If you’re not a fan of gaming headsets and want to fill your room with the sounds of gunfire and engine roars, you’ve come to the right place.

We’ve been testing out PC speakers of all shapes and sizes in order to compile this useful guide to the best ones you can buy to enhance your gaming experience.

Some of these speakers are multi-source capable and they all deliver excellent sound, with fantastic quality that will make an awesome addition to any desk.

PC gaming speakers: Best overall

• Razer Leviathan V2

  1. Best overall

• Harman Kardon SoundSticks

  2. Runner Up

• Hecate G5000

  3. A Top Pick

• Creative Sound Blaster Katana V2X soundbar

  4. Strong Contender

• SteelSeries Arena 7

  5. Also Great

If desk space is a premium, the Razer Leviathan V2 is a sensible choice for your PC speaker needs.

This is a multi-driver gaming soundbar and subwoofer combo that’s designed to fit nicely in your space and tuck under your gaming monitor.

It’s designed to deliver impressive high-fidelity sound backed up with THX Spatial audio for an immersive gaming experience.

This is a 65W soundbar with a dedicated subwoofer, two 95mm full-range drivers, two passive radiators and two 20mm tweeters.

It’s surprisingly loud but also well thought out. One of our favourite things, for example, is the ability to set another audio source in Synapse so that when you pressed the source button it’ll switch to that device. Perfect if you need headphones at night but speakers during the day but don’t want to mess about in Windows sound settings.

The Leviathan V2 also has 18 lighting zones with Razer Chroma support, though we found this part of the setup underwhelming apart from at night or in a darkened room.

If you’re after something unusual that makes your desk stand out from the norm, while delivering some spiffing sound, then look no further than the Harman Kardon SoundSticks.

There are several iterations of these SoundSticks and they are seriously nice looking speakers.

At a glance, you could be forgiven for thinking that these speakers are made of glass, but rather they’re a well-constructed plastic. The setup is made up of two satellites and a beautifully crafted subwoofer. Each of which has some hefty rubber feet to reduce vibration and ensure the sound remains sublime.

This 2.1 system connects to your PC via a simple 3.5mm connection and delivers an impressive, loud and rich sound that we thoroughly enjoyed.

Another highlight is the dual-connectively with Harman True Stream wireless technology providing an easy Bluetooth connection to other devices. This means you can, for example, easily connect your phone to the speakers at the same time and get audio from both as well. Playing Spotify or YouTube on your phone, while gaming on your PC is a breeze.

Fantastic audio, convenient controls and great looks too round off an epic package we’d heartily recommend.

If you prefer a more traditional-looking speaker setup but still want something with plenty of punch and RGB lighting then this might be a good option.

The Hecate GS5000 are crafted by Edifier and offer 88 watts of power with Hi-Res (24bits/192kHz) audio sound and a host of connection options.

You can connect to a PC via USB but also have the option of aux 3.5mm, optical connection for console and Bluetooth 5 too.

We found these speakers have some nice punch and a great range of sound, highlighting wonderful detail in your favourite sounds and games. It has various modes too, with EQ presets for music, movies and games.

These speakers also have 11 different RGB lighting modes, so they add eye-catching lighting as well as sound to your gaming space. All rounded off by an impressively solid build design and high-quality finish.

If you’re looking for a speaker upgrade for your gaming area, but don’t have much room or don’t want to fill up your desk with hefty speakers, then a soundbar might be the way to go. But a soundbar doesn’t have to be a compromise, because good things do come in small packages. That is certainly true of Creative’s Sound Blaster Katana V2X.

This is a stylish-looking, slimline soundbar that packs some serious presence. It’s also all-singing and all-dancing in a number of different ways.

It’s cleverly designed to fire sound up towards your ears while you game and it also features Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and various inputs including 3.5mm and optical that make it multi-device compatible.

There are various customisation options that allow you to tweak the audio, EQ settings, lighting, Dolby Dynamic Range Control and more.

It’s rich-sounding, vibrant and has an excellent range too. The accompanying subwoofer gives you a nice dose of bass without upsetting the neighbours and the RGB lighting makes the Katana a real eye-pleaser too.

SteelSeries Arena 7 speakers are a 2.1 speaker system with a powerful sub and plenty of capabilities. These speakers not only offer a great boost in audio to your gaming area but also nifty RGB lighting too.

That lighting can be controlled via SteelSeries GG and also set to synchronise with your game. It’s not as impressive as something like Phillips Hue light sync but it still adds an immersive ambience to your desk.

These speakers also have multiple connection options with USB, Bluetooth, optical or 3.5mm Aux connectivity. So you can easily connect all sorts of devices and plug in headphones to them when you need quieter time.

We found these speakers delivered good punch without taking up loads of space on your desk, so a good balance of all the things you need.

How to choose the right PC speaker

PC speakers come in all shapes and sizes, with all sorts of features and specs that make them stand apart. So how do you know which one is right for you?

Desk space

If you’re a PC gamer then you know the value of having lots of space on your desk – room for your keyboard and mouse and whatever else you see fit. If space is limited then you don’t want to fill it up unnecessarily with huge bulky speakers.

This is where soundbars can be useful. PC soundbars are generally smaller than your average TV soundbar but still pack in enough power to fill your gaming space with audio. You’ll be sitting a lot closer to your PC to game than you will your TV anyway.

Surround sound options

Do you need “real” surround sound? PC speakers are a good way to get full immersion with a proper 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound setup. To do so though, you’ll need a lot of speakers and a lot of cables. Often you’ll find that stereo speakers and even soundbars have a virtual surround sound option – whether DTS or Dolby Digital. You’d be surprised how good this virtual surround sound is.

RGB lighting

A lot of modern PC speakers have RGB lighting included. Sometimes this is just to give a little extra glow, But some speakers also have immersive settings that allow you to sync the RGB lighting with the in-game environment. This can really add to the experience in more ways than just impressive sound.