPS panel at 100% sRGB color accuracy with Dolby Vision. 

The Legion 5 is a great machine for those that want to get something above entry-level with long-lasting performance whether your gamer is about to go off to college or is just constantly on the go. 

Meta Quest 2 VR Bundle by @w8deywins

Still can’t figure out that perfect gift to get for the gamer in your life? Why not give them a whole new world with Virtual Reality! VR is easily one of the most immersive gaming experiences ever but was held back for a long while thanks to complicated setups, a mess of wires, and a required high-end computer. Now, with the Meta Quest, your VR can go wherever you are, without wires or an expensive computer!

I can speak from personal experience that the Meta Quest 2 is phenomenally entertaining, educational, and gets you moving! You can learn about points of interest around the world through Google VR or work up a sweat with Beat Saber and have a blast while gaming! How cool is that? While a large space can be helpful, the Meta Quest can be fully experienced from a single standing point or even seated, thanks to an easy-to-understand interface that will walk you through setting up your headset and creating the boundary lines for safety. And when your family gathers around to watch you play, you can share your view to your smart tv so that everyone can see exactly what you're doing. VR is becoming more and more accessible, and the Meta Quest 2 is an amazing and powerful VR experience at an affordable cost, making it an easy recommendation for anyone on your shopping list, especially since this bundle includes 2 full games to get you going as soon as you open the box!

HyperX Quadcast S by @Rye_Bread

The HyperX Quadcast S is the perfect gift for the gamer or content creator in your life. The Quadcast S is a microphone that doesn't just sound incredible, it looks incredible too. Featuring RGB lighting throughout, you can fully customize the aesthetic so your gamer can make their setup look exactly how they want it to.

I find that using a dedicated microphone rather than one that’s included on a headset will vastly improve the quality of streams, recordings, and communication between other players (though on-headset microphones have come a long way in recent years!). I’ve been using my Quadcast S for just shy of a year and a half, and it’s absolutely my go-to microphone. The audio is extremely crisp and clear, so you know their teammates will hear them call for a revive in Warzone. It also has some built-in shock absorption, which is handy for the more heavy-handed typers like myself. It's ready to use out of the box, but it can also be mounted onto a boom arm to help keep desk space open and avoid picking up audio from other sounds on the desk (such as the aforementioned typing and clicking). And if your gamer is in a busy section of the house or you need to talk to them privately, there’s a touch-sensitive button at the top that can be lightly tapped to mute the mic. It’s extremely convenient if someone else walks into the room, or if they need to step away from their computer for a few minutes. This is an easy recommendation from me, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it for any gamer who may need a quality and stylish upgrade to their setup.

Looking for something else, like our Holiday Savings Guide? We've got tons of Holiday Gifts on sale, so stop by your local Micro Center today!

And be sure to keep an eye on the Micro Center Community, as we'll be highlighting even more great holiday gifts and deals all through December!

Shopper

Not buying anything that doesn't come with a FREE bag.  You need to fire Ralph "No Bags" Gilson, Senior Vice President of Operations

ChaosDTV

The quadcast is banger microphone to grab this holiday

w8deywins

I love how comfortable the Steel Series headsets are with the ski band! I’ve had my wireless Arctis 9x for 4+ years! Hasn’t lost its touch yet! Although that’s the Xbox model, it’ll work on PC with Bluetooth or the Xbox wireless usb adapter. Strongly recommend the usb adapter over the BT, it sounds way better.