Insane Pro Gamer Setups You Wouldn't Believe Are Real

Have you ever really played a game if you haven’t done so while sitting in a highly advanced setup? Or while wearing a full-body suit and gauntlet set that lets you feel your environment? Well, those are just a fraction of the innovations that the world’s most talented gamers have pulled together, to upgrade the gaming experience to the absolute maximum. From bird-flight-simulators, to full-blown DIY spaceships, and much more, let’s check out the most insane pro gamer setups you wouldn’t believe are real.

Elite Gaming Chairs

Let’s kick things off with some of the world’s finest all-in-one battle-stations that transform top-tier gaming into a total luxury. As I trawled through insane setup after setup while researching this article, I happened upon a throne worthy of a prerelease copy of Elder Scrolls Six, the Ingrem gaming chair.

These beautiful beasts of buttock comfort are designed to reduce the pressure, strain, and discomfort that comes with those longer gaming sessions by tilting everything backwards, elevating the built-in screen mount. Their Ingrem Gdragon chair is shipped with wireless charging; cup holders; electronically-controlled, precisely adjustable positioning; and, of course, a back massager and footrest.

Unfortunately, there’s a catch. These bad boys cost an eye-watering $11,399 for the Gdragon, or even a humble $3,399 for their cheaper C4 chairs, so they’re only for the most committed pro-gamers. With any of them, though, just be careful leaning back when the desk sections are filled with snacks and drinks!

But while Shanghai-based Ingrem might know a thing or two about chicken dinners, they’re not the only players in the lobby. Rival brand, Imperator, prices the W-R1 chair and the IW-SK, AKA the Scorpion both for $3,799, then for a couple thousand dollars more at $6,999, you can bring a little more firepower to the party with the Iw-J20 Gatling gun chair. It’s designed like a one-person tank, guaranteed to get you to the top of those leaderboards and make the Heavy proud.

While this sounds like mad money, Pro gamer setups mean something different when $500,000 prizes are becoming pretty common at e-sport events. So, with plenty of cash available to the true professionals, products like the Orb X luxury gaming chair have been built to siphon off a share of the gamer-bucks.

Created by Cooler Master, this $25,000 comfort machine has an enclosed cockpit and a motorized shutter that cocoons users for ultimate privacy.

But why stop at $25,000? The Acer Predator Thronos triple monitor rig is $30,000 of pure gamer luxury, although, there is a much more reasonable $13,999 option for the aspirational pro gamers amongst us, but it doesn’t come with the full, mechanized tilting, game-synchronized vibration of the 30k model.

A gaming battle-station can consist of a fancy chair and a computer or console, but the elite of the elite take it further. The most committed gamers extend their chosen theme out to every last inch of their gaming room. Take Bankii’s mind-blowing home setup, for example.

Bankii is a Thai food vlogger with a secret passion for gaming and an utterly insane pro-gamer setup that I initially couldn’t believe was real. Bankii splashed out on all the latest gear and made a spaceship, so he can play Star Citizen and feel like he’s in an actual spaceship.

Bankii worked closely with his friend and architect at KK Interior Design, to create the setup based on his in-game ship. Complete with a $1,700 automatic door, a $1,400 kitchen unit, $11,555 worth of interior materials, three 4k Ultra HD Sony screens costing $4,400 together, a curved 49-inch Samsung screen costing about $860, and a Virpil Controls Flight Control switchboard panel setting them back $1,900.

Then, the final additions of a $6,650 computer decked out with an RTX 3090 graphics card, and Philips Hue Light Strips lining every crevice of the room, costing $860. In total this unbelievable gaming spaceship cost Bankii a galactic $30,000.

Insane Screen Setups

A screen is the window into the digital sphere. But pro-gamer-setups don’t play by the same rules as us noobs. They get crazy with it. To start us off, this is KJ’s Lin’s beautiful setup with twin curved screens positioned vertically around his primary monitor.

These $2,000-apiece 49-inch curved Samsung Odyssey gaming monitors are an insane addition to any gamer setup, allowing for a super-immersive battle-station. This screen comes with some pretty high-quality specs, including a state-of-the-art A.I. Neo Quantum Processor Pro chip, which uses A.I. to upscale all visuals. Assembling multi-screen setups is surprisingly simple if you utilize clamped crane-arms.

Alternatively, some folks splash out on a custom frame-mount. Like the vaporwave setup below with four Dell 8k screens, all hung together on a custom-welded rig.

©martin_kr via Reddit

In a world where having multiple screens is clearly a pro-gamer move, how many is too many? While having an excessive number of screens is fun, like this absurd 16-screen setup, it’s not exactly necessary. This next setup, for example, is ideal for all you pro-strategy and top-down action-RPG fans out there.

©glifoo via Reddit

Whether you’re playing DOTA, Total War, or even Baldur’s Gate 3, you can utilize something like this $2,500 Wacom Cintiq Pro 32 in the above setup, which is essentially a colossal touch-screen tablet, the perfect technological marvel for strategic domination.

And now to a screen that swaps ease-of-use for challenge: a giant wall-mounted Nintendo Switch. How would playing this be practical, at all? Of course, the piece is really just a modified TV screen, and the controllers are non-functional, but you can still plug a Switch into the TV, at least.

As far as unconventional screens, projectors are in a class of their own. Why use a monitor when anything can be a screen? Take this fancy pro gamer setup, which has nice chair, lovely desk, some nice LEDs, and best of all, a projector!

Projecting onto the closed blinds, making for a whole extra screen when the sun goes down, and the room-wide RGB light strips blink into life!

Insane PCs

But if the 2010s were the decade of RGB lights becoming popular among gamers, I’m wagering this decade to be the Age of The PC Case Screen. Case screens allow you to either keep an eye on PC performance or add a little GIF to compliment your hardware.

Shoutout to Jaytechlife for this slick machine, dutifully supervised by Pikachu.

These simple screens are easy to install and typically draw power via USB-C from the motherboard, providing a very unique, and totally unnecessary, aspect to any brag-worthy rig. But at the core of any great gaming rig, is a great case. After all, do you even have 64 gigs of RAM with an i9 if it’s not backlit by RGB-lit fans and hardware? Judging by this insane ice-cold setup, fluxgamess agrees.

Their stunning PC build consists of a $128 space-optimized Lian chassis with nine fans, and a Corsair liquid cooling system to keep things frosty. There are plenty of more specialized cases out there too, providing some of the most unique setups around. Take this pyramid case that you can hang upside down.

If you simply want to save space, there’s the option of a drawer or table case or, maybe this warp core case gets your plasma flowing. And if low-tech is more your aesthetic vibe, there are always options.

Sometimes, though, the craziest gaming setups aren’t crazy because they’re powerful, or even the best looking. Instead, they’re crazy purely because of how much they cost. Back in 2008, Tokyo-based tech company Zeus Computer launched the most ostentatious, stupidly expensive PCs ever, which have never yet been defeated on price, as far as consumer PCs go.

The Zeus Jupiter and Zeus Mars are so insane, their grainy product photo renders barely even resemble PCs. The Jupiter is priced at 80 million yen, which at the time of writing is about $514,000, and the Mars comes in at 60 million yen, or $400,000.

PC Zeus

But why do they cost so much? Well, while computers used in professional-grade animation rendering and super-advanced technical computing can occasionally cost hundreds of thousands, it’s because they do extremely sophisticated jobs at a rapid pace.

But in the case of the Jupiter and Mars, they only come with two gigs of RAM, an intel Duo Core, a terabyte of storage, and a graphics card that would struggle to run Vice City. So the question remains: why so expensive? Turns out, it’s entirely cosmetic. The Jupiter features a diamond-studded platinum case while the Mars is pure gold. While they look shiny for that kind of money you’d want a machine that could at least run Crysis.

Personally, I’d prefer using custom cases over Zeus Jupiter or Mars, or even pay almost 13 grand for this pre-built Water-cooled, 64GB RAM, RTX 4090 monster. It looks like an engine, something the Zeus Mars golden blob could never compete!

©Chillblast

And if someone forced me to choose between the $3,000 beautiful high-brow Shrek setup below and a Zeus Jupiter, I'll choose the swamp-boy any day of the week.

©Simonblox via Reddit

Thankfully, it appears Zeus Computer quickly learned how ridiculous their idea was. As far as I can tell, no one actually bought one of their uber-expensive setups, as no real photos are available online. And given that the Zeus Computer website looks like it hasn’t been updated since 2008, it sadly doesn’t look like there’ll be any 20th anniversary re-releases of the most stupidly expensive personal computers of all time.

Virtual Reality Setups

As gamers, we currently find ourselves on the precipice of a new gaming frontier. With Virtual Reality titles like Half-Life: Alyx, and Bonelab, plus ports like No Man’s Sky, all providing game-changing experiences, alongside the ever-lowering price of headsets, VR is finally gaining momentum.

So, having an impressive custom VR rig, like these Half-Life-themed setups, is becoming increasingly achievable.

©Twinskunk via Wikimedia Commons

However, having a super insane VR setup entails having the latest VR peripherals, and those ain’t cheap! Kicking us off, the Kat-VR is a new way to move through the virtual world using your actual feet. The gamer attaches themselves to a center bar which has a full 360 degree rotation, letting you move in any direction. Then, using low-friction shoes with sensors on the bottom, like mouse laser trackers, you can walk, run, or sprint on the spot, translating it into movement input for your games.

It’s awesome, though YouTubers like Virtual Panda have highlighted how much more physically taxing it is versus regular gaming. As you can see in the clip below, glitches become way more intense!

The Tesla suit is another pro-gamer piece for those obsessed with immersion. This haptic feedback suit uses mind-blowing tech to let you actually feel what’s going on in the game, from the impacts of combat, to the rushing of wind.

The suit uses electrodes to electrically stimulate specific muscles and nerves, simulating a toned-down version of in-game sensations all over your body. It’s perfectly safe, and truly feels like the future of gaming, but unfortunately, it’ll set you back almost $13,000.

Cheaper, less-sophisticated alternatives like the TactSuit haptic vest are available for around $700, though, and the Shockwave suit is hitting the market soon for around $500, so taking the next step into the Virtual future will likely get more affordable as the hardware matures.

As for your hands, meanwhile, the same manufacturers of the TactSuit and TeslaSuit offer the Tact glove or the Tesla glove. While the Tact Glove uses sensors to map your individual fingers, delivering haptic feedback across your hands, the Tesla glove goes one step further and lets you feel the resistance of the virtual world. The glove forms an exoskeleton around your hand, and uses small motors to provide variable resistance against your fingers, to simulate gripping objects.

But if you’re a gamer-on-the-go, you might prefer these Kat Loco sensors, which clip onto your clothes and shoes, keeping track of your entire body, allowing you the freedom to walk in-game by walking on the spot, IRL. All for a relatively-affordable $229.

And finally, if you want to raise your VR gaming into God Mode, then your setup needs one of these VR guns because nothing breaks immersion quite like having to mime a rifle. So, with super-suits, a virtual armory, and of course, a very powerful PC at your disposal, you’ll just need to make sure all that VR action doesn’t get too immersive.

SENSATIONAL SIMULATORS

At the highest echelons of pro-gaming are simulators, and here’s where things get really crazy. This impressive simulator is the Hexatech Racing Simulator designed by Cruden. The machine uses six electric actuators and a system of hydraulic pistons to throw the vehicle in all directions to simulate the forces that a driver would be exposed to as they swing around the bends.

The Amsterdam-based company responsible designs and makes hardware and software for state-of-the-art simulation systems. And with state-of-the-art comes an equally state-of-the-art price tag. The Hexatech motorsport simulator costs a huge $191,000. With a price entry point that high, this machine isn’t exactly accessible to most common folk.

But given Cruden’s main customer base includes the official Formula 1 and NASCAR teams, we can rest assured they make enough money to get by! Alongside their racing sims, Cruden also makes marine simulators designed to train small seacraft crews.

They also have various industry-related simulators to keep humans at the heart of testing agricultural and construction machines. Like this Liebherr crane simulator, designed to train crane-operators without risking millions of dollars’ worth of equipment.

While not all simulator-loving gamers can afford the most expensive hardware, there’s still plenty of incredible simulation tech available to consumers at a slightly lower price level. Cloud RC, a remote-control car group, has taken inspiration from Cruden and made a simulator that blurs the line between game and reality, by controlling a real RC car.

Their Adven X3 Cockpit Motion Chair costs $18,000, allowing their RC-cars to be steered through professional courses, using global 4G networks to control and link their vehicles, chairs and controllers. It has a real-life edge over the Cruden machines.

Nintendo designed something similar, like the Mario Kart Home Circuit. Using Nintendo’s official RC cars with mounted cameras, synced to and controlled by Nintendo Switch console with augmented reality, you map a circuit wherever you want to race, then, while still using all the power-ups you’ve grown to love, you can bring Mario Kart into the real world.

Simulators aren’t always on the ground though, sometimes you must take to the skies. Some setups utilize VR to turn relatively mundane-looks setups into some of the most impressive around. But if you prefer your flight-sims non-VR, there’s plenty of options, too.

For the best setup, you need the kind of gear you can see in the image below. A simple throttle, and joystick, like a Logitech X56 H.O.T.A.S, then either a custom-made systems box with switch inputs you can sync to your PC, or a pre-made unit like this Logitech Flight Switch Panel.

©Poopshoemagoo via Reddit

With these as a start, or even a stripped-back setup, anyone can begin their flight-sim journey, and slowly buy more kit, until reaching truly insane levels. And, honestly, at that point, don’t be surprised if your house just straight-up gains the ability to fly.

And if you prefer a flight sim with fewer airplanes, this bird simulator from Birdly is the way to go. With motion-scanned wings, VR visuals and directional, speed-controlled wind, good luck resisting the urge to squawk in excitement!

Led Lighting Setups

Lighting makes all the difference to the atmosphere of a pro gamer setup. Adjustable-color LED lighting has become a cornerstone of the gaming community, and when everyone has RGB lighting, pro gamers need to do something else to stand out. That’s where clouds come in.

The latest sign of an ultra-elite setup is these insane thunderclouds, which provide a mind-meltingly unique lighting aesthetic, using little more than programmable LED strips and cotton.

Many LED strips have a built-in setting to vary light levels based on sound input, meaning you could blast in-game thunder through your sound system, and have the clouds flicker above you while you play.

But if DIY ain’t your thang, you can also get a pro-gamer light setup out of the box, with these modular triangle LED plates, known as Nanoleaf. These come in a range of styles, and are simple to program into whatever colors and motion patterns you desire with the accompanying app.

Unfortunately, a simple starter-kit with only seven panels costs almost $200. But, seeing how good they look when they’re mounted and twinkling, it might just be worth it.

But if Nanoleaf isn’t enough for your overstimulation-addicted brain, some folks like YouTuber AJ Bants have begun integrating star projectors into their cosmic-themed setups. These laser projectors, like the ARK Aurora Light, offer diffracted, nebula-like projections.

And, because it seems more is more in the world of gaming setups, why not throw LED-lined shelving into the mix, like this next setup. However, natural lighting also goes a long way in enhancing a pro setup. And a million RGB LEDs can’t compete with a great natural view. Not that most gamers have seen outside in years.

Insane Keyboards

Whether you’re someone who enjoys the clackity-clack of a mechanical keyboard, or you’re a soft-and-silent-touch connoisseur, any gamer with a credit card knows just one keyboard is never enough.

There’s a near-infinite number of color schemes, lighting profiles, touch-response settings, and even shapes out there, making choosing a keyboard a mighty task. If refined, pro-level performance is your thing, though, something like the Wooting 60HE is a literal game-changer.

©Wooting

Making its way into e-sports, the Wooting 60HE is one of the most responsive keyboards ever made. It sports reactive keys, meaning it can gather analogue input of varying intensities, kind of like an analog stick on a controller. This gradient of input allows for more precise movement than the simple "one" or "zero" input of a standard keyboard, and also allows you to control the depth of pressing that each key’s input registers at, allowing for insane sensitivity. Perfect for you sharp-shooting FPS professionals.

Another unique type of keyboard is the Azeron Cyborg. The Azeron takes all the keys you need when gaming and maps them to buttons in the controller. Each finger controls four buttons, which can be pulled, pushed, and tapped, alongside a joystick, meaning absolutely minimal hand movements are required.

And if you’re more about aesthetic than functionality, the $10,000 24-carat gold-plated Adata XPG Golden Summoner is perfect for the gamer with more money than sense.

Or, for a cheaper, DIY take on unique keyboard design, how about the "smorgasboard", which replaces each key with a custom-made, food-themed key-cap formed of resin or clay, by YouTuber tinymakesthings.

Insane Mouses

No matter how tasty your keyboard is or how many screens you have, without a mouse, you might as well be outside. The most insane setups will include something like the Wireless FinalMouse Starlight-12. Valued at over $300, this mouse has a sturdy magnesium-alloy frame, honeycombed to make it as lightweight as possible, so your 360-no-scopes are just a light flick-of-the-wrist away.

Finalmouse

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INTRODUCING: 🔥THE LEGENDARY MICE OF THE GODS🔥 🦁37 Grams & Next generation wireless 🦁The Starlight-12 Chassis composed of Magnesium Alloy, the lightest Structural Metal on Earth 🦁Latency Speeds faster than any wired/wireless mouse in existence 🦁2 Months of battery life

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Or, if customizability is more your thing, you might want to consider the absolutely excessive offerings of mice designed for Massively Multiplayer Online games. MMOs typically have a complex system of usable items, actions and spells, so the more easy-access inputs, the better.

MMO mouse designs, accordingly, cram as many buttons into the form-factor as possible. Layouts of programmable buttons range from the side ring of the Razer Naga Hex’s various versions; to the keyboard-like side arrangements of the Corsair Scimitar Elite and Logitech G600; to the vertically-oriented setups offered by Zelotes, which, intriguingly, come with a built-in joystick.

The Razer Naga V2 Pro takes all of this a step further by allowing you to swap the magnetic side plates, so you can change up your customized button choices at any time!

However, professional gamers are hyper-aware of the dangers that a wireless mouse running out of battery midway through an important match could bring, so most of them opt for wired mice to avoid that. However, there are some wireless mouse options that eliminate the risk of losing juice mid-fight, like this Mad Catz R.A.T Air.

The complex piece of kit, complete with assignable side-scroll wheel, comes with a wireless charging mouse pad, so your mouse never runs out of juice mid-game. Plus the mousepad features essential RGB lighting. It’s what gamers crave!

These wireless charging pads are becoming more commonplace, also being offered by Logitech’s Powerplay pad, and they’re insanely clever. They utilize a coil in the mouse to receive electromagnetic energy from a looped system of wires across almost the entire mousepad surface, meaning it can charge while in use, at high movement speeds, without needing to align with any specific area.

Insane Headsets

Keyboards and mice aside, there’s another plug-n-play essential every pro gamer needs. Whether they’re calling out targets, discussing strategy, or entertaining the viewers on Twitch, a trustworthy headset is where it’s at.

Headsets in the $300-$500 range like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro can set you up with studio-quality audio, while flight-sim super-fans yearning for a top-quality microphone built in can opt for a literal aviation headset from Bose for around $1,500. But arguably the most insane headphones on the market today are the Focal Utopia by Tournaire. Covered in pure gold and encrusted with diamonds, these headphones cost a massive $116,000.

With headphones secured, a true pro needs somewhere to store them. Brazilian gamer Maccagames, has just the solution in his elite setup, which features a pair of Razer Kraken headphones stored atop a bust of Mortal Kombat’s Scorpion when not in use. Maccagames isn’t alone in this idea. Redditer Twinkskunk used a Deadpool bust, while Tiktoker, Mattykay, uses a $249 Hypelev electromagnetic suspension display-case to create a headphone stand like no other.

If you’re looking for something more reasonable, a Tilted Nation RGB headset stand costs $50, while a Dubsnatch LED Headset stand costs even less at roughly $23. It’s a great way to save a few pennies while you fork out the $116,000 for your gold-plated headphones! Totally logical, right?

If you were amazed at these insane pro gamer setups, you might want to read about gamers who achieved the impossible. Thanks for reading!