A lot of gaming tech can be pretty garish, with RGB lighting and over-the-top aesthetics defining a lot of popular gear. If you’re more of a fan of minimalism, this is obviously far from ideal.
Then there’s the issue of wires; cables can trail from every component and peripheral, creating quite a clutter if you are not careful.
To help you overcome this, here are some minimalist gaming room design ideas to give you the best of both worlds in terms of entertainment potential and clean, clear surfaces.
Go wireless wherever possible
As touched upon already, the biggest bug bear that minimalist gamers will encounter when attempting to optimize their setup is that wires can get everywhere, dangling down from desks, coiling around on the surface and choking the life out of your attempts to limit the chaos.
Thankfully there are more and more high quality, high performance wireless peripherals that are perfect for combating this complication. The well-received Logitech G915 is arguably the king of the castle when it comes to wireless gaming keyboards, for example, and it will serve you well whether you prefer to spend your time blasting away enemies in Call of Duty or playing slots at Casumo casino.
Likewise a set of wireless gaming headphones, like the Arctis Pro range from SteelSeries, will give you that wire-free look you crave without sacrificing quality. Here’s some research if you want to find the best gaming headset for your ears under $100.
Get a monitor-mounted mini-machine
The ultimate in gaming minimalism can be achieved if you eschew the traditional idea of having your PC or console on show for all to see and instead endeavor to use a machine that is so compact that it can be hidden away behind your monitor or TV.
This market is actually hotting up at the moment, with Intel’s line of NUC mini PCs being beefed out with impressive gaming potential thanks to the Ghost Canyon models. Meanwhile if you would prefer an AMD-powered alternative, the MinisForum range has started to emerge as a real rival, capable of delivering console-grade gaming in a form factor that is easily hidden if you so wish.
Opting for one of these partly pre-built kits is all well and good, but there are also more customizable options entering the fray at the moment. Even major case makers like NZXT have cottoned on to the small form factor gaming PC trend, so tiny cases that allow you to build your own minimalist gaming monsters are more widely available and cost-effective than ever.
Build a computer into a desk
If you do not want to compromise on raw capabilities and are still eager to keep your gaming room free from any detritus that could distract the eye, then a full-on desk that doubles up as a computer case is your best bet.
Again you have a few choices in this regard; brands like Lian Li offer customers completely pre-made desks that double up as cases, into which components can be added, although the cost of this route is understandably high. You could also build a desk from scratch, which is a potentially satisfying, if time consuming, project to embark upon.
Use in-home streaming for complete freedom
One of the best ways to make a gaming room feel as free from clutter as possible is to keep all the kit elsewhere in your home, and instead use a streaming setup to access the hardware remotely.
There are a few ways to do this, with Steam’s remote play capabilities being one of the best examples at the moment. All you need is a PC running Steam and a smart TV connected to the same network with the compatible Steam Link app installed, and you can easily game from your minimalist living room, while a computer in your study does all the heavy lifting.
If you want to go even further, you could invest in the Nvidia Shield Pro and its own remote streaming potential, or even Google’s newer Stadia service, both of which allow cloud servers to run games while users just have a controller and plug-in box or Chromecast to display the results on their screen of choice.
In short, whatever minimalist design ideas you want to pursue, you can still achieve them while keeping your love of gaming kindled.
