If you buy a gaming "Surround Sound" headset, you are a total sap. PC games use stereo surround sound, meaning that you get accurate surround sound with 2.0 stereo sound without having to have a million drivers, with lower sound quality. That is why you will never see professional Counter Strike players (A game where having surround sound often means life or death) using these so called "gaming headsets". Personally, I use the Audio Technica ATH-M50s, one of the best bang for buck headsets ever made (80 dollars for the same quality of a 400 dollar Bose headset or much better quality than any "gaming headset") out there. Also, even worse, most "gaming headsets" use digital surround, not even true surround. There are hundreds of "7.1 gaming headsets" but only 2 that actually have 7 drivers, the rest are all just emulated 7.1, which is the same exact thing 2.0 stereo does. So you may think, oh, why not get a true 7.1 driver "gaming headset"? In short, smaller, more numerous drivers means much lower quality per driver, and also more likely to break (7 drivers per ear compared to 2). So in short, pick yourself up a stereo headset with good sound quality. Some of my recommendations are:
http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATH-M50-Professional-Monitor-Headphones/dp/B000ULAP4Uhttp://shop.steelseries.com/us/audio/steelseries-siberia-v2-frost-blue-headset.htmlOh also, the lack of a built in microphone means instead of having a 1 channel, 16,000hz (casette quality) microphone, you can buy an external 2 channel 48,000hz (DVD quality) microphone. I use the Blue Yeti.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836431024For my mouse I use currently the Razer Imperator, although I'm about to upgrade to the far superior Steel Series Rival.
For my keyboard, I have the Steelseries Apex, awesome mechanical keyboard, the responsiveness is 10x better than my old Razer Blackwidow.
For my mousepad, I use the Steelseries QCK, arguably the best mousepad out there for accuracy and speed, back when I was still playing NW, the day I bought this pad (use to have an old Roccat one, it was aight), my game improved ten fold, much less sideblocks, and much quicker blocks. In counter strike I just became a ton more accurate.
For my headset, like I said, I'm using the Audio Technica ATH-M50s, which are amazing in the audio quality department, but they are just a tad bit to small for me (I have big ears /: ) so I am looking into maybe purchasing the Steelseries Siberia v2, which has slightly smaller drivers, but look muchhh more comfortable for me, so I am willing to make the small sacrifice.
Hope that helps you out with what you were looking for.
Headset: Plantonics 780
You overpayed a lottttt for that if you spent retail price. The drivers are only 40mm and they are digital 7.1. That's worth like 50 dollars at best. 40mm drivers are in 20 dollar Walmart headsets and 7.1 DIGITAL audio is glorified 2.0 stereo sound. Dolby Surround will never be a pro in a headset, unlike home studios where dolby surround runs off of individual large speakers, in a headset (if it's not emulated, which in this case it is) it's 7 little drivers in each ear cup about the size of a quarter. If it's emulated (which it is, in this case), it is the exact same as regular stereo 2.0 sound, but with "Dolby Drivers" which are regular drivers with a brand name slapped on.
